Rerun: A Conversation with Stephen Amell
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Thank you so much for doing our show, Steven. Thanks for having me. I'm appreciative. This is fun. Very fun. We've gotten to see some of your early performances. Welcome to our show. Hey, thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Yes, we're so happy to have you here. It's so funny because I'm like looking at your resume and I'm like, and when you were on our show, like,

I was probably clueless, but like, I didn't know like all your prior work. And then you've done like 8 billion things since we did new girl. You are a very busy man. It's either like 8 billion things or three things for a very, very long time. Well, it's impressive. Thank you. And this professional wrestling stuff.

Yeah, I mean, that happened in 2015 where someone that was a fan of Arrow and his character that he was playing in wrestling was supposed to be like a supervillain pitched an angle for me to make an appearance at Monday Night Raw.

at Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York. And I'm like, well, yeah, of course. Cause I grew up watching wrestling all the time. It was my, it was my thing. I see a bunch of good, I see a bunch of guitars behind you right now. Like it was, it was wrestling magazines. For me, it's wrestling guitars. So I ended up, I ended up doing that. And then when Arrow was coming to an end, heels was starting up and there just seemed to be a natural, a natural fit. So I jumped right into that.

Yeah, but you literally jumped into wrestling. Like you've actually wrestled people in real life, not... Yeah. Yeah, I have. I've been watching it forever. And, you know, you stay in good shape and you do stunts and you think that you can just do it. But now that I'm actually playing a wrestler on a show and I've actually done some training, there were just a couple of really good quote-unquote celebrity appearances at the most recent WrestleMania. Logan Paul did one.

Uh, Pat McAfee did one, Johnny Knoxville did one and he was, he was great, but you think that he's just going to be getting the, you know, what kicked out of him, but he actually had a really good match. And now I'm jealous because now I actually have some, now I actually have some chops and I want to get, I want to get back in the ring, but I risk a divorce if it happens. So, yeah.

Is she scared you're going to get really hurt? She doesn't want you to get brain damage. I think that's fair. Well, it's the last time that I did a singles match because you have all of this adrenaline that's pumping through your veins. And I did this one move where I jumped from one side of the ring to the other and I landed on my left side and I don't feel anything at the time. But then in the dressing room afterwards, I kept looking underneath my left hip like someone had put something there.

And I had fractured, I had fractured my hip. Oh my God. It's wrestling is not, it's not for the faint of heart. And your wife's like, um, now I have to bring you soup all day, every day and do everything for you. So thanks. Actually, what I had to do was go right back to work because I didn't ask permission to do this wrestling match. So I couldn't very well come back and say, here's why I hurt myself.

But now it's more like, hey, you've done it and please don't do it again. But but now I actually know how to do it a little bit more safely. So we'll see. I'll certainly have to ask. I didn't have to ask production permission. I will have to ask her permission. That's right. Yeah. In life in general. You have your priorities straight. That's right. You got it. You got it right.

So you're so funny on new girl, by the way. Thank you. Thank you. Fun stuff. God. Do people like ever remember all the time? Really? Good. I'm so happy. Well, I'm not surprised, but I was just like, I mean, you've like have such a massive career as arrow and everything. I'm like, like, do they remember sweet Kyle from new girl? They sweet ish.

I mean, he had a lot of... Depends on his state. No, I didn't mean sweet. He's actually sweet. I just meant the sweet

ness of life that you, well, obviously as you guys, as you guys know, with, with Netflix and I, I mean, I think was this the, was it the, was it the first season? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Right. So people, people get back into it, but what actually happens more often is people will go back and start rewatching it.

And I'll get these random text messages from people that I've known for a long time. And they'll be like, you're Kyle in New Girl. No way. And then they typically, and then nothing will happen for a little while.

And then I'll get another text saying, you just pissed your pants. And then nothing will happen for a little while again. And then I get another text back saying, I love brown people all in caps. And it's like, it happens. It happens all the time. It's a real testament to your show. I mean, there are people, believe me when I tell you, there are people right now that have not,

never seen it that are about to start like a, you know, a COVID quarantine or, or like our home, you know, with the flu like Hannah has right now. And, and they are going to pop on in Netflix and they're going to, you know, rip through your entire show. It's really cool.

um let's that's a start all the way back at the very beginning hannah wants to get into it for i really do with the real i love people like new girl like origin stories oh yeah let's start at the very beginning you're from canada i'm from toronto you're taking it way back yeah well all the best people are canadian

We have a bunch of good ones. We have a bunch of good ones. You go through the OG SNL cast members and a lot of the funniest comedians that we've ever had. Jim Carrey, Mike Myers. Hannah's husband. My boyfriend. There you go. Hannah.

