Episode 1211 - Christopher Lloyd
Marc:all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fucksters what the fuck nicks how are you what's up it's mark hello hi it's mark hello hello is anyone there hi can you hear me it's mark
Marc:Am I?
Marc:Hold on.
Marc:Maybe it's muted or something.
Marc:Am I now?
Marc:Can you hear me?
Marc:Hey, what's going on?
Marc:Are you OK?
Marc:I didn't see you either.
Marc:Is the mute on?
Marc:Turn your video on.
Marc:Is it video?
Marc:This isn't video.
Marc:This is audio.
Marc:That's why you can't see me.
Marc:Hello.
Marc:Can you hear me?
Marc:How's it going, you guys?
Marc:You all right?
Marc:I don't know what that was.
Marc:That was a short performance piece called Can You Hear Me that I wrote this morning.
Marc:I wrote it in real time.
Marc:Did it feel like that?
Marc:It felt pretty scripted, though, didn't it?
Marc:Are you okay?
Marc:I'm okay.
Marc:I feel okay.
Marc:I'm going to talk to Christopher Lloyd today.
Marc:Now, of course, we all know him from Back to the Future and Taxi.
Marc:But Christopher Lloyd has been working consistently in theater, TV and film for 60 years.
Marc:Now, I don't know.
Marc:I don't prioritize Taxi.
Marc:I don't prioritize Back to the Future.
Marc:For some reason, I got hung up in a lot of the early stuff, particularly he played Tabor in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Marc:In an unforgettable role as one of the patients at the mental hospital.
Marc:At the loony bin.
Marc:At the nut house.
Marc:At the cuckoo shack.
Marc:At the mental institution.
Marc:And I got off on that.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:You know me.
Marc:What are we going to talk about?
Marc:That sounds good.
Marc:I don't want.
Marc:There's some true evil in this fucking country.
Marc:There's some true racist evil.
Marc:And I don't I didn't want to sound like I did not focus enough on those horrendous racially based killings of Asian women and the horrendous targeting of Asians here in America in general.
Marc:It's awful.
Marc:And I had dreams, man.
Marc:There's just an awful contingent within this country.
Marc:It's very scary.
Marc:And obviously what the Asians have been going through for years since since they first got here is awful.
Marc:And it's more awful now.
Marc:I had a dream.
Marc:That I was in a car handcuffed and there were Nazis driving it, but they weren't Nazi Nazis.
Marc:They were like they look like hipster Nazis.
Marc:I just knew they were Nazis, you know, like salvage denim Nazis.
Marc:They look like handmade belt Nazis, you know, waxed beard Nazis.
Marc:Trucker cap Nazis.
Marc:Kind of guys that might wear some white boots and a handcrafted T-shirt, maybe a Filson jacket Nazis.
Marc:Guys that look like they might be in a comforting semi-folk outfit Nazis.
Marc:And I remember I was in the car.
Marc:And I was handcuffed with sitting sideways in the back seat behind the driver.
Marc:And I just noticed a guy in the passenger seat with his waxed beard and long hair was disinfecting his hands because he was going to punch me in the face.
Marc:And I couldn't understand what he was doing.
Marc:Was he putting alcohol on his hands?
Marc:Would it hurt me more or protecting himself?
Marc:I don't know what that detail was about.
Marc:It was a dream.
Marc:And I remember saying like, look, I know I'm a Jew, but you don't have to do this.
Marc:And he's like putting this stuff on his hands and he's kind of hitting one into the other with that smacky sound, that little smacky sound.
Marc:I'm like, you don't have to do this.
Marc:And he said, hey, man.
Marc:I'm not going to do it.
Marc:The South is going to do it.
Marc:And we just kept driving.
Marc:That was a dream.
Marc:I don't want any emails about judging the South.
Marc:That was in my dream.
Marc:Then I had some other dream about a woman that I seemed to be in a relationship with, but I had no idea who she was.
Marc:And I knew she was mad at me and leaving me.
Marc:But in it, I was sort of like, we're breaking up.
Marc:I don't even know who you are.
Marc:I don't know what that means either.
Marc:And there was another dream where I kept asking this guy not to sue me.
Marc:I don't know about what I don't know.
Marc:This happened in quick succession.
Marc:You know, when you wake up and pee and you come back, oh, where are we now?
Marc:I guess I'm in a car with Nazis.
Marc:Then you wake up and pee and you come back and like, what's happening now?
Marc:This woman wants to divorce and I have no idea who she is.
Marc:Wake up and pee and come back.
Marc:Why does Ned Beatty want to sue me?
Marc:Why won't he just not do it?
Marc:I keep telling, I keep saying, please, you don't have to do this.
Marc:And it was Ned Beatty, a younger Ned Beatty.
Marc:I have some of the great character actors in my dreams.
Marc:You know, those guys work, man.
Marc:They show up everywhere, the great character actors.
Marc:Ned Beatty making an appearance as, I believe, the attorney whose client was suing me.
Marc:And he did a great job.
Marc:He did a great job with the part.
Marc:hello yeah i can hear you hello hello um christopher lloyd's on the show today and i'd like to announce the uh i have a new roommate i'm in a new relationship um his name is sammy sammy red also uh aliases i think are going to be the samster um
Marc:Sam the man.
Marc:Sam Sammy.
Marc:Sam Sam.
Marc:Sammy.
Marc:Sammy.
Marc:Sammy boy.
Marc:Sammy is a six week and change old ginger kitten.
Marc:White face.
Marc:White chest.
Marc:Kind of stripey.
Marc:Not really.
Marc:Red.
Red.
