Episode 1128 - Chris Cooper
Marc:Lock the gates!
Marc:Alright, let's do this.
Marc:How are you, what the fuckers?
Marc:What the fuck buddies?
Marc:What the fucksters?
Marc:What's happening?
Marc:I'm Mark Maron.
Marc:This is my podcast, WTF.
Marc:Still at it.
Marc:I'm still at it here at the chaotic sort of... I'm not going to say end of the world.
Marc:I'm not going to say it.
Marc:There's something about grief that is informing the way I see the world in a way that I'm sort of surprised by.
Marc:I don't want to get too deep into it before saying that Academy Award-winning actor from Adaptation, American Beauty, and The Bourne Identity, Chris Cooper, is my guest today.
Marc:He's in the new season of Homecoming on Amazon Prime, and he's in the new movie Irresistible with Steve Carell.
Marc:A great actor and a guy who I've always thought seemed like an earnest fella and a worker and always does the job.
Marc:Interesting choices and just a master.
Marc:Master of the craft.
Marc:I was happy to talk to him.
Marc:We did it over the Zoom or the something.
Marc:I don't remember what one we used, but I need to do it over the video so I can look at people.
Marc:That's how that's working now.
Marc:So look.
Marc:Yesterday, they cremated the body of my girlfriend, Lynn Shelton.
Marc:This heavy day.
Marc:And it's not like I was there, but there is sort of a finality to it.
Marc:But there is something going on.
Marc:I'm trying to get back into life in the sense that you'll get out of my head.
Marc:I don't even know.
Marc:It's a very difficult time in the world and in my house and in my head and in my heart.
Marc:I get it.
Marc:It would be natural, you would think, for me to lose a sense of meaning or purpose.
Marc:I don't know how many people are worried, I guess.
Marc:I don't know if there's some sort of dark betting pool in terms of whether or not I kill myself over this or the world.
Marc:And I don't feel that I'm not feeling that right now.
Marc:I'm completely consumed with with sadness and not disbelief, but just it's almost like I'm on some other different plane with this grief.
Marc:And then when I check into the world and I realize, like, you know, we're all grieving.
Marc:really.
Marc:And we're all angry that I'm starting to sort of reintegrate into the reality spectrum.
Marc:Obviously, my reality is very small and very specific, very pain.
Marc:But the bigger reality is something that affects all of us and is righteous.
Marc:And there's a fight to be fought and it's being fought.
Marc:And, you know, if you would ask me a few days ago, I would have thought like, well, all this stuff is really kind of
Marc:Making me not want to live.
Marc:But now something's sort of shifting.
Marc:It comes and goes.
Marc:But it's the fragility of life, man, that one day you're here and then the next minute you can be gone for whatever reason is real.
Marc:And it's profound whether you die too young of unknown disease or you're murdered.
Marc:I mean, that's life gone.
Marc:And it's awful.
Marc:Both of those situations are awful, but obviously when you're murdered, there needs to be justice.
Marc:I don't know where to seek justice for the loss I'm experiencing.
Marc:But I don't know, I felt a little hopeful the other day, you know, as I released her spirit from this realm through her vessel, thinking about it.
Marc:But I feel like there's something pushing me, that there is some light.
Marc:And I don't know why I would see that.
Marc:I think that, you know, a lot of this stuff, the human spirit is...
Marc:Sort of screaming and kind of transcending and winning something.
Marc:It seems like it's being heard.
Marc:I believe that.
Marc:Seems like people are coming together a bit.
Marc:I guess what I'm saying is that in my grief, though I am sad, I am not dark.
Marc:And I feel hope.
Marc:And I feel a deeper connection to life right now, this moment.
Okay.
Marc:I do need to know why the birds are shitting all over my house.
Marc:I don't know what it is.
Marc:There's like I saw a bunch of bird shit in the driveway and I'm like, what's up?
Marc:And then I looked up and there was a hawk's nest there.
Marc:But now on my back deck, there's this one place where birds are just shitting everywhere.
Marc:And then over on my front patio, there's fucking bird shit everywhere.
Marc:It's like they're targeting my house.
Marc:I think I heard somewhere that it's good, like it's good luck or something.
Marc:But I've had enough of the luck.
Marc:Now it's like a fucking mess of good luck, if that's what it is.
Marc:Maybe it's an indication that things are turning around, that things are going to get better or that things are, you know.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Maybe it's just a fucking mess and there's bird shit everywhere.
Marc:This is a funny story.
Marc:I was kind of wondering if I should tell it, but I will.
Marc:A lot of people have been reaching out to me, as I said, and I appreciate all your emails and texts and everything.
Marc:I do.
Marc:I'm feeling a bit better, a little more grounded, and my heart seems to be in the right place.
Marc:I did have a slight battle with lack of purpose or meaning this morning, but I got out of bed, and I went and laid with Monkey, as I told you I've been doing.
Marc:But out of nowhere, my buddy, my old friend, who I've known since we were children, it seems, Jeff Ross, the comedian, gave me a buzz out of nowhere.
Marc:He had sent his condolences, which I appreciated.
Marc:But out of nowhere, the other day, he calls.
Marc:He's like, hey, how's it going?
Marc:I'm like, fine.
Marc:He goes, I have to come over.
Marc:And I'm like, okay.
Marc:He's like, can I just come over right now?
Marc:And I'm like, what's going on?
Marc:Are you recording this?
Marc:Is this a bit?
Marc:What's happening?
Marc:He's like, no, I just need to talk, and I need to come over.
Marc:I'm like, all right.
Marc:Come over.
Marc:And I thought like, well, maybe he's feeling bad for my situation and that he wants to sit with me a while like people have been doing.
Marc:And, you know, a lot of people I know or kind of know come over and then, you know, they just get to watch me cry for a few minutes and wrestle with my feelings and my heart and my loss.
Yeah.
Marc:But so Jeff comes over and, you know, we're all we're out front.
Marc:We're distance.
Marc:We're masked.
Marc:And he just decided I was the guy he needed to talk to about his own relationship, which he's having some problems in.
Marc:He's like, yeah, I just you were the guy I thought would be best.
Marc:I'm like the guy whose girlfriend died.
