Ray Liotta from 2018

Episode 734397 • Released May 27, 2022 • Speakers detected

00:00:00Guest:I got in under the wire somehow after 25 years in the business.

00:00:09Marc:It's horrible, isn't it?

00:00:11Marc:The business?

00:00:11Marc:It takes forever.

00:00:12Marc:Yeah, it took me forever to get started.

00:00:15Marc:It is a horrible business.

00:00:16Guest:It's horrible.

00:00:17Guest:It's a great way.

00:00:18Guest:It's a fun way to make a living, but it's a horrible business.

00:00:20Marc:I mean, you've got to be crazy to do it.

00:00:22Marc:And then to expect it to work out, you innately expect it to work out based on nothing.

00:00:28Guest:Well, totally.

00:00:29Guest:And when you go in cold because it's just something that you want to try to do.

00:00:32Guest:I never wanted to do this ever.

00:00:34Guest:And it just happened in college that I didn't even want to go to college.

00:00:39Guest:It came time to go to college.

00:00:40Guest:My dad said, go wherever you are.

00:00:42Guest:I walked out of my SATs.

00:00:44Guest:It came time to go to college.

00:00:46Guest:I said, I don't want to go to college.

00:00:48Guest:He says, go wherever you want.

00:00:49Guest:Take whatever you want.

00:00:51Guest:So I got into the University of Miami.

00:00:53Guest:This was 1973.

00:00:54Guest:So all you needed was a pulse to get in there.

00:00:57Guest:I get in there.

00:00:58Guest:I'm going to take liberal arts because I had no idea what I wanted to do.

00:01:03Guest:Get to the front of the line.

00:01:04Guest:They say I had to take a math and a history.

00:01:06Guest:I said, well, forget that.

00:01:07Guest:I don't want to take math and history.

00:01:08Guest:I looked up.

00:01:09Guest:It was for the drama department.

00:01:10Guest:I took a step over.

00:01:12Guest:And as I was in line, there was this typical actor story.

00:01:15Guest:There was this pretty girl.

00:01:16Guest:She said, you auditioning for the play tonight?

00:01:18Guest:I said, no.

00:01:19Guest:And then she berated me.

00:01:20Guest:What do you mean?

00:01:20Guest:That's all it's about.

00:01:21Guest:It's all about doing the play, blah, blah, blah.

00:01:23Guest:So I go up there, get my classes, and then I go and audition for the play.

00:01:30Guest:And it was for a musical.

00:01:32Guest:And now I'm a jock from New Jersey.

00:01:34Guest:All I did was play soccer, basketball, and baseball.

00:01:36Guest:That's it.

00:01:37Guest:That's what my whole life was about.

00:01:39Guest:Right.

00:01:39Guest:And then you realize, well, I'm not fast enough, tall enough, or anything enough to play professionally.

00:01:45Marc:That's a tough hit, right?

00:01:46Guest:It's horrible.

00:01:47Guest:Well, yeah, until junior high school when you really, you know, then when you're a senior in your high school, then you realize, well, it's never going to happen.

00:01:54Guest:It's good you realized it.

00:01:56Guest:So the first thing was...

00:01:58Guest:I was auditioning for the play and I got into the play, but it was a musical.

00:02:01Guest:So the first thing you had to do was tell a sad story.

00:02:03Guest:I told a sad story about a dog of mine that got hit by a car.

00:02:07Guest:True story?

00:02:07Guest:True story.

00:02:08Guest:Yeah.

00:02:09Guest:And then you had to sing.

00:02:11Guest:Yeah.

00:02:12Guest:So I grew up 45 minutes outside of the city in a town called Union, New Jersey.

00:02:17Guest:Union.

00:02:17Guest:Yeah.

00:02:18Guest:Yeah.

00:02:18Guest:I'm all Jersey.

00:02:19Guest:So what'd you sing?

00:02:21Guest:We saw Pippin.

00:02:22Guest:They took me to see Pippin.

00:02:24Guest:And there was one song that I remembered, Magic To Do.

00:02:28Guest:So she went and got the sheet music.

00:02:31Guest:There was already a cast album.

00:02:33Guest:So I'm singing to the cast album.

00:02:36Guest:And that's it.

00:02:37Guest:So I got to go the next day to do the audition.

00:02:42Guest:And I hand the music and stuff to the piano player.

00:02:49Guest:Yeah.

00:02:49Guest:And then I take it from him.

00:02:51Guest:He says, what are you doing?

00:02:53Guest:I says, what do you mean, what am I doing?

00:02:54Guest:I got to sing this.

00:02:55Guest:And then, you know, he was a real bitchy piano player, if you know what I mean.

00:02:58Guest:And I said, I don't have this memorized.

00:03:04Guest:He said, just do the best you can.

00:03:06Guest:So I get up there.

00:03:07Guest:I start singing this song.

00:03:09Guest:And then all I remember is the refrain, we got magic to do.

00:03:12Guest:We got magic.

00:03:12Guest:And so I'm just going over.

00:03:14Guest:And then they say, you got to dance.

00:03:16Guest:Now, I don't know if you remember.

00:03:18Guest:Remember Freddie and the Dreamers?

00:03:20Guest:It was a youth group.

00:03:22Guest:It was for younger kids in the 60s and 70s.

00:03:25Marc:It was a little before me.

00:03:26Guest:And there was a dance, do the Freddie.

00:03:28Guest:And the Freddie was just putting your hands and your arms up.

00:03:31Guest:So I'm doing the Freddie, saying, you got magic to do.

00:03:34Guest:We got magic to do.

00:03:35Guest:And believe it or not, I get into the play.

00:03:38Guest:Yeah.

00:03:38Guest:And the first thing I did was I was a dancing waiter in cabaret.

00:03:42Guest:And the first year, all I did were musicals.

00:03:45Marc:That's insane.

00:03:46Marc:But how terrified were you?

00:03:49Marc:Wasn't there fear involved?

00:03:50Marc:None.

00:03:51Marc:None?

00:03:51Guest:None.

00:03:52Guest:To sing and dance?

00:03:54Guest:No.

00:03:54Guest:And I was really, really fragile in high school.

00:03:59Guest:And not with sports, but...

00:04:01Guest:I just was was fearless.

00:04:03Guest:I didn't care.

00:04:04Guest:I didn't know any of the people.

00:04:06Guest:I didn't care what they thought.

00:04:07Guest:Yeah.

00:04:08Guest:And in high school, you always care what people are saying.

00:04:11Marc:So you're on a whole new playing field.

00:04:14Marc:There was nobody I knew.

00:04:15Marc:What could they say?

00:04:16Marc:So you grew up all in New Jersey.

00:04:18Marc:Yeah.

00:04:19Marc:You're born there.

00:04:20Guest:Yeah.

00:04:20Guest:In Newark.

00:04:22Guest:That's what I say.

00:04:23Guest:I'm adopted.

00:04:24Guest:So the adopted paper said, yeah, I'm pretty sure it said Newark.

00:04:28Guest:Yeah.

00:04:29Guest:And then I saw something for some other town, but I'm not sure what happened there.

00:04:33Marc:Yeah.

00:04:33Guest:Oh, you did the research though?

00:04:36Guest:When I was ready to have a kid, my ex thought it would be best since we don't know anything about what was my family history in terms of illnesses and things.

00:04:49Guest:So at that time...

00:04:50Marc:Did you just assume you were Italian?

00:04:52Guest:It turned out that I'm mom.

00:04:54Guest:I'm like, there's a little bit of Italian.

00:04:55Guest:But Leota is the father that adopted me, and he's my father.

00:05:00Guest:But, yeah, he was Italian, so I was Leota.

00:05:04Guest:So then we found my birth mother just because at that time, there was a time when on every Oprah show or any show they wanted to...

00:05:16Guest:Locate people.

00:05:17Guest:Locate family members, boyfriends, girlfriends, whatever.

00:05:20Guest:So there was a locator's name at the end of the show.

00:05:24Guest:She called the locator up, said who I was, and said I was looking for my birth mother.

00:05:30Guest:Next day, he had her number.

00:05:33Guest:Really?

00:05:33Guest:Yeah.

00:05:34Guest:She gave me the number.

00:05:35Marc:So you were like in your- I was 44.

00:05:37Marc:And you'd never investigated it before?

00:05:40Marc:No.

00:05:41Marc:But you knew you were adopted.

00:05:42Guest:Yeah, I knew I was adopted.

00:05:43Guest:I wore it on my sleeve forever.

00:05:45Marc:That you were adopted?

00:05:46Marc:Yeah.

00:05:46Marc:In what way?

00:05:47Guest:Well, just feeling that I was giving up.

00:05:49Marc:Oh, right.

00:05:49Guest:So then when you're meeting a girl, you know, like within three minutes, I would tell people that I was adopted.

00:05:55Guest:And, you know, that was my line, thinking they would feel sorry for me or something.

00:06:00Marc:But did you really feel like you were?

00:06:02Marc:Totally.

00:06:04Guest:Yeah, all the way through life.

00:06:05Guest:Yeah, giving up because I never could understand why someone would give up.

00:06:11Guest:A baby.

00:06:12Guest:Yeah.

00:06:13Guest:But your parents were good, right?

00:06:14Guest:They were great.

00:06:15Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:06:15Marc:They were great.

00:06:16Guest:I was the luckiest person alive to get the parents that I have.

00:06:20Guest:And then you realize, though, so I went and met my birth mother.

00:06:26Guest:Where did she live?

00:06:27Guest:Well, she was at one of their family's houses.

00:06:31Guest:Well, one of her daughter, her kids' houses.

00:06:34Guest:Yeah.

00:06:34Guest:It was on Route 22.

00:06:36Guest:In Jersey.

00:06:37Guest:In Plainfield.

00:06:38Guest:Yeah.

00:06:39Guest:It was right off 22.

00:06:40Guest:There was this stone driveway and this two-family house.

00:06:48Guest:woods and train track yeah and and i'm there early i got there fast and i mean i got there early and and and and this this car comes careening around the corner spitting up the the the the rocks and everything and there was a dead deer on top of the car it turned out that that person was my half brother and

00:07:10Guest:And it turned out that I have five half-sisters, a half-brother, and a full sister.

00:07:15Guest:And I found all this out when I was 44 years old.

00:07:18Guest:Holy fuck.

00:07:19Guest:So that's like, that's got to be mind-blowing.

00:07:22Guest:It was crazy.

00:07:22Guest:It was totally mind-blowing.