That's right. You. Of course. There it is. I'm the only non-Canadian here. Yeah. Well, you're the one that I'm looking, the view that I'm looking at right now, we're literally above you. You are. You are. So I always want to know people's new girl origin stories. So do you remember when did you come and audition for it? Yeah. Like,

Talk to talk us through from the beginning. Okay. So this was a real interesting, this was a really, really interesting time for me because I had, so it was 2011 and I, I had a pretty successful 2010, but that was my first year acting in the United States. And I had had like a good pilot season. I'd gotten a couple of tests and then I'd gotten a couple, I started to book guest star jobs, none of them recurring.

And then in 2011, I became a regular on Hung on HBO. And that series came out in the fall of 2011, right around the time that I was doing your show. So I had a little bit of buzz from that, but we didn't know if it was going to come back. So HBO was very, and it ended up not coming back, which was fortuitous for me, but nonetheless. And HBO was very generous and they

They gave me the opportunity to go out and keep auditioning. And I did something over the summer. I think I did an episode of CSI over the summer. And then I did a recurring arc on 90210, which because of the casting director ended up being a really important job for me. And then I was offered a part on...

private practice. And around that time, I went in and auditioned for your show. And getting that part, I can't remember what the sides were. I can't remember the audition very much other than I only did it one time and felt pretty confident about how it went. It was really important for me because I had not done any comedy up until that point.

And to get the job was great. And I just remember my agency calling me up and saying, you've got it. And feeling, I didn't know Hannah or Max or Jake or Lamorne, but I knew you, Zoe. And I remember being really intimidated before my first day of work, which was a Monday morning.

And I'll never forget this. I, you know, I, I'm a guest star. They had me come in at like six o'clock in the morning on a Monday and I

I feel like we were shooting a party. It wasn't my first scene where you first meet me. It was more a party towards the end of the episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so the Sunday night before, knowing that I got to get up real early, I sit down just to try to relax and I turn on the World Series. And while trying to relax, Zoe walks out and starts singing the national anthem. And I'm like, no, come on. What?

Oh my God. So this was like right after, oh my God, that was it. We all flew to the world series. You did. And then you all flew back the next morning. It was good. I just looked it up right now to make sure that I wasn't having a fever dream. It was game four.

of the 2011 World Series and it was the Cardinals against the Texas Rangers. And not only did you sing the national anthem, but they did the thing that Fox does where they randomly showed you guys sprinkled in the stands planted there to promote the show. And so I mean, you guys were you guys were very gracious. I remember the first scene. I feel like the first scene might have been when it was like a photo shoot, I think.

It was the most intimidating scene ever. Let me tell you about it. Okay. All right. It was the first time you guys met and you had to like make out, right? It was exactly that. I think that was the next episode. They send us to the World Series. Excuse my voice. I have the flu. So they send us to the World Series, which is like drinking food. We're having like this great time out.

And then Monday morning at like 7 a.m., they're like, Hannah, you have to be in a bikini to be an after in some weird ad that they'd created that I was modeling in. Right. The after girl, the after picture of it.

And then they were like, and this guy's going to play your boyfriend, Kyle. We cast him. And they show me a picture of you. And I'm sitting there like with like half a pizza in my mouth. And I just remember being like, I should put this down. I'm going to be in a bikini in the morning. And then they were like, and there's a pizza series. That's just it was it was the cruelest thing.

You know, like what they had to schedule for that Monday. I was like, really? I have to like behave this weekend. But I remember they were like, it has to be a gross kiss. Do you remember this even feel like it has to be gross because it has to be right in front of Max and break his heart because he's going to give you a gift. Right. And.

I was like, it was just like the weirdest thing. It's always weird to meet somebody for the very first time and be like, this is not a normal network comedy kiss where you're like, thank you very much. And that was how we met. Half naked in this very awkward, over-the-top kiss. And everybody was exhausted from the World Series. That's right. It was great. Yeah, it was great. Hello. I have to say...