Marc:Three weeks ago, he decided, like, I'm the guy that's going to be the go-to for some relationship issues.
Marc:He's like, yeah, I don't know why.
Marc:I thought, like, what a beautiful thing, the community I come from.
Marc:There's so much beautiful outreach and support.
Marc:And also just, you know, Jeff was like, fuck it.
Marc:I got to talk to somebody.
Marc:I'll talk to Maren.
Marc:This is the perfect time to talk to him about my relationship.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know what, folks, I'll tell you, not unlike AA or anything else, you know, just to get out of my own head and sit there and listen to someone else's issues and someone else's problems, someone else's story, which is what I do on this show all the time in good times and in bad times.
Marc:It's good for the fucking soul, man, to shut up and listen.
Marc:Speak from your own experience.
Marc:Admit when you don't know what the fuck to say or how to help.
Marc:Help if you can.
Marc:Show up.
Marc:Just show up.
Marc:And he felt that, too.
Marc:I mean, like, you know, we talked about my situation, but I hope I helped him with this situation.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:But I thought it was sort of funny and endearing and specifically something a comedian would do.
Marc:I'm going to go talk to the one guy I know who is just shattered and grieving about my relationship problems at this point in time.
Marc:Chris Cooper, you can watch right now, Homecoming is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Marc:It was funny when I talked to him, I watched the entire first season waiting for him to show up, but it's sort of, it's not, I don't think it's an anthology, it's not an anthology show, but each season is different, different actors, and he wasn't in the first season at all.
Marc:And I actually didn't watch the season he was in until after we talked.
Marc:His new movie, Irresistible,
Marc:With Steve Carell will be available to rent on demand June 26th.
Marc:This is me and Chris Cooper coming up in a couple of minutes.
Marc:And also, I might want to add that his wife, his wife, Marianne, who's also an actress, chimes in occasionally.
Marc:Where are you, holed up in Massachusetts?
Guest:Yeah, we're, you know, called South Shore.
Guest:Sure, I know.
Guest:And we're next town over from Plymouth.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:Yeah, I used to do, I started my stand-up career in New England area, and I used to do stand-up in all those little towns.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:So you must know, what was his name?
Guest:Oh, Steve Sweeney?
Guest:Steve Sweeney?
Marc:Of course.
Marc:He's a friend of yours?
Guest:Yeah, I went to school with him.
Guest:I went to UMass Boston with him.
Guest:Mary Ann used to do sketch comedy in New York with another woman and two guys.
Marc:well yeah steve uh was like the king of boston he was just out here he did some weird little movie uh uh sweeney killing sweeney or something and he he came out but i knew him when i was a kid starting out there yeah he was the he was the he was the biggest comic in boston for a while mark where are you i'm in glendale you're burning up there or what
Marc:No, we're all right.
Marc:It's been okay.
Marc:I'm fortunate, and I was just talking to Marianne there.
Marc:I got a little money in the bank, and I'm not freaking out, and I'm doing this, and I'm getting out to buy food, and I'm exercising.
Marc:But today, it's a little weird because Gavin Newsom says it's probably going to be three more months, and you really start to realize, like,
Marc:nothing's really going to be the same ever again.
Marc:And there's a lot of people that are going to really get weeded out by this thing.
Marc:And, and we don't really know, you know, what the economic outcome we're going to be living in as a country.
Marc:It's like today, for some reason, I'm sort of like, Holy shit.
Marc:It's all fucking, it's wide open, man.
Guest:And I, I like, I appreciate that there, that, you know,
Guest:Those that are talking facts that I accept, I mean, it seems like the world...
Guest:No going back, you know, no, no going back to the old things.
Guest:And there's so much stuff that needs to be addressed now.
Marc:I know it's crazy.
Marc:Like, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Not what I think I said this the other day.
Marc:I said pretty soon we're all going to be who we are.
Marc:Like there's that moment where, you know, you cross over and you realize, like, it's very hard not to be self-reflective.
Marc:And it's also very hard not to to be in your skin and in your life because everything has sort of been taken away.
Marc:So you can really assess your priorities and your principles and who you are and what you stand for and what you might want to do with the rest of your life if we have the opportunity.
Guest:Like Marianne said, we're 37 miles from Boston.
Guest:And her extended family, I mean, she grew up here in Boston with her sister and brother and...
Guest:It's killing her.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, the social Italian girl.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And she can't see her family, the nieces and the nephews.
Guest:And it's terrible.
Marc:Are they doing OK?
Guest:They're doing OK.
Guest:And a little the children, the nieces and nephews, you know, they they're quarantined.
Guest:So thankfully, our niece is special ed educated and she's she's teaching and they're doing well.
Marc:Oh, good.
Marc:Well, that's good.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, that's the best we can hope for.
Marc:And something will eventually give.
Marc:It's just really, it makes it all the more frightening that the actual federal government is so chaotic and wrong-minded and just terrifying.
Marc:It's just terrifying when the thing, in the back of your head as an American, there's certain things we have grown to rely on, even if we don't have to.
Marc:And now about 80% of that thing
Marc:is completely unreliable.
Marc:And in the opposite, it's actually terrifying.
Guest:Yeah, but I just think it's amazing, you know,
Guest:You know untruths when you hear them.
Guest:You know untruths when you see them.
Guest:And that half of this country or whatever is supporting this jackass.
Marc:They're brain fucked.
Marc:They're completely brain fucked.
Marc:And their brains aren't coming back.
Marc:They voluntarily allow themselves to be scrambled permanently.
Guest:I'm looking forward to the point when he's out.
Marc:I hope so.
Guest:And then then the Republican line will be, well, you know, we tried, but we just couldn't we couldn't move him or, you know, just allowing all this bullshit to happen.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:They'll never take responsibility, that's for sure.
Marc:But it's interesting what you say, Chris, to transition about knowing the truth and knowing when someone's lying.
Marc:I mean, I'd like to believe you, but it seems like a lot of people want to believe what they want to believe.
Marc:But I think, you know, as an actor...
Marc:you know, if I was to sort of focus in on one thing that you seem to, uh, to kind of, uh, have in your toolbox is, is a sort of, uh, uh, no bullshit kind of like engage in the truthness.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, um, that's, that's the kind of stuff that's the kind of acting.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's the kind of film work that got me interested in, in, in the business.