00:07:24Guest:And like in a movie, so we're leaving, right?

00:07:29Guest:It was pretty much like a typical Jersey thing, like olive loaf pickles, you know.

00:07:34Marc:Yeah.

00:07:34Marc:place but what about the dead deer what about that guy he just gets out of the car and you know and it turned out that that was my half brother and his name was Ray wow but she raised these other kids yeah these were her kids did you see a resemblance right away no maybe

00:07:50Guest:Maybe just in the eye area.

00:07:52Guest:We had similar eyes.

00:07:53Guest:She raised all the other kids.

00:07:56Guest:Right.

00:07:56Guest:But not you.

00:07:56Guest:And the full, the full sister.

00:07:58Guest:And what happened was she took me home from the hospital.

00:08:02Guest:I said, well, who was my father?

00:08:04Guest:She said, I don't remember.

00:08:07Guest:Why?

00:08:08Guest:All right.

00:08:09Marc:You don't remember this.

00:08:10Guest:I'm here for for information.

00:08:13Guest:And I don't think it's going to be coming because she doesn't remember who the dad was.

00:08:17Guest:And then I got a call from my my I told this story once on Letterman and I got a call.

00:08:23Guest:from uh from the the the spokesman for them and and and she didn't like that i told this story at all but it's true the spokesperson for the family well yeah she was she was the the talkative one the the the one they turned to some of them were shy one of them was was sick one of them was in jail what this was the the the other siblings right yeah right a half sister so she's the spokesperson

00:08:47Guest:Right.

00:08:48Guest:She's telling me all the stories like you don't know how lucky you are because when mom threw a shoe, it could follow you around the wall, through a door.

00:08:58Marc:So she was an angry woman.

00:09:01Guest:She talked like this because she smoked, so she had this really smoky voice.

00:09:08Guest:Yeah.

00:09:08Guest:Yeah, they were just telling me stories about her gambling and this, that, and the other thing.

00:09:12Guest:And when I left, the first thing I said is, thank God I'm adopted.

00:09:18Guest:Well, that, I went with my best friend since third grade to this day, my best friend, and we stopped at a... In New Jersey, for some reason, they still call it SO instead of Exxon.

00:09:31Guest:Oh, yeah, the gas station?

00:09:32Guest:We started at the gas station, but as we're driving, all of a sudden, this...

00:09:36Guest:rain just just torrential rain came almost kind of like if it was in a movie you'd say things were like cleansed things were being cleansed which it happened and we're sitting there and that's what he said so so what do you think because we're all shell-shocked from this whole experience how many of the people showed up that first day you go over to meter the guy with the deer on his car comes but did they all come no

00:09:58Guest:No, I think there were two sisters, and then there were one of the sister's kids and her boyfriend and his boyfriend or girlfriend.

00:10:10Marc:And they know you from movies?

00:10:12Guest:Yeah.

00:10:13Guest:So that must have been weird.

00:10:13Guest:It was more about that as far as they were concerned.

00:10:16Guest:And I just wanted to find out more like who...

00:10:20Guest:Who am I?

00:10:22Guest:How did this happen?

00:10:23Marc:So you're at the Esso station.

00:10:24Marc:It's raining.

00:10:25Marc:It's raining.

00:10:25Guest:It's pouring.

00:10:26Guest:And then my friend Gene says, so what did you think?

00:10:30Guest:And I said, I can't.

00:10:32Guest:I'm so happy that I was adopted.

00:10:35Guest:And he starts bawling.

00:10:38Guest:I mean crying because he had just adopted two kids.

00:10:41Guest:Yeah.

00:10:42Guest:Two different families.

00:10:44Guest:It just happened at once for him.

00:10:46Guest:Yeah.

00:10:47Guest:And he was just so happy to hear that because he didn't know how his kids are going to react.

00:10:51Guest:You don't know how the kid's going to react to you as a parent when you adopt a kid.

00:10:55Guest:Yeah.

00:10:56Guest:You don't know what's going to happen.

00:10:57Guest:And nine times out of 10, people put kids up for adoption for the betterment of the kid.

00:11:02Guest:Right.

00:11:03Guest:But, you know, it took me a while to learn that.

00:11:05Guest:But by the time that I went and did this, I had pretty much stopped using it as the sob story and just realized this is what happened and that's all there is to it.

00:11:14Marc:My brother's got three adopted kids.

00:11:15Marc:I have no idea what's going to happen.

00:11:17Marc:They're all from different families.

00:11:19Marc:And the oldest one's like 17 or 18.

00:11:20Marc:They all know they're adopted.

00:11:23Marc:But in his case, he knows who...

00:11:25Marc:I guess that happens more now.

00:11:28Guest:Yeah, exactly.

00:11:30Guest:Back then, I was adopted through Catholic charities.

00:11:34Guest:But what really messed me up was the fact that she took me home.

00:11:39Guest:My birth mother took me home for three months.

00:11:42Guest:So I'm bonding, getting being fed by my birth mother, and then all of a sudden just taken away and put in an orphanage.

00:11:53Guest:And I have to...

00:11:54Guest:I can't imagine it not affecting me somewhere deep down or maybe not so deep down that I was just taken away from my mother.

00:12:05Marc:The primal union, the bond.

00:12:08Marc:Do you have kids?

00:12:09Marc:No.

00:12:09Marc:Oh.

00:12:10Marc:No, I never did it.

00:12:12Guest:I always wanted to do it because of that, to start a family tree.

00:12:18Guest:Not in an ego way, just to have my own blood.

00:12:22Guest:Right.

00:12:23Guest:But what did you find out about the father?

00:12:25Guest:Nothing.

00:12:26Guest:Never did.

00:12:27Guest:Nothing.

00:12:27Guest:She claimed that she didn't remember who it was.

00:12:30Guest:And then the full sister called me.

00:12:34Guest:So she said, I think I know who our birth father is.

00:12:38Guest:She called the house.

00:12:40Guest:She explained that, you know...

00:12:43Guest:The situation that Ruth, I don't even remember her last name, was our mother.

00:12:49Guest:We think that your father had two kids out of wedlock.

00:12:54Guest:And the guy just didn't want to hear it.

00:12:56Guest:Just said, get out of here.

00:12:58Guest:Don't ever call here again.

00:13:00Guest:You're crazy.

00:13:01Marc:That never happened.

00:13:02Guest:The son of the father.

00:13:04Guest:The father had passed away.

00:13:06Marc:Ah.

00:13:06Marc:So so like that's what your mother was probably real mother was probably protecting the guy Because he was man.

00:13:13Guest:No, no, no, no.

00:13:14Guest:She was she was no she was used by the guy.

00:13:17Guest:Yeah was he was the neighborhood kid like she was a mark she went with he went with her he goes off to the Korean War he comes back

00:13:29Guest:does it again and then just disappears and she's left with with with two kids and then the rest come later then the rest come after because then the the the birth mother my birth mother ruth she then had the crew of right right right so now that you got so you have two kids no one one kid and when'd you have how old were you when you had the kids 44 wow

00:13:54Guest:and was it amazing yeah yeah yeah for me it was i i really really really wanted to have a kid i i love being a dad yeah it's just a shame that i did it so late and that i didn't find someone else after i got divorced to have another one but i'm just grateful that i have uh that i got one kid now because i love being a dad that's great that's great kids okay yeah yeah yeah she's cool

00:14:22Marc:Okay, so the parents you grew up with, your adoptive parents, what did they do?

00:14:28Marc:Do you have a sister or brother with that family?

00:14:30Guest:Yeah, I have a sister who was adopted, I think.

00:14:34Guest:I remember my parents led me to believe that I picked her out.

00:14:38Guest:But I still have an image.

00:14:40Guest:It's either that or it's from a picture of holding her.

00:14:44Guest:I was three years older, and we had just gotten her, and I think she was just weeks old when my parents got my sister Lynn, and holding her and feeling so proud because they made me think that I picked out my sister, that I picked her out.

00:14:59Guest:And then everything was just normal, and then we just fought like cats and dogs, like most brothers and sisters.

00:15:07Marc:And did she ever go find her birthplace?

00:15:09Guest:No, she had no desire.

00:15:10Guest:Total opposite of me.

00:15:11Marc:She couldn't care less.

00:15:12Marc:Down the floor, couldn't care less.

00:15:14Marc:She's like, what's the point?

00:15:16Guest:Yeah, didn't bother her, didn't affect her.

00:15:19Guest:But it haunted you.

00:15:20Guest:Yeah, haunted's a little strong, but I couldn't understand how someone can give up a baby.

00:15:29Guest:I just couldn't wrap my head around that when I was younger.

00:15:32Marc:Yeah.

00:15:33Marc:And what was your old man's game again?

00:15:34Marc:What was his story?

00:15:35Guest:My dad had a chain of automotive stores called Rocket Auto.

00:15:39Guest:And it was like the Pep Boys.

00:15:41Guest:It was exactly like the Pep Boys, but he had five stores.

00:15:44Guest:He didn't expand on and on and on like the Pep Boys.

00:15:47Guest:And he had one in Jersey City on Garfield Avenue and then one in Bayonne on Grand Avenue right around from the hospital.

00:15:54Guest:They're still there or they're gone?

00:15:55Guest:No, they're gone, I'm sure.

00:15:57Guest:Although I was filming Copland

00:15:59Guest:And I took a walk.

00:16:02Guest:We were on a break.

00:16:03Guest:And it turns out that the house that we were filming at, I walked to the back of the house and looked over.

00:16:11Guest:And there was my dad's store.

00:16:13Guest:It was still there.

00:16:15Guest:And it flipped me out.

00:16:17Guest:Because this is years and years since he let the store go.

00:16:19Guest:10, 15 years when he had it.

00:16:22Guest:Right.

00:16:23Marc:Still the same name?

00:16:25Guest:No, yeah, it was an automotive store, but it wasn't his.

00:16:30Marc:Yeah, that's wild.

00:16:32Marc:Yeah.

00:16:33Marc:So, all right, so the two of you are growing up, and your mom worked too?

00:16:38Guest:Yeah, first she was a stay-at-home mom, and then she was very involved in a PTA, and then she started, when we went into junior high school, she ran the store in Jersey City,

00:16:52Guest:And then my dad watched the store in Bayonne.

00:16:56Guest:So you grew up in car parts.

00:16:58Guest:Yeah, I hate the smell of tires to this day.

00:17:04Guest:Yeah, because you go in and that's what it smells like.

