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Here's how I make a tuna fish sandwich. I open up two cans of sand...
Here's how I make a tuna fish sandwich. I opened up two cans of tuna in water, not oil. It has to be water. Oil is disgusting. And then you put it in the bowl and you, I chop up a celery stick really, really fast. Super like, ah, fuck it. Welcome to Smart Life. Smart Life. Smart Life. Smart Life.
You heard about Bennett, you know, that he's doing some personal training now. Do you know about this? You're late to the bit. You know, some of us get on a little bit early, make sure our devices are working. I like that. It means it's a good bit. It's proven as a good bit. Two for two. What time is your next session? I've got one at 945. If we could start wrapping this one up, please. What are you talking about? For sure. Oh, there he is. Sean, we could have you start stretching, please. And chaturanga. Surprise guests, give us a little snap if you don't mind.
Oh, nice. Sean, can you hear us? Yes, I can. Sean, do you know what Bennett's background is? Really quick, do you know what that is?
Uh, it looks like a gym. Okay. You're reading books, I see. Yeah, you've seen... Picture rolling. Somebody's seen pictures of stuff. So, uh, so Will is back from Georgia. I know. When did you get back, Will? Yesterday. That's cool. And, uh... Are you checking your texts? Do you want to get back to us? Yeah, is that cool? We can just hold the record? Somebody's calling me, so I'm trying to think, like, why am I do not disturb? Didn't work, but...
Hey, I did have... We flew back yesterday and had some crazy turbulence early into the flight. And you love turbulence. And it was maybe the worst I've ever had. And it was...
It was scary AF. The rest of the flight, I was just... The cortisol dump that I had from that was just so intense. Yeah. It was like one of those side to side and up and down. And being alone is scary too because I'm sure you were alone. Well, I was flying. Yeah. Oh, so you were up front. I flew myself. Yeah, I was up front. So I was really scared because also I don't know how to fly a plane. Yeah. Do you get really scared about turbulence? Yeah, I do.
I do, yeah. Hang on a second. You guys talk about all your world travels. You don't remember flying next to this old gal? Oh, that's right. Yeah, that's right. I forgot. You know that I am. She loves to dig her fingers into your arm if you're sitting next to her.
What was that? She white knuckles it all the way. I know. If you don't bring a white Russian in time, you're going to get some fingernails. Oh, listen. I was just like at that point, anything was on the table. Yeah. But was it like gaspy? Was it? Were you? We're like, oh, yeah. It was just me. It was me and Eli and our buddy Bob and Liz.
Yeah. On the plane. And it was... And everybody ends up just closing their eyes and not talking. Yeah, nobody talked. It got really, you know, it gets weird. Are they as nervous flyers as you are? Or were they more casual? No. But I think that everybody plays a role. Once somebody is the most nervous, then everybody else can be degrees of less. Yeah. Yeah. And I was definitely the worst. I've been better lately, but that one yesterday, and the guy had said to us, like, look, there's going to be some pretty, it's going to be pretty challenging
pretty choppy early on. I didn't think that he meant... Did you say chappy? He said pretty chappy, yeah, because I wanted to get it more chappy. We got it. Good. He's in. Pretty chappy early on. Anyway, it was one of those, like, you know, please don't let this be the moment, all that kind of shit. And...
Did you send off any texts to any family members? I couldn't even reach for my... Are you kidding? He's doing it now. He was doing it at the beginning of the show. You know, well, the funny thing about it is it's the control, too. So it's like looking out the window, holding on, as if, like, my worry or looking out the... Or any of it's going to have any effect on the outcome. Like, if I grab the thing with the chair really hard, it'll brace my fall. Have you thought about hypnosis at all? I have. I have. Because I know our friend, she did it, right? Yeah. And it works. Yeah.
For her. That does it. She won't play at night. It gets to be worse. What about, but hypnosis, have you guys ever done hypnosis? You ever been? Yeah, I did guided hypnosis or something, but I didn't really, I don't know. What were you trying to do? Can we go for guesses? Eliminate marshmallows from your diet. Okay.
And it was half successful. Now he's just doing the mini ones. Drinking hot cocoa so it didn't work. Are you really drinking hot? Are you having hot cocoa right now? Yeah, right now. Here's the thing. I know. It's like every day it's an 11-year-old's birthday party. He truly is one of Santa's elves. I think that's who Sean is.
Wait, wait, listen. Last night I flew, I went out yesterday and came back last night to Vegas to see you two at the Sphere. Oh, wow. Yeah. You guys went. Yeah. It was unbelievable. Wasn't that, isn't that the Sphere incredible? It's just mind-blowing.
I don't know how they do that. I saw that picture that you guys posted, or you did or Scotty did of you guys with Jimmy and Deb and Edge. The Edge, yeah. It's just Edge. Yeah, sorry, Edge, sorry, Mr. Edge. Fuck, man. V is not his first name?
It is not. No. It's mine. It's a very cool dude. Yeah, no. DJ's your baby? They're all so great. But anyway, it was great. It was amazing. I can't believe I lost so much money. We landed, gambled, ate, saw the show, came back home. That's how you do it. I can't sleep overnight there. It's so depressing. But your game is, I think, Will, you might know this. I do. But listener, you guess what Sean Hayes' game of choice is. Well, I think he's mentioned it on the show before, but...
But it's roulette. He likes roulette and blackjack. I was going to say that. Yeah. Oh. Oh, you're not supposed to say that. Is that our guest? Oh, that's our guest. Well, why don't we get to it? Here we come. Why don't we introduce this guest? Our guest is anxious to get. We've never had it. That is the first time. That is a guest violation. Yeah, it's the first one. Could you tell, by the way? Could you tell just by the voice? Not yet. I couldn't. But we've started. Okay, here we go. Starting in a two-minute penalty box. It's just a minor. Okay.
Well, my intro is about two minutes, so it's perfect. Okay. I'm so excited about my guests today. They're obviously excited because they're already on the show. I mean...
No, seriously, I've been trying to get him for a long time. He's considered rom-com royalty, but he's also done it all, guys, exceptionally well, I might add. I'm a huge fan, and the best part is he may be even nicer than me. When he first moved to Los Angeles, he worked as a bartender for nearly a decade. Over the years, he's become a very effective
environmental activists fighting for, amongst other things, climate change and a zillion other things. Ed Begley Jr., the rom-com king. Here he comes. This is exciting. Ed Begley Jr., who I love, actually, by the way. I'm such a fan of this person. I can't wait for you to see who it is. You're going to love him. One of his characters makes me green with envy.