Guest:And of course, well, sure.
Guest:The films from the,
Guest:from you know 50s and 60s that's what really got me started like which one you know this of course it's the big three it's the montgomery cliff brando dean uh and on the women women's side it was joe van fleet and mercedes mccambridge and
Guest:great talents like that.
Guest:And, and what's her name?
Guest:Julie, Julie, who worked with Dean on East of Eden, Julie Harris.
Guest:Oh yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh yeah.
Guest:Truth in acting.
Guest:And, and unfortunately, I got to say, unfortunately,
Guest:Marianne and I met in acting class.
Guest:And our coach, our acting coach, was Wynn Handman.
Guest:He was a disciple of the Neighborhood Playhouse.
Guest:And unfortunately, we just lost him a couple of weeks ago.
Guest:And it was...
Guest:It was had somewhat to do with the virus.
Guest:Oh, that's I'm sorry.
Guest:Five years old and sharp as a tack.
Marc:I'm sorry to hear that.
Guest:Coach.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But he taught us truth.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, he brought us to drop the bullshit and, you know, play the truth.
Guest:He took me apart and put me back together.
Guest:It was great.
Marc:So but you didn't like you didn't.
Marc:You're not from New England.
Marc:You're like a country guy.
Guest:No, I'm from I'm from I grew up in Missouri.
Marc:Like not St.
Marc:Louis?
Guest:Other side, Kansas City, right on the Kansas City and Missouri and Kansas line.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then my father and I raised Hereford cattle over in Kansas.
Guest:He had some land over in Kansas and spent a lot of time there.
Marc:That was his job.
Marc:How old were you when you were raising cattle?
Guest:He he was a doctor, so he had to you know, this was like a it was like a toy investment for him.
Guest:And we we ran the ranch primarily for the for the early, early 60s through the 70s.
Marc:So and that was you were sort of an actual cowboy.
Guest:Oh, yeah, we did everything.
Guest:We did everything.
Guest:You know, the delivering cattle at midnight in winter.
Guest:Hopefully, you know, we try and worked it out so the cows would drop at spring, you know, and we'd...
Guest:We do the weaning and the castrating and the vaccinating.
Guest:And you realize that you spend enough time with these cattle.
Guest:They all are individual and so cute.
Guest:You've got to send them off to market.
Guest:It breaks your heart.
Guest:But that life was terrific.
Guest:And I almost considered carrying on with it.
Guest:But thank God I wanted to pursue this acting thing.
Guest:And now I realize ranching is so physical.
Marc:Yeah, well, it's sort of interesting.
Marc:I watched John's movie Irresistible.
Marc:He should have given you more to do with that background.
Guest:i know we'll get into that but oh my god working with correll that was a knockout that was great oh yeah he's so funny huh yeah yeah yeah but like what changes so is your brother you have a brother right yes i got an older brother a couple of years older than me did he stay in the ranching game
Guest:Oh, hell no.
Guest:No, he was a party boy.
Guest:He and I are kind of opposites.
Guest:He's super high energy and funny as hell and a real quick wit.
Guest:And I envy all of that, you know, but he was a great brother.
Guest:He got into radio and TV at university, but then he got into fine home building and contracting.
Oh.
Marc:Oh, so that was, he's a contractor.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he kind of helped me along the way because, um, when I was, uh, you know, uh, 69 Vietnam was going on really strong and, uh, I was working well.
Guest:Anyway, I volunteered.
Guest:I went into the Coast Guard as a reservist.
Guest:So that's a six-year deal.
Guest:But that kind of setup also allows you to go to college while you're in the military.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Brother helped me out in the meantime.
Guest:He also, uh, this is 1970.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Um, they were working, they were breaking the ground on the chiefs and Royals football and baseball stadium.
Guest:So my brother, uh, got me a job as a carpenter's helper.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Uh, working on the stadium and, uh, wow.
Guest:I worked on the stadium for about a year and,
Guest:And man, that paid, can you imagine that paid for two years of college?
Marc:So you were, did you know how to be a carpenter or were you, did you learn there?
Guest:It was kind of like on the job training.
Guest:I was, I was looking over the shoulders of these old timers who were, you know, putting up forms for cement, for cement pours and the gopher for everything and track down the electricity.
Guest:And the fucking number of times I got shocked and
Guest:And they'd just die laughing.
Guest:It was a joke to them.
Guest:But that helped me.
Guest:I roughed in a few houses with my brother.
Guest:And then on the trip to New York where I was headed, my side job, my main job, my survival job was a toolbox on wheels.
Guest:Handyman.
Guest:On the subway with me to the Upper East Side or Upper West Side and worked for these wealthy people in their apartments doing whatever they needed.
Marc:Yeah, you were like a handyman.
Marc:Everyone needs that guy.
Guest:So that was great for auditions because I could call my own hours.
Marc:But where did you go to college?
Marc:Did you study acting in college?
Guest:University of Missouri.
Marc:And was it always the intention to be an actor or did that sort of unfold?
Guest:Yeah, I knew where I was headed.
Guest:I took every damn class I could, you know, as English, Shakespeare.
Guest:all the theater classes but you never did any acting in high school or anything oh yeah we did this we did like the senior musical right and we and it was um it was camelot uh-huh and i got pissed off because the mayor's son got to play uh lancelot
Marc:and so i ended up playing one of the three nights see that politics yeah it's always gonna fuck you politics yeah and this is and it's been a through line through a lot of your roles including that the last irresistible you just you know it's all part of the payback for that fucking kid for lance a lot
Guest:And then second semester of my sophomore year at university, then I got got serious about theater and started auditioning and doing main stage plays.
Guest:And it was University of Missouri, I think, gave me a really good foundation.
Guest:I go farther back.
Guest:You know, I was still involved with theater when I was 16.
Guest:So I really knew where I was headed.
Marc:In what capacity?
Yeah.
Guest:Doing everything but acting.
Marc:So wait, now where was that?
Guest:That was a little what they call resident theater on the Kansas-Missouri line.
Guest:And it was called Barn Players Theater.