00:17:07Marc:But it's like those stores are so amazing because you usually have like one or two guys working just aisles of pieces of things in boxes.

00:17:14Guest:Yeah, and then you had to look it up.

00:17:16Guest:Like someone would come in with a carburetor for a 68 Pontiac and then you'd have to look it up.

00:17:21Guest:And I hated it.

00:17:22Guest:I hated everything about it.

00:17:23Guest:You worked there though?

00:17:25Guest:Yeah, on weekends they made me work there.

00:17:27Guest:And little did I know that my dad was kind of hoping that I would take over his store.

00:17:33Guest:Right.

00:17:34Guest:And there was just no way.

00:17:35Guest:I thought I was going to work construction or something for the rest of my life.

00:17:39Guest:Right.

00:17:40Guest:But then the drama thing started.

00:17:42Guest:And the only reason why it started is after we did the musical...

00:17:46Guest:There was an acting teacher.

00:17:48Guest:His name was Robert Buckets Lowry, and he was a guy's guy.

00:17:52Guest:He directed like a coach.

00:17:55Guest:He was on his haunches, and he had these blue glasses, and his hat was on backwards, and he had this gravelly kind of thing.

00:18:01Guest:uh you identify with that yeah it was and he you know i wasn't somebody who was doing drama my whole life i didn't do it at all in high school what did you do you just played you had no interest though no interest in in drama none we we took a me and my friend gene we took a you're allowed an elective your senior year of high school yeah and we took drama because we thought it would just be easy right and all we did was children's theater and things like that yeah uh

00:18:26Guest:But not ever wanting to.

00:18:28Guest:It was like, whatever, you know, like two little silly things for the little kids.

00:18:33Guest:And that was it.

00:18:35Guest:And then my senior year of high school, I got into a fight with the basketball coach and I quit.

00:18:41Guest:And the drama teacher asked me if I wanted to audition for the play.

00:18:44Guest:He says, what do you mean audition for the play?

00:18:46Guest:You already had auditions and everything.

00:18:48Guest:And he said, no, don't worry about it.

00:18:50Guest:And I got the second lead of a Neil Simon play Sunday in New York.

00:18:55Guest:And I hated it.

00:18:57Guest:I hated everything about it.

00:18:59Guest:The memorizing the lines.

00:19:01Guest:Yeah.

00:19:01Guest:Even getting up there and doing it.

00:19:04Guest:And I'm sure I wasn't special in the least.

00:19:08Guest:But it was because of that class that made me want to take drama.

00:19:14Guest:And it's only because who knows what would have taken science or anything else.

00:19:18Guest:I don't know what I would have done.

00:19:19Marc:So you just were aimless.

00:19:21Marc:Exactly.

00:19:23Marc:I had the same thing.

00:19:23Marc:I didn't want to go to college either.

00:19:24Marc:But my parents were like, just go.

00:19:26Marc:Just go somewhere.

00:19:27Marc:So this guy, so you get there, you do the musical.

00:19:30Marc:And what's the guy's name?

00:19:30Marc:Robert?

00:19:32Marc:Lowry.

00:19:32Marc:Buckets.

00:19:33Marc:Buckets Lowry.

00:19:34Marc:Now, he's the drama.

00:19:36Marc:He's the head of the department?

00:19:36Guest:He was the acting coach.

00:19:37Guest:No, no, no.

00:19:38Guest:There was another guy who was the head of the department.

00:19:40Guest:But he was the acting coach.

00:19:42Guest:They called him Buckets because he played basketball, put it in the bucket.

00:19:46Guest:And he was a trumpet player.

00:19:48Guest:And like I said, he was a guy's guy.

00:19:51Guest:And he wasn't used to a guy's guy as coming out of high school.

00:19:54Guest:Yeah.

00:19:54Marc:usually the people you know the kids who are are doing it they have a certain way about them uh when they come like a club yeah yeah and they're just different yeah i know what you mean yeah the theater kids yeah yeah and you're not a theater kid no and you're you're a jock and you got an edge to you and chip on your shoulder probably yeah i guess it was the yeah

00:20:17Guest:Sort of.

00:20:19Guest:But he... And then the next year, my sophomore, I came back and I said, let me try it another year.

00:20:24Guest:The first year, all I did were musicals.

00:20:26Guest:Oklahoma, Dames at Sea.

00:20:28Guest:And you're singing.

00:20:30Guest:That's all I was doing.

00:20:31Guest:Singing and dancing.

00:20:32Guest:And I didn't know anything about anything with it.

00:20:35Guest:But for some reason...

00:20:37Guest:I just kept it.

00:20:39Guest:It didn't dissuade me from doing it.

00:20:41Guest:Well, did you enjoy it?

00:20:43Guest:Yeah, I must have.

00:20:44Guest:I stayed with it.

00:20:45Guest:But what I really liked was the acting class with buckets.

00:20:49Marc:But you're singing and dancing.

00:20:51Marc:I mean, you can't remember if you really liked it.

00:20:53Marc:I mean, maybe it's not your bag.

00:20:56Guest:There is kind of a joy, I guess, in doing it.

00:20:59Guest:Just the...

00:21:02Guest:Well, all I can say is I didn't quit.

00:21:04Guest:I'm not sure that I love doing it, but I love doing the acting class, the scenes that you had in class because of Bucket.

00:21:10Marc:So you said, I'll do these if I can do that.

00:21:12Guest:Well, kind of, yeah.

00:21:14Guest:And then doing the plays where it was fun, you know, one, two, three, kick.

00:21:19Guest:Yeah.

00:21:21Marc:You feel like an idiot, but I didn't care.

00:21:25Marc:I really didn't give a shit.

00:21:26Marc:I like watching musicals.

00:21:29Marc:I get very moved by people moving and singing.

00:21:31Marc:Do you ever watch musicals?

00:21:33Marc:Yeah.

00:21:33Guest:Yeah.

00:21:33Guest:It's great.

00:21:34Guest:Totally.

00:21:34Guest:When I'm in New York, I always catch it.

00:21:37Guest:I saw Hamilton like three times.

00:21:39Marc:It's great.

00:21:39Marc:It's unbelievable.

00:21:40Marc:Yeah.

00:21:41Marc:All right.

00:21:42Marc:So now you're in the drama department.

00:21:44Marc:Right.

00:21:44Marc:That's what you're studying.

00:21:48Marc:Right.

00:21:48Guest:Yes, I decided to go back for a second year.

00:21:50Guest:And that year, I got all the leads of the plays that they had.

00:21:59Guest:Like what?

00:22:00Guest:Streetcar Named Desire.

00:22:02Guest:There was a new play that came in.

00:22:03Guest:You played Kowalski?

00:22:04Guest:You played Tim?

00:22:05Guest:Yeah.

00:22:06Guest:We did West Side Story.

00:22:08Guest:I didn't play Tony.

00:22:09Guest:I played Riff.

00:22:10Guest:Taming of the Shrew.

00:22:11Guest:I was Petruchio.

00:22:13Guest:So I was getting the leads in the plays.

00:22:16Guest:And I would get nice praises like anything.

00:22:20Marc:When was the last time you did Shakespeare?

00:22:22Marc:What?

00:22:22Marc:When was the last time you did Shakespeare?

00:22:24Marc:Then.

00:22:26Guest:Then.

00:22:26Guest:that was it once was enough was it hard yeah i was too dumb to know better i just learned the lines and and and that play in particular you know that's a husband not a boyfriend and girlfriend or whatever they're going for each other and and it's just they're back and forth making fun of each other and calling each other names you understood that much yeah i can relate to that yeah so okay so you do all those plays and now you're you're loving it right

00:22:56Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:22:58Guest:And I stayed for the four years and then graduated and there was an auditioning class.

00:23:04Marc:What was it that he learned from him though?

00:23:06Marc:I mean, you're very compelled by this guy and obviously he bonded with you too.

00:23:11Marc:What was some of the stuff you learned from him that you still use today?

00:23:14Guest:Just the commitment of playing pretend.

00:23:18Guest:And just see, most acting is taught by you can't do it.

00:23:23Guest:So we're going to show you how to do it.

00:23:25Guest:And he was very Stanislavski heavy.

00:23:30Guest:And I had since found a teacher out here in L.A., Harry Mastrogeorge, who to me is the best ever.

00:23:37Guest:And he really capitalized.

00:23:38Guest:It's just, you know, you're playing a kid's game.

00:23:41Guest:All you're doing is playing Cowboys and Indians.

00:23:43Guest:That's it.

00:23:44Guest:Yeah.

00:23:44Guest:And that's why I always get kind of like annoyed or when people think they're special because they act.

00:23:51Guest:Yeah.

00:23:51Guest:They're playing pretend for a living.

00:23:52Marc:That's it.

00:23:53Guest:Like get off your high horse.

00:23:55Guest:Yeah.

00:23:55Guest:It's ridiculous.

00:23:56Marc:Yeah, it's true.

00:23:57Marc:It's true.

00:23:58Marc:Yeah.

00:23:58Marc:I mean, like on some level, you realize that a lot of guys, a lot of people get into the acting gig because it's like if you've got a knack for it, it's, you know, it's a hell of a way to make a living.

00:24:08Marc:That's a great way to make a living.

00:24:09Marc:You count your blessings every day.

00:24:11Guest:Totally.

00:24:11Guest:It's just the business that sucks.

00:24:13Marc:Right.

00:24:14Marc:All right, so you do all the plays.

00:24:15Marc:You graduate?

00:24:16Guest:I graduate.

00:24:17Guest:And we had an auditioning class where we got eight by tens and a resume.

00:24:23Guest:And the resume, all you're doing is putting down the plays that you did.

00:24:27Guest:In Florida?

00:24:27Guest:Yeah, at the University of Miami.

00:24:29Guest:Uh, and, and, and we got our resume together.

00:24:33Guest:Yeah.

00:24:34Guest:And I went to stay with this girl, Lenora, Lenora May, who had, who was, uh, already a couple of years in, into New York and she was, uh, she was going to sign her contract at Fifi Oscar.

00:24:48Guest:And that was the name of the, uh,

00:24:50Guest:The agent back there at that time.

00:24:52Guest:In New York?

00:24:53Guest:Yeah, and she went to sign a contract because she just got Jaws 2.

00:24:57Guest:And while I was with her, we went up there like 6, 7 o'clock.

00:25:01Guest:A guy, an agent came up to me and said, hey, you want to do a commercial?

00:25:06Guest:I said, yeah, sure.

00:25:09Guest:And he sent me on this go-to, and the guy said, yeah, fine, you'll do.