Whenever I think of how to spell or say his name, I always think of the word Buffalo. It's my hero, Mark Ruffalo. Oh, Mark. Ta-da. Yeah. Of course I broke the rules. Wait, Ruffalo, are you a rom-com king? Is that your... I was going to go with Hugh Grant or... I know. No, you've done obviously amazing dramatic work, but I love your rom-coms. Thank you. Mark, look what we've got matching peepers on. I know. I saw that. I was like...
What else can I use here? Do I have anything else? Mark, did I just see you got nominated yesterday? Critics' Choice Award, maybe? Something like that? The National Board of Review. National Board of Review. But who's counting? Yeah. Come on. I mean, but I am a New Yorker, so, you know, I had a shoe in. Mark Ruffalo. Dude, welcome. Will...
Come on. Will and I go way back. Do you know that? No. Tell me how. I mean, like mid-90s, early 90s. I bet you can give us the month, Willie. Yeah. Well, yeah. How about this? Fall of 96 is when you guys did This Is Our Youth.
You're unbelievable. Wow, how do you know that? How do you know that? Because, well, because, so Mark did This Is Our Youth with Josh Hamilton and my then-girlfriend, Missy Yeager, whom I've talked about. She's a great play. And with, that Kenny Lonergan wrote. Yeah.
They did it off-Broadway. What was that theater, Mark? The first theater you guys did it in? The Intar. The Intar. The Intar. The Intar. And it was like... And Mark and Missy had also done a lot of... I guess it was like Tuesdays at 9 that you guys were doing a bunch of scenes that Kenny had written, right? For a few years leading up to it? Yeah, there was some... They had that playwright... Naked Angels had that short plays festival. Yeah.
Yeah. Are you in a closet, Mark? No. This is my office. My wife has the giant room upstairs at the balcony, and I'm in what used to be a laundry room slash bathroom. And where I'm sitting is where the toilet was, basically. Okay.
Oh, wow. It's pretty awesome. Listener, it is a... It's wood-paneled. It's got beautiful pictures on it, but it is narrow. It's New York. It's New York. This is like premium space in New York. I mean, people have apartments this size in New York. I mean... Mark...
It's so nice to meet you. I'm so glad you're here. Thank you for bringing me. Thank you for bringing me. It's really cool. It's so cool. You're just meeting him and he's your guest. Will and I both know him. Why are you one of our guests? Yeah, we go back. Jason and I go back. He's my guest because I'm a big fan. You guys go back? A tiny bit. We don't go back to the intern theater or whatever it was called. Intern, bro. That's it. Sorry, bro. Come on, bro. Come on.
But Mark is just, I think I fanned out quite a bit when I met you the first couple of times, and I'm kind of fanning out now. You're just one of my favorites, Mark. Oh, man. Thank you. Coming from you, that's a huge compliment. Thank you, any of you. Thank you, Sean. You're it. I'm excited. Whenever I see Kenneth Lonergan, I was like, I think it's Kenny Loggins at first glance. But tell me how, because Will mentioned...
Wait, can we back up into that compliment one more time? Because Lonegrin just spun in his early grave real quick. No, I know, but I'm just kidding.
But wait, this is our youth. First of all, it was a huge hit, and every actor in the world does scenes from that now. I mean, isn't that wild? My son is doing scenes from it. No way. He's acting class. Yeah, yeah. Every actor does it now. How old's your son? It's so crazy. He's 22. 22? Dude, that is so fucking crazy. That's what happens. You guys, you have to understand that when these guys did This Is Our Youth, when it came out...
It was like shot out of a cannon. It took everybody by surprise in this way that you can't believe. People were like...
All of them were so... I mean, Josh and Missy and Mark, but Mark was so good in this part that people were like tripping over themselves to offer him... They couldn't believe what it was. It was so good, and the play is so well written, Mark. You can, you know, speak to that. What a beautiful character. So perfect, almost, that play. You want to hear something crazy? We just did a fundraiser here in New York City. Me, Missy, and Matt Damon, who...
took the play to London a couple years after we did it. I had a full white beard. We did a reading. It was basically, it was kind of turned into the stage reading. Like, Missy remembered all her lines. I remembered some of mine. Wow. Of course, Missy remembered all hers. Of course she did, yeah. And Damon, you know, was just right there. And literally, it was the play.
I mean, we had the hat, we had the Major Matt Masons, you know. And it was, you know, it's funny because it just tells you like what you can get away with on stage. People, I think people bought that we were 19, you know. Yeah, right. Even with my big Santa Claus beard.
I'm so jealous I have zero theater history in my, you know... You would be great in theater, man. I remember reading for a couple in my early 20s in New York and was so nervous to get out on stage and audition for, you know, those...
those three you know silhouettes deep in the house you know speaking you know that you can't see their faces but you i just thought it was thanks we're good yeah exactly from the darkness yeah i just felt like i just did not belong here and that they're doing me some kind of a favor get your sitcom ass off the stage
We need to cast some real actors here. By the way, I've been thinking of this. This is apropos of nothing. I'm sorry to hijack it here, but I've been thinking about this character. I was watching TV the other day, and I saw, like, one of those judge shows. They have, like, so many different judge shows, you know, judge this and whatever, midday shows. And I thought, I want to do one called Judge Camp.
And he's like a super campy judge, and he's like, um, you're wearing no shoes into my court? Guilty. Get out of here. Sean. Sean, crush. Sean, love for you to sell tape for that. How good would Judge Camp be? Oh, my God. Not with that blazer. Out. With that tone, I'm ruling for your mother. You owe her $300. Two years in fashion jail. Yeah, exactly. Judge Camp. That is so... Thanks, we're good. Thanks, we're good.
How many things have you done with Kenneth Lonergan? That's what my mom calls him. Lonergan. Lonergan. Lonergan? Yeah. What did I say? Lonergan? Yeah, but everyone does it. It's amazing. What is it again? Sorry? Lon? Lonergan. Lonergan. Lonergan. How many? You've done two films? At least one. I've done two films. Two films. And how many plays?
