Beanie Feldstein

[0] Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome to armchair expert.

[1] I'm Nick Shepard.

[2] I'm joined by Eminie, nominated Monica Panandam.

[3] Eminie.

[4] I'm not your eminy.

[5] Is my C .M. An enemy.

[6] Oh.

[7] That could be a friend.

[8] Today we have Beanie Feldstein.

[9] She's an incredibly talented actress.

[10] She was in Neighbors 2, Sorority Rising, Lady Bird.

[11] Now in the very celebrated book smart.

[12] Correct.

[13] Jess's number one movie of the year.

[14] She also was a real standout in the Broadway production of Hello Dolly, and she is a new movie, How to Build a Girl.

[15] She's fantastic.

[16] Beanie Feldstein, we love her.

[17] So much.

[18] A real arm cherry, which is always the best kind of guest.

[19] It was the first thing I read on my fact check at the top.

[20] I love Beanie.

[21] Yes, it's almost impossible not to love her.

[22] We hope you feel the same way, too.

[23] Please enjoy Beanie Feldstein.

[24] Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to armchair expert early and ad free right now.

[25] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcast.

[26] or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts.

[27] You're five years her senior, though, almost six.

[28] Thanks for pointing out.

[29] Well, how many years senior are you?

[30] A hundred.

[31] I'm 100 years older.

[32] Approx, 100.

[33] Yeah.

[34] Well, what's really funny is yesterday we talked to Ben, and he, I think, 1993 was the earliest birthday at I had written down.

[35] And then now a second, 1993.

[36] I'm three months older, though, to the first.

[37] the day.

[38] You are.

[39] Okay.

[40] So you're much wiser.

[41] It shows in your maturity.

[42] But for me, it's particularly painful because that's the year I graduated high school.

[43] So, you know, just thinking that you got brought home from the hospital on the day I was celebrating.

[44] Yeah, it's a little rough for me. Yeah, because I'm June, so it could have been right in there.

[45] Oh, I certainly was planning the rest of my life, right, as your parents were contemplating what your life would be like.

[46] It's true.

[47] No, you have an interesting birth order dynamic, and mine is similar but not as severe.

[48] My brother is five years older than me and then my sister is six and a half years younger than me. So between them is a gap of 11 and a half years.

[49] Between you and Jordan 16 years?

[50] Yeah, 15 and a half.

[51] Wow.

[52] Wait, you're the youngest.

[53] I'm the youngest.

[54] Joan is 10 years older than her.

[55] Okay.

[56] And her brother, Jordan was 16 years older than her.

[57] Wow.

[58] That's special.

[59] Kids in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

[60] Yeah.

[61] So was mom super young with Jordan and how was she with you?

[62] Well, let's start with him.

[63] She was 22 when she had him.

[64] Okay, so 38 when she had you.

[65] He likes that.

[66] Bada bing, bada boom.

[67] He really on it.

[68] I don't want to get you too rubbed up this early.

[69] I don't want to peek early, but you'll find that I lead you many times into giving me numbers so I can add them up.

[70] Yeah, the whole thing was a trap.

[71] That whole age thing was just a trap.

[72] It wasn't a trap.

[73] I was actually trying to imagine how old your mother might have been when she had you.

[74] But they're 38.

[75] That's, you know, nowadays people have it.

[76] Yeah, nowadays that's so normal.

[77] But I bet it in 93, that was on the older side.

[78] You know, it's interesting because a lot of my friends have parents around that exact age.

[79] Oh, you do?

[80] But I think that was just sort of becoming the time.

[81] I also think it's an L .A. thing versus a Michigan thing.

[82] Like, at least where I'm from, people got after it right out of the gates.

[83] It's a miracle I don't have a 26 -year -old myself.

[84] But I did find when I moved here, people were like, oh, they wait a little longer to get married.

[85] They certainly wait longer to have kids.

[86] Yeah.

[87] And so maybe a little more normal.

[88] I was just with my friend and she was like, I'm 29.

[89] If I got married, I'd be a child bride.

[90] I was really funny.

[91] I was like, that's definitely a more recent and a coastal thing, for sure.

[92] Yeah.

[93] And I even remembered, like, being maybe 16 and my mom took me to Germany for the first time.

[94] And we learned there that, like, people live with their parents into their 30s.

[95] And we were like, it's so bizarre.

[96] Yeah.

[97] And now it seems to be a little more normal here.

[98] I feel like this is a little bit of a direction we've gone.

[99] Agreed.

[100] You grew up in Los Angeles, which.

[101] For me, having been from Detroit and looking at this place and watching Beverly Hills 902 .1 .0, I have a fantasy of what it was like to grow up in Los Angeles.

[102] Yeah.

[103] And then even compounding the fact that your parents were actually in this industry in ways.

[104] Yeah.

[105] Like circling the outskirts of it.

[106] Tangentially.

[107] Yeah.

[108] Tell me what mom did.

[109] My mom was trained at FIT in New York as a costume designer.

[110] What's FIT?

[111] A fashion institute of technology.

[112] Very exclusive, very fancy.

[113] At the time, I don't think.

[114] Really?

[115] Okay, okay.

[116] But, so she went to American University for a year and was like, I can't be in a classroom this long.

[117] And then transferred to FIT, and it was a two -year degree at that point.

[118] I think it's now two or four.

[119] And she trained as a costume designer.

[120] She's remarkably creative and like a force of nature.

[121] If she walked in the room, like every single person in a crowded restaurant would turn.

[122] Like, she's just magic.

[123] She has the X factor?

[124] A hundred percent.

[125] Oh, okay.

[126] And more.

[127] Wow.

[128] Simon would hit the button.

[129] Is it Simon on the X?

[130] I don't even know.

[131] One of them.

[132] The Marine 5 gentlemen would.

[133] Yeah, exactly.

[134] That's the voice.

[135] We're kind of twisted.

[136] That's okay.

[137] Isn't there a show called The Button?

[138] No. There should be, though.

[139] We're making it.

[140] Yeah.

[141] So she trained at FIT.

[142] She was a costume designer.

[143] She did like a few sitcoms.

[144] Mostly sitcoms.

[145] Her biggest thing that she did was Taxi.

[146] When did she met tricky dick?

[147] Richard.

[148] Richie, my parents met at summer camp.

[149] Oh.

[150] And my mom was 13 when they met?

[151] And how old was he?

[152] 17?

[153] Oh, well, okay.

[154] We're still all under 18, I guess.

[155] Yeah.

[156] It's not great.

[157] It's not perfect.

[158] It's not ideal, especially in this day and age.

[159] I mean, when you're like 40 and 44, you don't blink.

[160] But 13 and 17 has like a different connotation.

[161] But we have best friends who they met at that age.

[162] And they like each other at that age.

[163] And they're now married for many years and have kids.

[164] So, you know, who am I to say?

[165] I know.

[166] My parents have been married for 43 years.

[167] They're still married.

[168] Yeah.

[169] And am I guessing right in this was one, Jewish away camp?

[170] Not specifically Jewish, but like generally all summer camps are vaguely Jewish.

[171] Well, right.

[172] And I don't think people who are not around a lot of Jewish people necessarily understand this.

[173] But Jewish folks love sending their kids to camp.

[174] I looked into it and I know a little bit about why this happened.

[175] Oh, my God.

[176] Because I was like, why are they all, as I said vaguely Jewish?

[177] Like, you don't have to pray or anything, but there is Shabbat on Friday should you want to go.

[178] Right, right.

[179] And it's because.

[180] was when we moved to the states as a peak pool, we were crammed in tenements on the lower east side.

[181] We were crammed.

[182] And they wanted their kids to experience the outdoors and have space and also get them out of their small space.

[183] And so they created these camps.

[184] So probably started as a New York tradition.

[185] Yes, I think so.

[186] Now, the beauty of it to me seems at least like I think we had Zach Braff on and he was saying that camp saved his life.

[187] Is it stage door manner?

[188] Because we went to the same one.

[189] Oh, it probably was.

[190] I think it was.

[191] It was a theater camp that he was talking about.

[192] It must be stage.

[193] But he was saying in general school he was fine, whatever, but he would go to this camp and he was goddamn John Travolta at this camp.

[194] And I feel like that's a really nice experience for someone to have.

[195] Yes.

[196] 100%.

[197] I went to both like a quote normal camp with like a campfire and the lake.

[198] Yeah.

[199] And then I went to stage doors.

[200] In stage doors in New York?

[201] It's in upstate New York.

[202] Okay.

[203] And it's a beautiful performing arts, mostly theater camp.

[204] It was wonderful, but I loved, I really loved, like, just normal sports, singing songs.

[205] I'm in a bunk type of camp, too.

[206] In what age did you start going?

[207] Because it's one thing for me to tell my daughter is like, hey, you're going away.

[208] But also if I go like, hey, you're going 3 ,000 miles away for camp.

[209] Was that a little daunting at all?

[210] Well, my parents are such New Yorkers, specifically my mom, that I grew up here, but I don't feel like an L .A. person.

[211] Okay.

[212] I felt like we were very much East Coast people.

[213] We were always looking to go back east.

[214] Like we would go east for holidays and all summer, basically.

[215] Okay.

[216] So when you would go away to camp, what age, when does this start?

[217] I started at 10.

[218] I just turned 10.

[219] Okay, 10 years old and do mom and dad then go to New York while you're there to do their own thing, whatever weird stuff they get up to and see Broadway shows and stuff?

[220] The best thing about my parents is that every year, I mean, it still happens.

[221] It happened like a week ago.

[222] When they're alone together and then when I meet them after they've been alone together for a long time, and they'll start to fight a little bit.

[223] My mom will always be like, we were perfect the whole time.

[224] And then now, of course, we're fighting in front of you.

[225] And I'm like, this happens every year.

[226] Like, literally since I was 10, it was like, when you were away, we were perfect.

[227] And now, of course.

[228] He's like, not taking my side.

[229] And I'm like, oh, my God.

[230] I don't believe that you were perfect.

[231] Well, kids will do that.

[232] As a parent, I believe her.

[233] Because you're in a relationship, yeah?

[234] Yes.

[235] Okay.

[236] And so you have to compromise a bit, but a lot of things you can kick down the road.

[237] There's no reason for you to deal with this today.

[238] Right.

[239] You can be patient.

[240] But when you have kids, you have to set a course of action today that you both have to agree on.

[241] And it's very fucking stressful because you're different people.

[242] And you think you should be raised different ways.

[243] That makes perfect sense.

[244] You'd think after like 40 tears, they would just like own up and be like, well, sometimes it's hard.

[245] But it's always like clinging to the we were perfect when you weren't here.

[246] And I'm like, I don't know what this says about me. I don't know what this is about you.

[247] Something's changing when I'm around.

[248] It also scares me because their job's been over for eight years, and yet it's still maybe causing that conflict of compromise.

[249] No, it literally just happened.

[250] They went on a cruise together, and then my girlfriend and I saw them, like, the day they got back.

[251] And they were like, ugh, bitchy, you're not taking my side.

[252] And I was like, oh, my God, nothing has changed.

[253] Like, I'm in the car after my parents pick me up from camp, but now I'm currently 26.

[254] And I was, like, having so many flashbacks to that exact conversation.

[255] So if you went to the camp at 10, but you'd already been on TV at 9.

[256] Right?

[257] You're on an ABC sitcom?

[258] For one minute.

[259] I don't give a fuck.

[260] If I could have been just walking through the background of a scene of something, I would have done backflips.

[261] You know, looking back, it was half a day.

[262] My dad took me. It was just singing.

[263] And I always sang growing up and I was in a ton of musical.

[264] So I don't even think I fully understood that it was going to be on TV.

[265] It was my wife and kids.

[266] And the setup was that the parents were directing the school play.

[267] And so it was all the auditions for the school play.

[268] So I was just in like a little elementary school auditorium singing, which felt very normal two -year -old Palbean.

[269] So I was like, here I am in my comfort zone.

[270] Yeah, you're a little fish in water.

[271] Exactly.

[272] You go up and you stand in the center.

[273] There was no like acting.

[274] There was no stand on your mark.

[275] There was no here's where the cameras don't look at the camera.

[276] It was just stand and sing.

[277] Right.

[278] How did that come about?

[279] Yeah.

[280] Did you audition?

[281] No. A parent at my elementary school wrote on my wife and kids.

[282] Okay.

[283] And Janice Hirsch, who's unbelievable, like a pioneer, she has polio and is a woman and was like in writer's rooms in like the 70s and 80s and just like a total badass, unbelievable woman.

[284] She was writing for my wife and kids at the time and they had this whole setup of all the kids auditioning and she was like, Beanie has to sing.

[285] Because she had seen you maybe at one of these.

[286] In like school stuff.

[287] Her son Charlie and I were good friends.

[288] So it was more just like, hey, do you want to do this?

[289] Not like you were pursuing this on any level.

[290] No. My parents kind of kept me away from it.

[291] Yeah, they did a bad job.

[292] Can I just say?

[293] 66 % of you ended up on film.

[294] That's true.

[295] Did mom costume designed in this industry, right?

[296] Yeah, in like the late 80s, early 90s, not when I was really growing up.

[297] And then she did personal styling.

[298] She's like a Renaissance woman.

[299] Every three, four, five years, she's like, I'm done.

[300] I can't do it anymore.

[301] New identity.

[302] And moves on to something else.

[303] Good for her.

[304] Yeah.

[305] Is she the romantic and the passionate one in your parents or group?

[306] Uh -huh.

[307] And is your dad?

[308] Well, obviously your dad's an accountant of some kind, right?

[309] Yeah, so he's like deeply pragmatic, logical.

[310] Where he's his pants up to his belly button.

[311] Oh, that's in now.

[312] That's in now.

[313] Yeah, he's a trend of a trend.

[314] He's a norm core.

[315] Is that the fashion trend that he's a part of?

[316] My nephews, when they were little, used to like pull their pajamas all the way up to their shoulders and be like, grandpa, grandpa, grandpa.

[317] Oh, which is so cute.

[318] And, like, take the little Mr. Potato Head glasses and put them on to pretend to be him.

[319] As square as that endeavor is, accounting, he did end up in maybe the coolest dynamic you could end up as an accountant.

[320] Wasn't he the tour accountant for Guns and Roses?

[321] Yeah, you know, it's so funny because this is always written.

[322] This is not true.

[323] My dad is a completely self -made man. He came from nothing.

[324] He had a bit of a traumatic child that he lost his dad very young.

[325] And his mom, like, uprooted him and his brother to L .A. and he's a true like self -made human being and all of that is true but it's just so funny when you know him because there's no creative decision -making involved in like doing someone's taxes so they're always like you and Jonah and you're like creative parents and we're like sure I mean like my dad started having mostly music clients and then now he has actors and other people as well but it started off primarily as just music does he manage you?

[326] and Jonah's shit.

[327] He does and I have to pay him.

[328] Oh, good.

[329] Interesting.

[330] You should.

[331] Yeah, which I think was, I was like, honestly, oh, I'm doing well if you're making me pay you.

[332] I was like, this is okay.

[333] I saw it as a sign of respect for him.

[334] He was like, well, it's time.

[335] And I was like, okay.

[336] But he does, yeah.

[337] Oh, that's really cute.

[338] Let me just say this.

[339] I have a business manager.

[340] I'm ashamed to admit that.

[341] I feel like that's a failing on myself that I should be managing all my finances, but I'm not.

[342] About four years ago, a really good friend of Monica and I, is Houston.

[343] Estes down in Nashville.

[344] He said, so how often do you audit this business manager of yours?

[345] And I was like, I never have.

[346] He's like, oh, okay, well, do you think that's stupid?

[347] And he goes, I don't know, you know, work pretty hard for your money.

[348] You just want to check and see if it's there.

[349] That's a bad Huey.

[350] But anyways, I'm just going Southern.

[351] I didn't want to say it, but it was not accurate.

[352] How does Huey talk?

[353] I can't do it.

[354] It's very specific.

[355] He's a very charismatic person.

[356] Yeah, perfect person.

[357] I was enthralled.

[358] Okay, good.

[359] Anyways, I got home.

[360] I got really insecure about this.

[361] And I'm like, I got to do this.

[362] Like, I'm being trusted by Kristen to be managing all of our stuff.

[363] So I called my guy.

[364] I love him.

[365] I called him and I go, hey, I don't want to make this awkward between us, but I've decided I'd like to audit you.

[366] And he goes, oh, no problem.