One thing that I notice about this character, Kyle, okay, and you, Steven, is that you are such a nice guy. But what I love is you really get

What makes Kyle like an asshole? And you can, you play those things really seamlessly as an actor, which is what makes Kyle so funny. And Kyle's not aware. Steven's aware. Yeah. I appreciate that. I think back in, you know, back in, in 2011, I,

This was the case for a large portion of the early part of my career. It wasn't until I really spent some time on set and was in more of a leadership position that I really got to know what

everyone does, what the director of photography does, what the second AD does, what the director does, the dichotomy between a serious regular and someone that's just coming in as a guest star, which it wasn't set up to recur from my understanding. But back then, I didn't know anything. It was just point me in the direction and

I was just, I think lucky enough that I was comfortable enough to take direction. So I don't, I certainly don't want to take all the credit. I don't take the credit for being relaxed enough to do it, but I don't know my asshole from my elbow when I'm on set. I'm just, I'm just trying to, I'm just trying to do a good job and you guys, but you guys also had that really cool. And I've, I've got to experience this too. It's amazing. You guys had that really cool, uh,

we're on a hit show glow about you, those early days. And I don't know how the dynamic changed over the years, but I mean, obviously the fact that you guys are still friends and doing something like this suggests that it went pretty well, but you had that glow of, wow, we've just found something and now it is something about you. - I remember- - It was so fun. - It was so fun. I remember the first time you and I, Steven, had like a real conversation.

And it was we were shooting that Christmas party. So there was a lot of waiting around because there was, you know, like a lot of setup and extras going around the party and everything. And we'd only had that one encounter before, which felt amazing.

Um, just for me as a girl, awkward in my own body, not because of you, just because of me. And so I was like, here we are fully clothed. This is nice. Now we can actually like chat and have a conversation. And you were Canadian and I was Canadian and it was my first time really being

On a set like this too. Yeah. And I remember, and for me, you were like this big HBO star in my mind coming off of hung. And so I was like intimidated. Oh, is that true? That was in my mind. I was just like, Oh my gosh, there's like this big actor here. And I remember talking to you cause you are so kind and so generous talking about the industry and about the ups and downs of it. And yeah,

I don't know if you remember sharing this with me, but I remember you telling me about... It had happened that summer, I think, with Catherine Bigelow and the Hurt Locker, right? I don't remember this story. What was the story? I thought there was a story that you were telling me that you...

thought you were up for it or you were going to get it or something was happening around the Hurt Locker and it had gotten and it had disappeared. Now, this is like 10 years ago. I mean, there was there were a variety of stories. I'm sure we I'm sure we told a story like that right before, you know, I gosh, it was I came close on so many things. A lot of movies I had been flown to

you know i've been flown to to new zealand to audition for the lead in spartacus and just so many things that were like within my grasp and i mean actors have had those stories but

It was probably around the time that you lose a job or you don't lose it. You never had it, but you get really, really, really close. And there's the hurt that accompanies it because you've got to believe that you're right for the job. Otherwise, I don't think you stand a chance of getting it. But then there's the secondary layer of hurt.

Which is when you start seeing the trailer for it or the advertising for it. And it just wallops you. It's like you go through that whole thing again. So we're probably having one of those conversations. I feel like that happens like right before you hit a big job, you're close on a lot of others where it's like,

Oh my God. I was like this close. And I lost, you know, I was like the second choice for it. And then a lot of times jobs that I've had that have been big jobs for me, I was their fourth choice or something. And it's like, now it used to be like, ah, that kind of insults me. And now I'm like, yes, I'm the one like, I'm glad all those people turn that down. Yeah.

I mean, yeah. It's a sign that stuff's happening in the universe for you. You know? Well, it is. I mean, as I was mentioning earlier that I had a wonderful time on hung and if it gets renewed for a fourth season and the ratings in the third were the best that they have been of the three, um,

then I'm not available to audition for Arrow. And everything, that sliding door, everything about my career is different. Maybe it's better, maybe it's worse, but it's certainly different. So you'd think, wow, your first series regular, that show got canceled after your first season on the show. That must be an awful thing. Hmm.

Not really. Yeah. You never know. You never know. You don't know what's coming around the corner. That's what you and I were talking about as we were standing there on set, which was basically, I don't know if it was like, maybe it was award season for Hurt Locker. So you're talking about that secondary layer of hurt was starting to twinge for you or something. Well, there was also, there was another, there was another Catherine Bigelow movie going on at that time. And I don't know if it was necessarily Hurt Locker, but there was something that I really thought,

I was right for, and then I had moved to the, to another level for, and it's just, you know, sometimes there's no rhyme or reason to things. When I went in and auditioned for your show, I thought it was a good audition, but I had no experience with comedy auditions at all. I went to this guy, Chad McCord, who was an audition coach.

not an acting coach, although he does coach acting, but he was coaching me on auditions and, and where, like how to walk into the room, where to find the joke in a guest star comedy, half hour comedy room.

And he was right. I mean, he coached me to do the audition right. And so, yeah. I always say that there's, I wish there was, I genuinely do wish there was like a handbook or a coaching school that's not just about acting here in LA, which is, let's say you book that, whatever it is, one line, two line on a show. Yeah.