I've only done one play with him. I directed a version of This Is Our Youth. I directed a version of You Can Count On Me. God damn it, I love that movie. A one-act version of You Can Count On Me. Really? And I acted in a one-act version of You Can Count On Me. Wait, like on stage? Yeah, yeah. It was part of that one-act festival thing.
that Missy and I did with Rob Morrow playing my character. Wow. You can count on me. For my sister, tell my sister who Missy is. Missy Yeager is just the most brilliant actor. She's a writer now. Daughter of Steve Yeager and granddaughter of Chuck Yeager. Not true. But really good. Thank you.
That covers the Yeagers I know. Good calling, associating with other Yeagers you've heard of. That's it. It's really from the Yeager Meister dynasty that Missy comes from. Yeager Meister. Talk to us about how exhausting it was trying to prop up that talentless actress, Laura Linney, and you can count on me.
Such a good movie. Just one of these days she's going to find some talent. Yeah, it's just, it'll wear you out, you know? Just love her so much. Love her so much. The most brilliant, sweetest, most humble person.
And you could tell because you two are so high quality and just being people that that was like this extra special rocket fuel in that movie, in a movie that the chemistry and the brother-sister connection had to be sort of palpable, tangible, like...
I imagine it wasn't luck that they put you two together in that you're both so kind and such a match that you could just kind of feel it through the screen, that extra little bit that gave that movie its punch. I love that movie. Yeah. I was not supposed to be in that movie at all. I had to literally beg Kenny Lonergan to give me an audition for it. No way. Yes.
We were actually, we had lunch. We had the great success of This Is Our Youth. We were having lunch one day at Cafe Lou. Perfect. On the 13th. And we were walking out and Ethan Hawke was sitting at the bar. Uh-oh. And Kenny's like, Hey, Ethan, did you read that script? And...
And Ethan was like, "Oh, no, man. You know, I did. It's just not for me. I just did this other thing that's basically the same character. So, you know, it's good, bro, but it's not for me right now." And we started to walk out and I was like, "What script?" And he's like,
You haven't read it? And I was like, no. I'm going to direct a movie. And I was like, can I read it? He says, just don't get your fucking manager on me. I love that. And finally he acquiesced and it was basically like, fine.
We're gonna fucking... I'm casting Timothy Oliphant this weekend. You don't look anything like Laura Linney. But I'm gonna give you... I'll let you audition just because you're such a pain in the ass. And, uh...
And he brought me in on a Sunday in the casting direct, into the casting office with him holding a camera in one hand and reading the script in the other. Oh, my God. And that was my audition after the first scene. He's like...
It was really good. Damn it. Might be good in this part. All right, let's read the next one. And we read the next one. No way. That's crazy. And he was like, you're really fucking good in this. Great. Great. Just great. That's hysterical. And we will be right back. And now, back to the show.
Mark, there's two things I'm obsessed with, theater stories, if you got one, and medical stories. But you don't have to do either one, and you can not answer any question you want to. But what happened to you during You Can Count on Me is fascinating to me, medically. Actually, that was after all that. Okay. And I was, you know, I was on my way, you know. I was like all the big agents and everything, and...
Yeah, I had a brain tumor after the success of You Can Count on Me. And you had a dream about it or something? Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. Yeah, it's the craziest thing. I was actually shooting The Last Castle with Gandolfini and Robert Redford, and I had about a week left on that. My son, Sunrise, was like nine and a half months pregnant, right?
And the baby was eminently coming. And I had, you know, I had one of those like 4 a.m. calls. And I woke up probably around 3. I just had this crazy dream. And it wasn't like any other dream I'd ever had. It was just like, you have a brain tumor. It wasn't even a voice. It was just pure knowledge. You have a brain tumor. That's insane. And you have to deal with it immediately. That's crazy. Jesus. Wait. I mean, were there any symptoms?
No, no, it's funny. I had like an ear infection that night. And so I was feeling, you know, that was hurting me. And so I went to the cast doctor the next day who was literally sat on the board of, you know, the Nashville Presbyterian Hospital. And I said, listen, this is going to sound crazy. I'm going to...
I had this dream last night that I had a brain tumor. Fucking actors. She said, that is crazy. But there's no reason that you should, you know, have to worry about it. I'll order you a CAT scan and we'll go right after work today and we'll show how crazy you are. And I was like, oh, great. I am crazy. Just do it anyway.
And I went and then we went up to the neurologist's office who's going to read the scan. And the nurse calls, you know, the doctor out. I could hear them talking in the other room. She comes in. She's just kind of like a zombie. And she says, you have a mass behind your left ear the size of a golf ball.
Yeah, we don't know what it is. We can't tell until it's biopsied. Same year as the earache? The ear infection? Yeah, same year as the earache. And I said, yeah.
Oh, it gives me such anxiety. How old were you? Yeah, oh, my God. I was 33. 33. And thank God it was benign. About to have a baby. About to have a baby. And you just finished You Can Count On Me. And you've worked super hard and you've just done all this stuff and now you're making a movie with Robert Redford and Gandolfini. It's all coming together. And in this moment, you're like, uh-huh. Jesus. Uh-huh.
And they're like, it's on. So then I'm, so I didn't tell Sonny because, you know, she had the birth plan. She did the, you know, the yoga. She had the doula. You know, we had the hot tub ordered. You know, we had like... For the party after. This is like, yeah, this is like her wedding, you know, man. Like, this is like her christening, her quinceanero. And I just was like, I can't, you know, she's already like...
Oh, God, him again? I mean, has everything got to be about him? Yeah. Uh-huh. And so I just couldn't. Like a few days, like a week after the baby, I had to go in and meet the neurologist and decide what I was going to do. And had you told Sunny yet? I hadn't told her. No way. What a thing to sit on. Until the night before. Dude.
I mean, yeah, like Jason says, like you're sitting there with all this stuff going on. What a thing to sit on. What a thing to have literally in your head and also swimming around in your head in both ways. I mean, and that...
That time between you know and telling her must have been just absolute torture. They just like shave your head and cut into your scalp and take the thing out? Oh, yeah. I mean, it was a full on, yes. I have a big scar, you know, that quarter horseshoe thing. Did they say that the prognosis was like, were you super concerned or were they like, listen, this is something we do a lot. It's early, blah, blah, blah.