Marc:Looks very panicked and very confused.
Marc:But my friend Kit brought him over.
Marc:He had to be removed from his mother with the other kittens in the litter for safety reasons.
Marc:And he got about four weeks in on the nip with the bros and the sisses.
Marc:Learned some tricks.
Marc:Seems to be cleaning himself.
Marc:Kit had him on the bottle for a while.
Marc:We got him eating the solid food.
Marc:He started eating the solid food and the kibble.
Marc:She brought him over.
Marc:We got a tent.
Marc:We got some blankets.
Marc:Got a scratching post.
Marc:Got a fake mouse.
Marc:Got a fake sardine.
Marc:Got a little tiger head thing.
Marc:Set up the room.
Marc:Got boxes in the corners.
Marc:Initially, the issue was, will he poop normal?
Marc:Can we get some normal kitten poop?
Marc:So now I've got him on the kitten food.
Marc:A little pumpkin mixed in.
Marc:Some probiotic.
Marc:And he's going at it.
Marc:He's coming along.
Marc:Buster is...
Marc:at the door i've let them see each other a bit sammy doesn't seem to give a fuck buster is i don't it really strikes me what i'm getting from buster what i'm projecting onto buster what i'm feeling like buster would be saying if he could is like why the fuck is that is that here
Marc:But not like, oh shit, I'm in trouble.
Marc:Not like I'm going to kill that thing.
Marc:But like, why is this little fuck here?
Marc:We had a good thing going, man.
Marc:We finally got rid of the oldies.
Marc:And it was me and you, man.
Marc:Me and you.
Marc:Walking down the road of life together.
Marc:And now you bring in this little fucker.
Marc:What am I going to do?
Marc:I'm going to use him as a goddamn ball.
Marc:I'm going to bat him around.
Marc:I'm going to throw him up and down.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Buster's a mean fucker.
Marc:So we'll see what happens.
Marc:But the impression I got was that he's like, all right, he's not a threat to me, but he's obviously going to be a time suck for you, which means less time for me.
Marc:And that's going to cause me a little anxiety.
Marc:So I might have to beat up on it a little bit.
Marc:I'm just saying, that's what's going to happen in the future.
Marc:That's all.
Marc:I'm just saying hi.
Marc:I'm just letting him know what's up.
Marc:And I might pee on your shit.
Marc:So, heads up.
Marc:I went to the farmer's market with Eliza Schlesinger's husband, Noah.
Marc:He's a chef.
Marc:And he's got an inn over there.
Marc:You know, when you're a wholesaler, you're doing the business.
Marc:Get in a little early.
Marc:But they're checking people.
Marc:They're distancing.
Marc:They're only letting a certain amount of people in.
Marc:I hadn't been out into that farmer's market in Hollywood for years.
Marc:And I got some stuff.
Marc:And it was nice.
Marc:I don't even know why I'm telling you this.
Marc:I guess I just wanted to tell you that I went out to the farmer's market and bought vegetables and was among the people.
Marc:Everyone masked, everyone buying greens, bought some fish at the fish guy.
Marc:I got some oranges at the orange lady and some avocados at the also the orange lady.
Marc:She wasn't orange.
Marc:She sold oranges and avocados.
Marc:So I guess she was the orange and avocado lady.
Marc:Talked to Noah about some cooking tips.
Marc:And that's all.
Marc:Hello?
Marc:Hello?
Marc:Hi.
Marc:Hello?
Marc:Is this on?
Marc:Can you hear me?
Marc:So I got to get rid of some apps.
Marc:Because now I got the Citizen app and I've got the thing that comes with the ring, that community.
Marc:So now I'm getting it from all sides.
Marc:Like Citizens app, you get the police blotter report, like man with a hat and butter knife spreading cream cheese on his arm on Glen Oaks.
Marc:I saw one from the Citizens app, old woman sitting in sun.
Marc:There was concern, like she couldn't be trusted to enjoy the outdoors by herself, that someone ought to go over there and check on her.
Marc:And then this ring thing is even more crazy because there's a man in my yard.
Marc:Police have been called.
Marc:Then, you know, ring customer number four.
Marc:Is it the same one from yesterday?
Marc:Ring customer number 72.
Marc:Did you call the police?
Marc:Ring customer number 84.
Marc:Didn't this happen to you two days ago?
Marc:Ring customer number 72 again.
Marc:Did you call the police?
Marc:Ring customer number nine.
Marc:What kind of man?
Marc:Not to be racially explicit, but size maybe?
Marc:Ring customer number 72.
Marc:Same guy from two days ago.
Marc:Ring customer number 42.
Marc:Did you call the police?
Marc:And then the original complaint.
Marc:Oh, it's my husband again.
Marc:I've got to stop calling the police so much.
Marc:I don't need the distraction or do I?
Marc:Seems like I'm entertained by it.
Marc:Seems like I'm entertained by it.
Marc:We're not going to do it.
Marc:The South is going to do it.
Marc:So look, Christopher Lloyd is in this new movie, Nobody, with Bob Odenkirk, which I watched.
Marc:Bob was good.
Marc:Christopher was good.
Marc:It's one of those movies.
Marc:I don't really see these kind of movies, but I liked it.
Marc:It's about the non-assuming guy that all of a sudden is just a fucking...
Marc:Maniac for the good.
Marc:It's in theaters this Friday, March 26th.
Marc:And Christopher's wife, Lisa, was there when we had this talk.
Marc:And you'll hear her chime in a few times.
Marc:And this is it.
Marc:As I said before, we covered One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest like it was a new film.
Marc:This is me talking to Christopher Lloyd.