00:25:15Guest:And what I did was they took still pictures of me and this girl, and it was for Love Songs of the 50s.

00:25:22Guest:One of those K-Tel record things.

00:25:25Marc:Sure, sure, sure.

00:25:26Marc:And they scroll by you.

00:25:27Guest:That was the first thing I got.

00:25:29Guest:But within a month, I was screen testing out here

00:25:33Guest:uh because i had moved to new york uh out here for beatles forever it was a robert zemeckis movie and but i didn't get that and then a few months after so then i was bartending at at the schubert organization for the theater chain right exactly so we're in new york yeah i was watching uh watching plays and and and you know working at the bar or or coat check or whatever and

00:25:58Marc:Just like which theater, though?

00:26:00Guest:Which one was it?

00:26:01Guest:I don't know.

00:26:02Guest:Different ones.

00:26:03Guest:Oh, really?

00:26:03Guest:My first one was I Love My Wife, but I don't remember which theater it was at.

00:26:07Marc:But you worked at many of them?

00:26:09Marc:Yeah, and a lot of them.

00:26:11Guest:Yeah.

00:26:12Guest:How'd you get that gig?

00:26:13Guest:Everybody from college had an in there.

00:26:17Guest:So I guess we're always looking for people.

00:26:21Guest:So not so much actors, just somebody who could be there, but it was great because you could audition at the same time.

00:26:27Guest:And watch plays, right?

00:26:28Guest:And watch plays.

00:26:29Guest:And then after that,

00:26:31Guest:Within six months, I auditioned for a soap opera, and I just did it just because I just figure experience.

00:26:40Guest:Well, I got it.

00:26:42Guest:And I said, oh, no, there's no way I'm going to do a soap opera because then I'm in the

00:26:47Guest:It's in the 70s while I'm at college and I'm first getting into this acting stuff.

00:26:52Guest:And the plays back, the movies back then were just unbelievable.

00:26:56Guest:Scorsese was all, they're all like, you know, Coppola.

00:27:00Guest:All these guys are doing their thing.

00:27:02Guest:And...

00:27:04Guest:So I said, no, I don't want to do a soap opera.

00:27:07Guest:But my dad, being a depression baby, said, look, it's money.

00:27:10Guest:It's money in your hand.

00:27:12Guest:And two, you've never worked in front of a camera before.

00:27:15Marc:Might as well learn, right?

00:27:16Guest:Yeah, it's a perfect time to learn.

00:27:17Marc:Are you living in the city or are you living with them?

00:27:19Guest:In the city.

00:27:20Guest:I lived in a city with three other people that graduated that year.

00:27:25Guest:What part of the city?

00:27:26Guest:92nd, West End, the Ruxton.

00:27:28Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:27:29Guest:Where Charles Grodin used to live.

00:27:31Guest:Did he?

00:27:31Guest:Yeah, or probably still does.

00:27:32Guest:I don't know.

00:27:33Guest:When you were there, you used to see him?

00:27:35Guest:No.

00:27:35Guest:I never saw him, but I heard later on through the grapevine that he was a tenant in the building.

00:27:42Guest:That's funny.

00:27:43Guest:He's a funny guy.

00:27:44Guest:Yeah.

00:27:44Guest:So you took the gig?

00:27:46Yeah.

00:27:46Guest:Yeah.

00:27:47Guest:And I did the soap for three and a half years.

00:27:50Marc:No kidding.

00:27:51Marc:And what was your guy?

00:27:52Marc:What was your character?

00:27:53Guest:My character was Joey Perini, the nicest guy in the world.

00:27:56Guest:It was a blue collar guy.

00:27:58Guest:My mother rose.

00:28:01Guest:I took care of my mother.

00:28:02Guest:Yeah.

00:28:02Guest:And I had a sister, Angie.

00:28:05Guest:And I proposed to my girlfriend, Eileen.

00:28:08Guest:I gave her a St.

00:28:09Guest:Christopher's medal when she was in the hospital.

00:28:12Guest:She ends up dying in the hospital.

00:28:14Guest:I go to where I proposed to her.

00:28:17Guest:It was during the winter.

00:28:18Guest:I slip.

00:28:19Guest:I fall.

00:28:19Guest:I end up in the hospital.

00:28:20Guest:There's a nurse taking care of me.

00:28:22Guest:I fall in love with the nurse who's taking care of me.

00:28:25Guest:And I eventually marry her.

00:28:27Guest:We're married for months.

00:28:28Guest:And I find out she's the richest woman in America.

00:28:31Guest:Whoa, shit.

00:28:31Guest:she lied to me so i got an annulment that's what this character was he was like this nicest guy in the world and then later i said well wait a minute i love her so so and then i decided that it was time to move to new york yeah and the only reason why i stayed the half year is because there was a writer's strike but the only people that weren't affected was after and uh we went off to skiing in switzerland

00:28:56Marc:Who?

00:28:58Guest:Me and the nurse.

00:28:59Marc:Yeah, in the show.

00:29:00Marc:In the show.

00:29:01Marc:So how many episodes is that?

00:29:03Marc:Like, we on a bunch of them?

00:29:04Marc:Three and a half.

00:29:04Marc:I mean, three and a half years.

00:29:05Guest:It's like lots.

00:29:08Guest:Lots and lots.

00:29:09Guest:We were the first.

00:29:09Guest:This show was the first show to go an hour and a half.

00:29:14Guest:And it was right in the middle of big storylines for me.

00:29:17Guest:So I was learning 30, 40 pages a night.

00:29:20Guest:It's another world.

00:29:21Guest:Another world.

00:29:22Guest:Wow.

00:29:23Guest:So you learned how to memorize?

00:29:25Guest:Yeah, you learned how to memorize, yeah.

00:29:27Guest:And you learned how to be on camera?

00:29:28Guest:On camera.

00:29:29Guest:And what was great about it is the producer, Paul Roush, when he needed a part, he would go to Broadway houses and watch plays.

00:29:36Guest:Yeah.

00:29:36Guest:And if an actor was right, he'd go backstage and say, look, if you want to make some money, come and do the soap opera.

00:29:48Guest:I'll get you out whatever time you want to be out by so you can prepare for your performance that night.

00:29:54Marc:Yeah.

00:29:54Guest:And these people would say, yeah.

00:29:57Guest:So I was working with these great actors.

00:30:00Guest:And this one woman is probably the best actress I've ever worked with, this woman, Kathleen Widows.

00:30:06Guest:She was great.

00:30:06Guest:She played my mother.

00:30:08Guest:And she just made it up.

00:30:09Guest:She just had a real ease about it.

00:30:11Guest:And they all did.

00:30:12Guest:Yeah.

00:30:12Guest:Because they didn't take it too serious because it was a soap.

00:30:14Guest:They were doing their whatever at night.

00:30:16Guest:Yeah.

00:30:17Guest:So they were just having fun and, you know, talking about whose illness and who's this and who's going with who.

00:30:23Guest:Yeah.

00:30:24Guest:Typical soap opera stuff.

00:30:25Marc:Like the soap opera behind the soap opera.

00:30:27Guest:Exactly.

00:30:28Marc:So that was sort of your baptism in the business and like a hell of a way to train for a few years.

00:30:33Marc:Totally.

00:30:34Marc:In terms of listening, being with people, being with actors, doing the thing, acting like a nice guy.

00:30:40Guest:Acting like a nice guy, totally.

00:30:42Guest:No question.

00:30:43Guest:And this was in the late 70s.

00:30:45Guest:Yeah.

00:30:47Guest:And I left to move out here in 81.

00:30:49Guest:So you're going to Studio 54, you're doing this, you're doing that.

00:30:53Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:30:53Marc:You remember that stuff?

00:30:54Guest:Crazy, crazy.

00:30:54Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:30:55Guest:oh wow i can't imagine uh yeah there was a guy the doorman and he would never ever let me in at studio 54 but if steve rubel one of the owners if he saw me he would always let me in cut to maybe 10 15 years later the doorman i see him in century city and he comes up to me and he says you know what i want to let me ask you

00:31:18Guest:I want to ask you some questions about being an actor and everything.

00:31:22Guest:And I remembered him as the doorman, and he never let me in.

00:31:26Guest:And I went fucking nuts on him.

00:31:29Guest:You did?

00:31:29Guest:I went nuts.

00:31:31Guest:Because it was so humiliating to be in line, waiting to get into Studio 54 on a Monday or a Tuesday night, never mind a weekend, and just him poo-pooing me that I never forgot it.

00:31:44Marc:Yeah, of course.

00:31:45Marc:It's humiliating over and over again.

00:31:46Marc:Yeah.

00:31:47Marc:Yeah.

00:31:47Marc:Throw me nuts.

00:31:48Marc:So wait, he just came up to you out of nowhere?

00:31:50Marc:Just came up.

00:31:51Marc:Just came up.

00:31:51Marc:I was coming out of some place.

00:31:53Marc:After you were already successful.

00:31:54Guest:Yeah, I was doing stuff already.

00:31:56Guest:And I said, you never let me in.

00:31:59Guest:You were the doorman and you never, well, no, I was just doing my job.

00:32:02Guest:I said, no, I just kept going and going and going out of my job.

00:32:06Guest:I just held on to it for a long time.

00:32:09Guest:Did it feel better to get it off your chest?

00:32:13Guest:It certainly did.

00:32:14Guest:It certainly did.

00:32:16Guest:And then did you help him?

00:32:17Guest:No.

00:32:19Guest:Done.

00:32:20Guest:Over.

00:32:23Marc:Next.

00:32:23Marc:So I can't imagine what the hell New York was like, because that was the craziest time.

00:32:27Marc:I mean, the late 70s, early 80s, before AIDS became a thing.

00:32:33Marc:You said before AIDS became a thing?

00:32:36Guest:Yeah.

00:32:36Guest:Yeah, never mind that.

00:32:37Guest:42nd Street wasn't Disneyland.

00:32:40Marc:It was all porn houses.

00:32:41Guest:It was fucking crazy.

00:32:42Guest:Live sex shows.

00:32:43Guest:That was the first place I ever got recognized.

00:32:46Marc:Was it one of those?

00:32:47Marc:Oh, in a live sex show?

00:32:48Guest:Okay, so I'm going to the Port Authority's right there, okay?

00:32:53Marc:Lovely place.

00:32:54Guest:Wait for my bus.

00:32:55Guest:To go what, to Jersey?

00:32:56Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:32:58Guest:And there was a place, so you put the quarter in, the thing comes up, and...