Was super concerned because I didn't you know, I hadn't really gotten that I hadn't met with a neurologist You know there I what I was told by the doctors was like, you know, it's a brain tumor But from the dream the dream was so intense and it was literally like you have a brain tumor You have to deal with it immediately and it just had the sense of doom
And, you know, I'm like, it's a fucking brain tumor. You're like, no, that's just a tumor talking. Dude, it's a... I know. You know how my tumor ran away with me, really. I love that it was close enough to your ear to actually speak to you and say, hey, come get me. It whispered in his brain. Yeah.
That's just crazy that you had a dream about it. Wow, dude. So they take you in there. They shave a spot. They cut open your scalp. They cut it out. And then, like, is there an extensive rehab process? Or were you out and about that afternoon? No, man. Well, first of all, I just got to say when I told Sunny about it, first she thought I was joking. And then she just burst into tears and said,
I always knew you were going to die young. Oh, my God. That's horrible. But so good. That's really good. If you wrote it in a script, it would be too much. Let's just play that instead of saying it. Here we go, everybody. Exactly. It's so good. Oh, my God.
Wow. I think I might have laughed. So they took it out. It was benign, but it left you a little deaf in your ear, right? Not a little, just totally. Totally. Really? Completely deaf in one ear? Completely left deaf in one ear. When I woke up, the left side of my face was totally paralyzed. No.
Like, I couldn't even close my eye and was talking out of the side of my mouth like this, you know? Did they say to expect this, or was that a shock to you? They said to me I had, like, I had a 20% chance of nicking my nerve on the left side of my face and killing it. And then I had 70% chance of losing my hearing, which went. And, you know, at that point, like, you and the airplane...
You know, you're like, okay, I don't really believe in you, but, you know, take my hearing, but let me keep the face and just let me be the father to this kid. Foxhole prayers, right? Yeah. Reverse for me. They took my face, but I can hear great.
- You're beautiful. And you have incredible hearing by the way. - Thank you, thank you so much. - You're welcome. - Mark, can we start at the beginning? And I wanna know more about you. You grew up in Wisconsin. When did you move to LA? What made you move? Did the whole family move to LA? - Yeah. - And why? - We moved, no, no, the whole family didn't move to LA. We started in Wisconsin.
You know, the family business sort of blew up. My family business was they had a construction painting business. Construction painting? Yeah, like huge jobs, like the Libby factory and GM Motors, American Motors, you know, sandblasting. Paint the whole factory. Huge, huge jobs. And that went under, and my dad was, you know,
Trying to start a new life and so that took us to San Diego and He he had the original soda Butler which was you can make your own soda at home for fractions of the cost Like carbonate your own soda. Yeah, I remember that that was his that was his baby and he was ready to take off like we see it today and
And Coca-Cola and Pepsi and all those brands stopped selling, wouldn't sell him the syrup because it was a home delivery kind of system. And there's an antitrust law against that. They have to sell those syrups to the public. Really? And he was like, this is against the law. And they're like, fuck you. Take us to court. Right.
And basically, once those high-end brands weren't available to people, they just sort of lost its popularity and that crapped up. So we were living in San Diego. With nothing to do. Yeah. And we moved there the day after I graduated from high school.
And I had no support group there. I mean, I'd been surfing since I started living in Virginia Beach. All I was doing was really surfing and smoking weed. We all know that. Sure. And wrestling, by the way. You were a wrestler. Yeah, I was a wrestler during high school. That's crazy. That's going to get us to Foxcatcher at some point in this interview. If I ever showed up. I love that movie. I love that movie, too.
And someone said, "Go to Los Angeles. You want to be an actor? Go to Los Angeles. Go to the Stella Adler Conservatory. You'll meet people there. They'll take care of you." Where did that acting interest come from? In Wisconsin, was it born? Yeah, man. I was a Catholic. My family's Catholic. My grandmother was a born-again Christian.
And my father was a Baha'i, so I had like the whole Middle East, you know, a good part of the Middle East living in my home, you know. And they still couldn't get along. And...
And I would, you know, first of all, I'd go to church and I was like, wow, that guy's, wow, he's captivating. He's captivating as a priest could be. Then I was saved by Jimmy Swaggart at the First Assembly of God. And I was like, whoa, he's got a band. You know, he's sweating. He's like Elvis. So I, you know, I started, I got an idea what it was like to perform and
It was weird. My grandmother, one night, I was probably like eight. Everything that happened to me, that's like core experiences, were my grandmother, whether it was my first enema or it was... And my last, by the way. I was just going to say not your last, yeah. And being saved by Jimmy Swaggart. But also letting me stay up at night and watch the movie of the week. And that one was Streetcar Named Desire. Oh, wow.
Wow. And I saw Brando, like, at eight years old, and I was like, I didn't know it was Brando. I don't even know, you know. I was like, Grandma, who is that? And she tells me. I was like, what is he doing? She says, he's acting. I was like, I want to do that. Yeah.
Just like that. She's like, let's get finished with this enema first. Let's clean you out first. I have just the thing for you. We're going to cure you of that. Wow. Wow. So then that kind of goes on pause through the moving. Yeah, and then you're out. Then you move up from San Diego to L.A. to pursue that? Yeah, so I'm like, Dad, I kind of want to go to this school. And he said, uh...
I was like, but it's in L.A. And I've never really been away from home. I was 18. And he's like, well, you know, why not? I was like, I don't know. I'm afraid. And he's like, well, what's the worst that can happen? What are you afraid of? I was like, what if I die? And he's like, well, if you die, who gives a shit? You know, you'll be dead. You won't even know. Yeah. I mean, I'll be sad, but I mean, you're not going to know. I like your dad. And so I did. I do, too.
And I went up there, and I was taking the train. I used to— Oh, wow. We didn't have any money at that point. We were just poor as church mice. So I'd bus tables at night, and then the next day— I went to school every other day, so I'd work one day and make just enough money to pay for a round-trip train ticket and buy a burrito that I'd cut into thirds. Really? A bean and cheese burrito right off Hollywood Boulevard at Dos Burritos.
Yeah. And yeah. Wow. And that was it. And I just had my mind blown. And I'm like, this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life. And then from that acting school, was there like a showcase in there where agents came by and you got an agent and then you started getting some auditions and got a couple jobs and just sort of a natural progression? I was there for seven years. Wow. Without representation. Pony my craft.