Marc:Are you afraid you can fall asleep if you go far back?
Marc:Yeah, I'll just take a rest.
Marc:It's a reclining mode means it's time for nap.
Marc:I'm almost there.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I'm alive.
Marc:No, you're very alive.
Marc:Spry.
Marc:On it.
Marc:I watched a movie last night.
Marc:Running around with guns.
Marc:That's good.
Marc:I haven't done anything like that before.
Marc:It was just...
Guest:I liked it.
Guest:I had fun.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:You'd never done what?
Guest:The gunplay?
Guest:I've had a little gunplay here and there, but this was hardcore kind of, you know.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I was into it.
Marc:I mean, when you approach something like that, I mean, is it different than another role?
Marc:Because it's sort of over the top, and you sort of know that, so you can just go to town, right?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I was intrigued by the character.
Guest:He was highly skilled, slick, dangerous,
Guest:motherfucker.
Guest:Mostly because he just had a lot of cool.
Guest:He was very smart.
Guest:He knew how to handle the hardware and
Guest:do little strange kind of stuff to entrap the victims, whoever they might be.
Guest:And then he retires.
Guest:He's getting a little old, you know, to carry on like that.
Guest:And then his son gets in a pickle and I come out of my...
Guest:retirement and i have like the last the last climax you know just go for it so if this what if this becomes a franchise you're gonna have to do that guy again and again i hope so i hope i live long enough to do it again and again
Guest:I'm sure I figure I'll be here at least for one more shot if it happens.
Marc:Like, you know, that backstory, though, like just the idea that you put that backstory together.
Marc:Was that something, you know, that because you've been acting a long time and, you know, when you approach something like that, do you create a backstory or is that something a director brings to you?
Guest:that's what I kind of, I mean, it was suggested in the script, but it wasn't anything they gave me.
Guest:I just, you know, he comes out of retirement and he loves doing his stuff again.
Marc:Where'd you, you started in New York, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And where'd you grow up?
Guest:I was born in Stanford, Connecticut,
Guest:And my folks always had an apartment in New York, so I would constantly go back and forth.
Guest:And then as soon as I got out of high school, I went to drama school in New York when I was 19, I think, and I never left.
Guest:I stayed there until...
Guest:what was it?
Guest:1985.
Guest:And I moved to LA.
Marc:And where'd you go to the drama school?
Marc:Where'd you, where'd you start acting?
Guest:Oh, the neighborhood playhouse school, the theater.
Guest:And they had a phenomenal, uh,
Guest:uh sandy meisner yeah he was he was the greatest uh and they made a total impression on me and what i learned from him what kind of guy was he because i tried to give an impression to him because he was sort of like the american version of the method correct oh yeah yeah yeah very much so um i mean he had such poise
Guest:intelligence.
Guest:He would have a three-hour active class at the Naval Playhouse in the morning, another three hours in the afternoon, and then his professional class three hours at night.
Guest:And that's a lot of time to be sitting in the chair watching people get up and do their stuff.
Guest:He never, ever lost focus.
Guest:He'd be watching somebody doing their work, analyzing it, and then he'd give the precise, exact commentary on it.
Guest:And he was always supportive.
Guest:He didn't mess around, but he had an extraordinary sense of humor and wit.
Marc:and he was very dignified it was a handsome kind of guy and and like what tools did like you when you when you approach acting even now like what stuff i mean obviously and i've known this from talking to many actors and uh you know over and over again that a lot of it is just you know how you just you kind of cobble together your own system and you do what you do but were there things that you learned from meisner that you still are conscious of doing
Guest:Yes, I am.
Guest:I mean, I don't think about it so much now.
Guest:Back then, I'd be at a play or whatever.
Guest:One night, I couldn't go wrong.
Guest:It's like I was in a groove.
Guest:Next night, it's like I'm wallowing around the stage, trying to get into it again.
Guest:And Meister taught me how to keep the focus and how to get...
Guest:Back in the groove and all that technique for that, which was based a lot of people a little perplexed.
Guest:It was a word, a repeating word.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:To somebody else.
Guest:You know, I'd say, who are you?
Guest:They'd say, who are you?
Guest:And it changes the behavior as you go along.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But he always said, what you do depends on what the other does.
Guest:So you're always connected and attached, and it pulls the emotions along eventually as well when you get the sense of it.
Marc:I mean, it's probably more consistent doing that in theater.
Marc:I imagine once you make the jump to film, it's harder to hold on to that focus because you're shooting everything in pieces.
Guest:Yeah, but you're still, while the camera's rolling,
Guest:You could use it.
Guest:You could use it in any context, really.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Just listen and stay present.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you did how much?
Marc:You did a lot of stage work initially, right?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Do you miss that?
Guest:i i i do but i i still go back and do some you know it's not like i got into movies and no more theater i keep it up there's always another play comes up and yeah i'm gonna do i'm gonna do king lear this summer really where are you doing that
Guest:At the Berkshire Shakespeare Company.
Marc:You spent time in Massachusetts.
Marc:Did you spend time there when you were a kid?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I went to boarding school from the third to the eighth grade in West Newton, Massachusetts.
Marc:In West Newton, Massachusetts.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You're familiar with Massachusetts?
Marc:Sure.
Marc:I started my comedy career in the in the small towns and villages of New England.
Marc:And I lived in I lived in Massachusetts for several years.
Marc:I lived in Boston, Somerville.
Marc:Just I lived in Brookline, just shy of Newton.
