David Arquette

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

[1] I'm Mike McGillicuddy, and I am joined by Mr. Mouse.

[2] Once again, an abstentia, but a part of the conversation.

[3] We got to talk with David Arquette, who is just a beautifully interesting, tender -hearted person that is impossible not to fall in love with.

[4] Of course, he was in Scream, never been kissed, eight -legged freaks, Buffy the Vampire, Slayer.

[5] And he has a new movie out that will excite everyone.

[6] Scream!

[7] It's back.

[8] 25 years after, we are back, and David Arquette's in the picture.

[9] So please enjoy the endlessly interesting David Arquette.

[10] Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and add free right now.

[11] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.

[12] Or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts.

[13] Can you hear me?

[14] Hi.

[15] Hi, I can hear you.

[16] Oh, what a lovely garment you're wearing.

[17] I thank you immediately for greeting us with it.

[18] Thank you.

[19] It's great.

[20] It's got a bunch of different trains, train companies, great Western.

[21] Oh, so it's historic and playful.

[22] Yeah, exactly.

[23] Best of both.

[24] And then also, let me add, so this is a very fun, exciting, as earlier said, playful shirt.

[25] So it's got a, I don't know, two, three hundred logos on it.

[26] And then what's great is underneath a horizontal stripe.

[27] Yeah, I like this.

[28] Right?

[29] Because Monica's been telling me it's all about kind of just smashing patterns against each other.

[30] Yeah, it's fun.

[31] Thank you.

[32] I love dressing fun.

[33] First of all, where are you?

[34] I'm in Cape Cod.

[35] Get out of here.

[36] What are you doing there?

[37] I'm doing a film called The Storyed Life of A .J. Fickery.

[38] It's based on a book.

[39] Is A .J. Fickory a real person or a fictitious person?

[40] A fictitious person.

[41] Oh, bummer.

[42] No, written by Gabriella.

[43] Union?

[44] Gabrielle Union?

[45] Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[46] I'm horrible with names.

[47] I'm horrible with time.

[48] Like, I don't know when anything happened.

[49] Okay.

[50] I can relate to that.

[51] So where are your markers?

[52] Because I have like three.

[53] I can slot things between three things.

[54] High school graduation, college graduation, punked.

[55] in my children.

[56] That's amazing.

[57] Yeah, pretty similar.

[58] What are yours?

[59] Children for sure.

[60] And then high school and I guess like starting of career.

[61] Scream.

[62] Yeah, screams right there.

[63] Yeah, I could slots them in.

[64] But then like the multiple screams get very, very cloudy because it's been 25 years.

[65] Okay, first of all, that's such a bad bit of information for everyone emotionally.

[66] Just because, you know, I was an adult when I saw that.

[67] It's not like my parents drove me to see.

[68] the first scream.

[69] I think I drank afterwards and maybe had sex.

[70] Like, full -blown adult, when that came up 25 years ago.

[71] Oh, Monny, where were you?

[72] I was young.

[73] I was just a baby.

[74] No, I wasn't.

[75] I was.

[76] Yeah, I saw it in the movie theater too, but I think we had to sneak in because was it R?

[77] Yes.

[78] Absolutely.

[79] Yes.

[80] The only way David will go.

[81] Exactly.

[82] I think we snuck in.

[83] Love it.

[84] Very scared.

[85] 13.

[86] You were born in 87.

[87] This is.

[88] 99.

[89] When did it come out?

[90] 25 years ago, I don't know anything.

[91] Okay, so that's 96.

[92] Yeah.

[93] You were nine.

[94] Wait, nine.

[95] 87 to 96?

[96] Maybe I didn't sneak into the movie theater.

[97] This sounds like child abuse now that I...

[98] My parents threw me in the movie theater.

[99] Yeah, I got to punish you.

[100] Yeah, I was the scared.

[101] Was it the first one or was it the second one?

[102] Maybe in the theater I saw the second one.

[103] Maybe even the fourth.

[104] But we would have horror nights and we would watch all of them.

[105] Scream, scared, loved it.

[106] I wonder if you have this thing that I have, which is like for years, I wanted people to stop bringing up without a paddle.

[107] I don't know why, just because like, who knows?

[108] But now I fucking love it.

[109] And I have to imagine, if you had a similar ride with Scream where it's like, hell yeah, you did that movie 25 years ago.

[110] Yeah, for sure.

[111] I like when any kind of film I do resonates with someone and they enjoy the experience or it brings a memory.

[112] Like, that's my favorite when it's like, we went on our first date to the.

[113] that film and we fell in love and we got married.

[114] We're still together.

[115] She has stage four cancer.

[116] We had a whole life together.

[117] Thank you.

[118] It was perfect.

[119] It took it so dark.

[120] Well, this life was getting really long.

[121] It's like I'm mad.

[122] First date, had kids, retired, had grandchildren.

[123] Well, I guess I'm wondering, though, more specifically, was there anything you ever spent some period of your life running from?

[124] Oh, gosh.

[125] Yeah.

[126] Lots of stuff.

[127] Like professionally.

[128] Like, was it?

[129] Is there any period where you were running from this movie?

[130] For a while, Scream 3, I was kind of like, oh, it wasn't my favorite.

[131] But then I've since watched it.

[132] I also read West Craven's memoirs.

[133] And I got like a totally different understanding of like where he was coming from in the films that he made and why he made certain choices.

[134] So then in watching it back, it had a totally new meaning for me. I don't know.

[135] I run away from a lot of them.

[136] I've done many, many things.

[137] I have a thing with my daughter, like, don't Google Daddy.

[138] Because it's just, I've done a lot of stuff.

[139] I don't really have too much of a filter.

[140] So I lived a lot of my life just like, yeah, think what you think.

[141] But then I get a little more conservative as I get older, I guess.

[142] I'm wondering if you had a similar disposition as me, which was like, I wasn't really planning to get to 40.

[143] That wasn't a goal.

[144] Yeah, no. I cried at my 18th birthday because I was surprised I made it that one.

[145] Because you were getting old.

[146] Because we were just a little crazy growing up, and we had some bunch of friends die, and I don't know, just was surprised to make it to 18.

[147] Now, especially, I just turned 50s.

[148] I was surprised about that for sure.

[149] We're roughly the same age.

[150] I watched you for a long, long time.

[151] I'm talking to you now.

[152] You're 50.

[153] I'm 46.

[154] Does it make you, like, question in your mind the people you looked at ahead of you?

[155] Absolutely, especially as a father.

[156] I have so much more, like, understanding of how hard.

[157] it was to be a parent, how much of a troublemaker I was to my parents.

[158] And, like, I think back on some early acting experiences, I did a show called Parenthood, like the first version of a television version of Tarenthood.

[159] Wait a minute.

[160] What?

[161] Yeah, there was one before, yeah.

[162] Were you Crosby?

[163] I mean, whatever the equivalent, the shit had, son.

[164] I was.

[165] Leonardo DiCaprio was in it, too.

[166] and this actress named Meredith.

[167] And I got the giggles one time.

[168] And I apologize, Meredith.

[169] I feel so bad about how I behaved.

[170] I couldn't stop it.

[171] And I had ADD.

[172] And I never been on medication.

[173] It was so bad that you feel the need to apologize now to Meredith?

[174] Meredith Gordon.

[175] Sorry, Meredith Gordon.

[176] Oh, gosh.

[177] And just like knowing what I put my parents through.

[178] Thank you all.

[179] My two young boys are four and seven.

[180] And they're just crazy.

[181] Boys are crazy.

[182] They're not well, right?

[183] But we come out not well.

[184] There's like something's really fucking broken inside.

[185] I know, like I want to, I want someone to do a nice cartoon of what the inside of a fucking five -year -old boy's brain looks like.

[186] It's just got to be like dinosaurs and sledgehammers and explosions.

[187] I know completely.

[188] I actually, you have two boys, so you can't possibly feel the way I do.

[189] But I feel so awkward around young boys.

[190] And I think part of the reason is, like, I can just see the battle that they're embarking on.

[191] And it gives me anxiety.

[192] Like, you're going to have to tamp down all of this animal in you.

[193] I'm always telling my son, my one son, Charlie, specifically, I'm like, just tap into your heart.

[194] It's your charm is going to get you so far.

[195] Like, and with any luck, if everything goes perfectly, he'll challenge you to a fist fight at 17.

[196] I know, completely.

[197] He's already tall.

[198] and he'll be taller than me, bigger than me. But I've learned to wrestle a little so I could probably get him in some kind of lock.

[199] Well, and we're going to chat about that extensively.

[200] I have a friend from England who is on a flight from England Monday.

[201] Yeah.

[202] And I mentioned at dinner that I was interviewing you on Thursday.

[203] And he said, oh, my God, I just watched this documentary on the flight.

[204] It was like a crazy coincidence.

[205] So he had watched, you cannot take.

[206] kill David Arquette, and he's like, you must see this before you interview him, which I did.

[207] I watched it.

[208] Oh, thank you.

[209] Thanks for checking it out.

[210] I loved it.

[211] First of all, I also, I got news for you.

[212] So you were on a TV parenthood before I was, and I also made this exact movie you made before you in 2006.

[213] Monica, it is, it is brothers justice, but it is the full.