- Bartending at the Chateau Marmont, right? But didn't you drive a motor, you rode a motorcycle everywhere, which is my first thing was when I read you had a motorcycle and you drove it to auditions, I was like, what about your hair?
It was amazing because there was no helmets back then, which is also deadly. My hair was awesome. It was all windblown. You know, it looked like it crossed between Sal Mineo and... John Travolta. Yeah, and Bozo. Bozo.
Yeah, no, it's wild that you drove a motorcycle everywhere. Like, I can't imagine. I couldn't afford a car. It was like I had a $250 1974 Honda XR250 that I could personally work on when it broke down. And that was the only way I could get around LA. I was living in a closet for $200. My whole nut was...
was about 300 bucks a month, you know? - So then was there a big job that kind of launched you or was it sort of like a little bit here, a little bit there and just sort of a slow progression?
It was a very slow progression. I mean, there's really no reason that I should have tried as long as I did because that was from 18 to 28. I mean, that is such a long time to like stick with. You want to talk about stick with it. Yeah. There's so much opportunity in there for you to say fuck it and throw it in and go do anything else. Yeah. I did. I tried. No, but I mean, yeah.
I'm just thinking the similarities between your story and Sean's story. Yeah, I love that. No, I am. No, because I'm thinking about like, I think if I'm remembering correctly, you came to L.A. and you smoked a lot of weed and wrestled, and you'd never nut for less than $300. If I'm putting all the pieces, if I'm thinking back, if I'm thinking of the right...
300 bucks for a nut? That's why Will was silent for the last two minutes. He's been constructing that joke. He was just shaping that joke. We love it. It was so well executed. Thank you.
It was beautiful. I was like, wait, that's not my story. I moved to L.A. and got a sitcom right away. God bless you. I love you for that. But, Mark, let me ask you this, because my recollection is, so you're 28. When you came to New York and started doing stuff with Naked Angels with those guys, with Missy and Kenny, is when I first met you when you guys were doing the short plays. Before This Is Our Youth, you guys were doing... And...
You had done, oh no, right before This Is Our Youth, you had done a movie and you had an, I feel like you had an agent at that point, like right before This Is Our Youth. Am I right about that? Yeah, I did. Yeah. I'd done a few softcore horror films. No, that's not true. Yeah, it is. For real? I did Mirror, Mirror 2 and Mirror, Mirror 3. Really?
Raven Dance and The Voyeur. Oh, wow. I will be looking for that. No, there was something. What was the other movie you did? Um...
Most of it came... Like a teen movie or like you did like a ski movie? Am I remembering this right? No. I had a one-day role in There Goes My Baby. I don't know if you remember that. That sounds like a made-up name of a movie. Yeah. I know. And then, you know what? I actually did have a couple pilot...
shots of pilots that never went oh with Ken with Kenny Marino Ken Marino Ken Marino yeah no shit yeah that was like that was like my first job it was it was a play like Little Nair Do Well you know you guys make great brothers did you guys play brothers in that yeah did you really yeah we were brothers me him and Sean Astin nice oh wow love Sean yeah killer cast love Sean love Ken Marino Ken Marino is an all time great dude
Yeah, we should have got that. You know, they blew it. Someday someone will show that pilot. Hey, you know, I had an idea. You guys could probably actualize this. Why doesn't someone start...
a movie state, a streaming station with all of the fucking failed pilots and television shows that we all did. I've asked that for a long time. You'd think that the networks would, you know, just like during the summers show all the pilots that they didn't pick up just to sort of cross monetize what they did. And the reason they don't do it
is because they don't want one of those pilots to be well-received, and then they look like schmucks for not ordering it. That's the only reason they don't do it. It's the same reason that they don't want to say that they hate putting movies in turnaround and letting other studios make the movie on the off chance that another... Turnaround is, for Tracy, is that if a studio is developing a movie and then they decide they're not going to make it,
they have the potential in another studio to come in and say, like, hey, we'll pay you for whatever it costs you to develop that script, and we want to make that movie. They don't like to do it because... They'd rather eat the fee on writing. Well, yeah, because if it goes to another studio and it does really well, then the guy who decided not to make it gets fired, right? Right, yeah. And it happens all the fucking time. But you're right, Mark. That's a great idea. There's so many great...
pilots out there, there are people who do show them sometimes because what's that great one that Owen Wilson-Jack did, Black...
Oh, wow. About the talking motorcycle and Owen Wilson's the voice of the motorcycle. Have you ever seen this? No. No, I want to. What were they on? It's hilarious. There's so many. That's how I met Andy and Akiva and Yorm, those guys, Lonely Island. They did a pilot, a Lonely Island pilot that Phil Lord and Chris Miller produced. Wow. That was all sketches before they got SNL.
And somebody showed it to me. I was like, these guys are fucking hilarious. Yeah. And then network, you know, didn't pick it up. And then imagine if you showed that, that whoever that person is, they'd be banned from showbiz forever. Well, they're probably gone already. Yeah, that's true. I mean, they really like burned through all those executives. Yeah, turned over fast there. Yeah. So, Mark, with those humble beginnings and an extended period of...
incredible was there what about when you
It sucked. Let me just, let's not romanticize. But, but so then was it, was then it, was it difficult at all when you just like hit the massive amount of success that, that, that you're, you're in now? Was that also a slow progression as well? Or was there a moment where you got a big fat check or a big fat job and the transition was uncomfortable or difficult for you because of such humble extended beginnings?
All I know is my big break was a play with Holly Hunter and Carole Kane and Bill Pullman. Yeah.
And it was the hot thing in Los Angeles at the time. Hot L.A. play. You don't hear that often. No, but it was those people. And, you know, Holly had already won the Academy Award. And, you know, Carol was huge. And Bill was huge. Where was the play? Amundsen? No, it was at the Met Theater. They started their own theater there.
Yeah, it was in the early 90s. And that was going to be my big break. And I, of course, was fired four days before we opened. And, you know, a stagehand fired me because Beth Henley was the director, but she just couldn't bring herself to fire me. So they basically had a stagehand who told me he was the producer, fire me.
What was your problem? Why did you get fired? I sucked. No. I'll bet not. I mean, why else do you get fired? I'll bet their taste was up their ass. No, no. You know what? Honestly, I was probably, what I was told was I was in a different play, which, you know, could possibly, could definitely be true. That's a director's fault. Yeah. You know, the director's got to get everybody in the same project. Yeah. Thank you, Jason. That's what I was trying to tell them. It's true.