You've never been on a set before. I just remember that feeling when they're just like, all right, so we're going to do a blocking rehearsal. Everybody get on their marks. It's a whole nother language. And then you're watching everybody just without even registering it, do it because they know the language and you're. Yeah, you need like a pamphlet on set etiquette because you can't even focus on acting.

You can't even focus on the thing you did in that weird room with the casting director. It's nothing like choices being on set. Yeah. Well, I mean, one of the things I always think about, especially about being a guest star is you are at, at, at, at best, you are a cog in the machine. You're certainly not the engine by any stretch of the imagination. And it's your responsibility to show up on time,

to know your stuff, to understand what it means to hit a mark, to understand what blocking means, to

Just to, to not, to not fall asleep in your wardrobe and wrinkle it like all of these things that you never, that you never think about. And I, and ironically, I mean, obviously you can't, you can't go there and be atrocious, but it's almost as though your performance is like seventh on the checklist, which is an odd thing. And, but if you're not there to do the performance, like, cause you're late, then you're,

It doesn't matter. That's exactly right. But if you're just so in your head, because here's the thing, it could take one thing to bump you, right? Let's say you don't know about hitting a mark or you don't know about the marks that go number one, number two, number three, number four, and you miss one. And then you get called out because the AD is trying to race for time to get before lunch. And now you're so in your head. I just, I could, over the years on New Girl, you would see somebody who was their very first job. Right. And you're like,

And you're watching them drown. Yeah. And everything's good, except it's, it's all held together by spit and hope and string and they drop and they're doing a speech and they drop one word. Right. And then all of a sudden,

It just all falls apart. I've seen it happen. And you just want to grab that person and hug them and say, hey, we're not going to run out of film. We don't even capture this on film anymore. If you make a mistake, go back to the beginning. Start again. Nobody cares. We just want to put in a good day of work. But you can't say that.

If I had, if we'd shot that first scene where you're doing that bikini shoot and I, I, I'd accidentally, you know, bit your lip or something like that and our kiss and you had been not gracious about it, then I would have been, we would have, that would have been the last thing we would have seen of Kyle. I would have fallen apart. I was, I was actually saying this in another interview, but it's so true. I just think like getting in your head is like the biggest thing.

enemy of an actor like the thing when you start to think oh i'm doing a bad job that's when you have to like get on another topic because that is the topic you should not be on in your head as an actor on set or on stage just move on if you mess up move on the next one will be better you know um it's just it's just massively destructive to start thinking i'm bad

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I have a way to make your morning more efficient. You can get caught up on the news in about seven minutes. That is my promise to you as the host of The 7 podcast from The Washington Post. And in that time, I will run down seven stories, everything from the most important headlines to fascinating new information you might miss otherwise. My name's Hannah Jewell. Go follow The 7 right now, wherever you're listening, and we will get you caught up.

You went on and became, you know, the star of your hugely successful show. Is there a way that you approached being number one on the call sheet when you had so many people coming and going off of your show? It's a great question. What I tried to as best I could as an acting partner, be whatever you needed me to be.

Because I had so much work on my plate, the way that I would prepare would be to just know the script from front to back, from top to bottom.

almost know almost know everyone's lines not memorize them per se but just I've got a really good capacity for knowing where we are in the story what's happened and what's important from a continuity standpoint to the point where I would have crew members come up to me and say when you stop a blocking for a scene because of a continuity problem it's really annoying but principally it's annoying because you're almost always right. Yeah.

And so, but when it came to acting, it's like, well, what kind of scene partner are you? I worked with people that were, that, that learned their lines word for word, word perfect. If you gave them a revision before we started shooting. And I mean like the, the night before or the day of, it would really shake them. I'd work with people that worked more like me, which is more not improvisational, but like,

I'm never word perfect. I like to be about 90% of the way there so I can find the rest 10%, find the final 10%. I go for 50%, you know, the gist. There it is. But no, I just try to be almost like, you know, almost like it's okay. Hey, it's my house, but you're my guest. And

And I'm serving the meal and there's a bunch of different stuff for you to choose from. Choose what you want and I'll eat what you're having type thing.

That's awesome. I mean, that's amazing. Like being a guest on your show. Yeah. But it's also an interesting conscious choice, right? Because I think there are a lot of actors that are like you who are so generous in a scene and will never let you fall or fail. And if you're going a certain way, we'll go along with you. We know those people we've worked with. And I always have just assumed, oh, that's just how they are. And I'm so lucky to have worked with them.