[214] So I made a movie about leaving comedy to pursue martial arts exclusively in films.

[215] and I did karate demonstrations on talk shows.

[216] You went way further.

[217] It's a lot getting like into the combat sports.

[218] I mean, geez.

[219] Well, I mean, yeah, okay.

[220] Wait, is it sincere?

[221] Yeah, it's very, I don't know.

[222] I overshare my life essentially.

[223] But yeah, it's sincere.

[224] I wonder, as someone else who's made like a mockumentary, I'm like, how sucked in is he?

[225] this point, I think all the way, like, did you find that there were moments of that movie where you're like, you're in on it and then you were not in on it and then you were in on it?

[226] Absolutely.

[227] I mean, I wasn't making a mockumentary.

[228] So they sort of set up a lot of the sort of situations I was in.

[229] But I was all in as far as what I believed about this sport and what I wanted to do.

[230] I mean, they didn't even follow me in a lot of my experience because I wrestled for a couple years on the road.

[231] And we didn't have cameras all the time.

[232] And even my crazy death match, it was just by chance that the director was in town.

[233] I was like, you might want to come to this one because it's pretty crazy.

[234] Yeah, that would be a prime moment for me to isolate is when I'm like, I'm questioning everything.

[235] So if I can give you a Reader's Digest.

[236] Please.

[237] He did this movie, ready to rumble.

[238] So he had this wrestling movie.

[239] And then so part of the promotion as he went to the, was it WCW?

[240] Is that the organization?

[241] Yeah.

[242] Yeah, it was owned by the Warner Brothers at the time.

[243] So the movie and it was like a tie -in.

[244] So they brought him out and they had him fight.

[245] And then he beat the champion and they gave him the belt for a minute.

[246] And then the wrestling world went crazy.

[247] They were very upset by this.

[248] And then David, who actually sincerely loves wrestling more than anything, was pretty brokenhearted about it, this notion that he would have, like, disrespected this whole thing.

[249] So then he dedicates himself to really learning the ropes and training and fighting.

[250] fighting and being in these matches, and he ends up in this match where a guy's breaking a four -foot -long fluorescent bulb over his head, which is, like, kind of standard fare in these things.

[251] In a death match, yeah.

[252] In a death match, sorry.

[253] I've already disrespected it myself.

[254] Now I'm going to have to fucking learn to wrestle for five years.

[255] So the guy breaks this bulb over his head, which normally goes fine, but it pierces, dude, it was, was it on your karate artery?

[256] I mean, it looked so close.

[257] It hit my neck muscle, so that's what saved me. But it was, Monica, it is a gnarly.

[258] It's like, it's probably two and a half inches long.

[259] And it's just a flap.

[260] It's open and there's a tremendous amount of blood coming out of his neck.

[261] And then he wraps.

[262] What's crazy is you wrap that towel around yourself early into it.

[263] And then I'm like, oh, my God, I wonder if he's holding off bleeding in his neck.

[264] And then you take that towel off and it's just, I mean, like a pint of blood comes out in a second.

[265] It's so, I mean, it's nuts.

[266] I was in over by.

[267] I had.

[268] I shouldn't have been doing that.

[269] I've learned a lot.

[270] I didn't know that like death match wrestling was kind of frowned on by certain people.

[271] Some people just love it.

[272] That's the hardcore wrestling fans and I really wanted to appeal to them and honor what they love to.

[273] But it was weird.

[274] I had this experience where I was like, I don't like violence.

[275] Like, that's not my thing.

[276] So I'm like, I hate violence, but I'm in a sport that simulates violence.

[277] And now I'm doing like the most extreme version of it.

[278] And you're on your way to the hospital in critical condition because of it.

[279] Once I knew it didn't get my artery that it wasn't like pumping blood, I went back in and won and finished the match.

[280] Oh, well, wait.

[281] They sewed that up there in the ambulance?

[282] No, no, there wasn't an ambulance.

[283] We got driven Jungle Boy, actually, an amazing wrestler drove me to a hospital.

[284] And a pretty good driver, I hear.

[285] Yeah.

[286] Under pressure.

[287] Dude, there's a dude holding his fucking neck.

[288] And the last time I saw it with the cloth off, it was pumping blood out.

[289] I mean, like, how do you drive at that point?

[290] Yeah.

[291] I don't know.

[292] Like, my life did flash before my eyes.

[293] You get a million thoughts about everything you've experienced.

[294] At least I did.

[295] Was there one primary thing he walked away with?

[296] Sort of.

[297] I mean, it's like, this is it.

[298] Like, the journey, like, what you're doing is life.

[299] So enjoy, like, every moment, like, accomplish anything you want to achieve.

[300] Like, go after it.

[301] Okay.

[302] And now I want to step like five feet backwards because I want to explore something that like Stern will explore with you all the time.

[303] But I want to do it in a way that I have tremendous respect for you.

[304] So I don't want it to be like, I'm going to point out these things.

[305] Look what an oddity, David is.

[306] But you are so fucking eclectic and interesting and bizarre and you've done so many weird bizarre things.

[307] And so what I want to get into is like your own story of how you were drawn to all of that.

[308] And I want to assume you know exactly what's going on.

[309] So instead of me throwing things, I want to hear like your explanation or your story about this wildlife, what's nurture, what's nature, what's growing up on a commune, what's show business, what's, you know, like this incredibly weird multifaceted thing that is our cat, I want to know what you think the line is through it.

[310] Well, I don't like fakeness, not people necessarily.

[311] I don't like when people are fake, but I just don't like the fake world that we live in.

[312] So a lot of that is like social anxiety.

[313] So I used to dress really weird so that people would be like, look how weird he's dressed.

[314] At least I broke through that thing.

[315] I used to drink and I call booze ego juice because it would just like pump your ego up and you'd just be like, blah, you'd be able to like blah, you do things.

[316] You just be fully yourself.

[317] It works for a long time.

[318] Yeah, yeah, it does.

[319] But it also like will catch up.

[320] And then you understand how it does.

[321] the opposite of what I want to do is sort of stay real and grounded and try to remain humble or whatever, which is hard too, because in this business, you need a certain amount of narcissism just to even be involved in it and just have that kind of confidence in front of the camera or just be able to go get jobs or stand up for yourself in a meeting or whatever.

[322] So it was crazy.

[323] I grew up on a commune.

[324] My family was really into like liberal, progressive hippie.

[325] kind of stuff and art and no boundaries so i didn't have a lot of boundaries growing up i was a graffiti artist as a kid so we'd run around the streets and get in all kinds of trouble and the commune was in virginia yeah it was in virginia it was pretty interesting story like so my parents kind of escaped the late 60s the death of sort of hippie stuff to follow this religion that was based in hindu islam and buddhism and the man who started it was from Indonesia and he came and he visited like these 30 families in in Virginia where they'd all moved.

[326] And he was like, why did you move here?

[327] This sort of philosophy is not about isolating yourself.

[328] It's about discovering what your own personal gift is and then going out in the world and making the world a better place.

[329] So essentially he broke up the way.

[330] How many years into it did that happen?

[331] It was a couple years at least.

[332] I mean, I was really young.

[333] I was like two or three when that happened.

[334] I was born there, so at least two or three years.

[335] And then did you guys move back to L .A.?

[336] We moved to Chicago first because my dad was a big improvisational actor, worked with Paul Sills, and something called the committee and all these sort of...

[337] Yeah, and his father was a successful comedian.

[338] Yeah, Cliff Arquette, who was a character named Charlie Weaver on the original Jack Parr show and the original Tonight show on the Hollywood Squares.

[339] He was a regular.

[340] Yeah, so then we moved to Chicago And then we moved out to L .A. But in Chicago, I fell in love with Bozo the Clown.

[341] Oh, was Bozo like a local?

[342] It was interesting.

[343] This guy, Larry Harmon, took Bozo from Capitol Records record and then made him live action in like the late 40s.

[344] And then he went and he essentially franchised himself.

[345] He cloned himself and he taught all these different markets, like over 100.

[346] There were over 200 Bozos at one point throughout the country.

[347] Wow.

[348] He's the Ray Kroc of Clown.

[349] They worked with Bozo and then, and then, Oh, and then they, Ron McDonald's.

[350] Yeah, Willard Scott was one of the bozos and he worked and they sold a bunch of burgers.

[351] He saw how many burgers they sold that they knocked him off and created Ronald McDonald.

[352] Oh, my God.

[353] What a bizarre history lesson we just got.

[354] That was out of the field.

[355] But so there was all these individual markets.

[356] So everyone thought their bozo was the bozo, but then everyone thought their bozo was the bozo.

[357] real bozo it's like the mall santa claus but then uh w gn in chicago was sort of the biggest hub and then they got the super station that went out to all these different markets so we went to chicago and went to the east coast west coast and bob bell was the bozo there that's the bozo i mean when i was a kid and it was like your old pal bozo and he was just like such this bright character that i was like oh i love bozo and then i went to ringling brothers and i saw the circus and i kind have mushed them both like this is like this world of clowns and circus and blah so that had a huge impact on me and i'm okay well hold on david david i got we got about 85 follow -up questions but the most prominent one right now is i feel like clowns are pretty divisive in that like most people like aren't really drawn to them unless i'm i mean a lot of people let's just say a lot of people are afraid of them yeah well it's kind of blown up i mean in america right now there's like a scary clown fetish going on as made popular by it and all these things yeah especially by it and the joker and um all of these things but scary clowns go way back originally they were more sad clowns okay i got to say one more thing i can interrupt you one more time i always tell you about my friend aaron tyrell i've told you about him so much yeah this is him you're meeting erin tyrol you're one of my childhood best friends it has this like an allure of completely unplugged and then in psychopedic knowledge of all these weird things.