We'll be right back. And now, back to the show. By the way, Mark, we could, like, there's so many, I could ask you a thousand, like, the normal heart. We'll start with one. Just move along. Just get one. You know what I mean? I thought you were incredible in the normal heart. Do you want a minute to think about it? No, I don't need a minute. But This Much Is True, I mean, it was mind-blowing. You played those two brothers. I mean, how did you do that? What was your approach to This Much Is True where you played identical twins, right? Yeah. Yeah.
It's just incredible. I mean, I look at that and I was like, God, the work. Like, how did you even start? Where do you start? Well, Derek and I, you know, I... Derek Cianfrance? Yeah, Derek Cianfrance. Director. Our director and the writer. He adapted it from the book. Genius, genius man. Yeah, he's a genius. You know, I had gotten the book rights and I immediately wanted him to...
And, you know, he was, he was, he'd only done his own stuff that he'd ever, you know. And so he was taking a meeting out of, you know, courtesy because we love each other and we keep talking about working with each other, but we never were finding anything. And so I was like, yeah, man, you know, let's, let's meet and we'll go for a walk and we'll talk about it. And, you know, he started with, no, this isn't for me. You know, I don't want to do the CGI kind of thing with this.
I don't know how to do that. And we walked for like three hours. And I just kind of like pitched him, you know, what I was thinking and seeing and how it related to his work. And at the end of it, he's like, okay, man, let's do this. And that was like a year or two before. We started working on it together a year or two before we ever shot it. And, yeah.
and so was it always going to be hbo it was hbo wasn't it no well we took it out shot we shopped it and everyone's hbo kind of was interested sniffing around but everyone else was like no way this is no no one wants to see someone cut off their arm in the first 10 minutes of a show you know that was wild and uh and fran and francis was like francesca was like
who was running the television. Yeah, Francesca Orsi was like, wait, no one else wants it? I'm like, no. She's like, okay, we'll do it. Yeah, she's a badass. That's so cool. Yeah. And we did it. But Derek had the genius idea. He really approached it as two different films, really. And he said, I want you to go out and gain the weight, and we're going to take...
I'm in. Eight weeks and you're going to, yeah, I was like, no gym, weight gain, sign me up. Yeah, exactly. And that was really like having the space between that and, you know, usually you do a twin movie and
literally you run off, you put a mustache on, you run back in the same day and you shoot it. Well, that's how you did Lego Masters this year, right? That's exactly how I do everything. Glue it on, spirit it on, let's tamp it down. And I just use clippings from my wig. And you're so damn good, and I hate you for that because I have to take eight weeks to get my shit together and grow a mustache. So you have to fade.
I know. Your performance deserved the nomination. Thank you. Just incredible. And of course, because you're sitting here and I'm a huge fan of the Marvel stuff. How did you get the Hulk? When I see what you guys do in the Marvel movies, I'm just like...
you know not having done a ton of movies myself but enough to know that the schedules are like 15 16 hours a day but those i imagine where you shoot like well let's shoot like three lines of dialogue today that's what it feels like from the outside like there's so much money it just must be so cushy meanwhile you spent three hours in the makeup chair before you even do that downey says he won't do more than three words a day i heard yeah
He's on a per-word rate. That's when he's busting his ass. Yeah, that's when he's working his harness. Why would I do more than three? Actually, Downey could probably do ten pages of dialogue in a day. I mean, he speaks quickly. And the guy, I mean, it's just like, I don't understand how he does it. He's a genius. He's a fucking genius. He's a genius. It takes me like a month to learn a line.
Truly? And so, oh, God, it takes me forever. It's such a drag. Really? It takes me so— Do you have, like, a trick? Like, some people write their lines down. That makes them remember it. Others, like, kind of say it into a mirror. Do you have a way?
I, you know, I have this app called Scene Study. Really? And I record each line and then I could pull out my character's line and it just runs in repetition over and over and over again. And then I just, I'll learn it that way. And what I have to do, it's weird. I have to be walking to learn lines to really learn them.
That's not weird. And I just repeat them over and over and over a thousand times until I learn it like a song, kind of, you know? No shit. Do you have...
the way lines go into my head is that I don't decide exactly how I'm going to be saying a line, but I fully sort of understand kind of what I'm saying and why I'm saying it. So there's a little bit of performance that's kind of in there. Like, I can't just learn word, word, word, word, word, period. You know, like, there needs to be in context or something. So do you marry in a certain amount of performance when you're learning your lines? And if so, are you able to be flexible once you get on the
set and now the other actor is doing it differently or the director is asking for a different tone and you're you you're unable to pivot your performance because the learning of the line is married to the performance yep i learned early on you know this is a technique that was taught to me from my acting teacher who had learned it from someone who learned it from paul muni
So this technique goes like way back. And the whole thing was that you just spit it out and you start really slowly at first. So let's say, you know, to be or not to be or whatever. So you do it to be or not to be very slowly. And you work it up faster and faster and faster to be or not to be.
to be or not to be, to be or not to be, to be or not to be. And it's really just to teach your muscles to know it without having to think about it. So then when you are working it, you're super free. And you haven't really, you've learned it in a way that is like, doesn't have any inflection on it, just very flat.
so that you can be more open to what's coming at you and you don't get stuck in a particular way of saying it, although I do anyway. Isn't it amazing how many different ways... Right, because the way that you learn it can... If you do it that way, it can sometimes affect the cadence. Like quite literally, just to get to the mechanics, the actual cadence of how you say it. I was talking about this yesterday with an actor whom we all know and he was saying...
we're talking about this and i said uh about this weird sort of quasi improv thing that we were talking about and i said uh i remember there were people that we worked with uh i could count on that person delivering a line they would they always delivered it the same way every time and i knew that they were going to deliver it that way right which freed
Me up or us up to do whatever the fuck we wanted because they were just like a spine They would always do it the same way. Yeah, then you could just fuck with that It was so freeing knowing that they were always gonna be right on it. Yeah, so it didn't matter So I was I've always felt so free to just fuck around no curveballs. No, it's what's really beautiful in your work though, too It's like, you know you that freedom is
Is that one of the things that you like about theater? The fact that there is dialogue there that you, once you learn it, you don't have to learn anything yet. Like, there's no new scene tomorrow and another scene the next day. Yeah, but I would say, like, Mark, not to get, I know we spend a lot of time on This Is Our Youth, but I mean, you know, maybe short of Kenny, I don't know if anybody saw it, especially that first one more than me.