Guest:So you'd have dentists and nurses and doctors, plumbers, whatever.
Guest:These residents would
Guest:who put on shows for an audience, for a paying audience.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And my friend, I was like 16, 16 years old.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My friends were getting into a little bit of petty crime and it was getting kind of serious.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And so I kind of wanted to separate myself from them.
Guest:So I offered my time, went up to this theater, talked to the artistic director that said, I'll do anything.
Guest:Just let me, you know, just keep me out of jail.
Guest:Get me going here.
Guest:And of course, I work for free.
Guest:They were happy with that.
Marc:So wait, did any of your friends end up in prison?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:So anyway, I said I do.
Guest:I did everything but acting.
Guest:Hung lights, ran a light board, stage manage, was in the wings each night.
Guest:Building sets as a scene shifter.
Mm hmm.
Guest:And then I worked my way back to the shop and built sets and got into design.
Marc:So you really knew it.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Well, you knew the organic nature of the film of the theater community.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it's also that thing of appreciate not, you know, the actors are going to get enough glory.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But learn to appreciate all those people around you that, that,
Guest:put together a, a, a project or a play and, you know, and respect their, their efforts too, you know?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I think it's sort of fascinating too, in general about the idea of community theater or neighborhood theater or the theater company where, you know, everybody becomes this, it's almost like an organic or symbiotic, a family kind of thing.
Marc:There's a respect, but there's, it's a living, breathing sort of community.
Right.
Guest:It became very, very dear, very touching.
Guest:These were great, great people.
Guest:And we became, you know, over a summer, became a little family, you know.
Marc:So you got your, you got, but you weren't ready to step on the stage yet.
Marc:Were you a sociable person?
Marc:Were you like nervous about it?
Marc:Like that, like, were you one of those guys where, where like, you know, once you finally got on stage, you were like, this is where I belong.
Marc:But before that you were like, you don't talk much.
Guest:Well, here, you know, I mean, how far do we go back?
Marc:As far back as you want.
Guest:I claim that my fifth, my sixth grade teacher recognized the shyness in me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I had a good singing voice.
Guest:So they did one of those things.
Guest:pieces where they they put all four classes together sing along individual quartet sing a song so on so forth yeah and she put me in a quartet and in that quartet I had to sing a little bit of solo and I liked the applause I loved it I loved it yeah and um
Guest:Very much got into singing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Any opportunity I did later on to sing, I went to church choir.
Guest:At the high school, we had a really nice, really respected choir.
Guest:And within the high school choir, there was a male octet, and I was one of the baritones.
Guest:And we did state competition and all that singing.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And so...
Guest:And then around that time, my folks took me to Las Vegas because they wanted to have some fun.
Guest:But as a 15-year-old, I thought Vegas was so damn cool.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:I thought it was so mature.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, Ocean's 11 or whatever.
Marc:Well, I think it probably was when you were 15.
Marc:It was probably still pretty cool.
Yeah.
Guest:yeah we stayed at the desert inn that's long gone you know yeah yeah and i saw some of those bar shows yeah and man i just fell in love with it with the lounge acts the singer yeah yeah i was a great fan of like johnny mathis and tony bennett and then and and then in high school i sang on a band and
Guest:And we did fraternity parties and, you know, university.
Marc:You were in a rock band?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So you were a singer, man.
Guest:The new blue soul sound.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:So you were like a soul singer.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I don't know if you had it when you were growing up.
Guest:But in Missouri, we had these little dance halls.
Guest:or rather big dance halls for teenagers, not alcoholic, but places where teenagers on Friday night and Saturday night, they come dance.
Guest:We did that a lot on weekends.
Guest:That teacher saw my shyness and she really worked on me.
Guest:And I'm so appreciative.
Marc:She saved you from an introverted life of carpentry.
Guest:And I still had remnants of it, but you know, in university, um,
Guest:Pretty nice to be in a theater department where there are a lot of girls.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:You got a lot of people to impress.
Guest:Really nice.
Guest:Put the show on.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Well, that's it.
Marc:You know, I tell you, you'd be surprised how many people I talk to musicians, comics, actors who that was the reason they got into it.
Guest:was i wouldn't argue yeah so once you do commit to it and and you did you so it in college did you major in in acting or no you could call it a major but what it was what i got my degree in was a general a general studies degree right it was primarily created for vietnam vets
Guest:who could come back to university and if they could persuade the powers that be, this is what I wanna do as a career,
Guest:If they accepted your argument, then you could more or less create your own curricula.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And that's what you did?
Guest:Pretty much.
Guest:But I mean, it was still a pretty good, pretty good education.
Guest:I still had to do the minimum requirement, you know, general requirements.
Guest:For the liberal arts?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So right out of college, you're like, I'm going to New York.
Marc:I mean, that's like what...
Guest:yeah yeah 1970 1969 what what year was that uh was this was uh actually I took my time okay it took a couple of I took a little break after college from college and so I didn't graduate until I think 74 or 75 um
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:So you're just hanging around doing plays or doing carpentry?
Guest:No, I was doing ranch work.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Freshman and sophomore year, my junior and senior summers.
Guest:I stayed at university to do the summer rep.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:And we did three plays each summer.
Guest:And you were in all three.
Marc:Oh, so you're getting your flying hours in.
Guest:Yeah, so it would be like two straight plays and a musical.
Marc:And in terms of teachers, were you just winging it?
Marc:Or did you have somebody, you're working with good directors?
Marc:Was somebody laying down how to do this?
Guest:Mark, here's the deal.
Guest:I had a real strong relationship with a St.
Guest:Louis fella, Edmund Wesley, who's African-American, very older than me, had already gone to New York,
Guest:was a very established Broadway dancer.
Guest:He came back to university to get his master's.
Guest:And so part of getting his master's, he had to choreograph the summer rep musical.
Guest:And that was The Boyfriend.
Guest:And I played Tony.
Guest:And that means tap dancing and jazz dancing.
Guest:And he told the cast,
Guest:When he started choreographing, he said, my choreography is not going to be easy.
Guest:And he worked our tails off.
Guest:He worked our tails off.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But it was a great experience.