[358] And you're like, oh, my God, wait, this guy's a genius, but he literally is not going to participate in this class no matter what.

[359] It's a rare fun breed.

[360] Okay, so sorry, back to clowns.

[361] Yeah, so really 2 % of the population has chlorophobia, which is fear of clowns.

[362] Like, that's a very small portion.

[363] But the focus has been on these scary clowns for this portion of our existence.

[364] But clowns are also kind of a reflex.

[365] is society.

[366] They're supposed to like reflect the silly parts and the sad parts and the whatever parts.

[367] But right now it's like we're just reflecting the really creepy parts.

[368] So I think that's kind of what's going on right now.

[369] So I really want to help with Bozo because I purchased the rights to Bozo.

[370] It took me 15 years to get the rights to Bozo the Clown.

[371] Oh my good.

[372] Wait, so you own the rights to Bozo the Clown.

[373] I do.

[374] I do.

[375] And what are your plans?

[376] Oh, we have lots of plans.

[377] It's almost overwhelming, I bet.

[378] It is so overwhelming.

[379] I can't even tell you.

[380] You've got like a Marvel IP now.

[381] I never knew how stressful something like this could be.

[382] They're trying to like steal the IP in Brazil right now.

[383] We're having to like lawyers.

[384] Like, yeah.

[385] So it's just, it's a lot.

[386] That's kind of like the wrestling quandary.

[387] You're anti -violence and you love wrestling.

[388] And then you go by Bozo.

[389] Now you're in a lawsuit.

[390] And people don't get it.

[391] Like, I'm trying to explain to them.

[392] Like, so Bozo's realized that it's not about me, Bozo.

[393] It's about all of us, Bozo.

[394] It's about the Bozo in our hearts.

[395] So we want everyone to let their clown out and embrace their silly side and really, like, enjoy life and, like, laugh at themselves and don't beat themselves up.

[396] Bozo believes that we don't look up and praise people.

[397] We don't look down on anybody.

[398] We look everyone right in the eye because we're all equal.

[399] We're all wonderful, you know, and you're all special.

[400] And we want everyone to really, like, love themselves.

[401] That's really the new goal of Bozo or what he wants to bring to the world.

[402] We definitely want, like, diversity in the new Bozo universe.

[403] We want to really expand it.

[404] Am I right in that Bozo's in Whiteface?

[405] There's a lot of the traditional sort of clown is really based, like, far back.

[406] So we want to modernize it.

[407] So there'll be some changes for sure.

[408] And it'll be, like, interesting to see what people think, because even just the news of me by the race to Bozo, like everyone in Chicago kind of freaked out.

[409] Like, what's going on?

[410] Is it your plan to ultimately play Bozo, I hope?

[411] Well, we'll see.

[412] If he goes, hong, honk, we'll see.

[413] I'm studying to be a clown.

[414] Misha Osoff is an amazing Cirque clown, and I've been taking courses with him to learn how to really clown.

[415] But Bozo was more of like a game show host, so he is never like a traditional clown.

[416] So we want to blend these worlds.

[417] Do you think the Bozo image has been a little bit infected by The Simpsons?

[418] Because I think my idea of Bozo is a little bit based on maybe what their joke of Bozo was.

[419] Yeah, for sure.

[420] I mean, a lot of clowns like that, a lot of people giving clowns a bad name.

[421] But still, I mean, I can laugh at all that stuff and the good -natured stuff.

[422] But some of the scary stuff is really sort of like, because last.

[423] thing bozo would want to do is scare anybody only like it with a pie maybe yeah but you have to consent to a pie right yeah it's like a new new rules written consent but then you you never know when it's going to come so that's great so it's like you sign off on it and it could any time in the next month or two that's good because that's what you still need the surprise yeah and a Seltzer bottle.

[424] That's always a good one.

[425] But that's about as scary as it gets.

[426] What age did you move back to L .A.?

[427] So we moved to L .A. when I was about five or six.

[428] Yeah, five.

[429] Okay.

[430] So you were commune to three, Chicago to five, then L .A. What part of L .A.?

[431] Right in Hollywood, right by Paramount Studios.

[432] And back then it was pretty little wild.

[433] So you're really a Hollywood kid by all?

[434] Yeah.

[435] We worked at the newsstand on Melrose.

[436] That's on Melrose.

[437] and Martel.

[438] Oh, really?

[439] Right by the groundlings.

[440] Yeah, we worked there for years.

[441] That was like a big hub for us growing up.

[442] We grew up at the time where like, it was this weird mesh of like punk rock and gangs and like, like, skateboarding and like this really weird kind of time.

[443] And then we got into graffiti and break dancing.

[444] Yes.

[445] Are you friends with Ethan Spley?

[446] Because I feel like you guys must know each other.

[447] Yeah, I love Ethan.

[448] He's awesome.

[449] Oh, he's like my favorite human being on planet Earth, I think.

[450] He used to hang out at the newsstand.

[451] I think all those guys did.

[452] So, yeah, I did the parenthood with Leo.

[453] So we became friends.

[454] And actually, Leo's dad, George, introduced us all to art. Like, George would supply the newsstand with these art books.

[455] And he, like, completely opened our mind to all of this incredible art. No kidding.

[456] Did your dad find work once you guys were back in L .A.?

[457] Yeah, so he was a working actor, character actor, I guess you'd say, for years.

[458] And it would, you know, it'd be like industrial commercials or get a commercial or a little spot on Mork and Mindy.

[459] Oh, one of the craziest things about living right down the street from Paramount Studios is that I, like, eight years old, would walk down there, wait in line and go see Happy Days and Laverna and Shirley all being filmed in a live audience.

[460] No way.

[461] I'd walk in alone, like thinking that my son now would do that.

[462] It's just like, I couldn't, I wouldn't let him cross the street alone.

[463] I was waiting and and I love Fonzie and Fonzie came and shook my hand.

[464] Oh, baby.

[465] And then I got to meet him on Scream and I said, you know, I saw you.

[466] And I was like, close to tears.

[467] You shook my hand and it meant so much to me. And he's like, let me shake your hand again.

[468] You're almost crying right now, which I love.

[469] I swear.

[470] I know.

[471] Like I'm looking at your eyes.

[472] I swear.

[473] I do.

[474] I've always remembered stuff like that in interact or trying to.

[475] Life happens.

[476] and you can be in a little mood sometimes and be like, oh.

[477] But I always try to remember that, like, whenever I have interactions and meet people.

[478] It's the whole bozo philosophy.

[479] Like, you have to treat everyone equal.

[480] It's like, what's going on right now?

[481] The former president was really divisive.

[482] And just in general, both sides are fighting, and I'm not trying to, like, attack anyone.

[483] It's like, we all have to kind of understand everyone to get to this place where we all have to go.

[484] Or we could just blow it all up.

[485] up and it doesn't matter anyway because that is a possibility and it's kind of like happening it's an option always always waiting for us on the table there that option yeah but there's a really cool physics theory that if 10 % of a school of fish swerve the other 90 follow and it's the same with birds so it's almost like he took 10 % of a group of people and had him swerve so it's like this side where being just nasty to each other's got more acceptable.

[486] Let us not recognize our own role, which is, I'd love to give that guy all the credit, but we were already using all these devices that were already sliding us further and further apart.

[487] We were so in these echo chambers.

[488] So when he came up, we played our role.

[489] We were outraged like fucking Pol Pot was coming to town.

[490] So then we fed that media circus that gave him the equivalent of $3 billion in campaign budget.

[491] So it's like everyone, yeah, we're all.

[492] I don't, I don't mean to say it was all him or anything.

[493] But the idea is that if we could, like, have a kindness swerve, too.

[494] I agree.

[495] So I always wondered this because I'm from Detroit and I drank the Kool -Aid as fast as you could.

[496] So all I wanted was a fast car and I wanted to be a race car driver.

[497] Like, cars, cars, cars is all I thought about.

[498] So when you grew up in Hollywood and you're going to see shows at Paramount, I guess it does answer my question a little bit like, is this a company town?

[499] And of course you could want to do that because that's what this town's about, right?

[500] Yeah.

[501] Yeah, my sister Rosanna really made a name for this new generation.

[502] She worked with Betty Davis, like, starting off.

[503] And it's not Rosanna.

[504] It's Rosanna?

[505] I know.

[506] The song is Rosanna.

[507] I know.

[508] It's just the thing.

[509] Oh, my God.

[510] I got to call the people from Toto.

[511] I know, I know.

[512] I got to call David Pache.

[513] So she really started our new generation.

[514] My sister, Patricia, that got into it.

[515] And then I was a graffiti writer.

[516] And I was running around getting into trouble.

[517] And I was like, ah, forget that.

[518] I didn't think I had any talent.

[519] I grew up not being able to read very well, so I always thought I was really dumb.