00:33:02Guest:And you see naked girls dancing.

00:33:04Guest:I'm 21 years old, so that's like a big deal for me.

00:33:08Guest:The thing closes.

00:33:09Guest:I put it in again.

00:33:10Guest:It opens up.

00:33:11Guest:And one of the dancers, she looks over at me.

00:33:15Guest:And the thing closes.

00:33:17Guest:As it's closing, she says, no, open it up again.

00:33:20Guest:I'll put another quarter in.

00:33:21Guest:So I said, all right.

00:33:23Guest:So I put another quarter up.

00:33:25Guest:And then she went down again.

00:33:27Guest:And she said, no, no, no, no.

00:33:28Guest:Let it up again.

00:33:29Guest:Put it up again.

00:33:30Guest:And then she calls a friend over when it comes up.

00:33:32Guest:And she comes up.

00:33:33Guest:And she says, look, isn't that?

00:33:35Guest:And she said, yeah.

00:33:36Guest:And they both yell out my name at the same time.

00:33:38Guest:And it was every businessman in New York.

00:33:40Guest:It's all suits with attache cases.

00:33:43Guest:Yeah.

00:33:43Guest:Joey Perini.

00:33:45Guest:And she starts asking me questions about what's going to happen on the show.

00:33:50Guest:And the guy who's in charge is telling them, they're totally naked now, these girls.

00:33:54Guest:And they say, keep dancing, girls.

00:33:56Guest:Keep dancing.

00:33:57Guest:Keep moving.

00:33:58Guest:You always got to keep moving.

00:33:59Guest:And they're asking me questions about storyline.

00:34:01Guest:And that was one of the first times I said, oh, my gosh, my life will never be the same.

00:34:05Marc:Oh, that's hilarious.

00:34:07Marc:Those weird, dirty places.

00:34:09Marc:Yeah.

00:34:09Marc:Oh, my God.

00:34:12Marc:So, you do Another World, and what makes you decide to move out here?

00:34:15Marc:Because I always wanted to be in movies.

00:34:17Guest:Sure, right.

00:34:18Guest:That was the thing.

00:34:19Marc:They weren't casting movies out of New York.

00:34:21Guest:They were, but I wasn't getting any.

00:34:23Guest:So, they said, and at that time, New York was down on its luck, and I went to- The city was.

00:34:29Guest:Yeah, the city, totally.

00:34:31Guest:So, I moved out to L.A., and- What year is that?

00:34:36Guest:This is 1981.

00:34:37Guest:Yeah.

00:34:38Guest:Yeah.

00:34:39Guest:A friend of mine, I stayed at his house.

00:34:42Guest:He was married to Melanie Griffith at the time, and they took my place in New York.

00:34:46Guest:I was now out here.

00:34:50Marc:Oh, so you had a place that you could switch with him?

00:34:52Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:34:53Guest:Yeah, you weren't living with people?

00:34:55Guest:No, it was just me by myself.

00:34:57Guest:I was on Big Rock Road in Malibu.

00:34:59Guest:I couldn't be further away, and I didn't know anybody out there.

00:35:03Marc:But the place in New York was, oh, by the time you did the soap, you got your own place.

00:35:06Guest:Yeah.

00:35:08Guest:The second place I lived in was on 85th between Columbus and Amsterdam, and then the last place was on 72nd and Columbus, right down the street from the Dakota.

00:35:20Marc:Oh, yeah.

00:35:21Marc:Were you there when he got shot?

00:35:22Guest:So I come home that night, and there's a bunch of people outside.

00:35:28Guest:And where I parked my car was in the parking garage right next to the Dakota.

00:35:35Guest:And I come out, and I remember it was freezing outside.

00:35:38Guest:And they're all singing, all we are saying.

00:35:41Guest:And they're singing it and singing.

00:35:42Guest:I said, what happened?

00:35:43Guest:They said, John Lennon just got assassinated.

00:35:46Guest:And here I was, like, I walked into it, you know, just wanted to park my car, and here were all these people with candles, and it was intense.

00:35:56Marc:Oh, man.

00:35:57Marc:It was a horrible day.

00:35:58Marc:So did you own that apartment?

00:36:00Marc:No.

00:36:01Marc:No, I was renting.

00:36:02Marc:So you went out to Malibu, and they came and used your place in New York?

00:36:06Guest:Right.

00:36:06Marc:And you're just out there?

00:36:07Guest:Right.

00:36:09Guest:But he turned me on to Harry, the best acting teacher that I think that's ever lived.

00:36:13Guest:What's his last name?

00:36:14Guest:Harry Mastro George.

00:36:15Guest:So I went and started studying with him twice a week, six hours a night.

00:36:20Guest:Six hours a night?

00:36:22Guest:Yeah, man.

00:36:23Guest:I was dedicated.

00:36:25Guest:By the time I graduated college, I said, I'm making it.

00:36:29Guest:And it's like what we were saying before.

00:36:30Guest:You come out here and you don't really know what's going to happen.

00:36:34Guest:The one thing you don't think is going to happen is that it's not going to happen.

00:36:37Marc:right you're just too stupid to think that it's not you know to realize all the odds that are against you yeah but at least you you know you had some experience and you probably had an agent right yeah yeah yeah i got an agent so you had a sister agent at least you had some sense of the business you weren't coming out here going like where do i start but nothing happened nothing you took these great classes i was yeah i

00:36:59Guest:But work-wise, I didn't do my first movie until I was 30 years old.

00:37:03Guest:And at that time, or even now, that's really late.

00:37:07Guest:And the only reason why I got it is because of Melanie Griffith.

00:37:10Guest:Yeah.

00:37:10Guest:Because she was already cast in the movie.

00:37:13Guest:And I went home.

00:37:13Guest:I was dejected.

00:37:14Guest:I was 30 years old.

00:37:16Guest:I went home to Jersey.

00:37:17Guest:And my parents were heavily involved into local politics.

00:37:20Guest:Yeah.

00:37:20Guest:They said, call her up and ask her if she can get you an audition.

00:37:24Marc:Oh, Melanie?

00:37:25Guest:Yeah.

00:37:25Guest:And I said, there's no way I'm going to call her.

00:37:27Guest:I just thought that wasn't the way you do it.

00:37:29Guest:But I was so despondent.

00:37:31Guest:And I just said, all right, I will.

00:37:34Guest:And I said, Melanie, I know you're doing this movie, Something Wild.

00:37:37Guest:It's actually the guys in that acting class that said, you're really right for this part.

00:37:42Guest:Have you gone up for it?

00:37:43Marc:The psycho boyfriend?

00:37:43Marc:The psycho ex-boyfriend, right?

00:37:45Guest:Yeah.

00:37:45Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:37:46Guest:And she said, yeah.

00:37:50Guest:So Jonathan said that she could have a say in who played her husband because she had a bad experience with somebody that she worked with before.

00:37:58Guest:It was the husband, right.

00:38:00Guest:So she called him up and he says, Melanie, please.

00:38:04Guest:It's been taking me so long to find this guy.

00:38:07Guest:I got it narrowed down to three people.

00:38:10Guest:I can't see anybody.

00:38:11Guest:And she said, Jonathan, you promised me that.

00:38:13Guest:That I was going to be able to help pick and have say in who's going to play my husband.

00:38:20Guest:I want you to see Ray.

00:38:21Guest:I think she just wanted to use that chip, that card, than believing that I could do it.

00:38:27Guest:But in any case, I went, and then there's a story.

00:38:32Guest:Monday, I meet him.

00:38:35Guest:Okay.

00:38:35Guest:Tuesday, I get a call.

00:38:37Guest:Come in and read with an actress.

00:38:38Guest:Come in, read with the actress.

00:38:40Guest:Thursday, I get a call.

00:38:41Guest:Come in and read with Jeff Daniels.

00:38:43Guest:I'm saying, oh, my God, this is great.

00:38:44Guest:I'm not going to be told no by a casting agent.

00:38:47Guest:Now, if they don't want me, I'm just not right for the part or my acting chops wasn't right.

00:38:53Guest:That night, I'm watching Johnny Carson.

00:38:56Guest:Jeff comes on.

00:38:57Guest:He's talking about Woody.

00:38:58Guest:He's talking about Jack.

00:39:00Guest:He had just done the Purple Rose of Cairo for Woody Allen.

00:39:03Guest:he's talking about jack nicholson for in terms of the deer he was in both those movies i hit the floor doing push-ups i'm looking at the script because i have to read with him the next day yeah and and i just i just i just was ready i just was ready i did my homework and that you know i'm a wound up crazy bastard yeah yeah and uh uh luckily when when he said action that's what came out wow

00:39:31Guest:That's great.

00:39:32Guest:Yeah.

00:39:33Guest:And you were at the end of your rope, too.

00:39:35Guest:Totally.

00:39:36Guest:As a matter of fact, it was almost to the day.

00:39:38Guest:Yeah.

00:39:38Guest:Because my dad, being a depression baby, he handled my money, all the money that I made from the soap.

00:39:44Guest:I just gave it to him.

00:39:45Guest:Yeah.

00:39:45Guest:And I was living off that money for five years, but I lived in a struggling actor's box on Beachwood Avenue, five blocks up from Fountain.

00:39:54Guest:is that fountain there or franklin franklin yeah and and it was i mean it was brown shag carpeting with dirty curtains yeah and and i know right where that was it was it was so you're about to run out is that what you're saying yeah well i had to get a regular job and i couldn't even your old man told you that because i didn't yeah he said like it's you know it's down to it and i remember i was with my my sister and her then

00:40:20Guest:husband and we were at Alice's restaurant at the pier out in Malibu and I think I was supposed to call them in like no cell phones or anything so I was supposed to call in and find out what happened and they said that Jonathan wanted to talk to me and he called me up and said Ray would you like to be Ray and I was like wow I got it

00:40:50Guest:Yeah.

00:40:51Guest:I did, and I cried like a baby.

00:40:52Guest:Yeah.

00:40:53Guest:Because the pressure of five years of not knowing that you're going to get whatever it is that you want.

00:40:59Marc:That you're working for.

00:41:00Marc:How did you end up starting with stand-up?

00:41:03Marc:When I was in college, I just always wanted to do it as a kid, and I couldn't figure out how to do it.

00:41:08Marc:And then when I graduated college, I moved out here.

00:41:10Marc:I was a doorman at the comedy store.

00:41:12Marc:I got all fucked up on drugs, went back to Boston, and started doing open mics.