Marc:But I know Newton, you know, Route 9.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:and i did a lot of gigs down the cape you know there used to be a gig down in yarmouth at a chinese restaurant yeah i did i was all over new england ah so what was your first play well my my first paying job in new york because i did off off off off broadway all over the place i was going for one um
Guest:workshop to another but at the same time job it out to summer stock and regional theater and all that but the first play i did in new york as i remember was the the chelsea theater company i think it was uh robert calvin was director and it was caspar casper uh-huh by some peter hanky i think australian all right
Guest:and i got it all before it and it just kind of threw the doors open that was it that's where it started that's interesting so at the beginning you were probably doing we what years were this in the 60s mid 60s i i got that play in around 1972 or three
Marc:So when you were doing the off-off-Broadway stuff, you were running around doing Summerstock, but were you doing all kinds of weird kind of progressive theater shows down in the village and stuff, and then going and doing like Noel Coward in New Jersey?
Guest:Yeah, it was a lot of sketchy situations.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah, I remember...
Guest:And everybody worked.
Guest:I was fortunate that I didn't have to have a job to get through the day.
Guest:But most actors who were struggling, they'd be working during the day, and these workshops don't pay anything.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Sometimes rehearsals would start at 12 or 1 a.m., because that's the only time everybody was available.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:There was a lot of that.
Marc:Got pretty weird.
Marc:Basements.
Marc:Do you remember any strange sort of like experimental productions that you did?
Guest:Well, sort of.
Guest:I did a play called Hypatia Three.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was kind of a Romanesque thing with togas and shit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Made no sense whatsoever.
Guest:There was always more actors on stage than the scene in the audience.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was...
Guest:about to divorce
Guest:my wife at the time.
Guest:The first one?
Guest:My next wife was in the cast.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Well, it was a change of everything.
Marc:Changing of the wives?
Marc:The ceremony of the changing of the wives?
Marc:Yes, yeah.
Guest:Not least it came along later.
Guest:But so it was just a weird show, huh?
Guest:Yeah, but it was kind of typical.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:So you didn't have to work because I guess you come from a family?
Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I have a family.
Guest:You know, they were kind of well off.
Marc:Don't you?
Marc:I read somewhere that you can trace your relatives all the way back to the Mayflower?
Guest:Yeah, I'm told that.
Guest:I have never sat down and done my homework to see if it's really true.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I think it was or the second Mayflower.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Right.
Guest:back you know back in the day back in the day but your mom was from uh the i guess her family was part of the founding people of texaco huh yeah yeah my grandpa did you know him no he died i think he died the year i was born was he like a wildcatter was he out there with the drills or was he uh i don't think so too much yeah he went he went to school somewhere in eastern pennsylvania
Guest:college out there and he met a guy who was already because Pennsylvania was one of the first places to get going with oil yeah another guy from Texas and the three of them collaborated
Guest:there you go texaco yeah and and you didn't have to work so interesting because i kind of have an inside awareness and knowledge of the beginning of the whole oil thing and now it's fading out you know it's going which which is not a bad idea but now so that was like a interesting phenomenon that
Marc:came and now it's going thank god yeah i mean maybe i hope in the nick of time yeah it might be too late yes i know we'll see
Marc:How did you... When did Cuckoo's Nest happen?
Marc:How did that happen?
Guest:That happened in 1973.
Guest:Yeah, I think it was 1970.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I've been... I wanted to do film, but I just... I didn't... When I walked in an office and meet people with a film, I just felt...
Guest:Because I wasn't, you know, what do you call it?
Marc:Yeah, extroverted.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You're not a song and dance man.
Marc:You're a tall, intense gentleman.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:All I got was, thank you for coming.
Guest:Weirdo, get out.
Guest:So I figured it was getting to the point because I'd be set up
Guest:nothing happening, not even a nibble.
Guest:And I figured that, you know, some actors don't make the bridge from theater to film.
Guest:And then I was doing a production of Macbeth
Guest:At the downstairs theater at Lincoln Center, Vivian Beaumont is a theater down below.
Guest:And with Christopher Walken was Macbeth.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:And a few other characters.
Guest:And John Simon referred to it as that swinish production of Macbeth.
Marc:Was Walken, did he have the same intensity then?
Marc:Yes, he did.
Guest:And, you know, back then I was just getting to know him.
Guest:And he was very, you know, Christopher Walken.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But this is fucking Shakespeare.
Guest:You know, I never said anything like that.
Guest:And we've worked together since.
Guest:I love him.
Guest:I mean, he's an extraordinary character, person.
Marc:So you're doing that?
Guest:You're doing that show?
Guest:I'm doing that.
Guest:and i was kind of in a crazy mood and they sent me up kukuzas came to new york to cast and they uh this guy had been setting me up set me up to to meet them and um i went up and auditioned uh the the auditions consisted of milos foreman sitting the way nurse ratchet would sit in a circle uh yeah at a meeting yeah
Guest:the myself and the other actors coming up to audition we'd sit like that and me was forward would sit in the middle and get conversation going getting getting us going you know and that's how he decided whether or not you're going to do it so then i got a letter okay i'm going to do it so that was
Marc:So that's wild.
Marc:So Milos would have you sit in the semicircle or the circle and then he'd rotate guys in and out during an improvised audition?
Guest:Yeah, he may have.
Guest:He may have, but he'd just feed you and get things wrong between us.
Marc:And who is, do you remember, like, it was DeVito in your audition?
Guest:No.
Marc:And did you have that character of Tabor right from the get-go?
Marc:Did you make decisions around how that guy would be?
Guest:Well, I did whatever I did in the audition, and then when they said you got it, I went and got...
Guest:Ken Kesey's novel and studied it.