[520] And so I was like, I can't do that.

[521] But then they were doing a play at my school, and they were like, you get to ride a motorcycle through the auditorium.

[522] I was like, what?

[523] And then I met this teacher named Ben DeBaldo, my high school drama teacher, and he really changed the course of my life.

[524] He enrolled me in like a drama teachers association thing where I did a monologue and you got a number.

[525] So nobody knew who I was or who my family was.

[526] And I came in second place.

[527] And I was like, oh, do I have some kind of talent?

[528] Yeah, yeah.

[529] Yeah, it'd be so weird to have your two older siblings be so successful.

[530] You're the baby, right?

[531] You're number four.

[532] But there were five of us.

[533] My brother Richmond's got the best credit of any Arquette.

[534] He's the one who delivers the box in seven.

[535] Get the fuck out of here.

[536] Oh, my.

[537] What's in the box?

[538] I don't know.

[539] I don't know, man. Oh, that is the best credit.

[540] He's awesome.

[541] But he doesn't like any kind of spotlight.

[542] So he sort of flies under the radar.

[543] But yeah, there were five of us.

[544] I'm the youngest.

[545] So does it go like, oh, yeah, now I'm just going to be a poser and do what my sisters do?

[546] If I were you, I would have had this fear of like, oh, my God, they're going to think I'm a poser.

[547] Like, all of a sudden, I'm into this.

[548] Well, I did sing for the first play I did.

[549] And all my friends, like, snuck into the auditorium.

[550] And I'm like, up there, you're singing.

[551] I'm the type of guy that I'll never settle down.

[552] They're like, they made fun of me. But I ended up like learning about it, acting.

[553] And we'd always done like improv growing up and always sort of like did fun games and stuff like that.

[554] Where are you partying that age?

[555] First of all, do you know I'm sober?

[556] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[557] Okay, okay.

[558] I just wanted to know that I'm talking about a fellow booze on zone.

[559] Zero judgment.

[560] No, back then we were 40s in the parking lot and like, yeah, other stuff.

[561] But after when I started doing the plays, I got like kind of focused me a lot more at that time.

[562] Yeah, I wasn't hanging out with my buddies after school as much or doing graffiti as much.

[563] And I was focused more on acting and stuff like that.

[564] Yeah, then I, you know, went bananas.

[565] Sure, sure, sure, sure.

[566] So since your parents were kind of free spirits, did you ever get in trouble for, quote, being bad or causing trouble?

[567] Like, did they care?

[568] Yeah.

[569] I mean, my mom let me spray paint all the inside of my room, so that kept us off of the streets a little bit.

[570] Our crew was called Kids Gone Bad.

[571] We were KGB.

[572] Oh, I love it.

[573] KGB.

[574] Yeah, KGB, L .A., graffiti crew.

[575] We've got a couple artists, Gatsy Fujita and Jesse Simon, that are like proper fine artists and museums and stuff.

[576] Oh, wow.

[577] But yeah, we all were totally into it.

[578] Yeah, it was a wild time to grow up.

[579] But yeah, I mean, we got busted for weed and my mom.

[580] They would get pissed.

[581] Yeah.

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

[583] We've all been there.

[584] Turning to the internet to self -diagnose our inexplicable pains, debilitating body aches, sudden fevers and strange rashes.

[585] Though our minds tend to spiral to worst -case scenarios, it's usually nothing.

[586] But for an unlucky few, these unsuspecting symptoms can start the clock ticking on a terrifying medical mystery.

[587] Like the unexplainable death of a retired firefighter, whose body was found at home by his son, except it looked like he had been cremated, or the time when an entire town started jumping from buildings and seeing tigers on their ceilings.

[588] Hey listeners, it's Mr. Ballin here, and I'm here to tell you about my podcast.

[589] It's called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[590] Each terrifying true story will be sure to keep you up at night.

[591] Follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts.

[592] Prime members can listen early and add free on Amazon music.

[593] What's up, guys?

[594] It's your girl Kiki, and my podcast is back with a new season, and let me tell you, it's too good.

[595] And I'm diving into the brains of entertainment's best and brightest, okay?

[596] Every episode, I bring on a friend and have a real conversation.

[597] And I don't mean just friends.

[598] I mean the likes of Amy Polar, Kell Mitchell, Vivica Fox, the list goes on.

[599] So follow, watch, and listen to Baby.

[600] this is Kiki Palmer on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast.

[601] So let me tell you, the first time I drank, I was in my kitchen, I wasn't ever going to drink because my dad was an alcoholic and he was recovering.

[602] Then at some point I'm like, I am going to try this and I drank by myself in my kitchen.

[603] I had a few beers.

[604] The second it settled in, I was like, oh my God, this is exactly how I want to feel.

[605] Like this is what my fantasy of being the most popular, the handsomest, all that stuff.

[606] Like, that's what this feels like.

[607] I just put on this coat where I'm the coolest dude in the world.

[608] Do you remember your first feelings of it?

[609] Yeah.

[610] Well, my dad was alcoholic, dude, smoked pot a lot.

[611] And so that was, like, always something for us, too.

[612] But there's this Irish family.

[613] There was, like, 10 kids and like eight of them were boys.

[614] It was just this, like, mad world.

[615] Like, yeah, we've gotten to all kinds of trouble, crazy trouble.

[616] And they had a huge St. Patrick's Day party.

[617] every year.

[618] So one of the first times we drank, we were walking around and picking up all the half drink like Irish coffees.

[619] So we're all hopped up on like caffeine and whiskey trying to kiss girls.

[620] It's just crazy.

[621] Yeah, we had a lot of fun.

[622] There's this kid Demetrius who lived next door who like smoked us all out when we were really young, like way too young.

[623] I had stolen this marshmallow whip from 7 -Eleven because that's what you do.

[624] And then I, went and we're smoking this weed and I have this marshmallow and I was more interested in the marshmallow than the weed going around.

[625] The guy's like, oh, I can't believe I'm smoking out with a bunch of eight -year -olds or something like that.

[626] Yeah.

[627] Oh, wow.

[628] Way back.

[629] And then we quit at some point.

[630] We actually quit smoking pot for a while.

[631] Well, you've never been smoking it for a decade by the time you were a senior.

[632] I know.

[633] I know.

[634] It's bad.

[635] We grew up really fast.

[636] in LA like crazy stuff yeah it all seems like you're watching a movie or for me it was like I'm just watching a movie of this it's awesome none of these downsides are going to hit us no one's going to get DUI no one's going to die no one's going to OD no and then all that stuff just starts slowly happening you kind of can write it off for a while and then you're like oh I wait I'm no different yeah two of the guys on the outsiders Rodney Harvey and Harold Pruitt they both died of heroin overdoses.

[637] So yeah, we went in sort of like, we got into, it got crazy.

[638] Like, yeah, and then there was years later before I started figuring it out.

[639] So if you haven't drank in almost 10 years?

[640] No, no, no. Oh, okay, okay, okay.

[641] I was going to say that's crazy.

[642] No, I've had my slips and all that stuff.

[643] Oh, okay.

[644] I don't drink.

[645] Yeah, yeah.

[646] It's fucking brutal, right?

[647] It's just fucking brutal.

[648] It's really brutal.

[649] Actually, I don't know.

[650] I got to a place now where I'm like, I had the most, the saddest, like, thing that I was just so, like, disappointed in myself that, uh, yeah, I cannot drink.

[651] I got to imagine there's two things that make it hard for you, because I've witnessed this in someone else.

[652] I've talked about it before, but someone pissed me off on a movie.

[653] They were terrible.

[654] They were annihilated every day.

[655] And there was almost a fist fight.

[656] Got separated.

[657] This person had to have a New Mexico police officer with them at all time while they were on set.

[658] That's how bad it got.

[659] And at one point, he was making the officer chase him.

[660] around the store and he was saying, chase me, officer, chase me. So I was watching him run through the store and I was so mad at him and all of a sudden I started laughing so hard, I couldn't help it.

[661] And he just, he was so powerful, this actor, so funny, so likable, so endearing that he kind of won me back, which I would have thought would have been impossible.

[662] And in that moment, I realized like, oh man, being likable and endearing and charismatic, it can make it harder because generally people, when their addiction takes over, they just, people start leaving their life because they're insufferable.

[663] But like, you have a sweetness and a kindness, in a charisma, an open -heartedness that I would imagine you get a lot more second chances than your average bear.

[664] I've gotten a lot of second chances.

[665] I don't know.

[666] A lot of it's like trying my best.

[667] I think if you're genuine about your heart, really learn from your mistakes, you don't want to keep repeating them that's sort of where i got i'm just really don't want to make the same mistakes again like exhausted with the repetition of it all yeah and just like well it's it's what led me to the death match i was after that i was like why am i like literally trying to kill myself like putting myself in positions where i'm just beating the hell out of myself and then that's like when you can figure that out and heal and figure out how it relates to your childhood and and and parents relationship or whatever it is that's those wounds when you can then uncover those and like i was once like in the therapy session i was like my mom my dad of their marriage and i was like they're both dead i mean i love you but i don't need your pain anymore i don't need the pain from your marriage anymore it doesn't serve me anymore so once i started figuring out like there's nothing really that can numb it like you can try to numb it you can do all that to me it's like getting into the flow of life like it is that positive like positivity begat's positivity yeah I mean and and and being kind to yourself and like not beating yourself up and then you appreciate clarity and you appreciate honesty and being real and dealing with these things that come up and then when you get older it helps too because you could start feeling your blood boil and it's like why am I feeling this way what's that about That's a great point.

