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hey there welcome writer producer and actor you know from
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Pineapple apple express Knocked Up and super bad Hollywood it's not a fair industry it is
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not fair who makes any given phone call is one that is like making your life or one that is yet another door slamming in
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your face we had finished super bad and then we wrote Pineapple Express no one wanted to make it
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but if you don't quit you might make it people would obviously look at you and
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assume that you have zero self-doubt because you've been so successful in what you've done but what's your journey been with self-doubt I'm at the point
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it's funny my career where like not a lot of people are in a position to like yell ing but Iowa will have a cultural
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institution tell everyone that I suck that will add self-doubt
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Green Hornet critical reviews for that like what's that phase like any opening weekend
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honestly and any time I have a thing coming out it sucks I think if most
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critics knew how much it hurt the people that they are writing about they would second guess the way they write these
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things like it's devastating and something that people carry with them literally their entire life foreign
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before we get into this episode just wanted to say thank you first and foremost for being part of this community
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um the team here at the diver Co is now almost 30 people and that's literally because you watch and you subscribe and
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you um leave comments and you like the videos that this show has been able to grow and it's the greatest honor of my
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life to sit here with these incredible people and just selfishly ask them questions that I'm pondering over or
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worrying about in my life but this is just the beginning for the day of this year we've got big big plans to scale
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you watch these episodes please just hit that subscribe button means the world let's get on with it
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[Music]
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so if you've had an incredible twisting turning career and I have to
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say when I was reading about your earliest years an unexpected one in many respects
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to me too what do I need to know about um about you where you came from how you
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were raised to understand the man that you are I mean I get that depends on your
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appetite I guess um uh I don't think anyone needs to know anything but if uh if you're curious
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um I don't know I mean there's a lot uh I uh I think a general uh when I look at
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my life I guess I started young I think that's something that I uh I I kind of
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view is one of like the defining traits and characteristics of my life and I
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think uh I've always worked very hard uh and I've always had very supportive parents and I think those things all uh
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are things that when if you're looking at like if you're if you're curious about how I got to where I am from like
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a career standpoint I think and just like who I am as a person a lot of ways I think those those things were instrumental yeah your parents yeah I
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was reading about them yeah they're very strange people yeah
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how so I mean everyone's parents are strange to them I would imagine I would uh yeah they're just they're kind of uh
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you know my dad's kind of eccentric my mother's uh also kind of eccentric
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um you know they uh but again they were very they're both incredibly supportive uh I think because they're excited I
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think a lot of you know my writing partner Evan his parents were much less eccentric by kind of more traditional
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metrics and were much less supportive of uh of his career in a lot of ways and so uh I probably benefited from their you
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know uh eccentricities more than anything yeah eccentric's uh a broad
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word what is it because I could I could do this my parents specifically one of them is being eccentric but yeah when
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you say eccentric what exactly do you mean um I mean my dad
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well my whole family you know I'm uh you know like a lot my grandmother was like
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an immigrant um who fled uh World War One a lot of Jewish families are defined by the fact
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that people uh have been trying to kill Jewish people for a very long time and my family is no different
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um a lot of the reasons Jews live where they live and are where they are and not you know in you know Eastern Europe
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somewhere is because uh you know people were trying to kill them and that also shapes I think uh Jewish sensibility to
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a large degree I know it did mine because it's kind of informed by uh
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neurosis and Trauma to a large degree um and uh so yeah my grandmother is a
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immigrant and um she met my grandfather uh who uh his
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parents were immigrants to uh Winnipeg which is a very cold unforgiving part of
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Canada um they moved to Vancouver ultimately and had my mother um and my mother wanted to go to Israel
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to travel my dad's from Newark New Jersey which is um like especially where he's from like