Guest:Had they done the stage play in New York already?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Danny DeVito was in the off-Broadway production at the time.
Marc:Oh, he was.
Marc:I know that originally it was, you know, Mike Douglas was trying to put it together as a vehicle for Kirk.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I think maybe it was Kirk Douglas.
Marc:I don't know if he was Broadway or off-Broadway, but I know that Kirk Douglas did McMurphy.
Marc:And I can't even imagine that.
Guest:Yeah, I know.
Guest:I think he did it on Broadway.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:yeah yeah yeah and and nothing came up with so he gave it to uh his son he uh well his son produced it right yeah where'd you guys shoot that there was that shot in like uh in a coastal town was it shot in seattle or somewhere uh salem oregon right or more than had this this complex of buildings that included this uh a prison state
Guest:And for the, you know, people who were a little mentally ill.
Guest:And they had the third floor when pharmaceutical drugs
Guest:came in they could take they could leave the hospital and take care of themselves with uh various kind of drugs as as zombies they could go out into the world and sleepwalk we took over an entire floor which had a game room and
Guest:the bath and sleeping quarters all the stuff needed for the film did he make you sleep there how deep did you guys go we did sleep there sometimes because each of us had an assigned bed with a little uh table with a drawer to put your personal effects in or on and uh and then at night they closed it up so you're you're in a cage locked oh my god
Guest:And sometimes we did sleep there, but voluntarily we weren't being punished.
Marc:So the group, I mean, because it was quite a group, you know, there was, I mean, the different, all the guys, it seemed, that were in that crew with you either went on to, you know, major acting roles or at least character acting roles.
Marc:I mean, Brad Dourif has been around forever.
Marc:Even Sidney Lassick, he was great.
Marc:Oh, he's fabulous in it, yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:I remember Bill Foreman would have to do a close up on Sidney Lassick and he'd finish his lines and, you know, just let the camera run because he knows he's going to get gold.
Marc:Well, you too.
Marc:I mean, that that moment where, you know, there's a like, I can't imagine the process of shooting that.
Marc:He must have shot.
Marc:He must have shot a lot of silence with you guys.
Marc:Because there's those scenes where you're just sitting there and like, you know, that moment where you don't realize that your foot's on fire is like, I mean, I, that, that's in, it's imprinted in my unconscious.
Marc:I mean, like that moment where you're like, and you just lose your fucking mind.
Guest:Meals, uh, you know, he, he defected from Czechoslovakia already established a film career, uh,
Guest:But he told the story of being in the subway somewhere in Czechoslovakia late at night.
Guest:There were just two or three people waiting for the train.
Guest:And there was a guy smoking.
Guest:And he just did that, flicked the cigarette butt, and it landed in a person's cuff.
Guest:And Milo saw this, and eventually it kind of caught fire, and the guy went berserk.
Guest:So he just figured that that belongs here.
Marc:Well, I'm glad he let the guy burn in order to get that idea.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, that's great.
Marc:He didn't step in.
Marc:He let the scene play out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He's a creative person he was.
Marc:I've talked to Danny DeVito, but it's so interesting to see DeVito in that part because DeVito is such a sort of like cantankerous, brash little man.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And as Martini, he's the opposite.
Marc:He's like this weird kind of almost, you know, no boundaried amoeba like the vulnerability of that guy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You guys were doing some real acting there.
Marc:And I think it was really, you know, and it seemed like, you know, certainly the Meisner stuff and that type of training.
Marc:It was probably great for for for that particular movie, you know, because no because there was a naturalness to it that he was going for.
Marc:And even Nicholson, who I think was also I don't know where he trained, but he was definitely an American like, you know, a method kind of guy that there was a naturalness to that.
Marc:To all of you guys, it was kind of amazing.
Guest:Well, Milos insisted on that.
Guest:I mean, if you did something too big or wasn't natural, like kind of.
Guest:No, no, no.
Marc:And did you did you enjoy working with with Jack?
Guest:Oh, I loved it.
Guest:He was an idol of mine before Cuckoo's Nest.
Guest:From what?
Guest:Detail and Five Easy Pieces, et cetera.
Guest:You know, I just thought he was the cat's ass, you know, the best they'd known.
Guest:I remember the first day I walked on the set and he was there talking to whatever.
Guest:I'm here with this guy.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:And he was wonderful.
Guest:He was just great.
Guest:And he, you know, because most of us had scant experience in film.
Guest:And he just, he helped you out, do this, you know.
Guest:He was just so generous.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I had a scene, the bath scene, where Nicholson sprays everybody.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I'm with William Redfield, bless him, playing a game, and I'm going, play the game, play the game, all that scene.
Guest:And Redfield was diagnosed with leukemia.
Guest:and so uh went to a hospital and everything so that scene never got completed at that moment and there was uh i remember soul's aunt uh who i really really loved as a producer he was they were thinking what are we going to do pull the plug
Guest:Or what are we going to do?
Guest:So they changed the schedule around.
Guest:And in about three weeks, William Russell came back, or maybe less than that, but he came back.
Guest:And so we got into the scene again.
Guest:And I could not find it.
Guest:I couldn't find my mojo, so to speak.
Guest:You know, I just, you know, I was, like, feeling awkward.
Yeah.
Guest:And I'm trying not to show it, you know.
Guest:But Nicholson, during a thing, just kind of walked up to me very casually and just sort of quietly told me,
Guest:something i wish i could and it put me right there put me right i needed just soft and quiet and got right in your head very attentive to all this that's great man because you i mean you work you work with him again right a couple years later
Marc:going south going south that's a kind of a weird funny movie belushi's in that and uh yeah and danny yeah danny steenbergen that was mary steenbergen's first uh that was her big break that was her first film yeah i do believe yeah
Marc:And Nicholson had got her the gig.