[367] It all comes back.

[368] Everything's on the up and up.

[369] I feel great.

[370] I call Howard.

[371] I'm like, hey, just want you know, the whole thing's over.

[372] I said, just out of curiosity, how many people audit you?

[373] And he said, well, I've been doing this for 20 years.

[374] and you're the first.

[375] And I was like, that both says a lot about us actors.

[376] And I don't know.

[377] It just, I was like, oh, my God, I'm the one guy.

[378] It's just poignant in some way.

[379] Yeah, somehow it is.

[380] But anyways.

[381] Wait, can Richie do my taxes?

[382] A hundred percent.

[383] He would be honored.

[384] Maybe for free.

[385] I also was sitting here thinking, are we wearing the same nail polish color?

[386] But it's close, but it's not.

[387] Very close.

[388] Very close.

[389] Very close.

[390] As you were talking with your hands, I don't know where Monica ends and Beanie begins.

[391] I know.

[392] I love it.

[393] I was too excited.

[394] I was like, this is going to be a match made in heaven.

[395] It's getting very blurry around here.

[396] But he was the Guns N' Roses manager, so that is kind of like a feather in your cap of cool factor.

[397] I guess.

[398] I mean, again, I wasn't born.

[399] So many family stories in my house start with before you were born, X, Y, Z. So I can't really speak to the specificity of it.

[400] I'm not asking you to talk out of school, but if you ever personally said, dad, what was Axel Rose like?

[401] I haven't specifically with Axel Rose.

[402] Although I should.

[403] Yeah, you should.

[404] But I have with some other people that he works with.

[405] Okay, good, good, good.

[406] Get the inside scoot.

[407] I wonder ethically, like, where the line is.

[408] I wonder if I was, like, a psychiatrist to the stars of my daughter is.

[409] Someone's mental well -being, if I would just say, I can't tell you.

[410] I mean, I think ethically I should.

[411] Right.

[412] Ethically, you should, but you wouldn't.

[413] But I wouldn't.

[414] You tell her.

[415] Right.

[416] Yeah.

[417] I would say that if there's a line, my dad will not cross it, and I'm very much the same way, like, deeply afraid of authority.

[418] Oh, you are.

[419] It plagues me, like, every minute.

[420] every day.

[421] So were you a rule follower growing up?

[422] Yes, to the endth degree.

[423] Interesting.

[424] Yeah.

[425] Okay, so my wife is very much a rule follower.

[426] Yeah.

[427] One of our two children loves the rules.

[428] Is it the older?

[429] May I ask?

[430] Is it older?

[431] Yeah.

[432] What's weird, we can't really transpose on to you many of these dynamics that would happen like baby of the family, middle child, all that kind of stuff, right?

[433] Because the gap is so big.

[434] It's sort of like a mixture of an only child and a youngest.

[435] Because I was alone with my parents as we know so often that it was like an only child with siblings right i would say and is it safe to assume because i have heard jona both in real life he loves you so much by the way oh he does that's very nice we love the podcast and we talk about it all the time it's very flattering it's just the truth but when he speaks about you on howard stern it's like you know what everyone sit down Because you're going to hear how wonderful Vini is for the next 12 minutes.

[436] Someone has to cut him off.

[437] It's the only time Howard can't steer it.

[438] It's like, no, no, you're going to hear about how much I love my sister.

[439] That is so sweet.

[440] What age did you guys have a connection like that?

[441] He always said when I was 14, he realized I was a person.

[442] That's fair.

[443] Yeah, which is fair.

[444] Like, up until then, you're just sort of like this bumbling little thing.

[445] And an extension of him, his sister.

[446] Right, exactly, in relation to him.

[447] And I think at like 14, 15, what's funny, I started high school.

[448] Uh -huh.

[449] He was like the age I am now, 24, 25.

[450] And he was like, oh, she's here and she's okay.

[451] Uh -huh.

[452] And can I ask, was it that you guys had a conversation where he was like, oh, wait, the lights on inside this person?

[453] Or did he watch you perform and go, oh, this person's special?

[454] Was there an event that triggered it?

[455] I think I was always trying to be like, hey, my lights on.

[456] And he was just on his own path.

[457] Sure.

[458] I do remember once, I think I was like 11, and I was like, Jonah, how old do you think I am?

[459] And he was like, six?

[460] No. Six.

[461] And I was, you know, so selfish.

[462] I was like, no, I'm 11.

[463] I think it was more just the little sister thing.

[464] You carry that around with you.

[465] But then I was like in high school and I got along with his friends and his like, friends would start to like ask me about my life.

[466] and that sort of opened up.

[467] You kind of needed sometimes to see someone through someone else's lens.

[468] A hundred percent.

[469] I think also he was 24, 25, 26 when you don't really care so much about like all that stuff that you cared more about in your adolescence or like your early teens.

[470] He was much more settled and he was like, come here, this is the best.

[471] Like, I love you so much.

[472] It's almost like being.

[473] It was sort of like a sharp turn.

[474] It almost sounds like being reunited with a sibling.

[475] That's a great way to put it.

[476] Like, oh my God, I found out I have a sister and I went to have lunch with her in Zurich.

[477] and she's so interesting.

[478] I'm so delighted to know I have this person.

[479] I just knocked on the door one day.

[480] I was like, hello.

[481] It is challenging to seeing your siblings as human beings that are special and unique.

[482] Totally.

[483] Jordy definitely, like, when I was younger, he always loved kids.

[484] And so he was, like, so excited that I was around.

[485] And he was, like, 16, 17.

[486] And he very much was with my mom and helping her a lot.

[487] Yeah.

[488] But Jonah was like, I'm not the baby anymore.

[489] I'm like, really struggling with that.

[490] Sure.

[491] So they think it took him a little more time to come around to me. Now, do you think you have any little sister syndromes?

[492] And I can only compare this to my own situation, which is I often feel bad that she grew up in a house where I was older.

[493] And so just by default, what I did was kind of cool.

[494] But what I did was very masculine and male and fighting and dirt bikes and all the stuff.

[495] I just wonder what impact that has on a little female in the house.

[496] Yeah.

[497] The only thing I can think of that comes to mind is.

[498] like I really am struggling to catch up on like my movie intake and Jonah's such a cinephile and he is like an encyclopedia of knowledge about films and to this day he'll be like you haven't seen that have you and I'm like no and it's like that's like the deep shame of like he's so cool and he knows everything and I'm like pathetic and I know nothing right that's the only time I feel it now although you identify with being a New Yorker you very much grew up here you went to school here and I would of prior to talking to Ben Platt, your best buddy.

[499] Yes.

[500] I know we had you guys on one after the other.

[501] How kismitty is that?

[502] It's too perfect.

[503] We were beyond excited.

[504] Many a text were sent.

[505] And so I've already been corrected on this, so I can't even make the same point.

[506] But I had an idea of what Harvard Westlake is.

[507] I imagine I'd go there and feel less than everyone else, and people would have famous parents, and people would be billionaires and all that.

[508] To me, I just feel like I would have been very, I'm feeling less than quite often.

[509] Ben did not have that experience.

[510] He loved that place.

[511] You feel the same?

[512] I loved it so much, but academically, I definitely felt less than.

[513] Okay.

[514] I loved academics in elementary school, and I applied to Harvard Westlake for seventh grade.

[515] And at that point, I was like super in 11, 12.

[516] I'm like super into academics in elementary school.

[517] Sure.

[518] And my brothers had gone to Crossroads, but I was much more of a traditionalist.

[519] And I was like, I would like English and history to be.

[520] separate subjects.

[521] I would like to sit at a desk.

[522] I would like to call my teacher by their last name.

[523] I kind of wanted that for myself.

[524] The structure and the rules.

[525] Exactly.

[526] I needed more rules because my elementary school was so beautiful, but like very loose and progressive.

[527] And I think I kind of craved some more structure.

[528] But then it got incredibly difficult academically, which is what I anticipated, but I couldn't quite keep up at the level I expected to keep up.

[529] It wasn't that I couldn't keep up, but I thought I was a straight A person.

[530] You weren't in the top 10 percent.

[531] Not at all, right.

[532] Whereas Ben was.

[533] So that's it different.

[534] Oh, okay.

[535] No wonder he loves it.

[536] Getting exposed.

[537] So I struggled in high school academically.

[538] Socially, I loved it.

[539] And our group of friends is like the most special, wonderful, remarkable group of people and are still our best friends to this day.

[540] So socially I was great.

[541] But academically, I really had big ups and downs.

[542] Like some years I really tried.

[543] And other years I was too afraid to try.

[544] Because I was like, If I try and fail, that will hurt so much more because all my friends are succeeding at, like, such a high level.

[545] Right.

[546] Brilliant, brilliant human beings.

[547] And then something clicked like before junior year, thank God, because that's like when it, you know, really starts.

[548] Yeah, exactly.

[549] And I sort of was just like, all right, I'm going to start trying.

[550] And I didn't do perfect, but I definitely did much better.

[551] But then it wasn't until I got to college that I really found my.

[552] myself academically.

[553] I was listening to you in college on Mark Maron.

[554] Oh.

[555] And you were talking about that you were an anthropology major.

[556] And I was so excited because I was a sociology major in college and I didn't know any other like actor, performer person that had gone down that path.

[557] Yeah.

[558] Academically.

[559] And I was like, that's so cool.

[560] He's so cool.

[561] You went to Wes.

[562] Well, Wellesley.

[563] Wellesley is all girls.

[564] Wesleyan is co -ed.

[565] Okay.

[566] And you already, obviously, had a great interest in acting and singing and Broadway and all that stuff.

[567] So why not major in that?

[568] Yeah, it's a good question.

[569] I visited so many schools that were like BFA programs to study musical theater.

[570] And then I visited a lot of like smaller ball art schools more generally just study whatever you want.

[571] And had gone to stage door manner for so many years and I did like five musicals a year growing up.

[572] And I think I was just like, I love Patty Lepone, but I can't talk about her every single day in my life for the next four years.

[573] Right.

[574] I don't even know who Patty Lepone is.

[575] She's like a Broadway grade or like Burnett Peters or whoever it is.

[576] Oh, Bernie Piedies.

[577] Yeah, I know.

[578] Okay.

[579] I love them so much, but I need a break from musical theater, I think, to find my way back to it.

[580] My brain needs a break from this, I think, in order to do better at it.

[581] I don't know.

[582] Yeah.

[583] I just felt academically I didn't want to be there.

[584] I wanted to perform that, but I didn't want to study it in a institutional classroom setting that didn't feel right to me I was like I'd rather just go in on academics on something so different and then hold performing as sort of like its own separate thing right bring them together well now I tell myself that I didn't want a bullshit degree that was my thing I'm like if I'm going to dedicate four years to this I'm already at the ground it's like I'm already like to me felt like a cheat like I needed to get something more I've told myself that forever, but I do think now when you're talking about it, I actually maybe also was fearful that I would have had to major in acting, like theatrical acting.

[585] And I never saw myself as doing that.

[586] And I don't imagine I would have been good at it.

[587] And so maybe I was also just afraid to major in that.

[588] Yeah.

[589] But you are grateful ultimately, right, that you majored in what you did?

[590] Very grateful.

[591] I think my upbringing was so beautiful, but also very much within a bubble.

[592] And I sort of see Wesleyan and the sociology department just came along and just like popped that bubble.

[593] It was just like, situate yourself within the larger scope of what's going on and think critically about it for four years.

[594] And it just cracked my mind open.

[595] I felt so much more engaged with the world around me and invested in what was going on.

[596] And it just taught me to think critically and analytically in a way that I just hadn't been asked to in high school.

[597] I don't know.

[598] It just really opened up a different side of me that I didn't see coming.

[599] Like I couldn't have told you what sociology was in high school.

[600] Me too.

[601] Like I think it gave me a broader view of humans on planet Earth that I couldn't have gotten to on my own.

[602] I just was going through life assuming like this is how it is.

[603] It's always been this way.

[604] So I really even question anything.

[605] And then going like, oh no, we've been here for 150 ,000 years.

[606] We've only been living in civilizations for 10 ,000 of those years.

[607] That's interesting.

[608] Oh, so this is a new experiment.

[609] Oh, look how many attempts we've thrown out like we're not there get thinking about where we should go that's interesting don't assume all this stuff we inherited is worth defending or perpetuating i was just like oh wow yeah this is a new thing and worth figuring out still i don't remember falling in love with theater because i was so young when it happened like three or four so it felt like finding a passion for the first time since i was a kid yeah it felt like like that feeling of falling in love with something or finding something you didn't know that you would ever be interested in or didn't know existed like you're you know and just being so enthralled by it some of the most fascinating studies still and when we listen monica and i consume a lot of podcasts and generally we love when they're sociologists on because they do the most interesting experiments right i love that yeah Wesleyan didn't allow us to do a lot of concluding it was a lot of like it was a lot of like postulating and analyzing but sometimes the conclusions were right i i searched for conclusions conclusions and they were like, hold off.

[610] Let's keep thinking about this a little bit more.

[611] I had the same frustration with anthropology, which is like, we're just observing and we really can't say anything.

[612] I'm like, well, hold on, no. We eventually should gather all this information and make some decision going forward based on that.

[613] At some point, you should give me some path to go down.

[614] Yes.

[615] Yes.

[616] How do I apply this knowledge I have now?

[617] So my town that I grew up in, poor people and then like middle class people tops.

[618] I have to imagine that the gap between the lowest and the biggest was maybe a factor of five.

[619] But I have to imagine at that school, there were some people that literally their families had like 150 times as much money as other students' families.

[620] Were you aware of any of that?

[621] Did it bother you?

[622] Did it make you insecure or any of that?

[623] I don't think I thought about it in high school the way once I got to Wesleyan.

[624] I looked back and I was like, there was a lot going on that I just sort of missed, which is kind of embarrassing to admit.

[625] I think it's great.

[626] Like you said, it's a bubble.

[627] So why would you be thinking anything of?

[628] That's your normal.

[629] Yeah.

[630] As I go through life now, I think much more critically where I try to observe much more keenly about things like that because I think I'm trying to like make up for being so privileged that I missed it in high school.

[631] But looking back, there was such a, just an insane level of privilege at that school that I didn't even hit.

[632] You know what I mean?

[633] Like the scope of it.

[634] When you come back from Christmas vacation, some people took their jet to Beijing to eat at a restaurant or whatever, right?

[635] A hundred percent.

[636] Or to their own island, I presume, somewhere like they have an island.

[637] But you never felt triggered by any of that.

[638] I don't know because I think when When I started so young there, I was like 12, and thinking back, how could I go over to people's houses and not think, this is different.

[639] They have an elevator.

[640] This is perhaps different than my house.

[641] Yeah.

[642] This is, that's a Lichtenstein, all right.

[643] But I think you just see your friend and you just see their mom.

[644] And that is a naive answer.

[645] I think it's wonderful.

[646] I'm very happy to hear that it didn't have a fact where you were like, oh, my God, even though you guys were doing fine going like, oh, we're poor.

[647] But I also think how privileged am I to have had that?

[648] Like, do you have to be a certain level of privilege to be blind to other people's insane privilege?

[649] And so I have to acknowledge that.

[650] Yeah, I don't know.

[651] Stay tuned for more armchair expert, if you dare.

[652] What's up, guys?

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[671] What year did you graduate college?

[672] 2015.

[673] 2015.

[674] Okay, 2015, you know you always wanted to be in acting in some capacity, right?

[675] Yeah, always, only Broadway.

[676] Only Broadway.

[677] Now, does at that point your brother is very successful already?

[678] Yes.

[679] Are you afraid at that point?

[680] Really quick, how do he end up with a different name than you?

[681] His middle name is Hill.

[682] Oh, it is.

[683] Okay.

[684] Yeah.

[685] But for no reason, my mom just, like, liked the sound of it.

[686] Like, it's not like a family name.

[687] And it just, like, it sounded great.

[688] She kind of, oh, She's such a great.

[689] She's such an amazing person, but she's so crazy sometimes.

[690] She's like, oh, I knew.

[691] Like, I named him knowing that, like, Saturday we needed.

[692] I'm like, what does that even mean?

[693] Like, explain that to me. But, yeah, Joan Hill just sounds so good.

[694] I think he was like, I'll just do that.

[695] Yeah.

[696] So my sister is also an actor, and I think that it's a burden that I'm her brother at time.

[697] So I just wonder, was there a voice in your head?