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one of the worst parts of America from like a a kind of crime standpoint
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especially at that time in the 70s and 80s um and he my dad's like a so uh you know
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a socialist and moved to a kibbutz in Israel where him and my parents uh him and my mother met and then move uh to
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Canada so my dad has always been like incredibly left-wing um especially both my parents but my dad
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really like he would have he would have stayed like essentially living on like a commune his whole life uh if you know he
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never met my mother basically yeah um Andy has like incredible kind of like
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I guess it's OCD I don't know if it's a disorder I would say he has obsessive compulsive uh
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Tendencies um and uh yeah and he has Tourette Syndrome so he's Twitchy and uh and I I
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have it as well to some degree but those are connected uh kind of compulsive uh you know compulsion and Tourette's uh so
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yeah I mean uh yeah no shortage of strangeness to draw from when uh in my family what was his um relationship like
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with money um I'd say not not that's relevant I
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mean yeah we I was not Ronnie was I think we did not I did not grow up with a lot of money you know um
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my parents my mother uh went to school to be a social worker when I was very
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young and then became a social worker but when I was a kid she was a cashier at a uh you know a department store and
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my dad was uh worked at like a vocational College as the known budsman
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which uh kind of you know is like a swing position to some degrees helped facilitate life on the on the campus you
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know a lot of time was spent working in the game room from my memory uh so yeah we grew up you know in a small apartment
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and then um so yeah I think some people who don't grow up with a lot of money I think are taught to really like Revere money and
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kind of put a lot of emphasis on it and I think other people who don't grow up with a lot of money uh kind of are
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taught that it's not that important and as long as you have enough to do certain things then then that's enough and it's
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not something that you should like fetishize or um you know make the be-all end all by
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any means and I was definitely more raised like that yeah is there some
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sometimes a bit of a paradox when your parents um don't value money and maybe they sometimes struggle with it that you grow
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up trying to avoid that struggle definitely I for sure had some things when I was younger I was afraid of being
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broke and I'm sure that for sure informed elements of my ambition you know I'm very lucky in that it also
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coincided with a very strong like Creative Drive you know
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um but I definitely yeah remember being very concerned that we didn't have
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enough money and my parents not being that concerned that we didn't have enough money which probably made me more concerned that we didn't have enough
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money because I was like why aren't they worried we don't have enough money um so yeah that was that was something that was cut but then that was when I
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was like very young and then as I got older I saw that uh you know uh when I got into high
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school and stuff I saw that it I would be fine you know what I mean on the girl on the grand scale of things in that
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apartment when you were quote unquote very young if I'd asked you if I said Seth what are you uh what are you gonna be when you're older what would you have
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responded to me um I mean I probably would have said I want to write movies or something like that I
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probably would have wanted to be a ninja up until a certain age uh a Ninja Turtle specifically probably yeah
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um and then uh and then yeah I remember uh when I was probably like six or seven years old is when I started to Really
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Wanna like the idea of making movies became very like fascinating to me and I was one of those kids with a camera who
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was like running around making movies out obsessed with movies quoting movies want to watch all I want to do is watch movies I like I love I like fell in love
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with movies at a very young age was there an influence in your household that inspired that of the movies my
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parents love movies they're like huge movie fans um they would go to movies again it was one of those things like we did not have
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a lot of money we would go to movies all the time and uh in Vancouver Tuesdays
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was like the cheap movie night for whatever reason it's a slow night so maybe they incentivize customers and
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almost every Tuesday we as a family would go to whatever new movie had come out that week so we saw I saw everything
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in leaders like constantly and I loved it um and my parents you know had a vcr
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and would take movies off of television and we had this you know I think a lot of you know people my age are kind of defined but also by like those VHS tapes
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that you grew up with because it was like a finite amount of movies and then I went to high school me and Evan across
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the street from two uh video rental stores a blockbuster and a Rogers which
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was like the Canadian competitor but we would go there every day after school and just like walk the hour aisles and