Guest:And then when I graduated, I moved with three other guys and Edmund to New York and
Guest:And of course, we had the advantage because Edmund already had an apartment in New York, so we
Guest:I stayed there for a couple of months until we were at each other's throat.
Marc:All five of you were in the apartment?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, literally sleeping like the Three Stooges, three bunk beds high we built.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So what was the plan, though?
Marc:Because I know that – so this is the mid-'70s, and you guys were just going to audition.
Marc:You were running around with your toolbox, and they were doing other jobs, but none of you had agents or anything?
Guest:No.
Guest:No way.
Guest:No.
Guest:You would do – we would do –
Guest:you go up to the corner and get the trade paper.
Guest:And in the back, there would be some, you know, auditions and stuff.
Guest:And, but there were also a lot of off, off Broadway shows, a hundred seat houses.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, um, you'd often do, um, you know, little plays and, um,
Guest:And then also, of course, you know, survival jobs.
Marc:So when do you start studying with Wynn?
Marc:How do you sort of, you know, kind of build on your abilities?
Guest:Okay, so I came to New York in 75 and did a few small productions.
Guest:And I think I got...
Guest:I think I heard about this class in late 78, 79, and started doing classwork.
Marc:At the actor's playhouse?
Guest:At this little playhouse, this little studio that Wynn had set up.
Guest:And people would do scene work.
Guest:And what they called across-the-table exercises of cold readings.
Guest:You take material you're not even familiar with, but with the work, you could learn to scoop lines off the page and still deal with the other actor.
Guest:Right.
Yeah.
Guest:know just all sorts of different exercises uh working against self-consciousness um you know not indicating your you know indicating your work um also he was a terrific teacher and and that was uh you stayed there for how long um man i always say marion two years three years
Guest:And I met Mary, my wife, in that class.
Guest:She was the secretary, and she would get free.
Guest:She could study for free by being the secretary and admitting new state students in as they came along.
Marc:Did you guys work together on scenes and plays?
Guest:Oh, sure.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You're doing it now.
Guest:This was the, oh, I have to tell you.
Guest:So this was the star class.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was moving up from the intermediate class.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And my coach, my intermediate coach came with me.
Guest:to tell Marianne that I was coming into this class, and Mary said, no, no, he's not.
Guest:There's a six-month waiting list for students here.
Guest:And Bob McAndrew, my intermediate coach, said, no, I've talked to Wynn.
Guest:Everything's cool.
Guest:He's coming into class.
Guest:And so down the road, really as a sign of how you have
Guest:Grown as a student, I think eight months down the road, he assigned Marianne and I to work on Eugene O'Neill, Morning Becomes Electra, the brother-sister incestuous scene.
Guest:So we worked our tail.
Yeah.
Marc:Got to know each other on that.
Guest:And, you know, just kind of found a liking for each other.
Marc:Well, I guess if you're going that deep, you're going to you're going to really know each other at the end of that.
Marc:And so it just seems like so.
Marc:I mean, you were not young by the time you started working in movies.
Guest:I was not young.
Guest:No.
Guest:I mean, I didn't do I don't think I did a film, any film work until I was 35.
Guest:I was I was content.
Guest:I was really content with theater.
Guest:And thank goodness you were doing.
Marc:Were you doing a lot of Broadway?
Marc:Were you doing big pieces?
Guest:I was doing I was doing regional theater theater and really caught some big breaks doing that.
Guest:Like what?
Guest:In 1980.
Guest:Actors Theater Louisville was in its heyday.
Guest:They had a great literary department and they would do new play, one act festivals that would go on for a month and a half or two.
Guest:And New York was
Guest:The agents and the managers in New York would empty and come down to Louisville to watch these new plays and look for actors and new talent.
Guest:And a number of the plays went up to Broadway.
Guest:Right, right, right.
Guest:Sure.
Yeah.
Marc:So that's what you did.
Marc:So you'd go down there for a month.
Guest:I did that for a couple of summers when the artistic director would invite me to join the company.
Marc:And that's how you paid your dues.
Marc:That's how you got your time on stage in and worked your chops and became a better actor, was doing these regional theaters.
Marc:Did you go elsewhere?
Marc:It wasn't just Louisville?
Marc:Were there other places you'd go?
Guest:No, yeah.
Guest:And there were small, like I said, there were small 100 seat houses in New York where you do, you know, you do plays.
Marc:But did you ever do that kind of a road touring company or spend like three, four months in a place and that kind of stuff?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, I did.
Guest:But it was a little bit later in 82.
Guest:82, 83.
Guest:We used to have this exchange with the UK where we would exchange talents and UK actors would come over here and American actors would go over to UK.
Guest:So I kind of lucked out in that there was going to be a production of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth directed by Harold Pinter.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:With Lauren Bacall.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:As the aged actress.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And so Michael Beck played Chance, the lead guy in it.
Guest:And I understudied Michael and was cast as Stuff the Bartender, who is introduced in the second act.
Guest:So...
Guest:Never had the opportunity to work with Lauren.
Guest:Michael was there every night.
Guest:But that was a seven-month run in the West End in London.
Guest:But before that, we did a tour for five weeks of...
Guest:brighton manchester plymouth wow it's a whole lifestyle bath yeah birmingham yeah and it was it was a terrific uh half year so and so you were good with that you were like this is the life
Guest:Well, you know, I mean, it was important.
Guest:It was really important to have Marianne understand the business.
Guest:You know, before we got married, we had a really serious talk.
Guest:And I said, you know, I got nothing else to fall back on.
Guest:I am serious about this business.
Guest:And, you know, if we succeed, it's going to pull us apart for periods of time.
Guest:So...
Guest:I don't need a needy girlfriend.
Guest:Are you in or out?
Guest:And she wasn't by any name.
Guest:She can fill up her own time very well.
Guest:So there have been some jobs that have taken me away for five months at a time, and there's no way I could get back home.
Marc:But you're talking recently.
Guest:And recently, yeah, throughout the career.
Guest:So it's like being a sailor.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I'm glad that she understood and that you guys stayed together.
Marc:That's a rare thing.