[698] It's like, oh, Grant, I'm going to pursue this.

[699] And everyone's just going to go, oh, of course she's doing it because her brother is famous.

[700] No. And that's an honest answer.

[701] Well, I think it's because from age of three, I was like musical theater.

[702] And I just put on blinders.

[703] And so I was like, Chona does movies.

[704] That's not my lane.

[705] I'm in this lane.

[706] And I also was like such a bratty kid.

[707] And I was like, like, I've been doing this longer than, because I considered my, like, you know, children's theater in, like, a playground, like, train, of course.

[708] Objectively, you were on ABC at nine before I was acting professionally.

[709] So you've been doing it longer than me as well.

[710] Is, yeah.

[711] That was a brief stint away from my community theater in Santa Monica.

[712] I just had such blinders on with theater that I think I genuinely didn't see that as as a source of tension or competition or anything, I just was, like, proud and surprised and excited.

[713] And then just sort of was so in all of, like, what he was doing and excited for him.

[714] Yeah.

[715] Well, that's the healthiest best response.

[716] Whenever you talk, you will probably end up talking about your brother at some point.

[717] It's just inherently interesting.

[718] And I could see myself having a chip on my shoulder about that.

[719] Like, yeah, I know.

[720] He is my brother.

[721] We have established this.

[722] Everyone knows this.

[723] crazy.

[724] I would have it with Kristen.

[725] When Kristen I would first very publicly dating, I would go on a talk show and the whole segment would be about her.

[726] And I'm like, I think they only had me as a conduit to talk about her.

[727] Yeah.

[728] It wasn't for years until I noticed, oh, they do the same thing to her.

[729] They just don't know what the fuck else to talk about.

[730] Here's a layup.

[731] Totally.

[732] It's so good a layup.

[733] I love that.

[734] So when you started getting attention of your own and his name is always brought up when you're talking about your own accomplishment, the fact that you still are proud of that is very admirable and I envy it.

[735] I wish I could start there.

[736] I wouldn't lie to you.

[737] I don't think you want.

[738] Because I love this podcast and I couldn't bring my, I'm a rule follower.

[739] So what was I going to lie on my favorite podcast?

[740] It is a rule here.

[741] You know, true.

[742] But I love him so much and I'm so proud of him.

[743] And I never thought I would do movies ever.

[744] That discovery and loving that so much.

[745] much has been nothing but like this great gift, I feel like I've been given.

[746] Like an unexpected.

[747] Completely unexpected.

[748] And people are like, but you always did theater.

[749] I'm like, think about how different they are.

[750] Like, Sondheim musicals and my first Broadway production, my only Broadway production was Hello Dolly to like filmmaking.

[751] Like they're two completely different beasts.

[752] It's like you sing, but are you an opera singer or are you a rock or country singer?

[753] Like they're completely different things.

[754] And I was like, I'm opera, he's country.

[755] I never thought of it as like.

[756] Overlapping, yeah.

[757] I see that for sure.

[758] Because I am a great lover of movies, and I have a very hard time getting through live productions.

[759] I can't.

[760] He's the same way.

[761] I can't buy in the way everyone else is.

[762] I'm like, no, no, that's a 30 -year -old acting like a child, and it's for driving me nuts.

[763] And he's like, why are you singing?

[764] Like, explain it to me. Yes.

[765] Why the fuck are you singing?

[766] Like, I don't understand it.

[767] I have asked my wife so many times.

[768] What we're learning is that you and Kristen is just me and Jonah.

[769] Yeah, totally.

[770] So I feel like Larry David when he says he hates going to the beach because all he does is look around and like, what is the experience everyone else is getting that I'm not?

[771] So you graduate in 2015 and then do you immediately start pursuing getting into a Broadway show?

[772] Yes and no. My freshman year of college, I had an agent on the East Coast from like when I was a kid, but my parents were very much like, we only really want you to do theater because in some world where you get on a show at like 12 and you lose all.

[773] all of your high school experience and you love school and we're just following what we see in you, which is that you belong in school.

[774] Right.

[775] And so they were like, just theater.

[776] I never booked anything.

[777] But I had this children's agent on the East Coast.

[778] And so when I went to Wesley and they were like, come audition in New York whenever you can.

[779] And I was going back and forth and I remember I called my mom one day and I was just like crying.

[780] And I was like, I feel like I'm terrible in these auditions and my papers aren't good when I get back to school or I'm not doing the reading or I'm, I feel behind at school and I feel like I'm I suck at these auditions.

[781] I'm caught between two worlds and I'm not succeeding at either of them.

[782] So I sort of very purposefully was like just focus on college.

[783] Just do college.

[784] Try to invest yourself in it and acting can hold off because you've chosen to be here.

[785] Yeah.

[786] It's such a like an honor and a privilege to get to go to a school like that.

[787] Just focus.

[788] Right.

[789] But my senior year, everyone's studying for the MCAT.

[790] They're taking job offers and going on interviews and all this stuff.

[791] And I was like, I have to kind of get my head back in the game.

[792] Right.

[793] So I took an acting class before senior year, and then I started auditioning much more.

[794] And I did a few things during my senior year.

[795] Plays?

[796] Show.

[797] So I did the one line on Orange is the New Black.

[798] Oh, TV shows.

[799] Which is super fun.

[800] And then I did this pilot that never got picked up, which is insane.

[801] And I can say that because I only had like four lines on it.

[802] So I'm as objective as one can be having seen it.

[803] But Gus Van Zand directed this pilot that Jengi Kohan, and Bruce Miller, who did The Handmaid's Tale, co -created.

[804] Oh, boy.

[805] And Eddie Izard was the star, and it was about the Salem Witches.

[806] And it was so unbelievably cool.

[807] And it had an amazing cast, like Karen Gillen and Eddie and all these amazing people.

[808] And I was like a small guest star on it.

[809] But it fell within my spring break.

[810] So my spring break of my senior year of college, I was in Boston doing that, which is very crazy.

[811] And then when I graduated, I started auditioning.

[812] And I got neighbors too within like two months of graduating.

[813] They were casting it out of L .A. And I flew to L .A. to audition because I was like, this on a tape doesn't add up.

[814] Like I know, like, comedy like this is so improvised that if I make like this weird static tape or I'm like, this is me being funny.

[815] Right.

[816] For three minutes in front of like my bedroom door, this doesn't work versus like being in the room and them throwing stuff that.

[817] You got to shine your light on them.

[818] Yeah, exactly.

[819] I was like, hello.

[820] So I came to LA and then I was nannying and I just put the one -year -old that I was taking care of to sleep and I got the call and they were like, why are you whispering?

[821] You're being so weird.

[822] And I was like, she just went to sleep.

[823] And I don't care what you have to say.

[824] If she wakes up, this is going to be the worst night ever.

[825] So please just like whisper with me. I was in Atlanta like August of 2015.

[826] That's pretty crazy.

[827] Yeah, no, it's insane.

[828] Yes.

[829] And you're hilarious in that movie.

[830] That is unfortunately the one thing I've seen you in I don't know why I didn't see Lady Bird I'm supposed to, everyone told me to, everyone loves it It's a criminal offense I haven't Yep, it's okay I'm going to, I promise I'm gonna blame having little kids Blame away, okay But also no, because Kristen's seen it But I was, yes, I was out of town And you guys watched it without, right And I'm gonna sit by myself Tell you guys I can't watch TV Because I got to catch up on this thing Yes I'm gonna do it All right, I make a pledge So does Lady Bird follow Neighbors 2 immediately?

[831] Yes, I did Whitney Cummings direct in a movie called The Female Brain, where I played her assistant.

[832] So I did that in like four days before I did Lady Bird.

[833] But Lady Bird was pretty much the next.

[834] And how did you get Lady Bird?

[835] I auditioned.

[836] I was the only person, I think, in the cast that auditioned.

[837] Greta had seen everyone else or knew everyone else from their work.

[838] And I went in and auditioned for her.

[839] And she read Lady Bird and I read my character as her best friend, Julie.

[840] Julie.

[841] And I remember I left skipping.

[842] I just was like, I just genuinely did all I could possibly do in front of someone I love so much.

[843] And I love this script more than I've ever loved anything.

[844] Like a musical, a book.

[845] I just like, I felt it so genuinely, like so deeply.

[846] I just was like, I did it.

[847] I left skipping.

[848] And then I ran into my friend from Wesleyan on the street.

[849] And we had lunch.

[850] And it was just kind of this like magic day.

[851] And I was like something.

[852] and good is going on.

[853] I'm trying not to think about it too much.

[854] And then two weeks went by and then I found out.

[855] This is a very nice ride so far because your first movie you're in, it opens.

[856] It's a gigantic hit.

[857] And then you get straight into Lady Bird and I just panic that I was saying the wrong title.

[858] I was like, what's going on?

[859] I know.

[860] I know.

[861] You should know I have tremors.

[862] We should have told you that it to be pain.

[863] He poops his pain sometimes.

[864] But to then be in Lady Bird and then Lady Bird and then Lady Bird, gets nominated for every single thing, and then you get to probably go around and be a part of that whole thing.

[865] This is a very hot start.

[866] It gets even crazier because when I was doing Lady Bird, I auditioned for Hello Dolly.

[867] And it all happened through that because Scott Rudin and Eli Bush did Lady Bird, and they were also doing Hello Dolly.

[868] And they're like seeing you in Daly's.

[869] Yeah, and I sing a little bit in Lady Bird.

[870] And they were like, we haven't found a mini Faye in Helodollie yet.

[871] Something is telling us maybe you should audition.

[872] And I was like, uh, Bet Midler, Sure.

[873] Literally, like, honestly, like, I didn't put any pressure on it because I was like, this is not going to be me. Like, I was like, this is Ben Midler's hello dolly.

[874] Like, this is not going to be me. And I auditioned in L .A. and found out that day.

[875] Now.

[876] No, like, come do it 10 more times for eight.

[877] I thought I was being punked.

[878] Sorry, I didn't mean to.

[879] As it came out, I was like, this is, okay.

[880] It's in the lexicon now.

[881] It doesn't even have to be a reference.

[882] He loves it.

[883] I thought.

[884] I thought.

[885] I thought.

[886] I was in the lexicon now.

[887] It is, right.

[888] It is right.

[889] He loves it.

[890] I thought.

[891] I thought.

[892] I thought.

[893] I was.

[894] I was.

[895] I was.

[896] I. I was I was seeing things.

[897] And then I made my agent email it to me so that I could see it in writing.

[898] I was like, I think I made up the conversation.

[899] Like, wow.

[900] This is not real.

[901] How do you take good fortune?

[902] I would start getting panic that I'm either going to get diagnosed with something or something.

[903] Some shoe has to drop.

[904] It's just my nature.

[905] Are you able to just take it all on and go like, fuck yeah, this is the ride?

[906] Or are you like, I don't deserve this.

[907] I'm a fraud.

[908] I'll be exposed as being a fraud.

[909] I'll be fired on day one.

[910] No, I got through day one.

[911] I'll be fired on day two.

[912] No, okay, so we have like a two month break before.

[913] official rehearsals for sure going to be fired in that span of time.

[914] Right.

[915] Every day was like, this is Hello Dolly on Broadway and I'm standing here.

[916] Will you give me the historical significance of that because I'm a Philistine?

[917] I don't know.

[918] No, absolutely.

[919] It was first presented in 1964 with Carol Channing.

[920] Okay.

[921] And it is one of the most like produced, beloved classic musicals.

[922] Who wrote the music?

[923] Jerry Herman.

[924] Okay.

[925] I'm new to that name.

[926] It's adapted from a Thornton Wilder play called The Matchmaker.

[927] And it is just joy shoved in two hours and put on the stage.

[928] It's an explosion of joy and smile.

[929] An explosion of color and joy in Bett Midler is there.

[930] Okay.

[931] Leading you through the joy.

[932] You love Bett Midler.

[933] Love.

[934] And like, did you consume her movies as a kid?

[935] I guess what I'm saying is if I were a young Jewish girl, I would be inspired by other Jewish girls who have become stars.

[936] So I guess that's when I'm trying to tiptoe around.

[937] Funny Girl themed.

[938] It was.

[939] Our funny girl is turning three.

[940] Oh, really?

[941] And I was obsessed with it.

[942] I would make my mom play it like every day when I got home from preschool or whatever, you know, whatever I was at.

[943] Like kids would watch Elmo or like the Little Mermaid.

[944] I was like, one more time.

[945] Cue it up.

[946] Babs.

[947] Bring it on.

[948] Yeah.

[949] Give me, don't rain on my parade and one more time.

[950] Totally off topic.

[951] Do you know the Babs song with Barry?

[952] Gibb or whatever from the BGs.

[953] Yes.

[954] Guilty.

[955] This became our theme song on a vacation we just took.

[956] Oh, yes.

[957] Now, I'm not a huge Babs fan.

[958] Fair.

[959] Okay.

[960] I feel low rent when I see her or hear her perform.

[961] I just feel like I'm a dirty kid from a dirt road.

[962] What?

[963] Why?

[964] What does that mean?

[965] Unpacked that.

[966] Because she's so like perfect and everything.

[967] I'm so articulate and, um.

[968] Have you seen funny girl?

[969] No, I haven't.

[970] seen funny girl.

[971] It's all about like a scrappy girl who doesn't fit in.

[972] Yeah.

[973] It's all my issue.

[974] I feel like she's an elite.

[975] She's an artist and she sings flawlessly and has perfect pitch and what do I know.

[976] You know, it's a very intimidating talent level probably is what it is.

[977] Fair.

[978] But I'm guilty with her and Barry.

[979] I have, I haven't listened to in a long time.

[980] We've been listening to it a lot.

[981] Non -stopping.

[982] And we've got nothing to be guilty.

[983] I love.

[984] So sorry.

[985] I'm living for it.

[986] The way she's singing offbeat a bunch of times, I'm like, oh, like it zapped me on this trip.

[987] Yeah, I'm like, she's freestyling.

[988] Like, it felt gangster to me the way she was fucking with the rhythm of that song.

[989] Totally.

[990] I think you should give the first 30 minutes of Funny Girl trying.

[991] If you don't like it, then shut it off.

[992] Okay.

[993] I'm so fine with that.

[994] Again, right after I watch Lady Bird, I'm going to give the Funning Girl shot.

[995] I say you should do Funny Girl first.

[996] but it's just me. Yeah, I should commit an hour and a half to figure out why I'm triggered by her.

[997] I feel like you're thinking of Barbara Streisand.

[998] I am.

[999] We're both talking about Barbara Streisand.

[1000] I think you're talking about Beth Midler.

[1001] Well, we quickly went from Beth.

[1002] Oh, you switched, you switched.

[1003] Sorry, we switched.

[1004] Because we were talking about Jewish role models.

[1005] Female Jewish role models.

[1006] Both of them reign supreme for sure.

[1007] And Liza?

[1008] Love Liza.

[1009] Yeah, but I think I discovered Liza a little bit older.

[1010] Have you seen Arthur?

[1011] Have you seen Arthur?

[1012] No. Okay, Arthur, I stand by this.

[1013] Arthur is one of the seminal comedies ever made.

[1014] It is still a great movie.

[1015] Dudley Moore's a rich drunk.

[1016] He falls in love with her.

[1017] She's street trash.

[1018] It's a great, great movie.

[1019] See, this is triggering my Jonah anxiety of never having seen anything.

[1020] Oh, I'm so sorry.

[1021] I'm like, I failed Dax.

[1022] No, no, no, no. And Rob.

[1023] I wouldn't be shocked if Jonah hadn't seen it.

[1024] I mean, it's a very old movie comedy.

[1025] Anyways.

[1026] I need to watch it.

[1027] She's phenomenal Liza.

[1028] Now we're talking about Liza Manali.

[1029] Thank you.

[1030] Okay.

[1031] Keep everyone up to date on what's going on.

[1032] Okay, so how nervous are you to meet Bette?

[1033] The nervousest?

[1034] The nervousest.

[1035] Okay, yeah, the nervousest.

[1036] There are no words.

[1037] And is she just gracious and recognizes this gal probably liked me and I'm going to make her feel included?

[1038] Or is she of asshole?

[1039] No, my God.

[1040] She's so hardworking and she gets right to it.

[1041] It's like, Beanie's so nice to meet you where we start.

[1042] You know what I mean?

[1043] Like, it's like right in it.

[1044] Right.

[1045] She's deeply observant.