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for hours and rent movies we go there on the weekends and rent talk walk the aisles and rent movies like we were
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um and yeah ever since I was young and then I met my riding partner who became my producing partner directing partner Evan when I was 12 so I was very young
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but ever since ever since then I can remember I was like obsessed with movies basically yeah and stand up that came in
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at 12 years old as well roughly yeah you know for me I loved comedy in general and I love stand-up comedy my parents
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are big stand-up comedy fans but truth fully it was kind of like a means to an
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end to me because I okay again it's funny because it's like it was like weirdly well thought out for being 12 or
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13 years old but I was like oh if I do stand-up comedy at that time sitcoms were very popular Seinfeld things like
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that so I was like I was like the most practical path for me to have some sort of success doing
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this is I'll start doing stand-up comedy maybe I can get an agent and then maybe
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I can like get on a sitcom and be like you know Ray Romano or Jerry Seinfeld or
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something like that and then maybe I can write movies and that can like turn into a movie career basically and that was
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like if you were to ask me when I was like 12 years old like what is your life gonna be like that's what I would have
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hoped it would be like you know remarkable because most 12 year olds I
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know I'm thinking like that what was school what was your relationship like with
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school was there any influence there on you as a man today that early relationship with school in your peers for sure I mean the first movie I wrote
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was super bad with Evan and it was very much informed by our high school experience it's largely based on real
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things that happened I would say the educational aspect of school were was lost on me and and I from a very young
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age knew that My ultimate uh life path did not it was not gonna you know follow
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you know an academic route you know um and and my parents never put that much
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emphasis on it honestly like they weren't like you have to my dad dropped out of college you know that they
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weren't like you have to do this you know I think more than anything they actually saw that I was like
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very inspired to do comedy and I loved movies and they saw I was willing to work very willing to work very hard from
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a very young age and so um honestly from the time I entered High School which when I was 13 they were
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like they didn't care that much that I was not doing that well in high school because from because I was always
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working really hard on writing movies and doing stand-up comedy uh like from around that time
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uh until I got a little older but like they saw I wasn't like lazy I was just motivated to do something other than
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school but the culture of school I loved and the things that happened at school I loved and I thought the kids I went to
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school with were hilarious and and we would go to parties every weekend and people's parents would be out of town
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and we were trying to hook up with girls and buy beer and our friends were getting licenses and fake IDs and all
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this [ __ ] and and I thought it was awesome and hilarious and and I went to
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like a public high school in like a big city you know like um there was like 3 000 kids at my
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school Vancouver is a real big Metropolitan City with downtowns and so you know neighborhoods and the good area
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the bad like hey you know you could really get into trouble in Vancouver so um it provided a lot of like Adventures
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you know and and I loved it and and I wasn't one of those people I haven't
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either it's not like we were popular or cool or anything but we weren't like tortured by high school we were like
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this is a fun adventure and we can have fun here and um and especially if we don't
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put too much Stakes on the actual like doing well here part of it
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Adam at 15 years old you went to a Canadian Comedy Festival do you remember
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yeah um yeah I remembered like a competition I think it was yeah
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um and uh yeah and I did pretty well I I placed pretty well in the in the competition I was okay I was pretty good
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at stand-up comedy like it it was uh yeah do you remember the instance where Jerry Seinfeld showed up yes I do I I
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came that was actually I was auditioning to get into the Just for Laughs Festival in Los Angeles and I show up and it's
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during the day which is not great there's not that many people there it's maybe like five o'clock it's not a good time to stand up comedy I'm like 15
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years old and I fly I flew in for this you know um there's Comics going up and doing their
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thing there's like the Scout from the just relax Festival there and like I'm about to go up and I'm next and the MC
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is about to introduce me and yeah and someone comes over and they're like Jerry Seinfeld is about to show up and he's going to go up instead of you and I
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was like what I'm like I'm here for I'm here to audition for this thing and they're like yeah well he'll go up and then you'll go up after and I'm like I'm