Guest:it is it is but uh it's um i'm very very lucky okay so what when does you start uh how does the the relationship with john sales evolve because that was really what introduced you into movies right yeah and uh marianne and i were living together and we were answering audition uh you know clippings like um i said in the trade papers and marianne saw
Guest:that a female junior screenwriter, filmmaker at NYU wanted to do her black and white half hour film.
Guest:So Marianne got cast in that film.
Guest:And the writer-director is Nancy Savoca.
Guest:They became friends.
Guest:Senior year, Marianne and I are in Nancy's color half-hour film.
Guest:Nancy was trying to make a trailer for her first feature.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Rich Gay and Nancy Savoca.
Guest:And they're trying to raise money by making this trailer.
Yeah.
Guest:So John Sale's mate, Maggie, offered to help the crew...
Guest:Simply feed them.
Guest:She's in a kitchen with Marianne making food for the crew and the cast to shoot this trailer.
Guest:So Rich Gay knows that John wants to do this film called Mate One.
Guest:And he says, OK, when the time comes, John, why don't you read this guy, Chris Cooper, because we've already worked with him.
Guest:And I guess he gave me the gave John the OK that I was worth working, you know, taking a look at.
Guest:So we started the audition process with John.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I did my first audition.
Guest:This coincides with when I went to the UK for seven months to do the Tennessee Williams play.
Guest:Two months into being in London, I get a call back.
Guest:John wants to read me again with some other actresses.
Guest:So...
Guest:I do the Sunday matinee at the Haymarket Theater.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Get to the airport, fly home, and Rich Gay picks me up at the airport, drives me to the audition.
Guest:I do the audition.
Guest:I read with a couple of women, get right back into the car, go back to the airport.
Guest:get to UK hours before the Tuesday seven o'clock or eight o'clock curtain.
Guest:I realized I haven't slept since Sunday.
Guest:I haven't slept a week.
Guest:And I damn near fainted on stage.
Marc:Oh, bad feeling.
Guest:So that was that in a nutshell.
Marc:So that's how you got the part.
Marc:And that movie, I remember when that came out because, I mean, I think I was in...
Marc:I think I might have been in high school, but it was such a big deal somehow.
Marc:It was such like, you know, it was like it was it felt like almost one of the first American independent movies.
Guest:He is known as the granddaddy of independent film.
Marc:And then he had and then that amazing look of the thing.
Marc:I guess it was Haskell Wexler.
Guest:Wexler.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:He's like a cinema.
Marc:He's like a cinematographer genius.
Marc:And I'll never forget the tone and your performance and Stratham's performance and Will Oldham, who is now a strange little empire of his own as Bonnie Prince Billy.
Marc:He's a musical act now.
Guest:And James Earl.
Marc:James Earl Jones, that's right.
Marc:And Sales had done, what, one other movie before that?
Yeah.
Guest:He'd done Brother from Another Planet.
Guest:And Secaucus 7.
Marc:Oh, Secaucus 7, right.
Guest:And Liana.
Marc:Oh, right.
Marc:So this one had a little more money to it, I bet.
Guest:Not that much.
Guest:I mean, it's always been hard to raise money in independent film.
Guest:But just to add to that, I wish I knew what the budget was.
Guest:But like you said, to watch Haskell Wexler, this master of light, this director of photography,
Guest:And on such a budget, such a low budget, what he was able to pull off.
Marc:It's unbelievable.
Guest:It was remarkable.
Marc:And like you as an actor, I mean, after doing all this theater and having this relationship with Wynn Handman and doing the work and working with other directors, you know, entering the world of film with John.
Marc:I mean, what was some of the skills that you picked up from that?
Marc:I mean, how did that change your life or your approach to the thing?
Guest:Well, okay.
Guest:I say, in my head, I'm thinking, okay, we're entering the film world now.
Guest:Yeah, right.
Guest:So I'm a student, and I just play dumb.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The less I know, the better.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Just feed me.
Guest:And John was the perfect person to do a first film with.
Guest:He set a great example of what a director is all about,
Guest:He taught me that time is money.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And you must realize, I think early on, John used primarily theater actors because I think he knew they would do their homework, they would come prepared, and the one thing you don't do
Guest:Like with a playwright, you don't fuck with a John Sayles script.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So he can justify every word of it.
Guest:And I was brought up in the theater tradition, and so it was just understood.
Guest:I learned John's work word for word, you know.
Guest:And he just broke me in gently, like the other actors, and was just the...
Guest:the most calming effect for somebody who was so excited and and doing his my first film um i know it was that i know i know that first week i was told to um settle down because i was so excited yeah and i was looking over looking over haskell's shoulder as he's shooting and asking all kinds of questions and you know yeah so he taught me a good lesson many lessons
Marc:Well, that's good.
Marc:And you did like, what, four movies with him?
Guest:I've done five.
Marc:Five, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, I remember Lone Star.
Guest:That was beautiful.
Guest:On average, we work once every five years.
Guest:And we have been trying for the last...
Guest:Three, four years.
Guest:He's got two films that we would love to do.
Guest:But like you said, raising money is hell.
Guest:It's just so hard.
Marc:Yeah, even for him, huh?
Marc:I guess for anybody.
Marc:But yeah, I've enjoyed those movies.
Marc:I mean, I remember City of Hope, but I loved Lone Star.
Guest:Not patting myself on the back, but I think financially that was John's...
Guest:Most successful financial film.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And then like I think that I think everybody sort of had to reckon with you when with American Beauty, it seems like that was your introduction to who the fuck is this guy?
Guest:I'll take that as a compliment.
Marc:What is going on here, man?
Guest:That was a pretty damn intense film.
Guest:It was really intense.
Marc:From the first second of the movie, it's intense.
Marc:Just the tone of it.
Marc:It's like emotionally menacing and horrendously familiar.
Marc:So when you like, I mean, it seems like I feel like I know you because I've watched you in many movies.
Marc:And it seems like you're one of these actors that's very capable of you can play evil, good guy, funny guy, evil guy.
Marc:But but it's just you just you just seem to be tweaking the little things inside of yourself.
Marc:That like outside.
Marc:Well, I guess there's a couple of characters where you you kind of fully almost physically transform like an adaptation and stuff.
Marc:But I mean, how do you approach these characters?
Marc:You don't I guess you don't judge them.
Marc:You just take them at their humanity.