But that's such an interesting and lovely insight to know that you actually make that as a choice. You're choosing to be that type of actor. You know what I'm trying to say? I do. That's wonderful. Thank you. The only, I wouldn't say issue, but the only problem that you run into sometimes in that position is that you're

you're going to be having plenty of exchanges with people that are, that are in my head and then out of my head because I'm onto the next thing and it stays with them. Right. So sometimes I'll say something or, you know, I ran into a situation where I was, I kind of made a flippant joke when, when we were not even blocking a scene, but we were just putting the scene on its feet. We were just saying the words and I made a joke while someone else was speaking and

And just because, again, it was the beginning of the day. We were an hour and a half away from shooting. And that actor pulled me aside afterwards and said, this is a really big moment for me. And I've really prepared and that I didn't appreciate what you just did. And I was very taken aback. Like, wow, I certainly didn't mean any offense. And I apologize. And I always try to be more conscious of that going forward.

But it, it left me thinking, and this is an answer that I'll, I'll, I'll never know the answer to this, but it left me thinking, how many other times have I done that? Like how many times have I, how many times have I thought that an exchange with someone or a scene or something went well and that other person, because of, because of what it meant to them relative to what it meant to me, not that it was not, not that I'm not that it's more significant or that I'm

you know, don't care about every scene, but it's just different. It's just different. Yeah. It's so funny. You're talking about this. I have that same thing. Cause again, you are so when you are the lead on a show, you are just busy and you were having to focus on a million things at once and

And think about the overall series and also where the writing's going, where your character's going. Working with a million different people, everyone has different senses of humor. Everyone works differently. Some people love rehearsals. Some people hate rehearsals. Some people love it when you tease them. Some people hate it when you tease them. And you don't know what you're walking into. And sometimes you just do something that...

someone doesn't like or rubs them the wrong way or they they perceive as intentionally

Unkind, but really it was just a joke to you or you thought they would, you know. Yeah. I mean, it's so it's the it's those things where I find it such a gift if somebody comes up and says, hey, that hurt my feelings and they can be direct about it because sometimes you just don't know. And you're like, thank you for giving me the opportunity to apologize and be like, do better next time. A hundred, a hundred.

A hundred percent. I think this happened the instant that I'm talking about, it happened six or seven seasons into arrow six or seven seasons. And it was, it was, it was such a gift and I was, I'm able to carry it forward. But there's no handbook for this. It, you know, I, I gripped very, very, very tightly for the first couple of seasons on arrow. And I,

was short-tempered, never to anyone and never disrespectful to anyone. But I just, my fuse would get short and I would focus on things that weren't as important, be it someone's cell phone ringing or buzzing for that matter, or someone walking in the background. And then I had the great fortune to go between season three and season four to film for two months in Manhattan, where

Nobody cares. Not that people aren't professional, but you're out there on the street and people are yelling your name and, you know, a million different things are happening. And it wasn't until I had that experience that I realized what a, what a curated, cultivated, safe environment they had created for me on Arrow. And I went back and had this real newfound appreciation for the whole thing. Yeah. Yeah.

It's interesting too, because it's very few people I realize that we've talked to can share in the experience of being on a show for many, many years and loving that show and loving the character they played and having that tight hold and then having to say goodbye. Yeah. And have it be over. Yeah. So I don't actually know the story. Did you guys, how did it all come to an end? Did you guys decide that it was time?

No. Well, no, no, no. It wasn't so much that. I think that the way that our process was like, I'm sure you got a sense of it being on set like the first season we had. It was an intense process and God, it was fun. I mean, it was so much fun. We had the best time and I loved every second of it. But we were working like 80 hour weeks for everything.

probably like the first four years. And then it definitely got better. But I think that the process of making the show was like kind of arduous and it was just a bit, you know, we all had seven year contracts and I think that it had kind of run its course after seven years. I think we could have gone longer, but we would have had to have changed the process.

And like, would it have been the same show? Like, who knows? But we were all having kids. You know, we all buy basically almost everybody had kids by the I had a newborn and a two year old the last season. And I was just I was brain dead.

But I was actually, you know, this kind of leads me. I was just thinking about this when you were talking about, like, sometimes, like, the first few seasons of Arrow, you were, like, feeling like you're a little short-tempered. Like, were you having to, like, also be training a lot? Like, physically? I remember the videos you had posted. That is, like, so much work in addition to being a great actor and, like, learning all your lines and knowing your script and your story and, like, being number one on the call sheet, all that stuff. And then also having to, like, eat, like...

an athlete and athlete like that makes you you're tired and cranky and you're having to shoot, you know, all the time, too. That's a lot. Yeah. That process. I built up a little resentment through that process. And it was in a lot of ways. It was of my own making insofar as.