[668] It's almost like as you get older, the ramp up slows down just enough for you to observe it.

[669] Or it's like when you're younger, you're just there.

[670] You're at like the 10 and you miss the whole ramp up.

[671] Yeah.

[672] Have you noticed that the older you get, the faster time gets?

[673] Oh, yeah, yeah.

[674] It's brutal.

[675] I know.

[676] It's crazy.

[677] When you were younger, like, summers lasted forever.

[678] A day would take forever.

[679] Time was oppressive when you were younger.

[680] It was like, I'm not 16 yet, or I'm not this, or it's not summer yet, or it's not Christmas yet.

[681] Like, now it's just like, I literally have to say out loud to everyone in my family, like, there's only 22 days left to Christmas.

[682] So, like, every day we're acknowledging, because it'll just blow past me. I'll wake up in February and be like, what happened?

[683] You got to get an Advent calendar.

[684] Oh, Advent calendar.

[685] That's a great idea.

[686] Eventize every day.

[687] Adventize every day.

[688] I would just relate a lot to you.

[689] I hate my own guts in a way.

[690] way I can't imagine people would I could guess because why would I I'm not this mean to other people I know where are worst enemies I mean that's it's brutal like what happens in my head like even if I just do some meaningless faux pa where I introduce myself to someone twice or something like that I'll be like just yeah relentless what cardinal sin did you commit or why are you so mean to yourself do you have a theory on it no I mean had dyslexia so I beat myself forever like I'm just so stupid like you know just so dumb and just certain things like beat myself up over things that have happened in my life or choices I've made or whatever it is but once you can sort of let those go or like forgive yourself or I don't know it's an ongoing thing too and there's like roller coasters in some days it's just like boom I'm just down and yeah what's what's even that about how much do you think it's genetic and how much of it's like nurture by the way I just want to add You just reminded me on one of my favorite things I heard in a meeting, which is this older guy I love.

[691] He's like, you know, my dad was my explanation for everything that was fucked up in my life.

[692] And then he died.

[693] And all of a sudden, I was like, what now?

[694] Now I just, now I don't even have this, this person's not even here anymore that I'm blaming everything on.

[695] It's so profound.

[696] That healing and that forgiveness is what is really important because that's what then heals you.

[697] Like you forgive people to heal yourself.

[698] And like, even when people do you wrong, it's almost like, you can start getting into a place where you feel bad that they're making those choices.

[699] Don't you think, David, like that everyone lives with their own mistakes.

[700] Yeah.

[701] Like, I don't live with your mistake.

[702] It angers me for 10 minutes that day, but I don't, at night, when I'm going through my day, it's not in there.

[703] Like, that's the freedom of it.

[704] I know.

[705] I think, like, well, there's this saying, hurt people, hurt people, which is, like, a pretty powerful thing.

[706] It's everything that's going on.

[707] It's like there's a lot of, like, pain out there.

[708] And a lot of it's, like, people who, were mean to people when they were younger or their parents were being all this kind of stuff and we've always been into this society of sort of punishment yeah we've learned that that's not that doesn't help like even at the beginning of the pandemic i was like ah like my kids and drive me crazy would you just do your homework and like raising my voice and i could see that my younger son was getting like scared yeah yeah like by raising my voice so then you have to really like confront that and you and like figure out how not to do that and hope that I didn't traumatize them but that's life they're going to have to figure that out and then how like your relationship with whoever you're sort of attracted to your relationship dynamics like that's the whole other thing to figure out oh you just made me think of something did you get a lot of esteem from females liking you yeah I mean I would always kind of use charm and but I was like a cad.

[709] I mean, I would just, you know, I was younger and was running around a lot.

[710] And I don't know.

[711] I've made a lot of mistakes.

[712] Well, I don't want you to feel bad.

[713] I just, I recognized it myself recently.

[714] Like, here's what happened to me. So this woman was giving me a massage who I know very well.

[715] And she's had this insane trauma as a kid.

[716] And I said to her, it's shocking, you're not an addict.

[717] And she said, you know, I think had I not been great at sports, I would have become one.

[718] Like, that was the only thing I could build everything else around is that I was good in sports.

[719] And And then it made me wonder, like, what did I build?

[720] Because I, too, dyslexic.

[721] I'm a dumb ass.

[722] I'm all these things, you know.

[723] And I was like, oh, I know.

[724] It started in, like, sixth grade.

[725] Like, I could talk to older girls and that worked.

[726] And that gave me so much esteem.

[727] And I pretty much leaned on that my whole life.

[728] It's another one of those things that you learn what you don't want to do again.

[729] Hurt people.

[730] Yeah.

[731] Yeah.

[732] Have you ever done one of those ACE tests?

[733] I'm not sure.

[734] It's adverse childhood experiences.

[735] And there's a list of, I want to say, like, 13 questions.

[736] Do you go up with addiction and the family?

[737] Do you grow up with food insecurity?

[738] Do you grow up with physical abuse?

[739] Do you grow up with sexual abuse?

[740] Yeah, yeah.

[741] I almost peg that fucker.

[742] There's a weird thing to brag about.

[743] But I'm highly on it.

[744] I would really love to know, like, I have to imagine you're plus six for sure.

[745] I've definitely plus six.

[746] I got all those that you named off.

[747] So, yeah.

[748] So, like, I want to hug you in a way I can't hug myself, which is I want to say, like, David, when you're kicking your own.

[749] ass, dude, most people with a six or above are in a penitentiary.

[750] They're in a gutter.

[751] They're in a mental institution.

[752] Here's another way I would look at it.

[753] We've interviewed a few hip -hop artists that came from the shit shit.

[754] Like the shit in a way that like white people don't fucking understand it.

[755] Or we've had a couple of basketball players on too.

[756] It's like you don't understand what some people's existence on in this country is.

[757] And so when they get famous and they say one thing that's only a six on the progressive scale instead of a 10, I want to scream like, yeah, motherfucker, but you started at an eight on the progressive scale.

[758] And now you're a 10.

[759] Congratulations.

[760] This person started as a zero.

[761] And they're a six.

[762] So fucking get real.

[763] I want you to look at yourself with that kindness, which is David.

[764] Thank you.

[765] It's a miracle you show up as a parent.

[766] It's a miracle you're fucking financially solvent.

[767] It's a miracle you work.

[768] It's a miracle you're sober today.

[769] it's a miracle you're present in this conversation.

[770] Yeah.

[771] It's a fucking miracle, dude.

[772] Everybody.

[773] Yeah, yeah.

[774] I think we all go through our shit.

[775] Everyone has different experiences.

[776] But like you're saying, the whole cancel culture and like attack and punish and get rid of them, like all of that shit is too much.

[777] Like it's where are we going to like start recalibrating?

[778] We're like hearing each other and figuring it out so that we can heal some of this generational trauma, personal trauma, all the, like, stuff.

[779] But that's easy to say.

[780] But thank you for saying that.

[781] I feel the same way about you.

[782] And I don't know you too on Monica, but you too.

[783] I just want everyone to sort of figure out their greatness and love themselves and not beat themselves up and be more sort of patient with that kind of stuff that goes on.

[784] I have to put a bow on.

[785] You Can't Kill David Arquette.

[786] Why did you like the sport?

[787] Well, I loved it because it really is.

[788] is this larger than life, like spectacle.

[789] But it did come from circus as well.

[790] So I think it's all tied into that.

[791] I loved, like, people that are tough.

[792] And I loved Rowdy, Roddy Piper, how mean he was.

[793] And I really hated him.

[794] Like, I love that it's good against bad.

[795] Wrestling is supposed to show you that this is the bad guy.

[796] Boo, this is the good guy.

[797] Yay.

[798] And you're supposed to get that.

[799] It's like this moral lesson.

[800] And you play these games within telling the stories in a wrestling match.

[801] Yeah, they have a three -act structure, even if it's split up into 10 rings or rounds or whatever.

[802] Yeah.

[803] There's no 10 rounds.

[804] It's not boxing.

[805] Like, there's one round.

[806] I mean, it's whoever's pinned typically.

[807] But I just loved it because it's larger than life.

[808] And it's like, I always saw the guys holding up the belt.

[809] And I was always like, oh, I'd love to be that.

[810] So then when I had the chance, I was like, yeah.

[811] And then everyone was like, boo.

[812] And I didn't really understand.

[813] understand it because I knew at that point, like, well, this isn't, but for a lot of people, it's super real.

[814] And it is real.

[815] Once you get in there, you'll be surprised at how real it becomes.

[816] I loved it.

[817] I loved Hulk Hogan.

[818] I loved WrestleMania 3 maybe in Detroit, or he lives Andre over his head.

[819] Like, that's a, that's a seminal moment in my life.

[820] But I love those dudes because they were enormous.

[821] Yeah.

[822] Because it's wish fulfillment.

[823] It's like, I'm this kid.

[824] I see Hawk Hogan and I think, oh, I wish I could handle all my problems by picking someone up and over my head and chucking them.