Guest:No, you can't.
Guest:You really can't.
Guest:You know, that's a general statement that comes out of actors.
Guest:You don't judge the characters that you're working on.
Guest:And I would I'd agree with that.
Guest:But I mean, I don't know.
Guest:I think I've lived a pretty full life.
Guest:And had a lot of experiences.
Guest:And now I'm seeing that with more and more films, as I live longer and longer, I can bring more of my life experience to these characters.
Guest:And then I love going out on the edge and going beyond or try to go beyond what I...
Guest:I think I'm capable of.
Guest:And that kind of sounds bullshitty, but... Like what would... I like to... I don't like to... What would be more boring than to play yourself over and over and over?
Marc:No, I get it.
Marc:Yeah, but it seems to me like with...
Marc:I definitely don't think, you know, now talking to you that you play yourself, but like American Beauty, you know, the torment of that character and the nature of masculinity and all of that, you know, to play the fury of that.
Marc:You know, what did you use?
Marc:When you do characterizations, do you model yourself after people that you know or do you just dig within yourself?
Marc:Like with that thing, that guy's a vet.
Guest:Early on, I might have done that.
Guest:I might have made substitutions of stuff that I hadn't experienced yet.
Guest:What else do you have as an actor?
Guest:But...
Guest:Your historical research, if it's a character that's lived and so on and so forth, or you can research the time, the politics, what was happening religiously, so on and so forth.
Guest:You fill yourself up with that kind of homework.
Guest:And then you get particular about your character.
Guest:You've got your research.
Guest:You've got your life experience.
Guest:And what else do you have but your imagination?
Guest:Right.
Guest:That's all I that's all I got.
Guest:Those are my only tools.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It just seems like every role are the ones that seem to stand out in my mind, you know, in a big way, you know, like American Beauty and Adaptation.
Marc:And, you know, even, you know, some like even watching that movie that the Tracy Letts play August Osage.
Guest:August Othage County.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And also the, even the character in Irresistible, there just seems to be the emotional weight of it that, that you seem to be able to tap into, especially with adaptation, you know, the, you know, that the, the sort of heartbreak of that guy.
Marc:I mean, when you, when you go into those places, I mean, is it hard to come out?
Yeah.
Guest:It's not hard to come out, you know, like when you're interviewing other actors, they say, well, do you take your character home with you?
Guest:Right.
Guest:And if I came home with my character, my wife would kill me.
Guest:Right.
Guest:She wouldn't put up with it for a minute.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But...
Guest:When you're living in a hotel or you're up in Toronto or Montana shooting a film and you go back to the hotel and motel, you got stuff to shoot the next day.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So, yeah, you do take it home with you.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Well, yeah, you kind of live in it.
Guest:Because now is the time to work.
Guest:During the shooting schedule, it's not the time to play.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Now you do your work and it gets a little serious.
Marc:Like with adaptation, you know, working like that.
Marc:That movie is a crazy movie.
Guest:It's bizarre.
Guest:It's bizarre.
Guest:I mean, when I saw that the previous one, John Malkovich.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Being John Malkovich, I must have seen that, you know, I'm probably going on my ninth or tenth time to see it.
Guest:And I think I discover something new every time I see it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, I watched adaptation pretty recently, but that character was so, you know, it just had a sort of an authenticity to it.
Marc:And Spike Jonze seems like a pretty, you know, he's like a comfortable guy.
Marc:Like, you know, he seems like a very I've met him a few times, but what's it like to work with him, you know, as a director?
Guest:pretty pretty remarkable i mean i was living in boston and got up early drove into new york yeah um to do the audition yeah and i'll i'll tell you i won't name names but i'll tell you there were some very recognizable faces yeah yeah and uh so when my time came
Guest:If you're at all familiar with the audition process, you do your idea of the character.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And if the director likes you, then he may say, let's do it again.
Guest:Make this adjustment here.
Guest:Think about this.
Guest:Think about that.
Guest:And let's go again.
Guest:So from the get go.
Guest:I told Spike, I said, please allow me to show you what I can do with this character.
Guest:I can't give you my definitive audition, my definitive idea of John LaRoche.
Guest:There's too many ways to play this guy.
Guest:And so he allowed me.
Guest:to do that.
Guest:And he put, he put the audition on, on a video videotape.
Guest:And it was about a 45 minute audition.
Guest:We did probably three or four scenes, three or four different ways.
Guest:And we liked, so we liked working that way so much that we carried that into when we were shooting the film.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Because what that does is it's a, it's a, it's a present to the director and to the editor.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Um, you can play, you can play the scene one way and then another take played another way.
Guest:So the editor, the director have a variety of, um, different takes to draw from.
Marc:So, so you would, you would, he would encourage you to, to sort of like shift your choices completely for different takes.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was all based on it's as if.
Guest:It's as if.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You're this Florida redneck.
Guest:And here is this new New York journalist came all the way down here and wants to interview you.
Guest:Well, she's lucky to have your time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Okay, let's turn it around.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You are totally intimidated by this woman.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:This bright New York journalist.
Guest:And what are you?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:This Florida redneck.
Guest:And so you don't even look at her.
Guest:Right, right.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:It's just that, that kind of stuff.
Marc:That's interesting because that seems to like, you know, you couldn't have acted that any more thoroughly.
Marc:Right.
Marc:In terms of the work.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Cause you're, you're approaching it from all these different possibilities and then you get the Oscar for it.
Marc:And it just seems like, you know, just on many levels, you know, you definitely earned that Oscar.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Guest:Just to add to this, cause I have to, I have to mention her.
Yeah.
Guest:And when we did August Osage County, Meryl is the queen of shaking it up, changing it up every take.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And I said, you know, when we do these junkets and talk about the work,
Guest:I say to the audience, nobody knows the talent of this woman unless you're on set watching her because she brings such variety.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:She's astounding.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So when you're being challenged by the director to do a thing and then you're also working with somebody that makes it fresh every time, that must really feel like the best part of doing the job that you do.
Guest:It is.
Guest:It is like it's like it keeps you on your toes because you're putting your concentration on what she's giving you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:What she's giving you.
Guest:And you have to react to that.