[1046] She takes in everything like a sponge and has the funniest, you can curse here, right?

[1047] Oh, the funniest fucking thing to say about it.

[1048] Like, she'll just be watching and then, like, zing.

[1049] I mean, as funny as you think she's going to be, she's 90 times funnier.

[1050] Like, all of us, like, actually having to leave the room because we're, like, laughing so hard.

[1051] Right.

[1052] But she's the most hardworking human being I've literally ever encountered in my life.

[1053] She was 71, I think, when we started rehearsals.

[1054] Wow.

[1055] She's in almost every scene.

[1056] I couldn't do a Broadway play today at 44.

[1057] I was 23 and I was huffing and puffing.

[1058] And she was like they would call a break and I would like crawl to my water bottle.

[1059] And she doesn't sit down.

[1060] She's like looking at her script.

[1061] She's picking up her purse that she has on the scene to figure out how she puts it down, taking off the coat, putting back on the coat, figuring out where she's going to hang it up throughout the scene, going over it, talking to David Ed Pierce, like, never stops and read the script cover to cover before every show.

[1062] Oh, wow.

[1063] It's just, like, deeply, deeply inspirational in that way.

[1064] And you think she's Beth Miller.

[1065] She could walk on the stage, and she's so deeply charismatic and wonderful in every way.

[1066] Well, she's very powerful, right?

[1067] So powerful, like a force of everything you could want in this world.

[1068] And she doesn't have to work, but the reason she's Bet Midler is because she works that hard.

[1069] And so, obviously, you can't say anything bad about Bet Midler, but you're 26.

[1070] So I have to imagine you're still at the phase where it's like, it's just all gravy.

[1071] It's all fun.

[1072] There's money on the other side of it.

[1073] There's freedom on the other side of it.

[1074] There's expression.

[1075] It's all wonderful.

[1076] But are you at all observing the older people around you and what levels of fulfillment and happiness they have in our business?

[1077] You know, it's so interesting every single day I'm on a set.

[1078] like the first person in the van too excited to be there so profoundly grateful that it's like annoying probably to some but it's genuinely how I feel because I know so many people that are more talented that don't get to do it but I think specifically with theater it is such a relentless thing like it does not give you permission to stop that you would not be there if you didn't crave and need and get deeply fulfilled by that feeling and that treadmill like it is not stopping and it will not let you off type of feeling yes and so i did feel like for bet or david hyde pierce or gavin creel who's like a musical theater god or kate baldwin who's the same like they are there because they still even at 40 70 60 however old they are feet off of that and need that yeah you would have to because to your point and we talked about it a lot with ben but the the schedule of being in eight shows a week is brutal on your body and your voice on all these things.

[1079] And I would compare what you're saying a little bit to a friend of mine who is a retired Navy SEAL.

[1080] He had got offered to come work for Blackwater, this private security company that's huge to make a tremendous amount of money.

[1081] And one of his buddies from his team was going to do it.

[1082] And he said, are you going to take this job?

[1083] And he said, this is going to sound so corny.

[1084] But I think we'll be in a situation where money can't be the reason we're doing it.

[1085] I don't think it'll work for what we'll have to do in what we potentially have to deal with, you need a belief in something a little bigger than money.

[1086] And I can do it when I'm working for my country and I don't think I can do it working for a company.

[1087] And I just thought that was like an incredibly profound thing to be aware of.

[1088] Totally.

[1089] And yeah, to your point, whatever the money is would be very irrelevant in the middle of a run.

[1090] Like no amount of money is going to tell you you're not exhausted or.

[1091] No, no amount of money when your eyes open in the morning, do you think, can I sing today?

[1092] Like, that fear is so profound.

[1093] I couldn't do that.

[1094] I lived so deep.

[1095] I had vocal issues as a kid.

[1096] And I lost my voice at nine.

[1097] And then I had to get it back.

[1098] Oh, boy.

[1099] Through speech therapy and singing therapy.

[1100] And so I think it's like genuine PTSD for me, that feeling of like, will I be able to sing today?

[1101] And if I don't, I'm letting Bet Miller down.

[1102] Yeah.

[1103] I'm not because there's someone beautiful that can understudy me. but I don't want to miss a show in that experience.

[1104] Yeah.

[1105] And I don't want to.

[1106] It's just, I don't.

[1107] It's a lot of pressure.

[1108] I have acted in scenes on TV shows where I've had full -blown food poisoning diarrhea.

[1109] I can get through it and I can hold it for 15 minutes to do my job.

[1110] There's no way I could go and perform on stage for two hours and sing my heart out if I was.

[1111] It is the only thing that gets you down on Broadway.

[1112] Like you can get through anything, but if you have stomach stuff, it's like literally the only Yeah, it's just too risky.

[1113] It's just, there's a line and that's it.

[1114] But yeah.

[1115] Certainly in the history of Broadway, someone has completely evacuated on stage.

[1116] There's just no question.

[1117] I'm sure.

[1118] The odds are there.

[1119] It's happened.

[1120] I had a friend who had multiple friends who have had stories of running off in the middle of shows and then running back now.

[1121] Okay, wow.

[1122] How many shows did you do?

[1123] I don't know exactly, but I performed for 10 months.

[1124] Okay.

[1125] From the beginning and 10 rehearsals, it was like a year.

[1126] I think I did like 300 -something shows.

[1127] And how many times did your voice not work?

[1128] Zero.

[1129] I missed for Lady Bird sometimes, like a few specific things to go be with them.

[1130] And then I missed for bereavement.

[1131] But other than that, I didn't miss any shows because of, like, illness or anything.

[1132] Were you in your relationship at that time?

[1133] No. You weren't.

[1134] No. It kind of can't happen, right?

[1135] Or can it happen?

[1136] I don't know.

[1137] I do warn her that the next time I do Broadway, I'm like, it's a different human being that you're going to be around and I'm trying to prepare her for when that one day hopefully will happen but I don't think she quite understands.

[1138] Bonds.

[1139] Bon, Bon.

[1140] She's.

[1141] Her full name is Bonnie Chance with a hyphen in the first name.

[1142] I think it would be very misleading to assess someone's quality of life while they're doing the thing that they love so much.

[1143] I'd be more interested in you like spending a weekend with Bet when there's a no work.

[1144] Yeah.

[1145] And like what impact does that have on your life to be basically out of commission for a year?

[1146] Everyone in your circle has to just be patient with that and understanding and not needy and all these things.

[1147] Like I doubt anything great comes for free or even Jonah has been public about it.

[1148] Like the time where his career is the most fulfilling and gratifying doesn't mean that it's paralleling his emotional life.

[1149] A hundred percent.

[1150] Almost opposite.

[1151] A hundred percent.

[1152] And not to bring it down too much, but like when Lady Bird was.

[1153] was coming out at the Oscars or at the Saga Awards or whatever was right when my brother had passed away.

[1154] Your brother.

[1155] And people say like, what a year you're having.

[1156] And I'm like, where are you going with that?

[1157] Like behind my eyes.

[1158] I'm like, what do you mean?

[1159] But like, the leaders say like, and I'm so sorry.

[1160] We're like, and Lady Byrne.

[1161] You're like, okay, we're rolling with that.

[1162] You know, like I had to sort of let them lead whatever conversation they were starting because I didn't know what they were going to say.

[1163] But that's obviously a much more extreme example.

[1164] Your oldest brother, Jordan, died in 2017.

[1165] Yes.

[1166] Very prematurely.

[1167] Very unexpectedly.

[1168] Yes.

[1169] Just as heartbreaking as it can be for everyone, right?

[1170] Yeah.

[1171] And beyond.

[1172] How do you explain this?

[1173] Because you seem like you have very firm purchase on the ground and reality.

[1174] And you seem relatively self -aware and happy and making healthy choices.

[1175] Thank you.

[1176] How do you explain this disparity among some?

[1177] siblings because there's three of us and we have varying levels of how we live and what we've done and all this kind.

[1178] Now, my brother and I are both sober.

[1179] So that makes a ton of sense.

[1180] My sister and I have different dads.

[1181] So maybe that's why she hasn't had to get sober yet.

[1182] But do you think there's like biochemical differences?

[1183] What kind of things do you think have resulted in this difference of overall well -being?

[1184] Joan and I talk about it all the time because he did this like zine, I guess is what it was called for 824 where he interviewed all these people about confidence.

[1185] It's so interesting.

[1186] Oh, I gotta see that.

[1187] It's so cool.

[1188] I'll get you one.

[1189] It's like, he interviews me, but he also interviews Edie Falco and Catherine Hahn and Bahadhi, who's a supermodel and our family friend and Q -Tip and Michael Sarah.

[1190] Like the most random, brilliant assortment of people on what confidence means to them.

[1191] And like, Bahadi is a supermodel.

[1192] Really quick, I'm just hearing this name for the first time, but the super hot person's name is Bahadi.

[1193] Bahadi.

[1194] Oh my goodness.

[1195] Like Bihadi.

[1196] Be haughty is actually how you pronounce it.

[1197] I'd be like, oh, you know my buddy, he's a quarterback for the, for the dolphins.

[1198] His name is, is fucking be ripped, be studly.

[1199] Truly.

[1200] Yeah, that's what we're working with.

[1201] I wonder if her mother, like your mother was like, I knew.

[1202] She grew up in South Africa.

[1203] I don't know if that was, I mean, it's too good to be true.

[1204] Their wedding, because she's married to Adam Levine, who's our God brother.

[1205] Okay.

[1206] And their wedding was literally.

[1207] just Supermodel?

[1208] Like the, like, think about the aisle was literally just a Victoria's Secret fashion show.

[1209] Oh, my God.

[1210] And it was 190 degrees.

[1211] Swimware was mandatory.

[1212] Me and my best friends, Megan and Kitty, where they were like, literally like the sweat.

[1213] I've never sweat like that in my life.

[1214] And we're just watching Victoria's Secret Miles walk.

[1215] We're like, what is this?

[1216] But her and Joan are very close.

[1217] And so he interviews her.

[1218] It was really fascinating.

[1219] Ours was really fascinating.

[1220] Even to me, it was a part of that dynamic, because we have such different relationships to our bodies or confidence in general.

[1221] And we talked a lot about basically what you asked.

[1222] You know, obviously I had a lot of time alone with our parents, which is a beautiful thing.

[1223] And also it's a unique thing.

[1224] He didn't have that because he was sort of with one of us at any time that he was growing up.

[1225] But I think that finding theater at such a young age gave me this, I love something so much.

[1226] And I had the privilege of being good at it.

[1227] from like a baby, like before I can remember.

[1228] Right.

[1229] You could hang your confidence on that.

[1230] A hundred percent.

[1231] And that's where I credit it too, because I was just like, well, this is my thing.

[1232] Identity.

[1233] It gives you a solid identity.

[1234] And a community, the theater community, even on like a community, like theater level, is so vibrant and beautiful and welcoming.

[1235] And it gives you a group of people to connect to and somewhere to be every day and a sense of purpose and time management and all these things that Jonah didn't have that exact.

[1236] He always loved comedy, but he didn't have like an outlet for it necessarily at that age.

[1237] And Jordy had sports and other things that he did.

[1238] So I think that definitely has something to do with it.

[1239] But I definitely hang my hat on it.

[1240] What was the name of his skateboard movie?

[1241] Mid 90s.

[1242] Mid 90s.

[1243] So I saw mid 90s.

[1244] I was by myself at a hotel recently and I watched it and I absolutely loved it.

[1245] I love it.

[1246] I was skateboarding.

[1247] Yeah, yeah.

[1248] Just kidding.

[1249] But I was really genuine.

[1250] loved it.

[1251] I thought it was so great.

[1252] And I related so much.

[1253] The world for me as a boy, I won't speak for all boys, but it does sound like the world for Jonah as a boy was like a very scary, threatening hostile.

[1254] Cut and dry.

[1255] Fucking Lord of the Flies, masculinity off at all times.

[1256] If I'm Jonah, I don't know how he finds that.

[1257] I think it was through comedy.

[1258] I mean, I wasn't in school with him at the time, but he was like, for sure, the class clown.

[1259] And that was his superpower.

[1260] It is his superpower.

[1261] But I think his depth of thought and feeling is also his superpower, but he didn't explore that until he was like maybe a bit older.

[1262] Right.

[1263] Can I tell you one really funny story about your brother?

[1264] I beg.

[1265] Okay, so I first met him through Shauna Robertson.

[1266] So Shauna was good friends with Jonah and she had just done 40 -year -old virgin.

[1267] She had produced it and she invited me to lunch and she invited this kid with her.

[1268] Now, 40 -old virgin is not out.

[1269] I haven't seen it.

[1270] I don't know anything about him and he is very nice and he is very complimentary to me and he tells me at one point I want you to be in my movies and at that time I was like okay all right what do you mean you're you want to flick him across the room maybe maybe I would put you in one of the movies I'm in that like I hadn't even seen him act and he's like I want to put you in movies and I probably didn't give a very great reaction I then came to really regret that as he yeah you should be in his movies i would die to be in any of his movies the joke was definitely on me i remember at a certain point like i don't know if it was during super bad or something he had written on and i was just like oh that motherfucker i was sitting with i should have said i'd love to be in your movies well let me sign up with you now you put a he probably doesn't even remember that conversation b if he does he probably could give a shit but Part of me hopes that he's thought at times, like, I would never put you in my movie now.

[1271] I'm going to make you eat that reaction.

[1272] Not at all.

[1273] He truly, like, we love you guys.

[1274] Too much, perhaps.

[1275] Yeah, but it's just a very funny, like, when does that happen to you when you're sitting with the next Jonah Hill?

[1276] And he says that, and you're like, okay, yeah, let's.

[1277] But confidence.

[1278] He found his confidence that day.

[1279] Let me tell you.

[1280] But it's a good lesson.

[1281] You should not underestimate anybody.

[1282] We were at a restaurant yesterday.

[1283] where a lot of people are clearly working on their scripts, like a lot of people.

[1284] And it kind of triggers like, yikes.

[1285] Like everyone here is going to be disappointed.

[1286] And really, you should just have the opposite opinion of like everyone here could be Jonah.

[1287] That's right.

[1288] Or Beanie.

[1289] Or Beanie.

[1290] You just don't know.

[1291] It's a better outlook to have that one.

[1292] But in my defense, a couple hundred people had said that to me that didn't turn out to be Jonah.

[1293] So, you know, if you're just playing the eye, I don't really know what.

[1294] I don't know what the lesson is for me to learn, but I just, I think that's funny, and I want to publicly state that I underestimated him, and I hope that he has made me pay, and please come in any one of your movies.

[1295] Stay tuned for more armchair expert, if you dare.

[1296] All in all, having done Hello Dolly, and I imagine it was a very fulfilling, wonderful experience.

[1297] The best of my whole life.

[1298] And then also an incredible beat down physically and all those things.

[1299] Yeah, I still, to this.

[1300] day, I'm like, uh, my toe, when I broke my toe in Hela -Dolly, that still hurts a little bit.

[1301] What's the craziest mishap that ever happened during a performance?

[1302] I think I can say this.

[1303] I'm sure you can.

[1304] I'll just say it anyway.

[1305] We can cut it if you want.

[1306] As the fear of authority still lives in me. I'm like, well, I am I?

[1307] No, I can because people saw it happen.

[1308] So therefore, the first preview of Helladalee, the first time I am ever on Broadway in front of a paying audience.

[1309] my parents are there but obviously that's not even that's the last thought of my mind i'm going to be on broadway today my best friend in the world who also is my i play his girlfriend or like love interest but puppy love in hello dolly his character's name is barnaby my character's name is minnie they're like the sweet young kind of dopey lovers that end up together in the show and there's a song called dancing where dolly bet teaches the young lovers to dance she wants them to couple up so she's kind of like pushing them into each other's arms exactly because she's the end matchmaker so she's like you know making it happen and the setup is that I'm looking at the luminous Kate Baldwin who is singing and she plays Mrs. Malloy and then Bet turns me to look at Barnaby, Taylor's character, takes off my glasses and pushes me to him and we start dancing and then this huge dance number starts where we leave the stage and the incredible ensemble comes out and does this like incredible dance break for like four minutes and it's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen.

[1310] I am listening to Kate.

[1311] I turn around and Taylor is not there.

[1312] Okay.

[1313] Great.

[1314] Just not there.

[1315] He's not with us.

[1316] Not there.

[1317] I hope it was on a diarrhea situation.