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gonna go on after Jerry Seinfeld uh they're like yes and so he goes up he
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like Anaya I mean he says his show is still like he's as famous as as you can as a comedy Star as there is alive at
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that moment and it's what you're hoping it's like you go to a stand-up comedy club at that time hoping Jerry Seinfeld
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will come in and then it happened and these people like it's like they won the lottery and he comes and he just like
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annihilates and then he gets off stage and then they're like and now like from Vancouver 15 year olds Seth Rogen and uh
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yeah my bombed horribly um and I did not get into the Just for Laughs Comedy
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Festival and I told Jerry Seinfeld that story and he was uh completely uninterested
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he could have cared less it seems like a tough thing for 15 year olds a pretty horrific firing line for a
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15 year old to put themselves in stand-up comedy yeah I think part of it honestly was informed by like my night
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my overall like naivete to some degree but I also I
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yeah I I was I was good enough at it that it instantly wasn't like a visceral
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painful experience you know what I mean and it's probably you know I played some sports in high
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school but it was probably a similar I imagine it's a similar mentality where you're like yeah there's Stakes to this
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and there's ups and downs to this but overall I'm good at it and I seem to be moving progressing in the right
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direction so it's worth the the stress of it in order to to pursue it you know
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um and at times it's phenomenal and as fun as you would hope anything would be
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you know um but also honestly what was more fun was at that time me and Evan started to
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write super bad and that was like what I really loved doing and like I like doing stand-up
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comedy and writing stand-up jokes but like I loved sitting with Evan and writing a movie and to me that was like
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at the time it's frustrating because you're like will this ever get made is this pointless are we wasting our time is this just a silly Pursuit but it was
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still it was I just loved it you know is this three line in all your sort of creative
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work often which is about like making people laugh yep have you ever figured out like why
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you know because I've sat here with a lot of Comedians and I've and it always seems to be something about comedians
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where I don't know some instance when that you know maybe they were younger or some kind of inspiration in their life which
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made them somewhat compelled to and and almost energized by the pursuit
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of making other people laugh and happy have you ever does that resonate with you and have you ever identified where
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that comes from in you that pursuit of making people laugh and happy um
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I think for me I don't I I don't like I think some
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comedians have like a dark origin story you know what I mean um I don't you know
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um I think for me it was like something I liked and something I was good at and
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something that I was very like encouraged and and fostered to do from a very young age and I was lucky enough to
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find another guy my age who was as good at it as I was and as interested uh at
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at doing it as I was which is like miraculous like I had a lot of like
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you know I read part of that Malcolm Gladwell book and I'm not you know about the uh
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about you know the miraculous kind of set of circumstances that it takes to become like remotely successful in this
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terrible world of ours you know what I mean and like I think it was things like my parents were big comedy fans so I saw
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comedy from a very young age I'm from Canada which is like a place that
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acclaims comedy and respects comedy so culturally I'm like from a place where
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comedy is like you know a relevant part of the culture you know
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um Canadians some of their biggest like exports are Comedians and comedy shows
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Lauren Michaels is Canadian you know SCTV you know a lot of uh great uh some
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of the greatest means of all time are Canadian you know um and so it's something that was always kind of just
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always a part of like the DNA of being a Canadian person I think to some degree as well also I'm from Vancouver where
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they made movies not to say it's like I grew up in Hollywood but like they you would see movie sets around you would
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see I went to a high school they shot some movies at the high school because it was a very like cinematic looking high school so you would see trucks and
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stuff like that I didn't know anyone who worked in the entertainment industry but like you kind of would see it around so it made it a little more obtainable and
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if we lived like in the middle of [ __ ] nowhere and it just seemed like completely abstract you know what I mean
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so I think that I think that like my path is honestly one of like being
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supported and and being and working hard and being very diligent but also like