I fucking, that play has so much dialogue and you specifically have so much dialogue in that play that it's mind blowing. You guys, it's so crazy. And from previews all the way through the end of the run, your performance changed a lot.
You know, it did. Like, it evolved, and you were giving, like, I mean, you remember. How much dialogue did you have in that fucking play? Oh, so much dialogue. We both, I mean, it was two people literally on stage. Yeah. Either me and one other person or me and another person. But you all the time. And me just all the time. And big monologues and lots of overlapping things.
so you had to learn the overlapping and and and a lot and his writing is so crazy it's like um yeah you know what i mean it's like i don't know you know like like that yeah it has so many stops and starts and and idiosyncratic you know and for tracy out there in theater you cannot change the dialogue at
at all or you get written up by the stage manager right and and then equity will find you like you can't change anything they're like why were you changing your why did you change where you moved on that line right that was set you know that was set with a director or or i would i would sink with that i'm way too loose with the dialogue um the first act it was it was a little it was two hour two two minutes too long yeah so can we just tighten that up again yeah
Yeah. And you're just like, what are you talking? I don't care. And if you really want to get out of there, it's five minutes too short. Exactly. We just talk faster. No, they never complain about it being too short. Yeah. First of all, have you ever, I read that all your activism and you're using your voice on such a massive platform.
to use your voice and you're not afraid to use your voice and I love that about you, your opinions, you just spew them out, this is what I believe, this is what's right from wrong. -Well, that's not to spew them out. -And I love it. -I mean, that makes sense. -No, but I mean, it's like intelligently shared. -Let's try a different group. -It seems that way. No, no, no, no. I mean, it's-- It is-- Yeah, Sean's right. It's remarkable, dude, how much you have-- It is incredible and I love it. -Truly. -And I wish I had the balls you have. But tell me what the Solutions Project is. But wait, before I talk about the Solutions Project, have you ever spoken in front of Congress?
I've spoken on the Hill with the Senate. I've testified. So this is what I want to ask you. What is that like when you're sitting there? Because at home, when I'm watching somebody do that, they all look like bored. And you're like, Scotty, who turned on CNBC? Is it effective? Did you feel like being there was effective?
You know, so I did that movie Dark Waters, which is about forever chemicals for Tracy. They're the chemicals that come from like Teflon that stay in your blood and are linked to seven different cancers. And they're in everybody and all over the world. And the mother passes it from themselves to the baby through their breast milk. And it gets in your body and accumulates and it never leaves. And it's pervasive. Yeah.
So we did a movie called Dark Waters to tell the story of the lawyer who exposes this. It's a true story and brings all the lawsuits and wins the biggest tort lawsuit in the history of the United States to actually study this stuff. So I was asked to go and –
and testify uh to the environmental um committee it's when you go there it's half republicans half democrats or you know the seats are like it's a gallery kind of thing and and they're all there um these are house people i didn't i didn't go to the senate um and you you know you're testifying and they're asking you questions yeah and you're getting peppered a little bit
But on one side, the Democrat side, there was literally every seat was taken. It was like 40 people.
On the Republican side, there's three guys. And when they're done with their questions, they get the hell out of there. Oh, he literally, it wasn't even a question. It was like, I know why you're here. You hate industry. This is all just a ploy for you to make a bunch of money and attack big corporations and the economic good of people. And that's all I got to say. Threw the mic down and walked out. I yield. I yield. Yeah.
And I'm like, do you want to get a chance to answer that? And they're like, believe me, I know how to make a movie that makes a lot of money. And this is not one of them. Right. Yeah.
You know, and there's nothing in here that's erroneous at all. Everything's completely vetted and backed up. I'm sure you've been asked this before, so I apologize for not knowing the answer, but have you ever given any thought to public office? No. No. And because of the pain in the ass of it all? Because of folks that have different ideas about why they're there? Yeah, you know, I don't...
You know, I was there. I was there lobbying against fracking like back in the day. And I remember when it was all just kind of happening. And I was in Harry Reid's office. And basically he didn't come to the meeting, but his chief of staff was there. And he said, listen, closes the door. He said, listen, here's the deal. This city is overrun with fossil fuel money.
We have to spend three quarters of our time on the phone raising money. You're in the wrong place. You need to do this on the regional level, on the state level. That's really where this kind of thing is the only place that this could get done. Mm-hmm.
And I was just like, are you kidding? Disheartening. Yeah. Are you joking me? And the reason they need the money, uh, where any politician needs money is to buy 30 second ads, right? To get reelected and reelected, which only just puts them in a position of power. It's not like it's some extremely lucrative position to be a Senator or a representative. Uh,
Some of them are there for ideological reasons, right? I would imagine. Initially. Not to be overly cynical, but it seems like or sounds like a lot of them are there just because they enjoy the position of access and influence and power and getting their ring kissed at parties and stuff like that. It's just so heartbreaking. And it's pretty like we see. It's just...
You know, it's not really about policy that's going to help people. It just gets broken down along sort of these lines.
And a lot of them are just ideological. And it's, yeah, and it's like I need to get this money from this person. So there's a, you know, there's a little bit of back and forth. You know, I'm going to have to give them a little bit of something. And that's really, I mean, I think that's more true than any of us really want to believe. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. But if you ran, you could start a change. If a bunch of people like you ran. Well, I guess what I sense from you is that you can really affect, yeah, no, but is that you can affect change outside, like that there is no change on the inside and that if you want to make noise or whatever, you have to keep banging the drum from the outside. And you can. And you do. I mean, we banned fracking here in New York State. Right. And, you know, you know,
PFAS is finally you know you never you don't really I mean we know but there's such power in storytelling and you can really change things with storytelling especially if you're not like nailing hitting it on the head if you're sort of just telling that story that human story that we all relate to you know we all relate to other people's stories and
And, you know, there's been movies that I, you know, the kids are all right, right in the middle of the dialogue on, you know, same-sex marriage. I mean, that movie opened people up to be like, oh, gay people have it just as bad as we do. Yeah. You know? Oh, look at Sean's show, Will and Grace. It was one of the first shows that like. Exactly. Oh, my God. I'm in love with these characters that are not heterosexual. So I guess gay people aren't.
so bad yes it was making me laugh that shift which was the biggest shift societal shift on a on an issue sean that you guys that was the biggest societal shift on an issue with the largest spread of uh polling than than any other yeah well thank you for saying that and it's to your point it's it's just telling a story we were just we weren't batting people over the head about it's just like yeah presenting the people and the facts and this is how
everybody is, you know? And we just frack a little differently. Yeah.