[825] Like, that's the fantasy that's unfolding for a boy, I think.

[826] And your sincerity or hardest skill was never, you're not enormous.

[827] Like, that's why I don't want you in wrestling.

[828] I need a fucking, I need a big galove that I think is living in a fantasy world where he can throw everyone around who disagrees with them.

[829] For sure, there is like the size of wrestlers has sort of reduced.

[830] I mean, there's a lot of big wrestlers still.

[831] But there's more sort of acrobatic elements to it that are sort of more new.

[832] But I get it.

[833] I also like huge wrestlers.

[834] I mean, we love Andre the most, right?

[835] Is he the best?

[836] I love the Andre.

[837] I assume you watch that documentary on him.

[838] Yeah.

[839] I loved it.

[840] My favorite moment was when Mean Gene goes, Monica and I watch us together.

[841] We laughed for 10 minutes and rewind it 10 times.

[842] Mean Gene goes, when Andre would take a fart, it would clear out.

[843] Who says take a fart?

[844] That's how big the fart was that you'd refer to it like taking a dump.

[845] Oh my gosh.

[846] Took a fart.

[847] There's this whole thing.

[848] Sometimes they'll check your oil.

[849] They'll put their finger in your butt.

[850] Yeah.

[851] It's seldomly done, but horrible.

[852] Okay.

[853] The news screen, I haven't seen it because it doesn't come out until January 14th.

[854] But I watched the trailer.

[855] And let me just say, first of all, I'm delighted.

[856] lighter to see that they take it very seriously.

[857] That would be my ultimate nightmare if I were used.

[858] At some point, this franchise would stop taking itself seriously.

[859] And that hasn't happened at all.

[860] It's like, I can see this being a really appealing movie for an entirely different generation now.

[861] Matt and Tyler, the directors, did an incredible job.

[862] It's super scary.

[863] It's really funny.

[864] And it has all of this time that's passed with all of these films they can reference and all this social media that's now an element and this incredible new.

[865] cast and it's diverse in a way that it's never been before.

[866] And it was a really incredible experience to watch these tremendous actors, like all these young actors.

[867] And I call them young because they were at the age that we were when we started.

[868] I hope I live long enough to see you receive a call from inside the nursing home.

[869] There's that fun, like, movie star homes where all the, like, older actors are like they all retire that.

[870] Oh, that would be fun.

[871] I'm a certified Bob Ross instructor.

[872] Listen, this is the most important thing on my list.

[873] I taught all the younger actors.

[874] I did like a Bob Ross painting course for a moment.

[875] Oh, cool.

[876] Yes.

[877] Yeah.

[878] I want to take that.

[879] I got so excited when I read this and I thought, because we love Bob Ross, like crazy.

[880] I had this idea for a show where Kristen and I would just draw one real time, try to keep up.

[881] They'd be terrible.

[882] Like, I feel like the joke would be how bad they'd be.

[883] Would you instruct us?

[884] I would love to.

[885] That would be my honor.

[886] Next time I'm in L .A. I'd love to.

[887] It really takes like an hour and a half, two hours, depending on like how much help you want or whatever.

[888] Yeah.

[889] How long did it take to become certified?

[890] Three weeks in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

[891] Anyone can do it.

[892] You just go take this course.

[893] How do you tell your family like, I need three weeks.

[894] Oh, what role do you get?

[895] Are they doing another scream?

[896] No, no, no. I'm going to Bob Ross Academy in Florida.

[897] Yeah.

[898] My wife would be like, the fuck you are.

[899] I know.

[900] I know.

[901] It's a beautiful place.

[902] What's it like?

[903] Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

[904] You paint one painting for two weeks, one painting a day.

[905] And then the last week, you paint two paintings a day.

[906] Wow.

[907] Who are your classmates, David?

[908] Do they know you?

[909] Like, what if you, Monica, went to this seminar and, like, you turned and Nick Cage was in there brushing up on it?

[910] Like, did anyone realize?

[911] I guess I wouldn't be surprised.

[912] A couple of.

[913] people notice me when you're there it's all about Bob it's like Bob oh Bob you're surrounded by his paintings which is amazing feeling dug the incredible instructor was there but toward the end like it takes a long time like it's a whole day of painting these all the same kind of landscape but you do a few different ones you do a waterfall you do a mountain so then when we got to two I would like kind of try to do them fast and like you're kind of on your own so you could do it And I'd be like just huffing and buffing like at the pace of it.

[914] I just, oh, like the conditioning.

[915] You didn't have the conditioning.

[916] By week three, I was like, one of the ladies turns and she goes, you know we can hear you, don't you?

[917] And I was like, I'm sorry.

[918] A, how many people were also taking this class?

[919] B, where did you stay and see what were they like?

[920] There's about 15 people, 20 people taking the class.

[921] Yeah, I stayed at a little like.

[922] Airbnb or something?

[923] No, like a little Airbnb by the water.

[924] Oh, what part of Florida?

[925] New Smyrna Beach.

[926] It's like by Daytona.

[927] There's like this pirate little town there.

[928] That was pretty fun.

[929] I love the pirate town.

[930] That's one place.

[931] I was like, oh, I wish I drank because I'd love to be like a pirate going through there.

[932] I have those thoughts, dude.

[933] They're generally like at Disneyland where like I'm furious.

[934] I'm not on mushrooms on those.

[935] You know, it's a small world after all, or pirates, yeah, always in pirates.

[936] I'm like, why aren't I on acid or something?

[937] Oh, man, I was on St. Mark Street recently, and I went into search and destroy this punk rock, vintage clothing place.

[938] And I swear to God, I got a contact, like, trip.

[939] Contact trip.

[940] I swear.

[941] I was, like, totally what I'm tripping.

[942] I don't know what happened.

[943] On St. Mark Street, there are so many people that must be tripping that.

[944] It just got in my brain.

[945] I was like, it was weird.

[946] Maybe you were low on electrolytes.

[947] I tend to blame most ailments on that.

[948] That's good to know.

[949] If Monica ever gets diagnosed with cancer, she's going to look at the oncologist and say, fucking knew I didn't have enough electrolytes.

[950] It's got to be the electrolytes.

[951] So what, just double my electrolytes, get to knock this out.

[952] You know what else is good?

[953] Cacao butter and coffee.

[954] Amazing.

[955] Oh, okay.

[956] Cacao butter and coffee just gives you like this energy pump.

[957] Oh, okay.

[958] I'm going to do that immediately.

[959] Oh, my God.

[960] Are you sponsored by any cacao butter companies?

[961] And if not, can we make that happen?

[962] Can we appeal to?

[963] No, but lemon and Himalayan salt in the morning with warm water.

[964] Oh, yeah.

[965] That's another big first thing to drink.

[966] That's a good thing.

[967] But I don't do it enough.

[968] Can I ask you one last question about scream?

[969] And it's mostly just Nev Campbell.

[970] the best you weren't young enough i'm trying to think 96 oh yeah did you watch party of five yeah i mean not like religiously but oh you're too busy out there tag in and and fucking being a rough and tough customer i guess so one of the original i just have to say this story because it's so crazy but when we did our first photo shoot for the outsiders the first job i got wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait you're in outsiders the tv show so it was like a tv show based on the movie i was starting to feel insane because that's one of my favorite movies of all time.

[971] Like, how could I be making this mistake?

[972] I played 2bit, but we did this photo shoot.

[973] And I was such like a, like just a little graffiti scrapper that they had all these CDs and I took like a bunch of them and I put them in my pants.

[974] Of course.

[975] Yeah.

[976] Take what you can get and run like how.

[977] That was my mentality.

[978] But I went to like Robert Russelor, one of the guys, I was like, look.

[979] And he was like, put those back.

[980] And he took them out.

[981] It's like, you're a working actor now you don't have to steal anymore like what do you do yeah yeah yeah but that's literally where i was well then first class flights must have fucked you up early in your career then because like me i'm a dirt road kid and it's like free i got to drink as much of this as i can get because it's free yeah totally big trigger big trigger but yes nev is amazing she's such a incredible actress just such a wonderful person but we've all grown up and all have kids now and it's like wow like it's so interesting watch.

[982] But isn't it lovely?

[983] Like I just had a coffee with my ex -TV sister, Lauren Graham, and we were just chatting.

[984] And the idea of being able to do a parenthood like one season every five years, that sounds like heaven.

[985] Like I think we would all love to do that.

[986] One of the greatest ideas I had when I was married to Courtney and friends was ending.

[987] I said to them, you guys, it's always weird when people go away and then they come back years later.

[988] You should do friends home for the holidays, every Thanksgiving, you should come back and do a show.

[989] Like, how great an idea?

[990] That would have been.

[991] I know.

[992] They never did it.

[993] These knuckleheads.

[994] Big missed opportunity.

[995] Big missed.

[996] That could be its own episode.

[997] Like, I am curious, I feel like I'm getting a, I could be misdiagnosing you, but I feel like we have similar self -esteem things.

[998] And what was it like in that period when they were just at the height of that?

[999] And you were constantly around.

[1000] That would have just been, I would have felt less than for 10 years.

[1001] Yeah, there was definitely that.

[1002] I think we also share in common, too, we were married to women that people were like, why did they pick?