[1318] Oh, I hope it was.

[1319] It was a vomit situation.

[1320] Oh, okay.

[1321] Great.

[1322] No. He something really upset his stomach.

[1323] And there was like a little something going around.

[1324] And after the show, he was like, I either was going to vomit on bet or I was going to vomit off stage.

[1325] And I made that decision.

[1326] Right.

[1327] I had some bad decisions.

[1328] But I was out there without my dance partner on Broadway.

[1329] Oh, wow.

[1330] The first night I had ever been on braving it.

[1331] So what did you dance by yourself?

[1332] Or you pretend?

[1333] Oh, gee.

[1334] Oh, I fully blacked out.

[1335] So I couldn't, I'm, this is not me telling you what I did, but other people telling me what I did.

[1336] I knew that if I put my arms up, it would be very clear that he was missing but because his character's so scared it actually got a big laugh when he ran off because people thought he was just too nervous to dance and it like really worked timing wise I think I just like held my heart and like swayed a little bit because I was like if I put my arms up it'll look like there's a missing human and space work another human and I can't spin myself and do all of these things that he's like partnering me to do so I just like sang and like stood there but is it a duet is he supposed to be singing as well?

[1337] It's all four of us are singing at this point so at least I wasn't yeah at least I wasn't alone on that so the show just went on you guys just pretended it was and Taylor is literally a magician and the most thoughtful incredible human being and was back on within the dance break like was back on within the number a true fighter and extremely resilient but I was like he's gone and he's back just like that it kind of was a I mean poor Taylor It was a blessing for me because I was like it was the first night and something happened.

[1338] And you made it through.

[1339] Oh, yeah, I guess if something else happens, I'll be okay.

[1340] Well, Ben similarly said that the first time they debuted Evan Hansen, the stage started malfunctioning.

[1341] And it was just clicking and breaking and all asunder, as they would say.

[1342] That's why theater is the best.

[1343] You have to watch human behavior happen.

[1344] Can I tell you the uniquely selfish joy I would take in it?

[1345] Is that I would be so afraid.

[1346] I was going to fuck up.

[1347] So if anyone else fucked out, I was like, thank God.

[1348] But he didn't fuck up.

[1349] He just literally was being.

[1350] Well, he shipped a bad.

[1351] I mean, the guy had to go and throw up off stage.

[1352] It's not ideal.

[1353] I think it's, you know, when I saw Legally Blonde, her wig fell off and that's like a night I'll never forget.

[1354] It's those moments that you're like, well, actually I'm happy.

[1355] Something crazy happened.

[1356] So is there someone you hold as the North Star?

[1357] Is there someone's career who you want?

[1358] I would say no. I think there's, There's so many women specifically, because I am one that I admire and I would hope to be like, but I don't think there's one specific path that I could say that's the exact path that I would want to take.

[1359] Lori Metcalf's career in the sense that she has seamlessly transitioned between all mediums, her whole career is really inspirational to me. But if we're going to like the minutia of it, she doesn't do musical, she does play.

[1360] So it's like there's no specific one.

[1361] person that I could say, that is it, that is the ultimate goal.

[1362] But I, as you guys know, because you're two of the people that I admire, I love really hard.

[1363] Like, I'm just a fan.

[1364] Like, I love loving things.

[1365] And so there's so many people and shows and writers and directors that I just worship that I would love to work with.

[1366] But there's not one specific path that I could say, well, that's it.

[1367] Okay, let me ask you something personal.

[1368] When I read on Wikipedia, it says openly queer.

[1369] Now, is that something that's a nomenclature you pick?

[1370] You know, I don't know if I have picked, but if there were to be one that I would pick, I would say queer because I see it as like an umbrella term.

[1371] Yeah, tell me about it.

[1372] Because when I grew up, that was a pejorative.

[1373] Of course, yeah.

[1374] To me, it means anything that is not straight.

[1375] Okay.

[1376] So just like a general umbrella heading for not straight.

[1377] My girlfriend is a girl.

[1378] My partner is a girl.

[1379] So therefore, I'm not straight.

[1380] by just that fact, right?

[1381] So I think I've said queer has been said to me and I just nod, but I don't know if I've picked a word.

[1382] And that's like, I remember I'm not asking to say, but also like, I feel like if I heard someone say that, that would be really helpful to me and be like, oh, I don't need to like know some, you know, label or something.

[1383] I just can be in love.

[1384] Yeah.

[1385] But it's not that I'm ignoring that part of my identity.

[1386] Is that makes sense?

[1387] It's not like, it's just her and really, it's just this one person.

[1388] I'm like, no, no, I love her and she's a girl.

[1389] girl and therefore I am not straight.

[1390] And this is not a phase.

[1391] This is like a real thing and a real part of my life.

[1392] How long have you been together?

[1393] A year.

[1394] Okay.

[1395] Have you ever had boyfriends?

[1396] One real boyfriend.

[1397] One real boyfriend.

[1398] And when you were with the boy, were you doing what you thought you were supposed to do?

[1399] Or were you just genuinely attracted to the boy at that time?

[1400] I loved and continued to love him.

[1401] We were like friends when we were younger and we met through bed actually.

[1402] Oh, okay.

[1403] And I just really, like, loved him.

[1404] Sure.

[1405] And then he wanted to kiss me and I kissed him back.

[1406] And then we were, like, on and off for, like, years.

[1407] Uh -huh.

[1408] And I really loved him.

[1409] Once we were together, I was like, I'm not in love with you.

[1410] Right.

[1411] But I really love you.

[1412] Sure.

[1413] And that was something I couldn't really, I don't think, admit to myself.

[1414] Uh -huh.

[1415] Jonah referred to me up until Bonn as Dexter.

[1416] Dexter, the serial killer?

[1417] The serial killer of relationships.

[1418] He was like, you're ice cold.

[1419] Like, you're literally an ice cube.

[1420] Oh, interesting.

[1421] And he was like, it's so bizarre because you're like a very warm, outgoing person and, like, you love people and that's so much who you are.

[1422] And then the way you talk about men is, like, nothing I've ever heard.

[1423] Like, you're ice.

[1424] Like, you're literally a glacier.

[1425] And he started calling me Dexter.

[1426] And I sort of embraced it.

[1427] I was like, this is not for me. I love my friends, like, too much.

[1428] my family too much.

[1429] I love my work.

[1430] This is maybe just something I don't get.

[1431] Like, I have everything else.

[1432] I think I just sort of was like, I'm not asexual, but I'm not like super sexual by any means.

[1433] And I'm lukewarm.

[1434] Not at all where my focus says.

[1435] And with my ex -boyfriend, I was like, I love you and I trust you.

[1436] And so it wasn't scary.

[1437] And I didn't hate it.

[1438] But I just was sort of like, okay.

[1439] Yeah.

[1440] If this is the thing, then I guess I don't really need the thing.

[1441] I don't get why people like talk about it all the time.

[1442] and write about it, make songs about it.

[1443] But I'm like, I love him so much and I trust him so much.

[1444] Like, this is not bad.

[1445] Right.

[1446] And then I met Bonn.

[1447] So you meet Bonnie, Bonn.

[1448] Where do you meet her?

[1449] In London.

[1450] Okay, what a romantic place to me. She's British and Jewish.

[1451] Wow.

[1452] So did I do it?

[1453] Yeah.

[1454] You met Bonn in London.

[1455] What were you doing in London?

[1456] Why were you there?

[1457] You have no business in London.

[1458] What were you doing?

[1459] Who allowed you in there?

[1460] I was auditioning for a movie called How to Build a Girl, and Bon was one of the producers of the film.

[1461] Oh, so this is TORID.

[1462] There's a power dynamic.

[1463] Well, the rule follower in me, the first time we kissed, I was like, is this illegal?

[1464] And she was like, no. And I was like, it's illegal.

[1465] What if it's illegal in the UK and I don't know the rules here?

[1466] Sure.

[1467] What if that's not allowed?

[1468] Yeah.

[1469] So, yeah, the rule follower in me was like, still, as I said, say that she is a producer.

[1470] I'm like, oh, it sounds bad.

[1471] Okay, so you go to London and you audition.

[1472] She is in the audition?

[1473] She's in the audition.

[1474] Okay, and do you immediately, like, see her and go like, oh, she's sparkly?

[1475] Or?

[1476] Yes, I immediately am a, like, friend for life.

[1477] Like, I love this girl.

[1478] She is one of my people now.

[1479] I feel like we've met before, but she grew up in Liverpool, which is Northern England.

[1480] Oh, does she got a great accent?

[1481] Great accent grew up on Penny Lane.

[1482] Oh, wow.

[1483] She's like a full, she's a little beetle girl.

[1484] Yeah.

[1485] And I just was so taken with her and we felt so similar and different in all the right ways, but I just was too sparkly.

[1486] Like I just was like that girl.

[1487] Now can you do her accent?

[1488] Not at all.

[1489] You don't do a good impersonation of her?

[1490] Well, my accent in the film is a West Midlands, UK accent, which is a very regional, specific accent, very different from hers.

[1491] Can you do yours?

[1492] Or is it you got to, like, wind up for it?

[1493] I know it's a lot of pressure.

[1494] I'm not an accent.

[1495] Yvonne, I will start by saying that.

[1496] I'm terrible.

[1497] I'm terrible.

[1498] I'm really to work at.

[1499] So I'll just start like this because it's embarrassing and I'm doing a terrible job at it and my job is so terrible at it that maybe you'll go fuck it.

[1500] If he's going to sound bad, then I can sound this good.

[1501] Beyond perfect.

[1502] I'm racing my sound and putting it in the movie.

[1503] So what really like a naive American, I was like, there's two British accents.

[1504] There's Doughton Abbey and then there's like Cockney.

[1505] And And if you were to say, like, say lovely in what you would think of as like a British accent.

[1506] Lovely.

[1507] Yeah, that was actually closer to a Midlands accent.

[1508] Most people would say like Loufley.

[1509] Oh, lovely.

[1510] And the Midlands accent is lovly.

[1511] Loveli.

[1512] Oh, I like that because it has kind of a Scottish ring to it.

[1513] You know how they everything Scottish is like a question?

[1514] Submit the one's like.

[1515] You're on fire?

[1516] Hold on.

[1517] Like Irish too.

[1518] Yeah.

[1519] Are you inviting me to be on fire or am I currently on fire?

[1520] Tell me quickly.

[1521] You're on fire?

[1522] Yeah.

[1523] So Birmingham is the closest city that people would know to Wolverhampton, so it's all where Catlin Moran grew up, and it's her book, and she wrote the screenplay, and it's her life story, a fictionalized version of her life, so I play a fictionalized version of her.

[1524] And Wolverhampton, where she grew up, it's close to Birmingham, which is like the Peaky Blinders accent, if you know that accent.

[1525] Oh, I love it.

[1526] Yeah, so it's closest to that.

[1527] It's a cousin of that, although the people in Wolverhampton were like, Beanie, if you do a Birmingham, which is called a Brummy, They were like, if you do a Brumme accent, we will never speak to you.

[1528] Like, it was like serious.

[1529] But like from like a very novice year, they sounded so similar.

[1530] So I was like in the trenches.

[1531] I worked in a store in Wolverhampton for three weeks.

[1532] You did.

[1533] To get the accent, I was like, had forced to speak in the accent from the moment I walked in to the moment I left.

[1534] I worked the till.

[1535] Okay.

[1536] And you were actually working like you couldn't, you had to fucking manage the till.

[1537] Yes.

[1538] Come up with the wrong number at the end of the day.

[1539] Yeah.

[1540] And it's different money.

[1541] let me tell you.

[1542] I'm pretending I'm in a movie.

[1543] Here's your change for 20 pound, 48 pounds.

[1544] Oh, God, I'm going to laugh about that for hours.

[1545] No, I had to, you know, it was a quiet store, so it wasn't like, you know, a busy supermarket or something.

[1546] But it was a really special experience.

[1547] I'm like the opposite of someone who stays in character or accent during anything.

[1548] So it was really hard for me because I was like, that was my task.

[1549] It was like for basically a month before we started.

[1550] And as embarrassing as you might feel doing it on camera, at least that's pretend.

[1551] But to be doing it in real life and sound like a bozo, the stakes are even higher.

[1552] The first day I was like, this is literally the most mortifying experience I've ever done.

[1553] I went in and I was like these beautiful, it's like kind of this feminist utopia in the middle of this very forgotten town.

[1554] It's these women that all do different crafts and artisan work and they sell their work in a cooperative.

[1555] And it's just like so sweet.

[1556] It's called the Shop and the Square.

[1557] See, this is why we're afraid to give women power because you're going to turn us into a Communism.

[1558] I knew it.

[1559] I knew it.

[1560] I knew it.

[1561] I'm just teasing.

[1562] And so I went in and I was like, look, I'm so embarrassed.

[1563] I'm so nervous.

[1564] My accent's so half baked.

[1565] I'm like, this is not what it's going to be in the movie, but you have to help me. Like, anytime I say something wrong, please do not be afraid to tell me. And they did.

[1566] They're like, Bean, try again.

[1567] That's like, okay.

[1568] So they knew.

[1569] I thought maybe you, it was like a imposterous.

[1570] No, no. They did know.

[1571] They did know.

[1572] And they were, they were really sweet.

[1573] So it was, it was like a really unique, beautiful, scary challenge.

[1574] And now back to Bonds.

[1575] Back to Bonds.

[1576] Okay, so you see you're in this audition, you're like, Sparkly, want to be attached.

[1577] Yes.

[1578] And then how does the courtship happen?

[1579] So then I got the role, and then I film, I was filmed Booksmart.

[1580] And two days after Book Smart, I was in Wolverhampton, and it was like really, really quick turnaround.

[1581] And I remember talking to my mom, and she was like, are you really nervous to go do this?

[1582] You're the only American in this movie?

[1583] It's like a deeply British film, and you're like, you know, you're like, you're in more.

[1584] more of it than you've ever been anything.

[1585] Should have really making me. Sure, sure.

[1586] Giving you all the reasons you should be scared.

[1587] It's like my dad before the first day of Hello Dolly.

[1588] I'm literally on the subway.

[1589] It calls me and he goes, so I was just reading up on Minnie Faye.

[1590] And it says that she has to be a dancer.

[1591] Are you concerned about that?

[1592] I'm on my way to meet that.

[1593] Why are you doing this to me?

[1594] No, but my mom was like, are you nervous to go and you're going to be gone for like three and a half months?

[1595] And I was like, but Bond's going to be there.

[1596] And she was like, who the hell is Bond?

[1597] And now she's just like, oh, like, she's going to be my friend.

[1598] Trust me, like, she's this Wonder Kid producer.

[1599] She's 27.

[1600] Like, she's my girl.

[1601] Like, don't worry about it.

[1602] And then I came back in love and with her.

[1603] And we just spent every day together.

[1604] Like, it was like, let's have breakfast at 9 a .m. And then it would be 11 p .m. We'd be like, guess it's not breakfast anymore.

[1605] And we're still staring at each other and talking.

[1606] Was it very obvious to you that she liked you sexually?

[1607] No. She's been out since she was, like, 16.

[1608] And she was always, like, open and knew that about herself.

[1609] she's also very warm and touchy as in my like very tactile so i was like just because she's touchy and gay doesn't mean she likes me that'd be so presumptuous of me to like think that but she really is like she would like like hold your shoulder and like give you like a hug and like she's just like that's who she is and i love that because i'm that's that so presumptuous of me to like assume that it's any different with me and it was all really i'm such a as you can probably tell cut me off at any point such an extroverted person like I really feed off of other people's energy and I understand things once I say them out loud I don't work out a lot in my own head I have to externalize it before I understand it but with Fawn and that whole story it was like the first time I was alone like because of my schedule and the time difference I couldn't talk to anyone really about it I was for the first time really going on my own personal experience of it and my best friend there was her so I couldn't talk to her about it so it was really really like genuinely you know 25 like the first alone true decision or feeling that that came just like wholly from me well so then who made the first move i did you did okay so this is a very well -worn american english tradition that the american makes the first move we talk about yeah no you i thought oh no that's all fucked up yeah the english person makes the first woman should have wow who else has this dynamic we're so scared to even get back into it, but I learned in an anthro class that an inordinate amount of English females became pregnant from American GIs during World War II, but not proportionally the same amount of American women being impregnated by English guys.

[1610] They were curious about it.

[1611] They wanted to study it.