in those first couple of seasons when you're just running on adrenaline and you can and you can work until two o'clock in the morning but then get up at 7 00 a.m and go to the gym and you can you can change your diet and this this was when this was 2012 when you had to go to the deep recesses of the health food store to find gluten-free stuff now it's now it's everywhere but

I, I never relied on the production to build the infrastructure that would allow me to maintain that. I simply did it myself for the first couple of years. And then when that, when that newness wears off and that adrenaline wears off and you look around and you feel like you don't have a support system that, that, that created a little bit of a tough,

And they were like, oh, that's just Steven. He just does that thing. He just does it himself. Yeah, he just does it himself. So easy for us. So how did Arrow end for you? Well, so in season six, I had a six year deal and then added a seventh year. And during season six, right around January, which isn't the halfway point of our season, but we would start in July. And by January, we'd be at episode 14 or 15 out of

I'm 23, 22, 23. And I called up Greg Berlanti and I said, I think that's it. Greg being the big boss of our show. And I said, I think that's it at the end of seven. And he said, please know this is the worst phone call ever. Take some time and think about it. And I took some time and I thought about it.

And he, I called him back up because he said, once I make these calls to Peter Roth at W at WB and Mark Petowitz at the CW, I mean, it's going to set things in, in motion that can't necessarily be undone.

Not that it was going to be contentious. It was actually quite lovely. But I thought about it and he said, just one caveat. He said, think about an eighth year. I said, no. And he said, think about a truncated eighth year where you come and do 10 episodes. And from a bargaining standpoint and from a restructuring of your deal standpoint, it was like, am I going to work until...

April of 2019 for X, or am I going to work until November of 2019 for X? And, um,

It was smart. And it was, yeah, this is option B. The second X. The second door, please. Thank you. But it was, it was good. It was good. It, it, you know, the, the, the last season was because we got to end it on our terms was this real long goodbye. And it was only 10 episodes. So that we really had a chance to think through it. Whereas in previous seasons, we have our North star of where we want to get to at the end, but it,

There's always a little filler that has to go into a 23 or 22 or 23 episode season, but it was really emotionally, emotionally challenging. I was drained. I'd been on the hamster wheel for a long time. I wasn't as healthy mentally and emotionally and physically as I, as I could have been just again,

it's those first couple of seasons getting back to the beginning of this where you have that adrenaline and you can just go and go and go and go and go and it just that candle started to to burn down and i could i could never i could never bring it back up so you're drained um

Yeah, I was drained. How many episodes did you do? 23, 24? We ended up with 170 episodes of the show. It's very different because it was funny. I remember I was envious of people who had like shows on, you know, streamers or like HBO. Yeah. Who had where they could do episodes longer than 2235, which like are...

Our shows had to be like exactly the same length every time. And there was like no breathing room in the cut for like certain types of comedic moments that we couldn't play. And then I was really jealous of people that did like 10 episodes a season because I was like,

We had to do so many, but it's like, it is a grind when you're doing 22, 23, 24, 25 episodes a season. Boy, are you tired? And you're like, yeah, that's a lot of time. That is a lot of episodes like to play a character for like eight seasons or seven seasons for like,

that long? I mean, hundreds of episodes. I mean, it's like, especially when that's that physically demanding. Okay. As your Canadian sister, I have to speak to you like, just like out of a place of like, my heart is hurting because you talk about that and your, your flame getting lower and lower and lower because you're just getting burnt out from doing this really physically exhausting job and emotionally exhausting job.

Bro, your next show, you could have been like a couch potato hanging out. I know. What are you doing? You signed up for a show where you're being a professional wrestler and it's physically... You said you're Canadian sister and I thought you were going to say how many bags of Hawkins Cheezies did you have to eat? No, I'm just genuinely concerned because you chose another physically demanding show. Well...

Well, there are a couple of things there. One, to go back to season seven and season eight and to actually look at my physical appearance relative to now is actually a little jarring. Like it's tough for me to go back and look at it just because everything was getting burnt out. And yeah, I definitely wanted to play a lawyer on a half hour multi-cam. But to what Zoe was saying earlier,

we are for this first season and for this second season, we're eight episodes. I can do it. I do still have that. I do. I am still in that window of physicality. And I would like to also get into the

to features and, and, and, and use that physicality as well. But that reminds me of the arrow pilot, the arrow pilot we shot for three weeks and I had a month to prepare and you can, you can, you can empty, you can, you can empty the tank on something like that because you know, on the B side of it, you get to fill it back up.

And that's led to, for me, having time off now and being a little bit more in charge of my schedule, I can do what I want to do on a job and I can really, really, really go for it, which I get to do on heels.