[1003] I think we probably share that in common where people were like, why did Kristen pick that dude?

[1004] Right, right.

[1005] Totally.

[1006] I get that all the time.

[1007] It's a unique road to be on.

[1008] I also have to say, I feel so lucky to have met my new wife to have found her and to have these two boys.

[1009] It's just kind of like, again, I suffer from the same thing.

[1010] Like, I feel very fortunate.

[1011] And like you don't deserve it?

[1012] I don't know.

[1013] I mean, I battle with that, I guess.

[1014] But that's the ongoing, like, no, get into the flow of it.

[1015] Like, it's all about getting into this flow of like when you start being positive, start doing positive stuff happens.

[1016] Like, there's always roadblocks.

[1017] I was just trying to do a circus in New York and it fell apart.

[1018] But you just bounce back and you refocus and then you put your energy in that and you take it as a sign that it wasn't meant to be.

[1019] I hope you recognize the beauty.

[1020] and power of your boys having a dad who, beyond all other things, kept trying.

[1021] Yeah, for sure.

[1022] Yeah.

[1023] Dude, I can't tell you.

[1024] We had a guest one time, and he admitted to me he'd read my, like, A .A. big book that was on my counter.

[1025] And when you open it up, it has all these dates of when I try to get sober, relapse, relapse, relapse, relapse.

[1026] And he said at the end of that, he said, I just read this thing and I almost cried because I thought my friend will never stop quitting, will never stop trying.

[1027] And as the first time, I loved that about myself.

[1028] And I hope you love that about yourself.

[1029] And I hope you recognize how lucky your fucking boys are to have you as someone to model after.

[1030] Yeah, thanks, man. You too.

[1031] Sincerely.

[1032] I appreciate it.

[1033] Yeah, it's important that we heal ourselves, that we help each other heal.

[1034] I think that's like what this is all about.

[1035] That's like when it's over, it's over.

[1036] When I lost my parents, I just got to a point of such gratitude.

[1037] helped me really get through the pain of mourning them was like how grateful I was that they were my parents.

[1038] And I do, like, I feel for people that haven't had parents that were even in their lives, like how hard that must be, that they can find that love inside themselves.

[1039] Well, one thing is obvious they loved you so much that you were not afraid at all to be yourself.

[1040] Yeah, that's for sure.

[1041] You're one of the most yourself people I've ever met.

[1042] Thank you.

[1043] That I beat myself up about being that self sometimes.

[1044] Sure, sure, sure.

[1045] It's our hobby.

[1046] David, I adore you.

[1047] You're one of like a handful of guys of met, all in sobriety, really, where I can recognize that life's a little heavier for these couple people I know.

[1048] And I just, it makes me love them.

[1049] And I'm sure everyone in your life feels that way about you.

[1050] Thank you so much.

[1051] I love you too.

[1052] You're welcome, brother.

[1053] I love you both.

[1054] I love everyone out there.

[1055] Keep us updated on Bozo.

[1056] Yes, I want to hear more about maybe like, do you think we could interview Bozo at some absolutely.

[1057] That would be great.

[1058] I would love that.

[1059] Also, Bob Ross.

[1060] Yeah, we need a Bob Ross and we need a Bozo.

[1061] All things be we're going forward with.

[1062] Absolutely.

[1063] We're not going to wrestle.

[1064] We're done wrestling.

[1065] That's over.

[1066] Until either of us are 265 of shredded beef.

[1067] You should get back into it.

[1068] There's some amazing wrestlers right now.

[1069] I'm too old.

[1070] I went to the Staple Center.

[1071] too loud for me. I was like, it's too loud in here for me. I'm too old and sensitive.

[1072] You could get earplugs.

[1073] I think even visually it was too loud for me. Yeah.

[1074] It's a lot.

[1075] It's a lot.

[1076] All right, David.

[1077] It was great talking to you, man. Good luck on Scream.

[1078] Everyone should check it out on January 14th.

[1079] I'm excited.

[1080] Nice to meet you, Monica.

[1081] Thank you so much.

[1082] All right.

[1083] Take care, David.

[1084] I appreciate it, thanks.

[1085] Stay tuned for more armchair expert.

[1086] If you dare.

[1087] And now my favorite part of the show, the fact check with my soulmate Monica Padman.

[1088] Hi.

[1089] Hi.

[1090] How are you?

[1091] I'm a little sleepy.

[1092] You didn't get much sleep last night?

[1093] I didn't get much sleep last night.

[1094] I woke up from 3 to 5 .30.

[1095] But I was lucky because Carly took the kids to school, so I got to go to late 30 after the 5 .30.

[1096] So I do think I coupled together eight -ish.

[1097] It's not the same.

[1098] No, but you know what I so came to?

[1099] succumbed to two.

[1100] Usually I just battle it, right?

[1101] So last night I was like, fucking, I'm going to take more Trasidone and one more early PM.

[1102] And then I'm going to not fight it and I'm going to watch cheer until I get drowsy.

[1103] Well, also I was writing down what this nightmare was about and such.

[1104] There was about an hour of that.

[1105] But then I watched cheer until I got drowsy.

[1106] It's so good.

[1107] Oh, boy.

[1108] The whole fame aspect is just.

[1109] Yeah, season two of cheer is a different energy and tone than the first.

[1110] And it kind of opens with they're all famous because of the first season.

[1111] And it's really interesting.

[1112] I have a lot of empathy for them.

[1113] Yeah.

[1114] These are people from small towns generally or mostly, I would say.

[1115] To receive that kind of attention is like it's so fulfilling for a minute.

[1116] And they're young.

[1117] They're young.

[1118] Yeah, yeah.

[1119] It feels really wonderful.

[1120] Yeah.

[1121] But then you can kind of just see yourself unplugging from the other things that got you this.

[1122] It's very tricky.

[1123] And I can't imagine any human is just built to navigate that in a healthy manner.

[1124] Not that I'm judgmental of how any of them did it, but just like the reading tweets to other people about yourself.

[1125] And the camey, like they were doing so many cameos.

[1126] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1127] Talking about the price of the cameos.

[1128] It's all very.

[1129] I was like happy for them that they're generating some income off of this, of course.

[1130] And then I'm like, and also that's a bizarre job.

[1131] You know.

[1132] Speaking of which, please get a cameo from Aaron Weekly.

[1133] Boy, you're not going to find a better cameo and they're underpriced.

[1134] They're very underpriced.

[1135] I want him to raise the price.

[1136] So get in now before I convince him to raise the price because it's just too affordable at this moment.

[1137] I've bought one from him.

[1138] Oh, you have?

[1139] When he first started it.

[1140] Oh, my God.

[1141] What did you have him say?

[1142] I just, nothing really.

[1143] He just did it from the airport.

[1144] That's hilarious.

[1145] It was mostly him just laughing that I bought one from.

[1146] Oh, that's what you want, kind of.

[1147] Yeah.

[1148] you want his laugh in there.

[1149] Yeah.

[1150] Propriety laugh.

[1151] He should definitely do a ringtone.

[1152] Is that still a thing you can do?

[1153] Can you sell ringtone?

[1154] I would love a ringtone of his laugh.

[1155] Oh, me too.

[1156] Can I tell you really quick the nightmare and then I called Aaron?

[1157] Oh.

[1158] So I had a nightmare that I was in the backseat of a car and the person was doing some stunt driving and that was kind of fine.

[1159] They seemed skilled.

[1160] But then we were somehow, because it was a dream on a wooden roller coaster.

[1161] And I knew the driver didn't understand that we only had wheels on top of the tracks and we didn't have the pulley underneath that roller coasters have so i'm kind of trying to scream this to him as he's driving faster and faster on this thing i wake up and then i'm laying there laying there and i just started thinking like how many car accidents i've been in um as a passenger right and most of my stories are that i somehow behaved in a way that was admirable or i was invincible because i didn't come out of that car and i wasn't injured Calm under stress.

[1162] Yeah, they were, those stories have always been feathers in my cap.

[1163] Yeah.

[1164] And I just last night for the first time, we're like, those are pretty horrifically traumatic events that happen with a lot of regularity.

[1165] So much fear.

[1166] Yeah.

[1167] And then I thought, if we interviewed every NASCAR driver, do you think every one of them has a story like that?

[1168] Like, is that how everyone gets into that thing?

[1169] I doubt it.

[1170] I bet, maybe some, but I was listening to this thing the other day.

[1171] this person was talking about abandonment, and she was saying, like, I realized I was so afraid of being abandoned all the time that I had abandoned myself.

[1172] Like, I didn't know me anymore because I was so, just doing everything you can to not get left by that person that you've lost yourself, you left yourself.

[1173] And you've abandoned parts of yourself that you hold dear in exchange for this other person.

[1174] Yeah.

[1175] Love, I guess.

[1176] I was like, that's really interesting.

[1177] Yeah.

[1178] People are complicated.

[1179] Oh, my God.

[1180] I think we're all.

[1181] There's a lot going on.

[1182] And it's a ding, ding, ding, because David has a lot, lot of trauma.

[1183] Yeah.

[1184] And searched it out.

[1185] Replicated it in a way that maybe he thought he could control.

[1186] Yeah.

[1187] As a dead eye.

[1188] Yeah.

[1189] I saw the most amazing illusion.