Guest:And, you know, that goes back to it just goes back to classwork, you know.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:I guess so.
Marc:Now, when you say you want to push the envelope, because I mean, I watched Irresistible and I think it was a pretty good movie.
Marc:And, you know, it looks like, you know, you and Carell had a good time, but you seem to be cast a lot.
Marc:Well, at least a few times as kind of a politician of one kind or another or a kind of rural guy that's in one form.
Marc:You know that.
Marc:So when you when you think about challenging yourself or saying that, like, I think little women just watching that, watching you work in that, that was completely different.
Guest:And completely rewarding.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, I mean, it's not a big role.
Guest:Obviously we see that.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But the little scenes are spaced out very nicely.
Guest:But, man, my treat was watching these kids.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that talent.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:They were they were really impressive, really impressive to watch Saoirse and and Timothy Chalamot.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They know what they're doing, you know, and Laura Dern.
Guest:Oh, wonderful talents.
Marc:Oh, and Merle's in that, too.
Guest:And Merle.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I think it's a masterpiece, that movie.
Guest:It's pretty lovely.
Marc:But like what would you like to do?
Marc:Like, you know, when you think about pushing the envelope, what does that mean to you?
Guest:Well, you know, I don't have I'm not an ideas guy, but I put it out there and anybody's anybody's invited to, you know,
Guest:See what they can do with it.
Guest:But I think it's remarkable that nobody has come up with a limited series about the architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Marc:Oh, yeah, sure.
Guest:And he has such a dramatic true life.
Guest:incidents that happened to he and his family and such a long career.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Beautiful stuff.
Guest:I'm a huge fan of his architecture and all, you know, so I, I think it'd be great to portray somebody like him.
Marc:That's interesting.
Guest:But other than that, to answer your question, I just, you know,
Guest:I wait for the material to come, or I read a book that I know down the road if it knocks me out, and there's a character in there that I'm interested in.
Guest:Years ago, I did this piece playing Redford's brother called Horse Whisperer.
Guest:That was kind of a romantic novel, you know?
Guest:And I read I heard that Redford was going to do it.
Guest:So I leaped ahead and read the book and saw that he had a brother.
Guest:And, you know, so that's kind of how that job came about.
Guest:I kind of pursued that.
Marc:And when you look back on the roles that you have played, what do you think was the most.
Marc:You know, either risky for you or the most, you know, the most you push the envelope so far.
Guest:I'd say American beauty.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Lone star, um, Lone star adaptation.
Guest:Uh, I did a play call.
Guest:I did a film called breach about a true story about, uh, uh, turncoat, uh, Robert Hanson, who, uh,
Guest:what was that cia or fbi i think fbi i think yeah yeah um half of my fun is doing the homework and creating the characters so i i can't i can't call it work right but um i think they were they they were stretches and it's rewarding right
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Marc:And this the the new season of Homecoming, I have to be honest, I I ended up watching the film Irresistible.
Marc:And then somehow or another, I didn't understand that you weren't in all of Homecoming.
Marc:So I watched six episodes with Julia Roberts waiting for you to come on.
Guest:That was the first season.
Guest:I know that was the first season.
Marc:So do you play a politician in this one?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:I play a very unlikely CEO.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Who's really more of a hippie botanist, a very successful hippie botanist.
Okay.
Guest:So you saw Geist Laboratories, Geist Industries that he worked for.
Guest:So in the second season, they introduce Leonard Geist as the character I play.
Marc:You're Geist?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, shit.
Marc:Well, now that I didn't even anticipate ever watching that series, and now I'm in.
Marc:So now I'm excited to watch you be Geist.
Guest:It turned out pretty good.
Marc:Well, I'm excited.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, I wanted to watch it, but I wasn't going to pretend like I've I've I know from doing this for a while now that if I pretend that I saw something in a corner, you do you do.
Marc:I made a tremendous mistake once with Gyllenhaal Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Marc:Playing like I saw something and then not understanding it at all.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I guess, I mean, one question is when, because you seem like a pretty humble guy.
Marc:I mean, like, what does winning an Oscar feel like for you?
Guest:I mean, were you- It was fabulous.
Guest:Oh, it was good.
Guest:It was fabulous.
Guest:It was great.
Guest:It was a great night.
Guest:It was a great night.
Guest:You know, from the time that Marianne and I woke up, you know, we made a day of it.
Yeah.
Guest:No, we were staying at that.
Guest:What's that place?
Guest:Chateau Marmont.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's a pretty famous place.
Marc:Up on sunset.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And we treated each other in the morning to massages in our bedroom.
Guest:And we had lunch downstairs and out in the yard.
Guest:and uh slowly got you know together to go to the to the awards but it was a night that i really wanted to remember because previously i see i see all these actors so excited and said oh it went by so fast i can't even remember it yeah and the other thing i wanted to point out is you know
Guest:kind of in the media, they like to build up this thing about competition between actors.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And my competition, good God, was Chris Walken, Paul Newman, Ed Harris.
Marc:That's a big one.
Marc:That's a big lineup there.
Guest:After that evening, Chris Walken and his wife and Marianne and I, we spent the evening together.
Guest:And that was the I'd never met.
Guest:I didn't know Chris Walken.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:But we just had a great time together.
Marc:He seems like an intense character.
Marc:no competition he's there's some when you get close to him there's something behind that yeah he's he's wicked he's wicked he's what was what was he up for was that for uh true romance what was i was for catch me if you can i think oh right okay okay yeah yeah yeah wow well great well i mean i i always look forward to your work and now i'm excited about homecoming it was great talking to you stay safe stay safe
Guest:Enjoyed it.
Marc:Yeah, man.
Marc:Bye, Marianne.
Guest:Bye-bye.
Guest:Nice talking to you, Mark.
Marc:Nice meeting you.
Marc:All right.
Marc:See you guys.
Guest:See you.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Be well, Mark.
Marc:That was me and Chris Cooper.
Marc:What a sweet guy.
Marc:That was his wife, Marianne, chiming in occasionally.
Marc:And like I said before, the stuff he's got coming up is the second season of Homecoming on Amazon Prime, the movie Irresistible with Steve Carell.
Marc:It'll be on demand June 26th.
Marc:Boomer lives.