Fucking asshole. That's so good. This is where he gets the big money. How long? That one. I don't know. Just laid in so beautifully. So really quick, before we let you go, Mark. Chateau Marmont. I can't believe you were the bartender at that hotel for 10 years. No, no. You know, no. I was doing pickup work there. I was at another bar called. Oh.
I was at two bars. I was at the Olive, which was a hot little bar. Yes, I remember that. Yes, I was there. Yes, during that time. And I was at Smalls, which is kind of like this punk rock, rock and roll bar on the, you know, right where Melrose and Gower met.
And I was doing pickup work at the Chateau, which didn't have a bar yet. So we'd go in and set up a bar for all the events there. Wow, wow, wow. Isn't that wild to be back? Would you ever go back and be like, wow, fuck off? Yeah, man, I'm there. And, you know, the young guy comes in at the food, you know, room service. And he's, you know, he's kind of looking at me. And I go to give him his tip. And he's like, wow, that's a huge tip. He's like, hey, man.
You made it. And then do you say, I started right where you are? They know. He's like, you used to work here, didn't you? Oh, that's cool. And I was like, yeah. He's like, you made it, man. That's cool. That's so cool. I love that. Jason and I had lunch there over 20 years ago. He does not remember it. Mark, thank you for being here today. Wait, wait, wait. I wanted to, before you go. I truly don't. I'm looking at you right now going, what the fuck are you talking about? How long have you and Sonny been married now? It's been forever. Forever.
I don't mean it that way. I mean, it's awesome. We've been together for 27 years. Oh, that's great. That's amazing. How many kids? We have three kids. That's incredible. 22, 18, and 16. Can you believe your life?
No, man. That's really cool. You know, my biggest concern was would I have a place to live? I mean, you know, that was like, I just want a place to live. Yeah. You know, I just don't want to be in the streets. If I can attain that, that would be great. Yeah, yeah.
And now look at us. Oh, dude. It's so cool. And now look at my office. Yeah. Slash bathroom. I'm not working on motorcycles anymore. Well, I tell you what. I tell you what, man. You haven't... Honestly, you haven't changed a bit. You're still the nicest, most talented dude. Yeah, man. And it couldn't happen. I'm so happy for your life. You're such a... You've always been such a great dude. You've always had such a great vibe. And I'm just...
It makes me happy every time I see you, man. Truly one of my favorites. Thank you. Mine too. Oh, you guys. I love you. Thank you. I'm so stoked you did this show. Oh, me too. Thank you for having me. Mark, thank you for being here. We appreciate it. And you were on my list for a long time for a reason. And it's so nice to finally meet you. And gosh, because I just think you're great. No, it was great. And you guys are great. And this is such a... It was such a nice time. And Will...
I know. It's crazy, right? We came such a long way. And Jason, you've always been so kind to me. And Sean, now we know each other and we'll be able to hug when we see each other. Get together and frack, you know? Yeah. Let's take things slow. Dude, I can't wait to see Poor Things. I'm going to, God.
I gotta go see it. I'm dying. I gotta go see it. It's crazy. I hear it's fantastic. I know. Let's get that link. Let's get that link. Yeah. Okay, let's get it. I'm gonna pay for it. Full price. You will? Evening price. Yeah, evening price. I'm buying it. Soon it'll be just on the, you know, the site. Yeah, but I hear it's one you can go ahead and enjoy a big screen view of. Let's go see it in the theater this week. Let's go.
Let's go, boys. Smart guy field trip. All right. Mark, you're the king. Lots of love. Thanks for doing this. Have a great rest of the day. Great to see you, man. All the best. Thank you. Bye, buddy.
Man, that guy hits me right in the center of my like target. Like there's just such a good vibe about him. Those guys always seem like so confident. What do you mean those guys? Which one? You know, I feel like him, Crudup, and Rockwell are like, you came out of the same peapod. Yeah.
And you go, that's why they work because they're ultra talented, obviously, but they also work a lot because you want to hang out like they're easy going. Totally, and he's very, he's just very, I don't know, he's like, he's so authentic. Yeah. And he doesn't have to, he doesn't have to try and there's no pretense. He's really, that's it. I love that he got stoned a lot. Or dead. It makes sense. It relaxes people. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, that's a segue into are you pushing a new product? Yeah, do you have a new pen or something? You got a gummy you want to sell? What's going on? A new pen. No one's calling them vape pens anymore, Grandad. It really relaxes people, which reminds me.
Take a deep, deep breath. This is my favorite, though. Thanks. We're good. You know what's pretty awesome about what he does, for my taste, is that he's this incredible actor that you never see him acting. He's never taking these, you know...
I don't know, these obnoxious character swings that some actors absolutely can pull off for sure, but I never get the sense that he feels like he needs to. Like, just kind of just being... Well, he's in the... For me, he's in the John Goodman. I mention this all the time. The category of actors, and it's growing now because we've had a few on him. He's one of those. He's... It doesn't matter what he...
in, he is always great, A. Right? So you start thinking, like, you think about, like, oh, he mentions kids are all right, and you're like, oh, he's great in that. And you said Foxcatcher, you're like, oh, he's great in that. And they're like, you forget about Spotlight. Oh, he's incredible in that. Really talented filmmakers are attracted to him, yeah. Well, because he's always great. Like, it's his story about Kenny saying to him, like, you're not going to do it, blah, blah, blah. And you're going to go, oh, you're really good in this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Really undeniable. That imitation is so funny. It's so, so funny. You know, I like spending these days with you guys. I haven't seen you in a long time. This feels so lazy already. It's been a real quite a while since we've all been together. You should be banned from doing these for a minute. You know, I wish we could spend more time as the days go. Bye. Bye.
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