[1612] And what they discovered was in this culture, the woman has the break.

[1613] The man's supposed to pursue and the woman has a break.

[1614] But in England, the man is supposed to put on the break.

[1615] We should wait.

[1616] So you got these two people together with no brake pedal, babies galore.

[1617] And we've not I've been able to find this fucking study that I read.

[1618] So, but I guess you're right.

[1619] This is the opposite.

[1620] It's two women, too, so like, that's true.

[1621] What to do with that?

[1622] Who knows?

[1623] Yeah.

[1624] I made the first move.

[1625] My move.

[1626] Legally, it's best for you to make the first move because you're not the boss.

[1627] That is true.

[1628] I would just like to make that clear that I'm the first move.

[1629] No, I genuinely did.

[1630] At this point, the tension between us was like, I mean, cut that with a, with a blue.

[1631] and she drove me home from work one day and we were going to get dinner and we parked and I was like let's just stay in the car like Americans talking cars I was like that was my big move I was like you know like I had to drive everywhere growing up because LA is like no public transportation but I was always in the car and I feel like that's where like my most meaningful talks were and I really like went on this whole thing about cars and I was like let's talk in the car and I that was my big like move to get us to talk about what was actually going on and I was like going on.

[1632] And then we really talked for a long time because we both cared about our friendship so much and also cared so deeply.

[1633] There was such a big opportunity for both of us that the film.

[1634] And it meant so much to us and we really didn't want to do anything that would mess that up or get in the way with that or distract from that.

[1635] Like I always say it was like the puzzle was all filled in.

[1636] The last piece was us actually kissing.

[1637] But it was love.

[1638] It was very clear that it wasn't just like, oh, we're going to try something.

[1639] It's literally just like we are in love or we stop.

[1640] We know that, but we're not going to follow that path.

[1641] So we talk for a really long time and very, like, deeply about how much our friendship means to us and how much the job means to us.

[1642] And then I just kissed her.

[1643] After, like, two hours of saying we shouldn't kiss, I was like, let's just.

[1644] Now, you had kissed in the past.

[1645] In general?

[1646] Yes, you had kissed in the past.

[1647] But then you kissed this time.

[1648] Yes.

[1649] And was it wholly different?

[1650] 1 ,000%.

[1651] Oh, I like that.

[1652] I was like, well, they write songs.

[1653] I get it.

[1654] But genuinely, like it was, I think it's just because I was, like I was in love with her.

[1655] Right.

[1656] The physical part had not happened yet, but it was so clear to me. It was a foregone conclusion.

[1657] 100%.

[1658] Well, that's fantastic.

[1659] How deep into production were you when this happened?

[1660] Halfway through.

[1661] Well, and then you're navigating a new relationship and that's, it's never.

[1662] even when both people are madly in love with each other, in fact, even acknowledging it now you start evaluating things you weren't even before you said that because now you're like, I'm in love, I'm going to be with this person.

[1663] Well, this person snores and this is the person I'm going to be with.

[1664] There's all kinds of stupid mental shifts that can happen.

[1665] So was it all like working together and then having both admitted to each other and then kissed and were now a thing, did it complicate anything on the backside or no?

[1666] It went swimmingly?

[1667] It really went swimmingly.

[1668] I think I also love that I got to see her at work and vice versa because she's the head of film at her company and I've filmed other things and worked on other things.

[1669] We know how the other person is at work.

[1670] I don't know if you guys feel this way, but like I couldn't envision how dedicated she was to what she does if I hadn't physically been there and seen it.

[1671] And she's like, if I didn't see it, I wouldn't believe that you don't bring your phone to set.

[1672] I would be like she's just ignoring me or she doesn't.

[1673] She's like texting someone else or everyone brings their phone.

[1674] I wouldn't believe you that you turn it off.

[1675] Yes, that you're the one actor out of a million who's turning their phone off.

[1676] Yeah, and she was like, but then I watched it for eight weeks or whatever it was.

[1677] So now I know the next time when you're shooting, it's so amazing because I know she literally won't answer this for 12 hours or 15 hours or whatever it is.

[1678] And that won't be concerning or when she's like deep in a script and working on it and developing it, I know what that looks like and how that presents itself in her.

[1679] and she's so incredible at what she does.

[1680] Like, she truly is a magician that as nervous as I was, because I'm such a little follower.

[1681] And the combination of personal life and work had never happened for me before.

[1682] I was so thrilled on the other side to know, like, how honored am I to get to see firsthand, how brilliant she is.

[1683] And that was special, I think, retroactively.

[1684] So how are you guys seeing each other?

[1685] Are you going to England a lot?

[1686] Does she come here a lot?

[1687] Both.

[1688] Both.

[1689] Yeah.

[1690] So you've now spent a bunch of time in England.

[1691] more than you ever have in your life.

[1692] Tons, yeah.

[1693] Do you love it?

[1694] I love it.

[1695] You do.

[1696] You love it.

[1697] I love it.

[1698] Yeah, I mean, I left England after like three months and I was so ruthlessly ripped apart by my friends and family for saying like literally and like certain things.

[1699] And I would notice it and they'd be like, oh, literally.

[1700] And I was like, oh, I'm sorry.

[1701] Like it's so embarrassing.

[1702] Like, am I Madonna?

[1703] No. I haven't seen it.

[1704] I tried to watch it this morning.

[1705] It's not available yet, which is.

[1706] good that means it's still in theaters but our friend jess rolling who we trust a lot said book smart's the best movie he saw this year and so that really got me that's what instigated i was like i need to see that i really want to check her out in that movie and then i watched the trailer and was like oh that looks phenomenal actually and it's if you watched the trailer i've watched a trailer but i haven't seen the movie i really want to see it really really cute idea these two you and your very best friend have been perfect and they are yale bound or princeton bound And then they look around and realize all the people that were having fun are also doing just fine.

[1707] They're going to go to the colleges too.

[1708] And then they're going to go out and get fucking buck wild before they take off.

[1709] Yeah.

[1710] I mean, is it super bad?

[1711] It's adjacent, right?

[1712] With the gals?

[1713] You know?

[1714] Not really.

[1715] Well, here's where we'll get a chip on your shoulder.

[1716] Yeah, you saw it happen.

[1717] Yeah, I saw it happen.

[1718] I saw it happen.

[1719] I watched your physical move.

[1720] I was like, well.

[1721] You know, because I'm so conflicted.

[1722] because half of me goes What a fucking honor Like super bad is Unbelievable The movie of that Like a generation It is like everything You could love in a movie It's such a forever movie People love it so much still So part of me is like Thank you And the other part of me is like Ugh But comparison Yeah well not even because it's Jonah But more because like why do Because it's male female Why do we have to be the girl version of a boy movie.

[1723] Right.

[1724] Whereas, like, you would never say, like, a guy movie is like, the male lady bird.

[1725] You know what I mean?

[1726] The male Thelman -Louise.

[1727] Exactly.

[1728] Like, you would never say that.

[1729] So I feel, I'm so conflicted.

[1730] I think that's what you saw in my face.

[1731] It was like, well, thanks.

[1732] And then the other part of me is like, do we have to be, like, the female version of a boy movie?

[1733] Yeah.

[1734] Why are those movies and more female movies?

[1735] Right.

[1736] But I, you know, I think I'm more, oh, bad mom.

[1737] So it's like girls hangover.

[1738] Well, no, they're not.

[1739] There's no connective tissue at all.

[1740] But I would say super bad beyond going out and having a party is it was one of the first movies that two friends were so blatantly in love with each other.

[1741] And you get to see the value of that.

[1742] 1 ,000 % and that's what I love to say is like it is the first movie that gave permission to celebrate a genuine friendship within like a raucous time.

[1743] It gave room for like a vulnerability.

[1744] That's what I like most about the movie.

[1745] I was like, oh, that's me and my best friend here.

[1746] The Boop moment.

[1747] We snuggled.

[1748] We were like in love.

[1749] We're still in love.

[1750] 100%.

[1751] We're not sexually in love, but everything but that.

[1752] Yeah, the jokes are amazing, but the boop moment is when they're like snug as a bug and little sleeping bag is like the best.

[1753] That's the movie.

[1754] That's what makes it memorable.

[1755] And 100 % my character, Molly and Caitlin's character, Amy, owes that friendship and its existence within like a big comedy is so owed to Seth and Evan.

[1756] Yeah.

[1757] But I think, like, part of me is like, yeah, I get it.

[1758] Which, that makes sense.

[1759] That makes sense.

[1760] But I love it.

[1761] It's so special.

[1762] And I think because I love my friends so hard and I was also like a deep role follower, not in the same way that my character is.

[1763] But I think I would understand if I was that type of personality, like the genuine frustration that I would feel if I discovered that I was wrong, you know, the whole time.

[1764] And that's what my character is going through.

[1765] She's like, you're telling me I was fucking wrong for four years.

[1766] and you dim wits are going to Yale with me. Like, stop talking.

[1767] That's insane.

[1768] I have to go do something about it.

[1769] Caitlin, who plays Amy, honestly, watch it for her performance.

[1770] She's so unbelievable in it.

[1771] It's beyond.

[1772] And my best friend in the world, who Ben and I grew up with, Molly Gordon, plays my enemy in the movie.

[1773] So that was so fun because she's the one who's like, I'm amazing at hand jobs, but I also got a great score in the SAT.

[1774] She is the one who, like, instigates the whole movie for me. And it's like, I'm also going to yell, like, see you there.

[1775] And I am like, this fucking bitch got into it.

[1776] And in real life, it's my best friend in the whole world who I snuggle with and share food with and would, you know, do everything with.

[1777] And so that was so special and fun that we got to work together.

[1778] And Olivia and Katie Silberman, the writer is one of my favorite people.

[1779] What else is she written?

[1780] She wrote Set It Up on Netflix was Zoe Deutsch.

[1781] It was a very big hit for Netflix.

[1782] Yes.

[1783] I'm aging out of a lot of stuff, I have to admit.

[1784] I don't think that.

[1785] I feel like I was always meant to be 60.

[1786] I'm just working my own.

[1787] Maybe even 70.

[1788] Like, growing up, I always played, like, 80 -year -old grandmas in every musical.

[1789] So I'm, like, just working my way to a buppy status.

[1790] Like, I am a bubby at my heart.

[1791] I would say Kristen on some levels very much that, too.

[1792] She was, like, born to be a grandma.

[1793] Well, Beanie, you are as charming and lovely and kind and sweet and bright and sparkly.

[1794] As all of your people that have said that to me, they were all right.

[1795] It's been confirmed.

[1796] This is literally my dreams coming to.

[1797] true right now.

[1798] I can't believe this is happening.

[1799] Oh, that makes it so happy.

[1800] Thank you for having me. It's very flattering that you like it so much.

[1801] I made you really dorky gifts that I'm going to get.

[1802] What?

[1803] Did I give you to them right on?

[1804] Yes, of course you should.

[1805] Of course.

[1806] So, Shea, my mom and I have gotten really into beating.

[1807] They made you little arm cherries bracelets.

[1808] Oh, my God.

[1809] You can decide which one you want between the two of you.

[1810] I'll pick first.

[1811] Yeah, that's a good idea.

[1812] I think one might be smaller.

[1813] I'll take the smaller one.

[1814] I don't want to throw it.

[1815] Why not?

[1816] I think it looks durable.

[1817] She had all the beads lying around.

[1818] And last night I was like, what could I do?

[1819] This is too cute.

[1820] I love that.

[1821] You know what?

[1822] This is really nice.

[1823] Yeah, it is.

[1824] There is a, like, once a day when I'm like, should I just give it up and be a nanny?

[1825] It's my true calling.

[1826] Like, genuinely.

[1827] So you'll have babies.

[1828] You'll do that.

[1829] I want thousands.

[1830] I'm very short, though, so I feel like I'll just topple over when I, like, where is it going to?

[1831] How tall are you?

[1832] 5 -1.

[1833] That's Kristen's height.

[1834] She birthed two of my children.

[1835] She did fine.

[1836] I just feel like it's going to...

[1837] You're just a little taller than Monica.

[1838] Monica's 4 .11 .5.

[1839] Nope.

[1840] Five feet to happen.

[1841] She's right.

[1842] My parents got me a cupcake when I hit five feet because I didn't think it would happen.

[1843] So I understand.

[1844] That's wonderful.

[1845] We're barely an inch part.

[1846] A cup cake.

[1847] All right, Beanie.

[1848] I love you.

[1849] Thank you.

[1850] I love you more.

[1851] And now my favorite part of the show, the fact check.

[1852] with my soulmate Monica Padman.

[1853] Meand dee, yund dee and dee ame am meandies.

[1854] Song's stuck in my head now and I like it.

[1855] Gung -a -Dun -a -Din -a -Din -a -Din -a -Din -a -Din -a -Bee -N -Bee -N -Bee -N -Bee -N -Bee.

[1856] Why now, we love it.

[1857] We do love with our panties.

[1858] I think you should make the song about Beanie Babies.

[1859] Oh, yeah, oh, was there a Beanie -Bee -Bee -Bee -Bee -N -Bee -Bee -Bee -Bee.

[1860] Oh, Beanie.

[1861] Oh, Beanie.

[1862] Do do, do, oh, shonga, shonga, da, do, da, do, she is my beanie girl.

[1863] You know her last name's Felstein.

[1864] That's pretty good.

[1865] I loved it.

[1866] I loved it.

[1867] You would have used the words differently, probably.

[1868] Well, I didn't think we need the part about her last name.

[1869] Okay.

[1870] But the other parts I really enjoyed a lot.

[1871] Okay.

[1872] I mean, I guess it's a little extra context as to which beanie we're talking about.

[1873] That's true.

[1874] There's so many beanies these days.

[1875] I know.

[1876] Yeah, I'd say one in three people that I meet are named Beanie.

[1877] I wish.

[1878] I love that.

[1879] It's the cutest thing.

[1880] It is a cute, cute name.

[1881] And then really, she delivers on that, promise.

[1882] I know.

[1883] I know.

[1884] That's the hard thing about naming a kid Beanie.

[1885] They could be a dud.

[1886] Yes.

[1887] But she, in this case, she writes a check her ass can cash.

[1888] That's right.

[1889] Yeah.

[1890] We're generally warning people about not writing checks their ass can't cash.

[1891] Right.

[1892] Yeah, but in this case, no need to warn her.

[1893] Sure, sure.

[1894] Great.

[1895] What did we find out about her?

[1896] Is she full of shit?

[1897] No. Oh, okay.

[1898] Never.

[1899] What if your conclusion, you just go, you know what?

[1900] I'm not going to get granular with this.

[1901] I'm not going to go through every detail.

[1902] She was full of shit.

[1903] She talked about children being born later than they used to be.

[1904] In 2016, for the first time ever, there were more women in their early 30s having babies than younger moms.

[1905] There were 103 births per every 100 ,000 American women between 30 and 30.

[1906] years old.

[1907] Oh, in 2016.

[1908] Among women ages 25 to 29, there were 102 births.

[1909] So it's very close.

[1910] I'm so confused.

[1911] What is it?

[1912] Women are having children later in life?

[1913] Oh, okay.

[1914] The average age when women have their first child now is 28, up from 24 .6 in 1970.

[1915] Oh.

[1916] Okay.

[1917] So 3 .4 years later.

[1918] Yeah.

[1919] Now, we're going to have to have some technological breakthrough so that women don't feel any pressure to have them at any time, like a man. you know yeah a guy can have his first child at 98 years old well you can freeze your eggs and do that yeah i wonder if a granny can put those eggs in you think i wonder what the oldest well i wonder if menopause has to do with it right right don't you think they could delay the onset of menopause with all the different hormone replacements and yeah yeah maybe keep you super fertile up to like 85 imagine a grandma being rolled into the operating room them yelling push push like just picture your grandma right now on a gurney she would be injured by the procedure right by the experience yeah yeah I'd be worried about her yeah you go into the maternity ward at cedars and there's like many many 75 year old women with curlers and their hair right being rushed into the delivery room to push out a brand new baby do you think people who are 75 were curlers mm -hmm you do okay well because all my my grandpa parents wore curlers and their friends were curlers.

[1920] But maybe they were in their 50s.

[1921] Well, you're right.

[1922] I could have a totally wrong idea of what age they were.

[1923] The curlers were really popular.

[1924] I know.

[1925] I used them.

[1926] You did.

[1927] In what?

[1928] Junior high?

[1929] Yeah, like middle school.