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having an environment that kind of like bolstered my ambition you know what I mean
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um yeah 16 years old you you get a part in Freaks and Geeks yeah and that brings you to LA with your family yeah
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why your entire family came to L.A my parents my sister was in college yeah
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and I read that they'd lost their jobs around that time yes and that made you the sole Breadwinner in the house
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basically yes well did that feel like pressure being 16 years old and being the
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breadwinner for your house because your parents have lost their jobs in a way it felt like an alleviation of pressure because after six I remember my dad
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telling me like after after like three months or six months of being on Freaks and Geeks he's like you've made more
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money in this time than I've made my entire life put together so like like if
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anything was like an amazing alleviation of uh of a weight because there was
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money all of a sudden for the first time in our lives things could be paid for easily you know
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and so I was more than happy to provide for everybody because I suddenly had
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access to an amount of money that was like absurd compared to the amount of money
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I grew up with access to or anyone in my family grew up with with access to you
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know you work ethic which I've read about over and over again throughout your book and throughout various interviews you've done seems to be
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pretty spectacular and one of the quotes that I read is if there were any kind of dark driving force behind
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um your other Ambitions quote it would be some sense of financial insecurity
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yeah probably but that's gone which is maybe why I don't make as many things as
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I used to
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that's um that's a that's an interesting journey to go on being driven by having
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that sort of financial insecurity developing a real sort of really strong relationship with work and then that
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falling away yeah and it fell away pretty fast I think honestly like I
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think by the time I you know there was a point so yeah I was on freezing Geeks uh and
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then Undeclared and then I didn't work for years but by then it felt like my parents were like incapable of making enough money to survive on their own
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also so like once I had some money like they it was just bonus money you know
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what I mean like uh part of what had happened is they lost their jobs and we lived in a house so we sold our house in
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Vancouver and and that's why everyone moved to LA so there was a little more money available because we had sold their house so like it's not like my
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parents were like just like a you know a leech on uh you know they they they were
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able to like make a baseline level of like survivable income so when I had more money it just
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um yeah it kind of just added a a cushion of comfort and then there were times then they moved back to Canada
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um when I was like 18 and I was in LA and that's around when I became
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unemployed for years and years so I did then start to have financial burden but it was like a soul file you know it was
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my own financial burden and and it was not I did not feel like I was letting my whole family down or not you know
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providing for my whole family it was more I just myself was like oh I might have to move I might have to move back
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in with my family because I might not be able to afford to live in Los Angeles uh for longer because I was unemployed for
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years basically yeah you were unemployed for years and years yeah um after that first roll on Freaks and
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Geeks yeah we did freaky Geeks and we did a show called undoclare that was on Fox in 2000 2001 and then then I
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basically didn't work for like three years essentially yeah what's going through you you know you're presumably
00:24:15
doing auditions and stuff like that yeah does it ever like what's that phase like of unemployment most people quit at that
00:24:20
point that's the point where you say [ __ ] this that didn't even occur to me I I I I I I I did not
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um I was freaking I was pretty kind of had like a chip on my shoulder uh to
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some degree I was writing a lot still you know um we were still
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that's probably when we wrote Pineapple Express you know so we had finished super bad no one wanted to make it
00:24:46
um but we thought it was good so we kind of put it on the Shelf we're like let's write another movie
00:24:52
um and then we wrote uh Pineapple Express so we were busy and we thought it was awesome and we thought both the
00:24:58
movies were awesome and in general we were also getting like very positive feedback as writers we just weren't
00:25:04
getting like hired to do anything and no one would make our poofy so it was it was this weird mixture of things kind of
00:25:10
being like encouraging and and very frustrating at the same time and and and
00:25:16
that's almost like the worst part about kind of being in that part of your career which is the part of the career
00:25:21
most people who live in Hollywood are in which is one where it's like any given phone call is one that is like
00:25:27
making your [ __ ] life or one that is yet another door slamming in your face that you have to like just suck up and
00:25:34
keep moving forward you know what I mean and and so that that's happening a lot
00:25:39
at that time um yeah and seeing your friends also start to do very well and start to make
00:25:46