Marc:She was like a waitress.
Marc:I've talked to her about it.
Marc:She loves Jack.
Marc:I mean, she credits Jack with getting her start.
Guest:I did a Broadway musical before going south.
Guest:And one night I'm doing this thing and a stage manager comes back and says, Jack Nicholson is in the audience and he'd like to come back to your dressing room.
Guest:So he came back.
Guest:Meryl Streep was there in my dressing room.
Guest:And a lot of Lenya.
Guest:Did that ring a bell?
Guest:The German actress?
Guest:Oh, and the lady that Jack was going with.
Guest:Angelica?
Guest:Angelica Houston.
Marc:all crammed into my little dress room and uh before nicks left he said i'm doing something this summer uh i'll send a script to you if you're interested and it was going south oh what a sweetheart what a sweetheart you know i love hearing those stories that he was sort of uh because he always looked like he was having a great time and nobody loved making movies more than that guy and and it's nice and it's nice to know he's a it was a good guy you know great yeah
Marc:You know, it's weird.
Marc:I was looking at it.
Marc:I'm sort of fascinated with I got to watch it again because I got it in my head, The Onion Field, as being a terrifying movie.
Marc:And I know you were in that, but I almost watched it again this morning because I've been sort of curious about watching it because I know James Woods in it back before James Woods became this.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:This cultural monster.
Marc:He was just sort of an emotional monster in movie roles.
Marc:But now he's sort of politically a pariah.
Marc:But I do remember that being a fairly menacing movie.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Incredible story.
Guest:I read the book.
Guest:it's horrifying you know it's a it's a real real it happened uh-huh and yeah i was a i was a lawyer in jail and i kind of right up and set it up or whatever i've got to see it again yeah what did you say
Marc:i haven't thought about it in years and i remember being i was really young i'm obviously younger i was terrified oh that was my that same experience i had you know i'm 57 so i remember seeing it when i probably shouldn't have seen it because my parents didn't know the you know what r meant oh so they would just take me if they couldn't get a babysitter i saw deliverance when i was 11 did not need that
Guest:When did you move out to L.A.?
Guest:I think it's 76.
Guest:Yeah, 76.
Guest:Cuckoo's Nest came out.
Guest:I didn't have an agent.
Guest:And Cuckoo's Nest came out and I got a letter from an agent, the Bursch agency.
Guest:To say that if I'm ever on the West Coast, I'd like to have lunch or something.
Guest:I packed up so fast and got into my little car.
Guest:I drove from New York to St.
Guest:Louis one day.
Guest:One shot.
Guest:One shot, yeah.
Marc:I did that, too.
Marc:Isn't it weird, though, when you look back on that, Chris, about the sort of strange moments of panic and desperation at the beginning?
Marc:And now, years later, you realize that these guys, they're just like doofus executives that made us jump through these fucking hoops.
Marc:I mean, I'm not bitter, and obviously I'm not you.
Marc:But when you look back on, I remember one time I panicked because I had to get from
Marc:from new york to los angeles for a fox meeting you know at the studio and you know i drove because i was moving there and everything was crazy and then you get there and they don't give a they don't know that you just turned your life upside down to be there but if he missed the meeting you're i guess so i guess that's true at the beginning i guess we never know you don't want to be that guy you know he doesn't give a it's like no i'm stuck in st louis trying to make a meeting
Marc:So you ran out there to Gersh and he, and you get, and that was your agency.
Marc:You signed with them.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, and I went out, I went out, uh, all these people in New York gave me a list agents to check out, you know, I didn't know.
Guest:So I went out there and he was one of the first agents I went up to see.
Guest:And I remember I got to his office.
Guest:I didn't know LA or nothing.
Guest:And I,
Guest:um they took me out to lunch and another with another association and we went to joe allen's for lunch beverly hills thunderbird convertible yeah that was it yeah and i thought
Guest:They gave you the full treatment.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And then I declined to sign.
Guest:They asked me to sign.
Guest:I thought, this is an important thing.
Guest:I got to go through this list first, you know.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then he gave me a job.
Guest:I wasn't signed yet.
Guest:He said, this is a low-budget film in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Guest:What was it?
Guest:Oh, it was, what was the name of it?
Guest:Santa Fe is 17.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Christopher Walken and a Canadian French Canadian actress who's kind of faded out.
Guest:I don't know what happened to her, but she was, you know, and I was, I got there five days ahead of time because I wanted to get, I had to ride a horse.
Guest:I have makeup with wounds.
Guest:I was a conquistador coming up from Mexico.
Guest:And I was there five days and took in the scene.
Guest:And the morning that I was to be first established on camera, I'd been there five days to get everything ready, but I couldn't get anything out of the makeup department.
Guest:They didn't give a shit.
Guest:So I go to the makeup trailer to get the wig that I'm going to be wearing.
Guest:She got very testy, got the wig and threw it at me.
Guest:From there I went, found the producer, director, and I gave my notice.
Guest:Christopher Walken called me up and said, Chris, what are you doing and all that?
Guest:And I called Gersh.
Guest:And the guy I spoke to, he wasn't letting me off the hook.
Guest:He said, you're going to walk on your first, you know.
Guest:And they had sent the contracts to me in Santa Fe.
Guest:So I had the contracts to sign.
Guest:I hadn't signed them yet.
Guest:And I said to him, I got the contracts.
Guest:What do you want me to do?