00:41:17Marc:Once I figured out, back then, it was like, you go do open mics.

00:41:20Marc:So I just kept doing them, and I kept doing them.

00:41:22Marc:In my mind, though, there was nothing else to do.

00:41:25Marc:There was no other thing.

00:41:27Marc:But you decided in high school that you wanted to do stand-up?

00:41:29Marc:I think I decided in college.

00:41:30Marc:I went to college.

00:41:31Marc:I did a lot of other stuff.

00:41:32Marc:I acted.

00:41:33Marc:I wrote a liberal arts and whatever.

00:41:34Marc:Where'd you go?

00:41:35Marc:BU.

00:41:36Marc:Oh, okay.

00:41:37Marc:Yeah, but when I graduated, I'm like, I'm going to LA.

00:41:39Marc:I want to be stand-up comic.

00:41:40Marc:Since I was a little kid, I wanted to do it.

00:41:42Marc:But it's hard to figure out what you do.

00:41:44Marc:But looking back on it, I don't know, over the years, how the fuck I stayed in it.

00:41:48Marc:Because you just keep building your time.

00:41:51Marc:You keep going up there getting beat up until you got an act.

00:41:54Marc:And then you get someone to book the act.

00:41:56Marc:And then you keep going.

00:41:58Marc:But the thing was is that people ask you about the career.

00:42:01Marc:It's like, if you do this shit,

00:42:03Marc:Most of the time, you don't have a plan B. It's not like there's no other thing.

00:42:08Marc:No.

00:42:08Marc:So it's in your brain.

00:42:10Marc:It's like there's no choices.

00:42:12Marc:Right.

00:42:12Guest:Right?

00:42:12Guest:Right.

00:42:13Guest:And you figure, look, you watch people doing it, and you're saying, I know I could do at least as good as this guy, and he's making a living.

00:42:21Right.

00:42:21Marc:Yeah, I was driven by- That stuff kicks in.

00:42:24Marc:Oh, yeah, man.

00:42:25Marc:I'd say the first decade of my life was driven by spite.

00:42:28Marc:Totally.

00:42:29Guest:It's the best motivator.

00:42:31Marc:Calling my manager.

00:42:32Marc:How the fuck did that guy get that thing?

00:42:34Guest:Exactly.

00:42:35Guest:No question about it.

00:42:37Guest:I still do that.

00:42:38Guest:I'm still like that.

00:42:39Marc:Yeah, you must have a tolerant agent.

00:42:44Guest:I don't know.

00:42:49Guest:I call a lot.

00:42:50Guest:You play guitar?

00:42:51Guest:I do, yeah.

00:42:51Guest:A lot?

00:42:52Guest:Yeah.

00:42:53Guest:You?

00:42:53Guest:I did in sixth grade.

00:42:55Guest:Yeah?

00:42:56Guest:And I think...

00:42:59Guest:I played at a dance once.

00:43:01Guest:We had one song.

00:43:02Guest:But I would sing upstairs, and I had a decent voice from what I hear.

00:43:07Guest:And my mother said, oh, I love when you play.

00:43:09Guest:And that shut me right down and never did it again.

00:43:12Guest:Really?

00:43:12Guest:Yeah.

00:43:13Marc:Yeah, it was something I held on to.

00:43:14Marc:I did it when I was a kid, and I just always did it by myself.

00:43:18Marc:And it's like a meditation.

00:43:19Marc:I got better.

00:43:20Marc:I keep getting better.

00:43:21Marc:So I keep playing.

00:43:22Marc:Every day you play?

00:43:23Marc:I pick it up if I'm in town.

00:43:26Marc:I don't compulsively practice, but I'll put on some records, play jam with them.

00:43:30Marc:Oh, really?

00:43:30Marc:Yeah.

00:43:31Marc:I start playing with some people sometimes.

00:43:33Marc:I keep trying to get better.

00:43:35Marc:That's all.

00:43:35Marc:It's a hobby, though.

00:43:36Marc:Right.

00:43:38Marc:That's one thing.

00:43:39Marc:I used to do a joke about it, how I never tried to be a professional musician, so my guitar isn't haunted by failure.

00:43:46Marc:I don't...

00:43:46Marc:Is that why it looks so clean?

00:43:48Marc:Yeah, it's not haunted.

00:43:50Marc:It doesn't represent something that didn't happen for me.

00:43:53Marc:It's just something I enjoy doing.

00:43:55Marc:Wait, so let me just ask you about Harry again, the acting teacher.

00:44:00Marc:What was his last name again?

00:44:01Marc:Mastro George.

00:44:02Marc:Now, was that a scene study class?

00:44:05Marc:Was it a lot of people in there?

00:44:06Marc:Because you were with him for, what, four or five years before you got the part, right?

00:44:10Guest:Yeah.

00:44:10Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:44:11Guest:And after I did my first move, Something Wild, went back to class.

00:44:15Guest:Dominic Eugene, back to class.

00:44:16Guest:Field of Dreams, back to class.

00:44:18Guest:Goodfellas, back to class.

00:44:20Guest:Really?

00:44:20Guest:Yeah, I just kept going because he just said that the imagination is like a muscle.

00:44:25Guest:The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.

00:44:28Guest:And I bought into everything he said because it totally made sense to me.

00:44:32Marc:What was other things?

00:44:33Guest:It's just that it's a child's game.

00:44:34Marc:Oh, that one.

00:44:35Guest:Yeah.

00:44:35Guest:You just played with a child's rules, but not at an adult level.

00:44:40Guest:Right.

00:44:40Guest:And it was as simple as that.

00:44:42Guest:And then the things that could throw you off were the things about you're worried about presentation.

00:44:48Guest:You're saying somebody else's words.

00:44:49Guest:You're saying things on cue.

00:44:51Guest:Yeah.

00:44:51Guest:And that could be, you know, that could throw you off.

00:44:53Guest:Right.

00:44:53Guest:If you just stick to the playing, you know, pretend.

00:44:56Guest:Yeah.

00:44:56Guest:you can't go wrong and sticking with the story it was really simple stuff it wasn't like some crazy thing but he was he came from the platform of you anybody can do it it's just you know and right if you just play the simple game or pretend oh really most acting teachers saying you can't do it so i'm going to give you the methodology of how you can do it yeah

00:45:18Marc:But I think that the thing that really separates actors is I think some people, you know, you can work and work and work.

00:45:24Marc:Who the hell knows why anyone's going to break?

00:45:26Marc:There's some people that have different talents for it or innately have it.

00:45:29Marc:But, yeah, you can function as an actor.

00:45:31Marc:But, you know, you somehow I think you're authentically yourself.

00:45:37Marc:Right.

00:45:37Marc:You know, always some part of that's going to come through.

00:45:40Marc:Totally.

00:45:41Marc:You know, you don't.

00:45:42Marc:It's not like you see a part that you play go like, who is that guy?

00:45:45Marc:Yeah.

00:45:45Guest:Right, or like all of a sudden you're not going to get to the point of, yeah, there's a camera there.

00:45:50Guest:You're going to know there's a camera there, but you just ignore it and do what you have to do.

00:45:54Marc:Sure, right, yeah.

00:45:55Marc:Not everybody can do that.

00:45:56Marc:It's a weird thing that once the camera's there, you know, it is a unique skill.

00:46:00Marc:All you got to do is watch porn and you realize like...

00:46:04Marc:Not everybody can do this.

00:46:06Marc:They can fuck on camera, but they're not doing the other thing right.

00:46:11Marc:It's a weird thing.

00:46:13Marc:Okay, so you do something wild, and Demi directs you, and that's early on.

00:46:17Marc:It's like his first movie, isn't it?

00:46:18Guest:Yeah.

00:46:19Marc:What was he like then?

00:46:20Guest:He was great.

00:46:22Guest:He was great.

00:46:22Guest:One, because he gave me the part.

00:46:24Guest:And two, you know, he started.

00:46:26Guest:He said, all right, let's make some movie history here.

00:46:28Guest:He was really, really into it.

00:46:30Guest:And there's nothing more... Scorsese had the same thing.

00:46:33Guest:There's nothing more exciting than working with somebody who is really excited about playing pretend.

00:46:40Guest:Yeah.

00:46:42Guest:It's very contagious and really makes you want to do it and do it for them.

00:46:47Guest:But you know...

00:46:49Guest:you know that it's that it's that it's pretend you don't have to live there yeah exactly exactly well no at first you did well at first i did i i i was a little too methody because i i didn't trust myself enough oh yeah so not that i went up beating up people but i kind of kept it always in my head always ruminating up up in my head what i'm what i'm doing the emotions of the character day in

00:47:13Marc:It's exhausting doing it that way.

00:47:15Marc:I guess it would be.

00:47:16Marc:You show up exhausted, I can't work because I've been too busy being the guy when I was sleeping.

00:47:21Marc:You do it because the adrenaline kicks in.

00:47:23Marc:But then I can't imagine... It's interesting for me about Goodfellas.

00:47:30Marc:It's one of those movies where...

00:47:32Marc:Especially with Italian movies, especially with Scorsese.

00:47:36Marc:Your whole life, you got guys coming up to you, right?

00:47:39Marc:Now to this day?

00:47:40Guest:Sure.

00:47:40Guest:Yeah.

00:47:41Guest:That's it.

00:47:41Guest:I have kids coming up to me.

00:47:43Guest:Right.

00:47:43Guest:Because what happens is fathers turn their sons on to it.

00:47:47Guest:But sometimes it's like you can tell the kid's only 12 or 13 years old and he comes up and says, I loved you in Goodfellas.

00:47:53Guest:And I'm saying, what kind of parents do you have?

00:47:55Guest:Right.

00:47:55Guest:You're really too young to be watching it.

00:47:58Guest:But because everybody's got their head in these things, they can look up anything they want anyhow.

00:48:03Guest:Yeah.

00:48:03Guest:So the kids now are much more sophisticated than we were as kids.

00:48:06Guest:Of course.

00:48:07Guest:Just because they can Google whatever the fuck they want.

00:48:09Marc:They can do whatever they want without anyone knowing it.

00:48:11Marc:There's no way to control them.

00:48:12Marc:Yep.

00:48:12Marc:Because most adults don't understand what the hell they're doing.

00:48:15Marc:Yep.

00:48:15Marc:Or how they can get things.

00:48:16Marc:Yep.

00:48:17Marc:But I mean, that part, that was your fourth movie.

00:48:20Marc:Yeah.

00:48:20Marc:And it was a huge part.