[1190] There's an illusion online that is so incredible.

[1191] that my friend Guy sent me, and it is a rotating piece of cardboard that's been painted in a way that it looks like a three -dimensional window pane.

[1192] But it doesn't rotate, right?

[1193] It goes, it goes like 90 degrees this way, then it comes back 90 degrees this way.

[1194] And then the man, it zooms out and he says, this is going in a perfect circle, but your eye cannot see it because you have permanently imprinted what a window looks like.

[1195] So what we need to do is try to add up.

[1196] something outside perspective.

[1197] If we attach this paper clip and we keep our eye on the paper clip, what happens instead of you, now the illusion's broken, now the paper clip does something that's impossible to happen.

[1198] It comes off of the thing and it rotates in a circle, but the other thing still keeps going back and forth.

[1199] And then he says, well, maybe that's because it was attached to the outside.

[1200] Let's put a ruler right through the middle of this thing.

[1201] And that'll definitely show us it spinning.

[1202] He shows that now the fucking ruler just goes in a circle and moves through, the cardboard in and out of the cardboard in and out of the cardboard in the cardboard still looks like it's going back and forth back and forth and he said no one will ever see this correctly unless their culture is different so you can show this same video to people from africa who do not have that print of what a window is and they will see it exactly as it is wow but we will never see it exactly as it is that's crazy and so when i hear certain people i admire writing books about everyone needs to get tougher and this and that and drop your baggage.

[1203] Part of me is like, oh, no, there are things you will never unsee.

[1204] Like, we can't unravel the window illusion.

[1205] It can't be done.

[1206] Even when it's explained to you, you see it from all sides.

[1207] We're trying to put some things on it.

[1208] That ain't going to happen for us on the West.

[1209] That's always going to be that illusion.

[1210] And I find that to be so fascinating.

[1211] Hmm.

[1212] That's kind of depressing.

[1213] Yeah.

[1214] Yeah.

[1215] But I think instead of taking an approach where like that happened for you and not to you and don't let that do this it's like no no no no we could develop some strategies that take you away from that yeah but the notion of the other thing i think is kind of not helpful yeah some things can't be talked out right right but it's good to recognize and and know big time i have had zero awareness of i was not in on the joke until last night about the motorsports that i'm doing bonded I'm trying to do a safe version of bondage and control this thing that has scared me so many times.

[1216] And then ironically, scaring other people in the process quite often.

[1217] And with all these things, like, it's a double -edged sword.

[1218] Like, I also love that I love driving, and I've done it professionally for fun.

[1219] Like, there's, it's all nebulous.

[1220] It's like, it's good, it's bad, it's good, it's bad.

[1221] Yeah.

[1222] Okay, David.

[1223] Okay.

[1224] David, so you know who can cure all this?

[1225] Bozo.

[1226] Bozo the clown.

[1227] Yeah.

[1228] You just need a little more bozo.

[1229] That man. I need to sell a couple motorcycles and get some bozo DVDs.

[1230] That moment on the show is one of the most impactful ones I've experienced.

[1231] Like I felt a little heartbroken.

[1232] I mean, I felt very heartbroken.

[1233] like watching him tell us this bozo thing.

[1234] But then after I was like, why did I feel that?

[1235] Like he is saying something beautiful.

[1236] He's connected to something beautiful.

[1237] It saved him.

[1238] That message is beautiful.

[1239] It's great.

[1240] But I'm projecting that like he's not understanding reality or he's too sensitive or something.

[1241] Like, I'm doing that.

[1242] He's not doing it.

[1243] Right, right.

[1244] It made me sad as well.

[1245] But also he's a clown, which is wonderful.

[1246] Yeah.

[1247] Yeah.

[1248] And it's lovely.

[1249] It's quality and kindness.

[1250] And I don't know.

[1251] But I'm excited to see what he does with that IP.

[1252] Yeah.

[1253] IP.

[1254] Yeah, yeah.

[1255] What's her name?

[1256] You already said it today.

[1257] The punk, Punky Brewster.

[1258] Solay Moonfry's movie.

[1259] A .k .a Punky Brewster.

[1260] Her movie, Kid 90.

[1261] He's in that.

[1262] And a lot.

[1263] That movies.

[1264] I couldn't make it.

[1265] It's hard.

[1266] I tried.

[1267] I couldn't do it.

[1268] And not because it.

[1269] it's bad.

[1270] No, it's very good, but it's heartbreaking as well.

[1271] Yeah.

[1272] And it is, it's all these videotapes of her at that time and that crew at that time and chaos and teenagedom.

[1273] Like, it's just a lot, but it's, it's really, really well done.

[1274] And so many performers get into this so they can control interactions.

[1275] Yeah.

[1276] And so a lot of the kids that were drawn to this are pretty fucked up too.

[1277] Yeah.

[1278] Boy, being a human's so messy.

[1279] That's right.

[1280] We got to keep Keep it.

[1281] We got to keep it because it's proving to be more and more true.

[1282] The song Rosanna is about his sister.

[1283] Yeah.

[1284] Somebody in toto was dating her.

[1285] Okay.

[1286] Okay.

[1287] Great.

[1288] So that's about her.

[1289] Very cool.

[1290] Would you want a hit song written about you?

[1291] I personally don't care.

[1292] Yeah, I would love it.

[1293] Yeah, like if Chris Martin and you fell in love.

[1294] Oh, my God, I would love it.

[1295] That's every one's dream, right?

[1296] I would love it.

[1297] It's just like a reminder.

[1298] I can, like, always remind myself that someone cared away about me at a point.

[1299] Yeah.

[1300] So he was talking about this very specific religion that his family practiced in the commune.

[1301] And I tried to look up, like, what it was called, but I couldn't find it.

[1302] I thought it now.

[1303] It was in my research.

[1304] God, I'm wondering if I can remember it.

[1305] I mean, when you look him up, it says he's Jewish.

[1306] His dad was Muslim.

[1307] I think his dad was many, many different.

[1308] Yeah.

[1309] His father was a convert from Catholic to Islam.

[1310] And was in this other.

[1311] And then part of this that I don't know the name of.

[1312] If you go to his Wikipedia page, it'll say what the name of the commune was, and it's got a hyperlink on it.

[1313] I love.

[1314] Really?

[1315] Unless I'm, unless I'm misremembering this.

[1316] I could obviously.

[1317] Wobbywabs fast on the keyboard.

[1318] It could totally be mis.

[1319] Sub, subud.

[1320] Is it hyperlink?

[1321] Yeah.

[1322] What?

[1323] There you go.

[1324] Are you on his Wikipedia?

[1325] Yeah.

[1326] It says, Arquette was born in a. a Suba commune in Virginia.

[1327] Well, but Suba, what does Suba mean?

[1328] Susilia, Budai, I can't say.

[1329] Acronym of Susilla Budai Dharma.

[1330] It's an international.

[1331] It sounds Indian.

[1332] It does.

[1333] Well, it said, I think it said takes some Hinduism, Buddhism.

[1334] It's an international interfaith spiritual movement that began in Indonesia in the 1920s.

[1335] Yeah, so like when I read, I was like, I could see myself.

[1336] Like, of all the offerings, I don't like any of them.

[1337] I probably like the offerings from India.

[1338] of the most.

[1339] They're not like rules necessarily.

[1340] Right.

[1341] Their gods don't seem to be so punitive.

[1342] There's many of them.

[1343] Yeah.

[1344] It's a little, yeah, it seems less punitive.

[1345] Yeah, I mean, there's no hell.

[1346] Yeah, and the Judeo -Christian god is like, my Lord, wiped out everyone on planet Earth.

[1347] Literally killed every single person.

[1348] Well, I think there's some killers.

[1349] Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.

[1350] But, I mean, the God you're worshipping to have in the back of your mind, P .S, if you you guys fucked this up enough, I'll flood the whole planet and I'll only let two people live to repopulate it.

[1351] Like that's a, to know that your God has that temper.

[1352] Yeah.

[1353] Well, literally, I mean, what people will say in the South, if you're like a good Christian is your God fearing.

[1354] Right.

[1355] God fearing.

[1356] Yeah, good God -fearing Christian.

[1357] Yeah.

[1358] I want to be loved by my God.

[1359] I don't want to be feared.

[1360] I don't want to fear my God.

[1361] I agree.

[1362] Yeah.

[1363] That's it.

[1364] Hmm.

[1365] Well, we love.

[1366] you David, our cat.

[1367] So much.

[1368] I thought about him a lot after that.

[1369] Yeah, me too.

[1370] I can see why people fall in love with them because he's just, his heart is like on both sleeves.

[1371] It's cut in half and it's on both sleeves.

[1372] Yeah.

[1373] I love them.

[1374] Yeah.

[1375] Thanks for coming, David Arquette.

[1376] Thanks for David Arquette.

[1377] All right.

[1378] All right.

[1379] Well, that's a heavy one.

[1380] Yeah.

[1381] Yeah.

[1382] But we make space for the heavy ones.

[1383] That's right.

[1384] Because life is messy.

[1385] Messy and humans are messy, messy, messy, messy.

[1386] There's frequency illusion everywhere, satisfies them.

[1387] Liberal arts education, Hellenic Studies.

[1388] Love you.

[1389] Love you.

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