[1930] For cheerleading when I was in cheerleading in eighth grade, we had one competition a year.

[1931] Okay.

[1932] And we all had to wear our hair so, like the tightest curl you could get.

[1933] Spiral curl?

[1934] Yeah, but so tight.

[1935] They ended up being about one inch long because they were so tight.

[1936] Oh, my goodness.

[1937] How did they accomplish that?

[1938] Sponge curlers.

[1939] Oh, wow.

[1940] Would you please do them for me for my birthday this year?

[1941] Could that be my present?

[1942] Maybe.

[1943] Speaking of which, your birthday is Saturday.

[1944] It is Saturday.

[1945] And I've been really just beating myself up.

[1946] I don't have like a boom where I know what to get you.

[1947] You don't need to get me anything.

[1948] I do.

[1949] I do.

[1950] I do.

[1951] I do.

[1952] And I will.

[1953] No. You just might hate it.

[1954] Well, I won't hate it.

[1955] Do you need a gas -powered chainsaw?

[1956] Like a real nice one.

[1957] You just got yours.

[1958] Don't give it to me. I got an electric one.

[1959] I got an electric one.

[1960] I love it.

[1961] Oh, good.

[1962] Have you used it yet?

[1963] Yeah, I cut down the trees and back that we're dead and we're leaning on the other trees.

[1964] Remember there was a rumored rattlesnake in the branch above the pool?

[1965] Yeah.

[1966] I got rid of that branch.

[1967] Wow.

[1968] Did you find the snake?

[1969] No, I don't believe there ever was a snake because I did, I looked for it like six or seven times, but I just, you know what?

[1970] I'm not going to convince anyone in the house there's not a snake in there, so just get rid of the branch.

[1971] That's a good method.

[1972] I got to say I grew up operating a gas powered chainsaw and they were so noisy.

[1973] They're two strokes, so you're choking on like all this exhaust of it.

[1974] I mean, granted, it does feel great to grab that throttle and really give it help.

[1975] But this is my first time with an electric chainsaw.

[1976] It just sliced through like butter, quiet.

[1977] I loved it.

[1978] Sexy unit.

[1979] Yeah.

[1980] I had a good time.

[1981] Good.

[1982] I don't want to cut down more trees because I don't desire to cut down trees, but I do want to run that thing through some more lumber.

[1983] All right.

[1984] I understand.

[1985] You know what I'd really like to do is you know how they build log cabins?

[1986] They build the whole thing with logs, right?

[1987] And then they cut out the doors and windows with chainsaws.

[1988] Yeah, that's nice.

[1989] I'd love to cut out some windows and doors.

[1990] Maybe you have another career in that.

[1991] In my retirement, when I'm mowing the lawn at the Veterans Cemetery.

[1992] Yeah.

[1993] So that's my ultimate goal, as you know.

[1994] I know.

[1995] Yeah.

[1996] Yeah, no, I don't want that for my birthday.

[1997] No, thank you.

[1998] No, thank you.

[1999] What do you want?

[2000] Don't really want anything.

[2001] Be honest.

[2002] I know, I don't.

[2003] I really don't.

[2004] Lazyx surgery, can I get you?

[2005] No, we already discussed.

[2006] I like my eyes the way they are.

[2007] A little bit.

[2008] Veneers, you don't need them, but can I buy those for you?

[2009] No, thank you.

[2010] Thomas told us that you have to shave them down to tiny bits.

[2011] The spikes, I think.

[2012] Yeah, yeah.

[2013] Like shark teeth, I think.

[2014] Yeah.

[2015] Yeah, so I'll pass on that.

[2016] Okay.

[2017] Love and affection in fellowship.

[2018] Yeah, that'll take.

[2019] Anywho, I don't think old ladies are wearing curlers, and I don't think that they could handle childbirth.

[2020] Okay.

[2021] I think their bones would break and their lungs would collapse.

[2022] Oh, wow.

[2023] Okay.

[2024] Well, that's a potentially hot, but that's potentially triggering.

[2025] To our 75 -year -old listeners.

[2026] You know, we have a lot.

[2027] We probably have some, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[2028] But they probably aren't, like, I don't think they'll be mad at me for saying that they probably shouldn't have children right now.

[2029] Yeah.

[2030] You know what the, well, that's kind of the funny thing about our, you know, outrage culture right now, our cancel and outrage culture.

[2031] I could see someone getting completely outraged by that who wouldn't want a child at all.

[2032] Also, what is to get outraged about?

[2033] Having kids.

[2034] So you're saying that you can have kids, but that we shouldn't be allowed to?

[2035] Like, mind you.

[2036] Everyone's allowed.

[2037] Okay, you're right.

[2038] I was wrong.

[2039] You were right.

[2040] Let's do the procedure.

[2041] I don't want fucking kids at 70.

[2042] Like, you know what I'm saying?

[2043] I do think people...

[2044] If you're old, for a lot of reasons, you shouldn't do all the things you could do when you were young because you'll get hurt.

[2045] Right.

[2046] Also, kids are a lot of energy.

[2047] You don't have as much energy when you're 75 to raise a baby.

[2048] No. No, I don't at 44 have enough energy.

[2049] But it did make me think of Bill Maher.

[2050] He brought up the fact that Neil deGrasse Tyson, I guess he tweeted something saying like cool shootings are horrendous.

[2051] But also it's an interesting moment to look at our emotional reaction to things that statistically might not be as relevant as car accidents, suicides, all these other things that are infinitely higher volume -wise and deserve attention.

[2052] And he got really in trouble for listing some facts.

[2053] Yeah.

[2054] I mean, what do we mean by that in trouble?

[2055] I guess.

[2056] Yeah, he didn't get in trouble.

[2057] People got mad at him.

[2058] I can own this.

[2059] You know, I'm often, I'm on the like Sam Harris side of this really where I'm like, want people to be able to say whatever they want and not to have mobs, you know, cancel people's lives.

[2060] And at the same time, I can recognize I'm overreacting to because what really happened to Neil DeGrasse Tyson, probably nothing.

[2061] Because some people were pissed off.

[2062] Yeah.

[2063] So I guess we just got to live with people getting pissed off.

[2064] Yeah.

[2065] But I do think people need to ignore the pissed off people a little more.

[2066] Like the companies and stuff the tail is wagging the dog on Twitter big time so a part of me is also like if you're gonna choose to put something out there like you might get some criticism right and you have to know it so you could also just get off Twitter and not feel like you need to tell the world every single one of your thoughts well but I do well agreed but I also think he was trying to help I think what he was watching was deep emotional suffering that he thought he might be able to point out another way to look at.

[2067] Sure.

[2068] You know what I'm saying?

[2069] Yeah, I do understand.

[2070] It's kind of like this.

[2071] As I say, the number one killer of children in America is swimming pools.

[2072] But it is interesting because we have a really good association with swimming pools and we've all enjoyed being in a swimming pool.

[2073] So for whatever reason, that's not in anyone's mind.

[2074] There's no campaign to get rid of swimming pools, even though it's the number one killer of children.

[2075] Yeah.

[2076] That's just worth observing.

[2077] Right.

[2078] I think in the case of mass murders and stuff, school shootings and things that feel like we could do things to prevent that, then why wouldn't we do those things?

[2079] And so for somebody to be like, actually, it's not that big of a deal makes...

[2080] I don't think they're saying it's not a big deal.

[2081] I think they're saying there are bigger deals.

[2082] Sure.

[2083] If your main concern is saving the lives of children, there are areas that would be better attack.

[2084] But he's saying car accidents and things like that.

[2085] That's human accident.

[2086] This isn't accident.

[2087] It's not accidents that people are getting shot at Walmart and stuff like that.

[2088] But those are issues that we can maybe have some control over.

[2089] So putting effort in something where we have some control is more.

[2090] I just think more what he's saying is right -sizing fear.

[2091] Acknowledging percentages, what is your likelihood of something happening?

[2092] That's relevant stuff and how afraid you are of the world.

[2093] That is what a cognitive behavioral therapist would tell you is like, look at the facts.

[2094] I think people who are so afraid of terrorism, I put also in this category, it's like, let me tell you everyone that's afraid of terrorism, you're not going to be killed by a terrorist, but you are going to die of heart disease and you are going to die of cancer.

[2095] These go on the list of the most, you know, a third of us are going to go down that way.

[2096] Yet no one is, no one is passionately trying to prevent that.

[2097] Or certainly there's a handful of people.

[2098] But not as many that are passionately trying to make sure there's never a terrorist attack again.

[2099] Right.

[2100] Fear is a different thing than action.

[2101] Yeah, maybe we don't have to be so afraid.

[2102] But we still shouldn't step away from trying to fix those issues because it's not numbers -wide.

[2103] it's not the number one thing.

[2104] Well, I agree, and I'll use my own argument against me, which is like people go, yeah, they try to prioritize what things you should care about.

[2105] It's like, well, no, no, we also want doctors studying toe fungus.

[2106] No one's arguing toe fungus is more important than cancer, but we don't need to have every single doctor studying cancer.

[2107] We can have some, we can, we can allocate some to study toe fungus.

[2108] Right.

[2109] Yeah.

[2110] Okay, so I came full circle.

[2111] Anyways, I think my global point is, People are like, whatever the reaction to Neil DeGrasse Tyson was about stating that list of the true numbers.

[2112] Yeah.

[2113] I guess I'm against those people acting like he wiped his butt with the Bible or something.

[2114] It depends on what you care about.

[2115] Yeah.

[2116] I don't love that he did that.

[2117] I'm not pissed.

[2118] Oh, you know.

[2119] Well, this is great, though.

[2120] You can aim on both sides of the argument.

[2121] Yeah, I mean, he can do whatever he wants.

[2122] But I do think for people who are fighting very hard to work on.

[2123] this problem, it minimizes that a bit.

[2124] So I understand people not loving that.

[2125] Right.

[2126] I guess all I'm saying is we're not very rational in the way we perceive threats to us.

[2127] I stand by that.

[2128] Yeah, this is two separate conversations.

[2129] Oh, okay.

[2130] I think.

[2131] Which too?

[2132] Because you're talking about how scared should we be.

[2133] And that's one conversation, sure.

[2134] The other conversation is there is a lot of people trying very hard to push legislation to help a problem.

[2135] Right.

[2136] And that's a separate thing.

[2137] And so regardless of how intense that fear should be, I believe we should be doing those things and making those moves.

[2138] Yeah.

[2139] There are bigger problems.

[2140] It makes it seem like that is a waste of time.

[2141] and it's not a waste of time.

[2142] Right, right, right.

[2143] I guess when I'm more pointing out is, and this is very scary to state, the number one thing, worst thing that could ever happen to me in my whole life would be one of my children died.

[2144] Yeah.

[2145] Now, it's interesting that if they died in a pool versus if they got shot.

[2146] Yeah.

[2147] Still the number one worst thing in my life is that I'm not ever with my kid again because it would crush me. But we layer something on top of it.

[2148] It's like there's a loss, which is an objective thing.

[2149] Like your kid is no longer with you.

[2150] That's objective.

[2151] Now, the cause of it triggers so many different things, which is fascinating.

[2152] But it's real.

[2153] It's like if we go down in a plane accident, that's acceptable.

[2154] Because it's an accident.

[2155] That's the difference.

[2156] I know.

[2157] I know.

[2158] But can we drill into that, the weight you're giving it?

[2159] I think it does because it's about whether or not accidents happen.

[2160] Right.

[2161] So, right.

[2162] So you could easily go like, well, okay, so in the case of your kid died in a school shooting, we could prevent that.

[2163] Yeah, and I would agree, and we should.

[2164] Let me be very clear.

[2165] I think we should prevent that.

[2166] We should take all measures to prevent that.

[2167] But you could also go, you could have prevented your kid dying in a swimming pool.

[2168] You didn't need to have a swimming pool.

[2169] It's not that important that people fucking are buoyant in the water.

[2170] They're equally legitimate.

[2171] Like, it didn't have to happen.

[2172] I had to have a swimming pool.

[2173] But the one has no guilt, no anger.

[2174] That's not true.

[2175] If it's your swimming pool, you have nothing but guilt for the rest of your life.

[2176] There's like no. Outrage over swimming pools.

[2177] Others, you will have an anger with yourself.

[2178] Right, that you slack on your duty.

[2179] Yeah, so that's what's happening.

[2180] It's the same emotion.

[2181] It's just turned inward because it was, quote, your mistake or not.

[2182] But if it's an outside force, outside person, and a system that enables that kind of person, there's going to be a lot of anger towards that.

[2183] Right.

[2184] Well, and then it does boil down to the thing that I sometimes say that people go.

[2185] intentions don't matter.

[2186] Well, they do matter.

[2187] And the most clinical examples you're walking down the street and all of a sudden you get bumped really hard in the shoulder and you get spun around.

[2188] And if you see the person truly just bumped into you on accident, that's one reaction.

[2189] But if you turn around and see that oh, someone shoved you intentionally, those are two drastically different things.

[2190] With the same exact feeling.

[2191] Outcome, yes, you got spun around.

[2192] You're right.

[2193] So yes, I guess with the shooting there's an intention, Well, the pool has no intention.

[2194] It's just a stagnant body of water.

[2195] Or if you've got a lazy river, it's not static, but still.

[2196] Sure, sure, sure.

[2197] Okay.

[2198] She was saying that her mom had the X factor and that Simon would hit the button.

[2199] And then we were like, is it Simon?

[2200] Simon, yes, was on the X factor.

[2201] Oh, he was.

[2202] And he would hit the button if someone had that X factor?

[2203] Oh, shoot.

[2204] I don't know if he...

[2205] Probably.

[2206] Probably.

[2207] If she said it.

[2208] If she said it, it's true.

[2209] It's true.

[2210] It's definitely true.

[2211] Okay, you said camp is mainly Jewish and you don't know many Gentile people who went to camp.

[2212] Well, really quick.

[2213] I didn't say camp is mainly Jewish.

[2214] I said most of my Jewish friends went to camp, that it's a very Jewish tradition.

[2215] But I don't think that of all the camps in the United States that they're predominantly Jewish.

[2216] I don't think that.

[2217] Okay.

[2218] Well, you think mostly Jewish people go to camp.

[2219] I think there's a higher percentage of Jewish people who attend summer camp than white people.

[2220] But I think because there's so many white people, there's probably still way more Gentile camps than Jewish camps.

[2221] Yeah.

[2222] But you said you don't know any Gentile people who went to camp, but you know a lot of Jewish people who did.

[2223] Yeah.

[2224] Well, she's right about the like sprouting of Jewish camps from what I saw corroborated her story on that.

[2225] But I do know a lot of people who went to camp Gentiles.

[2226] Okay.

[2227] Sports camps.

[2228] Oh, we count in that?

[2229] Oh, yeah.

[2230] I think so.

[2231] Still a camp.

[2232] Still summer camp.

[2233] Just like she went to a theater camp.

[2234] Sports camp's the same.

[2235] Theater camp, gymnastics camp, horseback riding camp.

[2236] Those are all camps.

[2237] Right.

[2238] I went to cheerleading camp.

[2239] And you were there for the summer?

[2240] No, no. My cheerleading camp in this case was not like these camps.

[2241] That was with my squad.

[2242] Yeah, I didn't want to anger you.

[2243] I do see, like, football camp and soccer camp different than go sleep in a cabin, go fishing, make some art projects.

[2244] That, to me, feels differently than run drills all day in this sports complex.

[2245] Well, well, okay, there's a few things.

[2246] You can go to gymnastics camp.

[2247] My gymnastics team is going to gymnastics camp for, like, training.

[2248] It's just like, oh, there's this gymnastics camp for the summer.

[2249] I'm going to go for two weeks, whatever.

[2250] Then there's, like, your soccer team goes to camp, and that's, like, camp training.

[2251] and stuff.

[2252] Camp crazy.

[2253] That's different.

[2254] Camp crazy.

[2255] So my cheerleading camp was with my squad and school, and that was a different thing.

[2256] And were you in cabins and having cookouts at night?

[2257] A couple years we had.

[2258] Smoors.

[2259] I don't remember.

[2260] Yeah, we did all that.

[2261] You stargazed?

[2262] It's an integral part of summer camp, I think, stargazing.

[2263] Sure, yeah.

[2264] Do you lay in a hammock?

[2265] No, it wasn't wrong.

[2266] It wasn't.

[2267] We had to pass a swim lesson.

[2268] For cheering.