00:48:21Marc:It was a huge lead.

00:48:22Marc:What was the auditioning process for that?

00:48:25Guest:I didn't audition at all.

00:48:26Guest:I just kept talking to Marty.

00:48:28Guest:Oh, really?

00:48:29Guest:First person.

00:48:29Guest:It took about a year to get.

00:48:31Guest:I was the first person from what I hear that he met.

00:48:36Guest:And then months go by.

00:48:38Guest:Dominic and Eugene is at the Venice Film Festival.

00:48:42Guest:He was there with Last Temptation of Christ.

00:48:45Guest:I took my dad with me to Venice for the experience.

00:48:50Guest:Uh-huh.

00:48:50Guest:And we're standing on the second level of the Excelsior Hotel.

00:48:54Guest:And there's this crowd of people moving as one.

00:49:00Guest:And from my vantage point on the second floor in the middle of it, I saw Marty.

00:49:04Guest:So I said I hadn't seen him in like months.

00:49:07Guest:So I just wanted to put my face in front of him before he remembered me.

00:49:12Guest:So I came running down.

00:49:14Guest:I come like, Marty, Marty.

00:49:15Guest:And he had bodyguards all around.

00:49:17Guest:Because he was getting death threats because of Last Temptation and the controversy of what that movie was.

00:49:22Guest:And they pushed me away.

00:49:24Guest:And I said, no, no, no, no, no.

00:49:25Guest:I just want to say hi to Marty.

00:49:26Guest:I just want to say hi.

00:49:28Guest:And that's what... You're not Travis Bickle.

00:49:31Guest:That's what he decided that he was going to cast me.

00:49:35Guest:Because the only thing he had really seen is something wild.

00:49:38Guest:So he didn't know I was like... And me, personally, to this day, I've never gotten in a fight.

00:49:43Guest:So to play these kind... And Henry Hill, the only way he got as far as he did was because he was a good soldier.

00:49:49Guest:He did what he was told.

00:49:50Guest:He wasn't going around whacking people or things like that.

00:49:54Marc:He was just getting them things to eat or whatever.

00:49:57Marc:Yeah.

00:49:58Marc:So that's how the persistence got him.

00:50:01Guest:Yeah, I guess.

00:50:03Guest:You've never gotten into a fight?

00:50:04Guest:No.

00:50:05Guest:Once in seventh grade.

00:50:07Guest:Once in seventh grade because me and this guy, Jeff Roth, we were fighting over what grammar school had better cafeteria food.

00:50:15Guest:I swear to God, I think it was something like that.

00:50:17Guest:So we went down.

00:50:19Guest:First, we were going to fight at the path.

00:50:20Guest:Yeah.

00:50:20Guest:And then I said, no, not the path.

00:50:22Guest:Meet him down at the house.

00:50:23Guest:Yeah.

00:50:23Guest:So then we went down to the house where, you know, this big field, the soccer fields and baseball fields.

00:50:28Guest:Right.

00:50:28Guest:We had a fight and it was stupid night one.

00:50:30Yeah.

00:50:31Marc:At least you won.

00:50:32Marc:I did.

00:50:33Marc:That's hilarious because even today, I know I'm going to talk to you, and in my mind, I'm like, oh, boy, this guy's a tough fucking guy.

00:50:41Marc:What the fuck am I going to say to this guy?

00:50:45Marc:But that's interesting that you get identified with the characters.

00:50:49Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:50:50Marc:It does happen, yeah.

00:50:51Marc:Of course.

00:50:51Marc:People do.

00:50:52Marc:Because that's it.

00:50:53Marc:How are they going to know you?

00:50:54Marc:They don't know you.

00:50:55Marc:Right.

00:50:56Marc:Unless they saw the Muppet movies.

00:50:57Marc:Yeah.

00:50:58Marc:And then it's a different guy.

00:50:59Guest:I do love movies with the Muppets.

00:51:00Marc:Yeah.

00:51:00Marc:Maybe there's a younger generation that just thinks you're a sweetheart.

00:51:04Marc:Exactly.

00:51:04Marc:And the people from the soap.

00:51:05Marc:Yep.

00:51:06Marc:Way back.

00:51:07Marc:I imagine.

00:51:08Marc:Do you still get people who recognize you from that?

00:51:10Marc:Come on.

00:51:12Guest:Sometimes, but yeah, they're a little older.

00:51:15Marc:So when you did Goodfellas, I mean, like that set, I can't, and if you're tired of talking about it, I can't imagine how amazing it was to be on that set.

00:51:23Marc:Was it?

00:51:24Marc:It was...

00:51:25Guest:It was the ultimate in playing pretend.

00:51:28Guest:Yeah.

00:51:28Guest:But also, not to bring a downer into it, my mom was sick with cancer during the whole time and passed away in the middle of filming it.

00:51:38Guest:And the Teamsters and Pesci, they all came to the funeral.

00:51:42Guest:They came to my house after.

00:51:44Guest:So it was really... So my thing is, like, I can play pretend with everybody.

00:51:50Guest:My mom's dying.

00:51:51Guest:So I don't care who you are, what reputation you have, what movies you did.

00:51:55Guest:Yeah.

00:51:55Guest:This is something that's really serious.

00:51:58Guest:All we're doing is playing pretend.

00:51:59Guest:So let's play pretend.

00:52:01Guest:And I don't mean that in a cocky way.

00:52:02Guest:It's just the mindset that you get when you're going through something like that.

00:52:07Marc:It must have helped you out.

00:52:08Guest:It didn't make me shy.

00:52:12Guest:So I just went and had fun.

00:52:16Guest:But again, Marty is one of those kinds of people that's so excited to pretend of it all.

00:52:21Marc:Right, right.

00:52:22Marc:So that, wow, that's amazing.

00:52:24Marc:And so like she passed away and then he still had a month or two to shoot or like what?

00:52:27Guest:Yeah, the first scene that I had, I remember the scene, I had a scene with Paulie and some other guy.

00:52:33Guest:Yeah.

00:52:34Guest:When they told me for sure to go home.

00:52:37Guest:Yeah.

00:52:37Guest:That was brutal.

00:52:38Guest:yeah uh but we still had to finish shooting and then she did she passed in my arm she waited for me no question about it uh and then uh i go back and the first scene back is one of the only times that there's laughing it's it's when it's when karen lorraine comes at me saying you stood me up who do you think you are uh frankie valley and blah blah blah wait wait wait yeah yeah and that was my first scene back oh like the day after a few days a few days after yeah

00:53:08Marc:Wow.

00:53:09Marc:Yeah.

00:53:10Marc:So, he just walked right back in.

00:53:11Marc:That's something.

00:53:12Marc:Thank God.

00:53:13Marc:Yeah.

00:53:13Marc:Thank God to tell you the truth.

00:53:15Marc:Right.

00:53:15Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:53:16Marc:And your old man was still around or no?

00:53:18Marc:Yeah.

00:53:20Marc:He's still around now?

00:53:21Guest:No, he died a couple years ago at 98.

00:53:23Marc:Oh, that's a good run, huh?

00:53:25Guest:Yeah.

00:53:25Marc:Wow.

00:53:27Marc:So, like, what is it do you think, like, because you've done a lot of fucking movies and you just, you clearly love to work.

00:53:36Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:53:38Guest:Sometimes you have to work.

00:53:39Marc:No, of course.

00:53:40Marc:Yeah, of course.

00:53:41Guest:There's a couple in there that I'd rather not have done, but you got to do what you got to do.

00:53:45Marc:But Copland, I love that movie.

00:53:47Marc:That was a really good movie.

00:53:48Marc:Right.

00:53:48Marc:It was totally a good movie.

00:53:49Marc:So it was NARC.

00:53:50Marc:NARC is a great fucking movie.

00:53:52Marc:You're fucking menacing in that.

00:53:54Marc:What is it with you and corrupt cops?

00:53:56Marc:I don't know.

00:53:57Marc:They like me.

00:53:58Marc:They like you to do that.

00:54:00Marc:Yeah.

00:54:00Marc:So they show that, like, why is this going to be the last season of Shades of Blue?

00:54:06Guest:I have my theories, but I don't know for sure.

00:54:11Guest:I think really what it is is that Jen kind of had enough.

00:54:16Guest:Yeah.

00:54:16Guest:And it was really hard.

00:54:17Guest:She has so much on her plate.

00:54:19Guest:Jennifer Lopez?

00:54:20Guest:Yeah.

00:54:20Guest:She's got the Vegas show.

00:54:23Guest:She's got a two-hour dance show on NBC every week.

00:54:30Guest:She's newly in love.

00:54:34Guest:And there weren't enough hours in a day.

00:54:36Guest:And doing a series, especially something like this one, it's draining.

00:54:42Guest:It's draining and it takes a lot of time.

00:54:45Guest:And she didn't have that much time.

00:54:47Guest:She was busy with other things.

00:54:49Marc:Right.

00:54:49Marc:So did they just write a conclusion to the investigation?

00:54:52Marc:I mean, what happens?

00:54:53Marc:I mean, this is the last season.

00:54:55Guest:No, we didn't know until two weeks ago that it was ending.

00:54:58Guest:So the season that they wrote was as if it was going to continue on.

00:55:03Guest:I wanted it to go on because it's just a great character.

00:55:06Guest:Yeah.

00:55:06Guest:But we didn't know until maybe now it's three weeks, a month, that this was going to be it.

00:55:13Guest:So it's not everything is tied up in a bow.

00:55:18Guest:It's just over, and that's all there is to it.

00:55:21Guest:I was hoping they would keep it going and not replace Jen because Jen is Jen, but they could have brought somebody else in because it's a good show.

00:55:31Guest:It's a really good show.

00:55:33Guest:But it's their ball and bat.

00:55:34Marc:Yeah.

00:55:36Marc:That's the business.

00:55:38Marc:We were in a movie together.

00:55:40Marc:We were?

00:55:41Marc:Yeah.

00:55:41Marc:What?

00:55:42Marc:Flock of Dudes.

00:55:43Marc:No.

00:55:45Marc:Yes.

00:55:45Marc:With... D'Elia.

00:55:47Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:55:49Marc:I didn't even see the final cut of it.

00:55:51Marc:Neither did I. I don't think it ever came out.

00:55:54Marc:No, it did kind of come out.

00:55:56Marc:Kind of?

00:55:56Marc:It's out.

00:55:57Marc:You can watch it.

00:55:58Marc:Really?

00:55:58Marc:Yeah, I played the boss of those guys.