Guest:He said, sign them.
Guest:And that made me feel good that I could make my own decisions if there was something I didn't want to do.
Guest:And they put up with that.
Marc:Did you do it in the movie?
Guest:No.
Guest:I won.
Marc:It's so funny that it all hinged on a makeup lady.
Guest:And then there was a ring, you know, the head guy with the horses.
Guest:He wouldn't let me ride the horse I wanted to do.
Guest:And I probably rid much more than he had at that time.
Guest:point but you know it was just yeah did you grow up riding horses yeah we had horses i went to riding school oh wow all that stuff i spent uh summer on a ranch in uh wyoming i didn't realize that you work with jack another time in the postman huh oh yeah postman always rings twice yeah i have a little piece that occurs either before during the credits when he's driving down the road and i'm hitchhiking yeah
Guest:Or I'm driving.
Guest:I really don't remember.
Guest:Then we go and he has that breakfast first thing.
Guest:But that was it.
Guest:It was very nice.
Guest:It was a lot of fun.
Marc:Is he a guy you keep in touch with ever?
Guest:I haven't.
Guest:In fact, I was with Danny and somebody the other day.
Guest:And we all asked each other how we talked to Jack and none of us had.
Guest:So I don't know.
Guest:I don't know what's happening to him.
Marc:yeah yeah it's hard to be with the plague and everything now you're used to seeing him at least you see him at the game and you're like okay he's there he's at the game he must be okay so how did uh because it seems like all that stuff about cuckoo's nest is like right there it's like those memories are so fresh because it was such a a profound kind of uh experience you know do you feel the same way about taxi taxi yeah that's taxi uh
Guest:it's funny because i i came out from new york i i told gersh yeah uh i i i don't want i don't want to do any sitcoms right i had kind of a new york attitude that to do a sitcom and sell your soul yeah a lot of guys felt that way dustin hoffman felt that way a lot of actors felt that way yeah yeah so he would send me once for a while
Guest:up to just meet people even if you know like starsky and hutch and some others i i don't remember what and then taxi you didn't do any episodic work you didn't do any bit parts what you know little parts in tv no not i have since but but not before taxi
Guest:So they sent me up and it worked out.
Marc:Well, what sold you on it?
Marc:Why were you able to adjust your sense of integrity?
Marc:What sold you on it?
Marc:Was it James Brooks?
Marc:Easy.
Marc:I just sold out.
Marc:That's all.
Guest:Didn't take anything at all, huh?
Guest:Not doing it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No, I got the script.
Guest:Um, and I just, something seemed to click on my, I, I, I looked at the part and I saw, you know, kind of felt I could do this.
Marc:Like what, when you read it, what, what was it like, you know, what, what was it that got you that made you realize like this guy, this guy's got legs for me, you know?
Guest:Um,
Guest:I mean, I don't remember exact words, but they described it well.
Guest:And I felt I could do this.
Guest:And not that I had a background in that area, but I felt I could do it.
Guest:And I had a neighbor...
Guest:in Laurel Canyon, who was cleaning out the bushes, and he found this jacket with a peace sign, Levi Packet.
Guest:I wore that into the audition, and old Levi, you know, I got in the frame of mind, and when I finished, I was going out the door and said, wear that Monday.
Guest:That's what I wore.
Guest:After the second year, somebody stole the jacket.
Guest:God damn it.
Marc:So it was some old hippie garbage jacket from the canyon, right?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:This guy found it in the bushes.
Marc:That's funny.
Marc:Thank God there was no body there.
Marc:Now, like, it seems like, you know, your character was, you know, extreme and over the top and intense.
Marc:And, you know, and then you had Andy there, you know, doing his character, which is over the top and intense, but in a different way.
Marc:Did you guys get along pretty well?
Guest:We all got along.
Guest:I mean, there were times when Andy would do something like be late or whatever.
Guest:He did something that pissed off Tony, Tony Danza.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Tony Dines got a fire extinguisher, opened the door, and he's dressed for a foam, one of those foam ones, he just went... But that never got...
Marc:got bad because we loved doing the show we had great writers and we all clicked in our own funny ways yeah i worked with judd a bit he played my father for a few episodes on a show and i he's a sweet guy you know yeah um
Guest:Of all the casts that I've been in, Taxi always keeps together.
Guest:We just did a Zoom the other day with Mary Lou and Carol Kane and Tony and Judd.
Guest:We're still in each other's lives, and it's great.
Marc:That's nice.
Marc:That's nice.
Marc:You know, cause I always ask people that, you know, cause I, you know, as a fan of movies and TV, you know, took after years of doing this and talking to you guys, you know, I always assume like it took a long time to, to break my, my idea that like, I always assumed that everyone hangs out afterwards, you know, but they don't.
Guest:Oh, I, I was stunned.
Guest:You know, the cuckoo's death was my first movie.
Guest:It was a 12 week, a 12 week shoot.
Guest:And the,
Guest:We all became comrades and nickels and whatever.
Guest:I remember the rap, the last part, the last week or so on Cuckoo's Nest was the boat trip.
Guest:We all escaped fishing trip.
Guest:And then we wrapped it and it was like, boom.
Guest:Nothing.
Guest:It was over.
Guest:I was like, oh.
Marc:Heartbreaking.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But it's nice that they, well, I mean, TV is different because, I mean, you know, you're with those people for years.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like a family, for Christ's sake.
Marc:I know.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then Back to the Future, that became, I mean, you know, Taxi was huge and your character was huge, but it seems like the Back to the Future thing just put it all over the top and that's who you're going to be for the rest of time.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I know it's tight to me a little bit, but I don't care because I still I get other stuff to work on.