But then I know that there's three weeks on a beach waiting for me. Or as is the case now, there's time in LA where I get to walk my kid to school and then take her to activities afterwards and do all that sort of stuff. Okay. That makes me feel so much better. Yeah, that's good. Oh my gosh. I was like, we need to have an off-camera call, you and I. Yeah.

MITRE's mission is to solve problems for a safer world. If you have a passion for applied cybersecurity with skills in infrastructure threat intelligence, deterrence technologies, advisal threat emulation, or intelligence analysis, explore the many challenging and fulfilling career opportunities at MITRE.org slash careers. That's M-I-T-R-E dot org slash careers.

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Full details on example policies at selectquote.com slash commercials. I have a way to make your morning more efficient. You can get caught up on the news in about seven minutes. That is my promise to you as the host of the seven podcast from the Washington Post.

And in that time, I will run down seven stories, everything from the most important headlines to fascinating new information you might miss otherwise. My name's Hannah Jewell. Go follow The Seven right now, wherever you're listening, and we will get you caught up. Welcome to our show.

I have an important question, and I think you're going to agree with me, okay? Okay. You're a superhero, Steven. What superhero would Hannah and I be? Which superheroes would we be if we were superheroes? Oh, boy. Jeez. I mean, you can make up one.

I don't know. I feel like both of you guys should exist somewhere in that new Dr. Strange multiverse of madness. Ooh, we're there. We're there. We're a hundred percent there. I can see both of you. I can see both of you with a third eye right in the middle of your forehead and

like 11 fingers on each hand and something weird like that. I don't know too much about that universe, but that's, that's, that's, that's my gut reaction. That's my immediate feeling. Thank you, Steven. You validated us. Thank you. Maybe we're like sisters. We're super. Yes. That would be so cool. Um, we have this story, Steven, where they, when we audition or I auditioned for this show to be with Zoe, um,

They wanted me to get a very, very dramatic haircut because I also had bangs and long hair because they thought that people would confuse me. They were like, wait, she has brown hair and bangs. And I'm like,

We're very different. We think it's fun. We think people will figure it out. People will figure it out. It's okay to have two people. That's like the short sightedness of like casting, like not from a, like not from like from a very analytical place. Like brown hair and bangs can't have two. Oh no. Well, they do. Wow. Hey, can I tell you a fun new girl story? Yes, please. Tell us.

The second episode that I was in, we, the Valentine's day episode, that episode, we started that morning, Hannah, we started it in Westwood on location. Okay. And your production was really, really lovely and gave me dispensation to do this and worked with the other production. Cause I was working on private practice at the time. And I came in that morning and I shot a scene with you and

And then I got in my old car and drove to the studios just right by Warner Brothers where private practice shot, shot a scene. And then I got back in my car, drove back and shot the scene where I was high on mushrooms and we were on the playground that night. I got to shoot two shows in one day.

That is very cool. I feel like that would never happen anymore. No show. I don't think so. I mean, now. Listen, even in 2019, maybe now. With COVID restrictions? Never. Oh my God. You were the last. That was, I felt that for me very much was like a,

I mean, this, it was two, like it's two guest star roles, which I thought were both very important. And I think are, but I mean, to me, it was like, I've arrived a little bit moment. Like, this is really cool that I get to do this. I don't think a lot of people get to say that they've done something like that. I can remember that scene when you're on the swing because,

because we were also like... You were so funny because you were like, woo! You had your hands in this really funny thing and you swung into frame. That was very funny. I just remember, though, that because we were the show that was like the king and queen of alts, alt jokes. Love the alt joke. And you basically, as I'm standing there, are on this swing going back and forth and they're just...

conveying, shouting out lines to you, which are basically things that are all slightly racist or offensive towards me as I'm standing there. And I just remember being like, this is

Because I spent enough time with you now chatting. You're the nicest, kindest, sweetest human. And I'm like, this is the funniest scenario where you have this really lovely man on a swing having to shout the weirdest stuff where I get to just stand here and roll my eyes.

I drive past that park every once in a while when I'm in LA. Was it Holmby Park? I can't remember. I would just know it to see it. It was close to Westwood. Yeah, it's Holmby Park. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. And-

But let's also remember that I'm yelling these vaguely racist and they're getting more and more. They're getting more and more incendiary as more and more alts are coming. Let's also remember we're in a public park. Yes. And I'm having to yell these things. Yes. And yeah, well, I knew we were protected.

We're very protected. It was making a point earlier in the episode that when you got really drunk, you yell racist things. They were prepared. The joke was built in. That's right. That's why we knew there had to be an end to Kyle.