00:56:01Marc:That's so funny.

00:56:03Guest:That's funny.

00:56:03Guest:Maybe we should watch it.

00:56:05Marc:I know I didn't do scenes with you.

00:56:06Marc:That I know.

00:56:07Guest:No, I had the scenes with D'Elia.

00:56:09Marc:Yeah.

00:56:10Marc:I see him all the time at the comedy store.

00:56:12Marc:So what are you working on now?

00:56:14Marc:You got a movie working?

00:56:15Marc:I just finished a movie with Noah Baumbach.

00:56:18Marc:Really?

00:56:18Guest:It'll probably come out this fall.

00:56:21Guest:Do you play a corrupt cop?

00:56:23No.

00:56:23Guest:No, I'm a lawyer in this one.

00:56:25Guest:Yeah.

00:56:28Guest:It's funny.

00:56:29Guest:Cops love me when I see cops in New York.

00:56:31Guest:We always just shoot the shit.

00:56:34Marc:Well, you understand them.

00:56:38Marc:I mean, there's got to be... I don't know what kind of research you do or whether you just pull from the... When you get a part like that,

00:56:46Marc:You know, like Copland or even the first season of Shades of Blue or any of them where, you know, NARC.

00:56:52Marc:I mean, do you just stick with the script and then use your own imagination or do you talk to cops?

00:56:59Guest:No, no.

00:57:00Guest:In the beginning, I think the first time I played a cop was Unlawful Entry.

00:57:03Guest:And I I went and did a ride along with with a sergeant and I would go and ride with them.

00:57:12Guest:Yeah.

00:57:14Guest:As well as talking to them, going to the shooting range, reading books.

00:57:18Guest:Right.

00:57:19Guest:So I've done plenty of research.

00:57:22Guest:Yeah.

00:57:23Guest:And I used to really be into the research.

00:57:26Guest:I played a heart surgeon where I was watching open heart surgeries for weeks.

00:57:30Guest:Really?

00:57:31Guest:I was there so much that the doctor asked me, he said, do you want to come up and stand next to me while I'm doing this?

00:57:37Guest:And I said, yeah, I would.

00:57:38Guest:And he says, all right, come on, stand right here.

00:57:41Guest:And the woman's chest was wide open.

00:57:43Guest:Oh, my God.

00:57:44Guest:And he said, do you want to touch her heart?

00:57:47Guest:Oh, my God.

00:57:47Guest:I said, what?

00:57:48Guest:He said, do you want to touch her heart?

00:57:51Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:57:53Guest:And I went down and touched God.

00:57:55Guest:Boom, touched this woman's heart.

00:57:57Guest:Because it's not going up and down because they can't operate, but they got the bypass machine going.

00:58:02Guest:And I touched this woman's heart.

00:58:04Guest:It was great.

00:58:06Guest:Yeah.

00:58:06Guest:played a coroner once, so I was going down to the city coroner's office.

00:58:10Guest:And I hate being late.

00:58:12Guest:And there was a lot of traffic.

00:58:14Guest:I think it was on the 134, wherever it was.

00:58:18Guest:And I finally get there.

00:58:20Guest:And I run up.

00:58:21Guest:I said, I'm so sorry I'm late.

00:58:23Guest:I am so sorry.

00:58:24Guest:And they turn.

00:58:25Guest:He said, no, don't worry about it.

00:58:26Guest:And he pointed.

00:58:27Guest:And he said, that was him.

00:58:29Guest:And there was a guy with a sheet over him, dead.

00:58:32Guest:He tried to cross the 134.

00:58:35Guest:Oh, my God.

00:58:36Guest:And that's what the traffic was.

00:58:37Guest:He got hit and died.

00:58:39Guest:Oh, my God.

00:58:40Guest:I mean, there's nothing funny about it.

00:58:41Guest:No.

00:58:42Guest:It's closure.

00:58:43Marc:It's closure.

00:58:44Marc:It's closure.

00:58:47Marc:So how long did you spend looking at bodies?

00:58:50Marc:Just a day on that one.

00:58:52Guest:What other weird-ass research did you do?

00:58:56Guest:Baseball.

00:58:57Guest:I played a lot of baseball when I did Field of Dreams.

00:59:01Guest:Rod Dado, who coaches the USC baseball team, has more national champions than in any other sport.

00:59:08Guest:He was a...

00:59:10Guest:13-time collegiate champion.

00:59:13Guest:So I went there and worked out with them and Donnie Buford who used to play for the Orioles.

00:59:20Marc:Had you played in high school or college?

00:59:24Guest:Little League and junior high school.

00:59:25Guest:And then I got hit a couple times and I said, that's it.

00:59:28Guest:I'm too chicken.

00:59:29Marc:Oh, the ball?

00:59:30Marc:Yeah.

00:59:30Marc:Can't be afraid of the ball.

00:59:31Guest:You can't be afraid of the ball.

00:59:33Guest:You just got to stand up there, and I don't know how they do it.

00:59:35Marc:Yeah.

00:59:36Guest:Because there was one kid who just had, and that time it was like heat, but he had no control.

00:59:42Guest:And I just didn't have him to stand in there.

00:59:47Guest:I didn't.

00:59:47Marc:No, no.

00:59:48Marc:I played Little League, and that was it for me.

00:59:52Marc:I thought he'd get hit by a fucking ball.

00:59:54Guest:Little League, first game or whatever, a little ground ball comes.

01:00:01Guest:My glove falls off.

01:00:04Guest:Boom.

01:00:04Guest:The ball hits my finger and breaks it.

01:00:06Guest:It's a sign.

01:00:08Marc:It's a total sign.

01:00:09Marc:I was in center field.

01:00:10Marc:I got hit in the fucking face.

01:00:12Marc:I fell down.

01:00:13Marc:I was under...

01:00:14Marc:what do you mean if someone hits you the ball or the no it's a pop fly yeah and i'm backing up right and i trip and it bounced right off my fucking face and i'm like that's it if you get hit in the face in center field you're not meant for the game see right yeah no we're built for this stuff though yeah oh my god how often you go back to jersey

01:00:36Guest:uh if i'm in new york now my sister and dad they were down in florida so i would always go and visit them but when i'm in new york and when i was doing the series we shot it here i would go home just to see some green yeah my best friend gene yeah lives in scotch plains so i would go out there and you guys are still best friends yeah since high school or something yeah

01:01:00Marc:That's great, man.

01:01:01Marc:Since third grade.

01:01:02Marc:Third grade.

01:01:03Marc:And he was in Jersey.

01:01:04Marc:Yeah.

01:01:04Marc:Oh, that's great.

01:01:05Marc:Yeah.

01:01:05Marc:And you feel good?

01:01:06Marc:You feel like you got closure in your life, the adoption, everything else?

01:01:10Marc:Yeah, yeah, all that, yes.

01:01:11Guest:And you're doing all right?

01:01:12Guest:Yeah, yeah.

01:01:14Guest:I still feel I have a lot more to do with this, though.

01:01:16Marc:Oh, yeah, definitely.

01:01:17Guest:I still feel like I haven't made it.

01:01:18Guest:There's still things I want to do.

01:01:20Marc:Well, I'm curious about this Baumbach movie.

01:01:21Marc:I guess you can't really talk about it, but was it a small movie like he usually does?

01:01:24Marc:Like, you know...

01:01:25Guest:Yeah, I mean, Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, two hot people.

01:01:31Marc:Those big casts, yeah.

01:01:32Marc:But he shot it like he shoots his other movies?

01:01:35Marc:Yeah.

01:01:36Guest:Oh, great.

01:01:36Guest:Noah's great.

01:01:38Guest:He's really great.

01:01:39Guest:And I kind of got the script kind of late, and I really need time now, especially at 63, to learn my lines.

01:01:49Guest:I can't do it overnight like I used to.

01:01:51Guest:Yeah, yeah.

01:01:53Guest:And he wants every I dotted and every T crossed.

01:01:57Guest:Right.

01:01:58Guest:And if you don't get that, he'll just tell you again.

01:02:01Guest:And he doesn't get flustered.

01:02:03Guest:He doesn't get maniacal.

01:02:05Guest:He doesn't roll his eyes.

01:02:06Guest:He's not looking at his watch.

01:02:08Guest:You're just doing it again.

01:02:10Guest:You're doing it again.

01:02:10Guest:So you feel safe as an actor.

01:02:13Guest:And that only happened in one scene.

01:02:14Guest:And it was only part of one scene.

01:02:16Guest:Everything else I got, but there was one day I would like back.

01:02:21Guest:I thought, you know, you finish, you do a scene, you do your stuff and it's over.

01:02:26Guest:And then it turns around on the other people.

01:02:28Guest:But I didn't realize it was still going to be on our side.

01:02:31Guest:And sometimes after you do your stuff, you just kind of, you just get it out of there and you give them the cues they need.

01:02:38Guest:But the camera's on them.

01:02:39Guest:Let them get the words right.

01:02:40Marc:Yeah, you know, it's weird because I'm pretty new to acting.

01:02:43Marc:I'm on this show Glow now, and I'm still not 100% sure what's covered when I'm getting my coverage and when it's on them.

01:02:51Marc:I know when it's a close-up, but a lot of times in the bigger shots, I'm just going all in all the time.

01:02:56Guest:That's what I did.

01:02:57Guest:I agree with that, too.

01:03:00Guest:Unless maybe you've got a breakdown and it's on your back.

01:03:06Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:03:07Guest:But I think the more you do it, the deeper it gets.

01:03:12Guest:That's what I feel.

01:03:13Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:03:14Guest:Just do it.

01:03:14Guest:I know that some people will wait for.

01:03:16Marc:Yeah.

01:03:17Marc:There's some people that shut right the fuck off on their, whether it's your coverage.

01:03:20Marc:And it's sort of like, come on, give me something.

01:03:23Marc:I've heard of people not even showing up.

01:03:25Marc:Oh, they have someone else read for it?

01:03:27Marc:Yeah.

01:03:27Marc:A stand-in?

01:03:28Marc:Yeah.

01:03:28Marc:It's rude.

01:03:29Marc:That's fucked up.

01:03:30Marc:All right.

01:03:30Marc:Well, it's great to see you, man.

01:03:32Marc:Same here.

01:03:32Marc:It was great talking to you.

01:03:34Marc:Yeah.

01:03:34Marc:And, you know, best of luck with everything.

01:03:36Guest:Thank you.

01:03:36Guest:You too.

01:03:37Bye.

01:03:46Bye.