Marc:Oh, no, no.
Marc:I mean, I know.
Marc:But it like it was like these things when you look back on them.
Marc:Actually, I don't know.
Marc:It's weird because you would have thought it's actually the opposite that I think about it, because, you know, as Reverend Jim, you know, you had this, you know, you were typecasted by as that for a while.
Marc:But then Back to the Future happened and you just became that guy.
Marc:And even as Uncle Fester, I mean, you're actually you actually you know, you you you are always I see you as you.
Marc:I don't associate you with that.
Marc:with the role all right yeah i i don't even know why i said that but i i guess i just said it because you know it it must it must you must be excited when something has legs enough to keep going you know it must be somewhat nice to to to re-engage with casts even in a sequel uh again to do that kind of work yeah well as the future resonated
Guest:in a way, with people more than anything else I've done, partially because so many generations of children, young people, have grown up over the years.
Guest:And some of them who claim that Back to the Future was their life, you know, to look at.
Guest:And that's a good feeling.
Guest:And so many people who grew up on the movie became engineers and scientists and surgeons.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they all attribute to watching that film.
Guest:So that's a good feeling.
Guest:That's amazing.
Marc:And you go you and you actually I guess those fans like, you know, the fans you have for like Star Trek as well.
Marc:Some of the Star Trek work you did.
Marc:They're very intelligent, sweet, sensitive, nerdy people.
Marc:So, I mean, because you go to Comic-Con, right?
Yeah.
Guest:ah yes i do and and is that fun for you do you is it it is fun when i when i first started it um a few years ago whenever i was like kind of tentative you know but
Guest:You get these people coming in who are glad to see you and wanted to share their moments with you.
Guest:And it's, you know, sometimes I wake, when I first started out, I wake up in the morning and say, oh, my God, I'm going to go sign autographs right now.
Guest:Yeah!
Yeah!
Guest:yeah i'd get there and i forget all that because it's just so interactive yeah it's great so now when do you uh like have you like coming back full circle here um do you know the play lear have you done lear before
Guest:No.
Guest:Oh, yes.
Guest:I've been in the production years ago, three times, but now I'm doing it.
Guest:I'm I'm a leader before I was playing various parts in it.
Marc:Because that's one of those roles where, you know, it's.
Marc:You know, it's sort of this weird gift that a certain type of actor at a certain age, you know, is either, you know, enabled to do.
Guest:Yeah, well, I have some trepidations.
Guest:Like what?
Guest:that I could pull it off.
Guest:You know, it's it's it's huge.
Guest:Not not just in terms of life, but the depth of emotion that's required, you know, that you can't just dance around.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So it's a big deal, but it's such a great
Guest:part and uh i don't know just something got into me that and i know i never thought about it when i was in the three productions years ago i i never thought to myself well i want to play that part someday i had i i just didn't consider it you know and then about five years ago i woke up one day
Guest:Why not me?
Guest:You know, it's like it came out.
Guest:I don't know where that came from, but, uh, and I think I'm in a good situation now, um, up at the Berkshire J. Spear company.
Marc:And so you, it seems like you just keep working.
Marc:I mean, like you'll, like, are you, what, how do you decide what to do?
Marc:Is it a matter of time or quality or, you know, I, it seems like you'd like to keep working and you're just going to keep going.
Guest:I, I'm just going to keep going.
Guest:Uh,
Guest:I know when I started out, I had doubts that I was going to work at all.
Guest:Then I got into a workshop or whatever.
Guest:And I love doing that.
Guest:I don't care what the part is, play, who wrote it, whatever.
Guest:As long as I feel a connection, I just go and do it.
Guest:Yeah, and you still enjoy it.
Guest:Oh, yeah, totally.
Guest:I'm doing a film now.
Guest:George fucking Clooney.
Guest:Oh, George fucking Clooney.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And Ben Affleck.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it's I'm so excited.
Guest:We've already started shooting.
Guest:And I'm and it's a very different character from from, you know, I'm not repeating anything.
Marc:What movie is that?
Guest:It's based on a novel, The Tender Bar.
Guest:The Tender Bar, huh?
Guest:There's a guy who...
Guest:dreamed of being a ball player didn't work out and something that i'm still trying to get it he gets this old house in manhasset his family is rome his sons you know so it's full a house full of his family who can't afford to live anywhere else and he hates it he hates that they're in the house it looks like it's a big ensemble piece
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Well, it's great that you're still working, and I thought this new movie, the Nobody Film, you know, I know Bob, and I thought it was kind of a, it's not the kind of movie I usually watch, but I watched it last night, and it's fun.
Marc:It's what my dad calls a real shoot-em-up.
Marc:That's good.
Marc:But it was great work, and it's great talking to you, Chris, and continued success, my friend.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Thank you.
Marc:Thank you.
Marc:Christopher Lloyd, the new movie is Nobody, which was good.
Marc:Bob Odenkirk plays the heavy in theaters Friday, March 26th.
Marc:And now let's play some guitar that I'm sure I've played before.
Marc:But it's always a little different because it's fresh.
Marc:Serving it up fresh.
Marc:Same three chords.
Marc:Fresh.
Marc:Here it is.
Marc:Relatively clean.
Marc:A little vibratoed.
Marc:A bit reverbed.
Marc:Stratocaster straight in.
.
.
do do do
do do
Marc:Boomer lives.
Marc:Monkey and LaFonda.
Marc:Cat angels everywhere.
Marc:Sammy Red is here.
Guest:Boomer lives.
Thank you.