[2269] For the playing on the lake.

[2270] Oh, oh, I got you.

[2271] At the camp.

[2272] I got you.

[2273] In order to be able to, like, do all that.

[2274] You had to pass a swim lesson.

[2275] And I hate swimming, and I hated having to pass that swim lesson.

[2276] And we think maybe you have more denser muscle from your elite muscle mass. So I was sinking.

[2277] You were sandbagged.

[2278] And we had to tread water for like a long time, not as long as you treaded water.

[2279] Or that man in India.

[2280] Or the man who treaded for.

[2281] Four days.

[2282] Four days, yeah.

[2283] It wasn't quite, though.

[2284] He had to poop and eat while he was treading water.

[2285] He did.

[2286] I almost want to take a run at the record simply to have an excuse to try to poop and eat while I'm treading water.

[2287] Like, I'll only make it six hours, but I'll be like, I'm sorry, guys, I'm going to be doing this for four days.

[2288] I got to poop now.

[2289] And then I also need some pizza.

[2290] But do you think it's funny when you're in pursuit of a world record, all things are allowed?

[2291] Like when the magician.

[2292] David Blaine?

[2293] David Blaine, when he goes into a box and stuff, we do.

[2294] understand he's going to have to pee and all those things in this box and you just overlook it because he's going for a world record.

[2295] That's true.

[2296] That's true.

[2297] And I just think that's a funny mental shift we do.

[2298] Yeah.

[2299] Like if you saw a guy shitting on the sidewalk, he's reading a paper, he'd be like, oh, these fucking people, there's shit on the sidewalk.

[2300] Yeah.

[2301] But the person's like, no, he's going for the world record of reading a newspaper for six days.

[2302] You go, oh, well, okay.

[2303] I hope he gets it.

[2304] Yeah.

[2305] That's true.

[2306] I feel like you'd be.

[2307] really sick if you try to water for that long.

[2308] I hope you don't try it.

[2309] Really?

[2310] I'd be sick.

[2311] I get nervous about that.

[2312] Oh.

[2313] Well, let's try.

[2314] No. Well, you think I'm going to drown?

[2315] No, I just feel like you're, you're going to be so, like.

[2316] Oh, Brotto or Grotto.

[2317] What's that?

[2318] Brando.

[2319] What are you saying?

[2320] The muscle disease.

[2321] Rabdo.

[2322] Rabdo.

[2323] Oh, well, you'll definitely get rabdo.

[2324] Yeah.

[2325] And then you'll probably just be like, all shriveled up after and sickly.

[2326] Yeah, and then I'll feel scared and sad about that.

[2327] Okay, all right.

[2328] So don't do it.

[2329] Anyway, so the lake, so I had to pass a swimming test, and I barely passed, but I did pass.

[2330] Oh, good.

[2331] And then we were doing the blob.

[2332] Do you know the blob?

[2333] No. The blob is this huge, basically bouncy.

[2334] Oh, air bladder?

[2335] And you jump on one side and boot people out the other?

[2336] Correct.

[2337] I love it.

[2338] Yes.

[2339] I've never done it, but I love it.

[2340] So what we did was we would get on the end of the blob.

[2341] So let's say it's a big rectangle.

[2342] One person would get on the end.

[2343] And then another person would climb up on this, like, high dive, basically platform.

[2344] Yes.

[2345] And then jumped down so you'd really go flying off that blob.

[2346] Did they ever add a third diving board for the triple windy?

[2347] No. No. They did not.

[2348] So, look.

[2349] Were you the hot potato that got fucking shot in the air off of it?

[2350] Obviously, because I was so tiny.

[2351] Yeah.

[2352] But I didn't want to do it.

[2353] This feels like a peer pressure thing.

[2354] Exactly.

[2355] This is one of the times in life that I did get peer pressure.

[2356] I thought you were infallible with peer pressure.

[2357] No, I'm not.

[2358] And I've just learned my lesson about peer pressure.

[2359] This is one of the times.

[2360] Yeah.

[2361] So I was at the edge of the blob and Jeremy, one of the guys on my children's sweat, one of the guys on my children's.

[2362] Oh, a heavy set guy.

[2363] Yes.

[2364] It was going to be my friend Gina, who I do hairplay with.

[2365] Oh, that would have been perfect.

[2366] And I was, we were planning because I was nervous and she was like, I'll do it.

[2367] And I won't, I will just be gentle.

[2368] You're 80 pounds.

[2369] I'm 81 pounds.

[2370] It's fine.

[2371] It'll be easy.

[2372] And then behind my back up there, they did a switcheroo.

[2373] I'm coming down.

[2374] He didn't tell me. I didn't know.

[2375] All of a sudden, Jeremy jumped off.

[2376] I went flying so high and far in the air.

[2377] And I did a front flip involuntary.

[2378] Oh, boy, they really flung you.

[2379] Everyone laughed.

[2380] Was he going, hoo -hoo, hoo -hoo.

[2381] Yeah, that's what he sounded like.

[2382] Anywho, so.

[2383] Did it hurt when you hit the water?

[2384] Weirdly, no. Oh, well, this is a great story then.

[2385] You flew up in the air, you did a cool flip unexpectedly, and then you landed with Grace.

[2386] Oh.

[2387] Okay.

[2388] Like Delta with GT?

[2389] Do you know, she calls E .T. G .T. Has she not told you about?

[2390] No. Oh, we put on E .T. And she was very traumatized.

[2391] Mind you, we watched Indiana Jones the weekend before, and she was totally fine with Indiana Jones.

[2392] But then E .T. was just a very frightening critter for her.

[2393] And she doesn't want, we're not allowed to say G .T. in the house anymore.

[2394] G .T. Don't say G .T. Oh, she's scared.

[2395] Yeah.

[2396] She's really scary.

[2397] He is scary.

[2398] No, he's so sweet Elliot But also Well I didn't do a very good job Oh can I say there's one more funny thing that she did Yeah We were laying in bed At the hotel And Kristen had sang You know it was nighttime And she said Mommy has a pretty voice And your voice sounds crusty Yeah And I was like that's a perfect adjective For how my voice sounds But it is a glass half full Look at my voice Because it implies that if we could just get that crust out of there I'd have an angelic voice.

[2399] There's just like some crud in there.

[2400] Okay.

[2401] Don't you think?

[2402] To me it means that like my voice problems are solvable.

[2403] Okay.

[2404] That's a nice way of looking at it.

[2405] Oh my goodness.

[2406] When I invent my phlegirator, although it turns out there already is a flam fiber with a sonic.

[2407] Right.

[2408] Sonic vibration.

[2409] The vest you're going to wear at night.

[2410] Yeah.

[2411] And it's going to rattle everything loose.

[2412] Maybe it'll break up that crust on my vocal cords.

[2413] Maybe.

[2414] Yeah.

[2415] That'd be great.

[2416] But what if I came in out?

[2417] I was like, my thing worked.

[2418] My vocal cords don't have any crust on them.

[2419] And I was like five octet higher.

[2420] Monica, welcome, welcome, welcome to armchair expert.

[2421] People would be like, put the crust back on your voice.

[2422] They would.

[2423] I don't think people would like that very much.

[2424] Oh, okay.

[2425] So you did an impression of Huey.

[2426] Oh, right.

[2427] And it was the worst one.

[2428] It wasn't a good impression.

[2429] This is what you said.

[2430] You said, so how often do you audit this business manager of yours?

[2431] I don't know.

[2432] You work pretty hard for your money.

[2433] So you want to check and see if it's there.

[2434] You were telling that story.

[2435] And you did a bad impression.

[2436] So I asked Huey to send me a voice memo.

[2437] So this is what Huey sounds like.

[2438] Shut up.

[2439] This is Houston.

[2440] Estes.

[2441] Dax, how often do you audit your business manager?

[2442] You know, you work pretty hard for your money, and it seems like to me you'd want to make sure it's all there.

[2443] That's just me. Boy, that was great.

[2444] That was great.

[2445] No, but as you can hear, I really did a terrible job with my.

[2446] my impersonation.

[2447] Yeah.

[2448] Yeah, I'm afraid.

[2449] It's hard to do.

[2450] It is.

[2451] It's very specific.

[2452] Pacific.

[2453] It's very Chrysler Pacific.

[2454] So now everybody, meet Huey.

[2455] That's Huey.

[2456] Oh, we love Huey.

[2457] I love him so much.

[2458] My God, other than you, I'd say my last eight years on Earth, favorite person I've met.

[2459] Yeah.

[2460] I believe you about that one.

[2461] Okay.

[2462] Okay.

[2463] So, oh, you said you told her you were going to watch Funny Girl.

[2464] Did you do that?

[2465] No, I haven't done that.

[2466] Okay, I didn't think so, but I just wanted to chat.

[2467] Okay.

[2468] I haven't seen it either.

[2469] It was a real snafu in there because you were talking about Bet Midler and then you guys switched real quick to Barbara Streisand.

[2470] I didn't know.

[2471] And I didn't know what you were talking about.

[2472] And then you were talking about Liza Minnelly and it was just hopping around.

[2473] It was.

[2474] We were saying Babs, Liza, whatever the first one was.

[2475] Bet Midler, Betz straight.

[2476] Because Babs could be a name for Bet.

[2477] Sure.

[2478] Absolutely.

[2479] Why not, right?

[2480] Yeah, if Babs is a name for Barbara.

[2481] Yeah.

[2482] Certainly it could be a name for Brett.

[2483] That's right.

[2484] Bette.

[2485] Her name's Bette.

[2486] Yeah.

[2487] It is, but now it sounds crazy to me that her name is Bette.

[2488] Right.

[2489] Like place a wager.

[2490] B, T, T, T, though.

[2491] Wait, B -T -E, Black Entertainment Television?

[2492] B -E -T -T -E.

[2493] Oh, Black Entertainment, Television, Black Entertaining Television, Television.

[2494] Black entertaining television TV.

[2495] entertainment.

[2496] Yes, that's exactly what it's, that's what it stands for.

[2497] So, okay, you said surely in the history of Broadway, someone has evacuated on stage.

[2498] Oh, right.

[2499] And I couldn't, there weren't any articles about that, but apparently there was some sort of mystery pooper who was going to these auditions and pooping on the floor.

[2500] And then it just stunk.

[2501] During the audition.

[2502] Yeah.

[2503] Or they would hide their excrement somewhere.

[2504] Like on the floor somewhere.

[2505] Okay.

[2506] Like a drop and dash?

[2507] Right.

[2508] And no, but I think this person was auditioning.

[2509] Okay.

[2510] But they had a beef with the actor's equity.

[2511] Oh, okay.

[2512] So they were just shitting everywhere.

[2513] So it was a nonviolent protest about the equity, actors equity.

[2514] That's right.

[2515] And people thought like, is someone just like bringing this and dragging it in from outside?

[2516] Is it on their shoe?

[2517] Do you know the old, there's some old lore?

[2518] Uh -oh.

[2519] I doubt this could be true, but there is lore, kind of like the Belvedere.

[2520] Do you know about what Belvedereing yourself is?

[2521] Again, this is legend.

[2522] I don't claim this to be true, but apparently Mr. Belvedere, the actor who was Mr. Belvedere, one time at the table where he sat down really hard in his chair and he sat on one of his testicles and all of a sudden exploded in writhing pain and had to be rushed to the hospital.

[2523] Now, that's lore.

[2524] I'm not claiming that's true, okay?

[2525] This is gossip and conjecture.

[2526] Okay.

[2527] But there is similarly a myth or legend or lore that one of the golden girls put a poop in the other golden girls makeup carrier as a joke.

[2528] Wow.

[2529] As a joke.

[2530] And then someone at the groundlings really did it.

[2531] I think it's still a mystery about who pooped and who's.

[2532] But someone put a poop in a female's makeup case.

[2533] But I think it involved like B. Arthur and the other super famous one.

[2534] Betty White.

[2535] Betty White and whatever I just said.

[2536] Be Arthur.

[2537] There we go again.

[2538] B and Betty all on the same show.

[2539] Were they joke?

[2540] Are you sure it was a joke or they were angry at each other?

[2541] The Grainlein's one I think was a terrorist act.

[2542] Oh.

[2543] Oh, so maybe it was just like, this is a funny homage.

[2544] Not a terrorist act necessarily.

[2545] Right, like a loving.

[2546] We're like, you're the beat of my Betty.

[2547] That's right.

[2548] Yeah.

[2549] Again, I don't even know that those are the two people in the Golden Groups that this rumor surrounds, but if they did it out of love, B. Arthur and Betty White, I'm loving it.

[2550] I mean, that is so next level.

[2551] I guess I would think it was pretty darn funny.

[2552] If I opened up, you know, I don't even know what I open up in real life, but if I opened up and there was, you know, a brown bear in there.

[2553] I would think it was funny, I think.

[2554] Okay.

[2555] We'll see.

[2556] So I made a mistake.

[2557] We were talking about book smart, and I said, oh, is it like Superbad?

[2558] And then she didn't love that.

[2559] Right.

[2560] For good reason.

[2561] Yeah, I totally understand.

[2562] And I also don't feel like I really got to defend why I said that.

[2563] I'm, again, probably going to get maybe in trouble for this.

[2564] You think so?

[2565] Maybe because I don't, not to like double down on this.

[2566] Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

[2567] But, like, Superbad was first.

[2568] Yes.

[2569] It's not about male, girl, this, that.

[2570] It's, that was the first movie like that.

[2571] And this is a similar concept.

[2572] It's like saying it's a Goodfellas is a funny godfather.

[2573] Of course you're going to do that.

[2574] Right.

[2575] You're just going to compare to the thing that happened originally.

[2576] I agree.

[2577] So.

[2578] And yet I think she has a good point when it's like if bridesmaid isn't the female hangover.

[2579] It's a completely different movie.

[2580] And you're just, just because that's the.

[2581] high water mark for making money.

[2582] Absolutely.

[2583] But if bridesmaids was about the four girls who went to Las Vegas and then there was a tiger in there.

[2584] Oh, yeah.

[2585] Like, again, I haven't seen books smart.

[2586] So I'm sure it's nothing like Superbad, but the concept is very similar.

[2587] Right.

[2588] So when I say is it like a girl version of Superbad, that's just like that was the first thing with boys.

[2589] This seems to be a new thing replacing those boys with girls.

[2590] Yeah.

[2591] And it's its own thing.

[2592] It's apparently brilliant.

[2593] I'm sure it is.

[2594] I want to see it and I'm sure it's great.

[2595] I understand the sensitivity and there's something to note about like when you compare.

[2596] What if we flip the paradigm here and we go, oh, girls trip.

[2597] Girls trip is the black bridesmaids.

[2598] That feels a little dicey right?

[2599] Yeah.

[2600] I guess to say, any movie is the black something feels a little dicey right it does it does yeah it does so i think in that way maybe the girl anything feels or the female anything feels a little bit like the black something yeah yeah it's true it's true well again both things are true that's the problem here everyone wants a goddamn binary option yeah yeah either can do it or you can i think sometimes you can And sometimes you can't.

[2601] Because I do think you could say, oh, it's a black Halloween.

[2602] Right.

[2603] You have a scary movie and it was very the same as Halloween would have had all black actors.

[2604] Yeah.

[2605] But then I guess you could just say like, it's like Halloween.

[2606] Right.

[2607] So I could have said, I stand by that I could have said, so it's like super bad.

[2608] There you go.

[2609] I think that's what you clean it up.

[2610] I just shouldn't have said the girl part of it.

[2611] Yeah.

[2612] I think that's the move.

[2613] Yeah.

[2614] Yeah.

[2615] So this movie, this all black cast of Halloween.

[2616] That's called Stagecoach, and it's a all -black cast, and it's a horror movie that very much resembles Halloween.

[2617] Okay.

[2618] And I just go, stagecoach is just like Halloween.

[2619] Yeah.

[2620] I don't say it's a black Halloween.

[2621] Yeah.

[2622] All right, we did it.

[2623] Congratulations.

[2624] We rarely come up with a solution moving forward.

[2625] All right.

[2626] That's it.

[2627] That's it?

[2628] Yeah.

[2629] Thanks for your hard work.

[2630] You're welcome.

[2631] I love you.

[2632] I love you.

[2633] We have a fun guest coming in moments.

[2634] Great.

[2635] Easter egg.

[2636] Hey.

[2637] Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondry app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[2638] You can listen to every episode of Armchair Expert early and ad free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.

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