Speaking of which, we're coming to the end of this podcast and we have a little thing that we like to do. It's called Nick's Box. All right, Zoe, let them know what it is. Welcome back to the segment where we crawl into the back of Nick's closet. Do you want to go there? I don't know. Pull out the memories that the cast and crew of New Girl have kept hidden for years. Stephen Amell, what's your favorite memory from your time working on New Girl?

Tell us. My favorite time from working on New Girl was the scene where I pee my pants just because to the best of my memory, almost everybody was there. I think Ryan Quanton was guest starring on the show. And I was a really big fan of his. And I just remember just thinking how cool, just cool it was.

in general and hearing you guys talk about the world series game that was really that was such a funny frenetic scene and then we had uh mel stevens i think played the ex-girlfriend uh you had another sloppy makeout max was there yeah

Yeah. Aggressive. Another aggressive, sloppy make out to listen. That scene lived on my I haven't had to audition because I've been busy. I would love to get in there and fight for stuff again. I think that that that day may be coming soon. But that scene lived on my on my on my reel for a long time. Didn't you also carry me out?

At some point. Yes. I probably, I think that, I think that possibly I should have watched the episodes in prep for this, but I think, and you know what? You can cut this out. If this is not, if this never happened, I have a fever right now. So I could be making things up. Was it Steven or was it Max that carried? Max carried me out, but I do. I thought there was a moment where Steven was,

carries me out as well. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm completely wrong. But all that to say, it was that Max did carry me out in the scene. And I remember him putting a lot of extra oomph into it when he carried me out. And I don't know if in part it was because you were also standing there. Max was trying to step it up. Yeah, he had no trouble. My favorite Max memory is I went to the

i went to the golden globes in 2013 because wb wanted me to go and because arrow was a new thing and i didn't want to go because i wasn't uh nominated or involved in it at all and that that led to a really really awkward trip down the red carpet because nobody wanted to talk to me and the only person that i spoke to the entire way down there was popping by and saying hey to max who was there

Like, hey, buddy, he was doing an interview. And I kept going. You should have come and hang out at the new girl table. I should have. I was at the table with the entire cast of The Big Bang Theory. And they wanted nothing to do with me there. You could have come over, hung out with us. I think we were also with the people from Game of Thrones. It was cool. Oh, cool. Yeah. How did that show end up? Did that show end up a little show of the good? Yeah.

I mean, I should check back. I don't know if it was a big success or not. One question, because you guys said at the beginning, and I didn't know this, you two knew each other prior to New Girl?

No, no, no. I think he was just saying he knew he knew he knew he had heard lots of rumors. Thanks, Stephen. Where I say Zoe knows everybody. She knows everyone that didn't. So it wouldn't surprise me. I know a lot of people now. I'm doing this. I'm doing this because I wanted to see you guys and because I like the podcast and all that stuff. But also I'm doing it for full.

street cred uh with with my with my with my daughter who is one of the biggest elf fans of all time oh that's so sweet how old is she she's eight and she's also she's also into singing and instruments and stuff like that so her so your part where you sing in that is one of her faves well tell her hello for me i will it was so nice talking to you steven thank you for taking the time

And we're so excited to see all the things you do next. I mean, I like your resume is quite long. It seems like it's just getting longer. Yeah. Take care of yourself on heels. You take care of that flu. Yeah, I know this voice. Wow. All right. Bye. Bye, you guys. Bye.

You've been listening to Welcome to Our Show, a New Girl recap podcast. Welcome to Our Show is a production of iHeartRadio, hosted by Zooey Deschanel, Lamorne Morris, and Hannah Simone. Our executive producer is Joelle Monique.

Our engineer and editor is Daniel Goodman. The Welcome to Our Show theme song was written by Zooey Deschanel, performed and produced by Zooey Deschanel and Pierre Derrida. Follow us on Instagram at WelcomeToOurShowPod. If you have a question you'd like us to answer, you can email us at WelcomeToOurShowPodcast at gmail.com. Don't forget to rate, subscribe, and share far and wide. Thanks for listening. We'll hear you next week. Welcome to Our Show.

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MITRE's mission is to solve problems for a safer world. If you have a passion for applied cybersecurity with skills in infrastructure threat intelligence, deterrence technologies, advisal threat emulation, or intelligence analysis, explore the many challenging and fulfilling career opportunities at MITRE.org slash careers. That's M-I-T-R-E dot org slash careers.

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Hey there, it's Ryan Seacrest for Safeway. Take care of yourself this summer and save on all your personal care favorites. Now, through August 27th, save up to $3 or more when you purchase participating personal care items like Pampers Wipes, Gillette Razors, Metamucil, Crest Toothpaste, Secret Body Spray, and a Swiffer Power Mop.

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