things you know that is uh it's very encouraging in some ways but you inherently get very jealous and you
00:25:52
start to doubt yourself and you start to doubt if you are good enough to um do it or if anyone will ever like see
00:26:00
and you're seeing you what you see in yourself you know um but
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yeah it's you know it's pretty warm you know and only usually so it's easy to just hang out and keep plugging along
00:26:13
what's your um you use the word doubt yourself there what's your journey been with been with self-doubt people would
00:26:19
obviously look at you and assume that you have zero self-doubt because you've been so successful you've done
00:26:25
um I think I think all creative people and people who have creative
00:26:33
Pursuits in their life have self-doubt like it's impossible to put yourself out
00:26:39
there I think from my experience and from meeting all the creative people I've met in my life from people who you
00:26:45
know it's their first day on set you know and and they have one line to Steven Spielberg they all have
00:26:52
self-doubt they're all worried people won't like what they're doing that people are gonna think it's stupid that
00:26:58
they're gonna think they're stupid for wanting to do it that they're gonna just reject it and and and by proxy reject
00:27:05
them you know um that is like that is from my experience pretty constant
00:27:13
across the board for all creative types who genuinely like care about what they
00:27:20
do I'm sure there are some people who technically like are maybe actors or something and and do not have any of
00:27:26
that but they're probably not very good and don't care that much about what they do you know what I mean but in general
00:27:31
from my experience I would say that applies to to creative people with self-doubt and and for me it's
00:27:39
it comes in waves you know you have you make the thing Everyone likes gets a little better you make a thing everyone
00:27:45
[ __ ] hates it gets a little worse uh you know it you know and and uh and
00:27:51
that's a part of also doing what you know I do is like you get you know like there you know it's it's like
00:27:58
you know it's funny I was saying to someone I worked with the other day like I'm not I'm at the point it's funny in
00:28:03
my career we're like not a lot of people are in a position to like yell at me in my job but like the New York Times will
00:28:11
like publish an entire article like saying I I suck at my job and so like that's the trade-off is like I've worked
00:28:18
my way up to not having to deal with that much like personal conflict and face-to-face conflict but I will have
00:28:24
like a just like a cultural institution to tell everyone that I suck you know
00:28:30
and so that that's kind of like that that will add self-doubt uh things like
00:28:35
that you know um and uh yeah and so it it's for me
00:28:40
it's for me something that's present but I I try not to let it stop me from doing
00:28:46
the things that I think are interesting and and uh and the things that I think I would enjoy watching you know
00:28:53
um oh yeah uh I mean what like what
00:28:58
self-doubt I'd say a lack of self-dest baby hurt me at times the criticism like someone oh yeah
00:29:06
of course it hurts everyone yes very much so
00:29:12
um I think if most critics knew how much it hurt the people that that made the things that they are writing about uh
00:29:21
they would second guess the the way they write these things like it's devastating
00:29:26
it takes year I know people who never recover from it honestly years year Decades of being hurt by because it's
00:29:33
very personal you know it's not like it's not it is personal you know um and so it is devastating when you are
00:29:41
being like institutionally told that your personal expression was bad like that is like
00:29:51
devastating you know and something that people carry with them uh literally their entire lives and and I get why it
00:29:57
[ __ ] sucks you know I read it I was reading through various moments in your life where I mean you've had back to
00:30:03
back to back successes so it's hard to find [Laughter] it that's definitely not true yeah you seem
00:30:11
to I mean from the bird's eye view you look at your work your portfolio I've been trending well
00:30:17
you talk about you've spoken about in interviews is is Green Hornet where you've got you received some critical
00:30:23
reviews for that can you zoom me if I was a fly on the wall in one of those moments where you've received that
00:30:28
feedback is coming in and it's coming in you know critically what what would I see if I was flying the wall in your
00:30:34
home like what do you does it do you stay in your bed do you you like what's the the human impact it has on you it's
00:30:41
different things and I think there's different you know and that's another funny thing
00:30:47
about making movies is like and having like and just being like a person who works a lot is like life goes on like
00:30:54
you could be making another movie as your movie is bombing which is a funny thing because it's it's bittersweet
00:31:01
because like you you know that things will be okay you're already you're already working you know what I mean if
00:31:07
the fear is the movie bombs and you won't get hired again well you don't have to worry about that you're all right you've been hired it's too late
00:31:13
you know um but it's an emotional wait conundrum at times just just
00:31:19
dealing with that and navigating that you know um for Green Hornet it's like literally yeah like
00:31:25
the critics for the reviews were coming out and it was pretty bad and people just kind of like hated it like it
00:31:31
seemed like a thing people just were taking like joy and disliking a lot you know what I mean
00:31:36
um but it was it opened to like 35 million dollars which was like I think at the time the biggest opening weekend
00:31:43
I'd ever been associated with in any capacity and so it was also like it did pretty well and that's and it was a
00:31:50
funny thing where it really didn't that one and that's what's nice sometimes is
00:31:55
like you you do get you know you can grasp for some sense of success at times you know and and and uh
00:32:03
but I honestly think things like the interview were more like painful as far
00:32:09
as like people really taking joy and talking [ __ ] about it and uh and uh
00:32:14
really kind of questioning you know the types of people that would want to make
00:32:20
a movie like that in general like I think yeah that felt far more personal I think Green Hornet felt like I just had
00:32:26
fallen victim to like which was true like like you know I a
00:32:31
big fancy thing which was like I was super and we were just kind of like also like ahead of the curve a little bit too
00:32:37
much I think as well to something like we were early on that on that wave you know and so I think that
00:32:44
was easier to deal with in a lot of ways because it was like not so much like a
00:32:49
creative failure on our parts but more like a conceptual failure I think uh like the interview people more treated
00:32:57
us like we had creatively failed uh which sucked much worse uh and that's happened a few times yeah where people
00:33:03
really act like we've just uh and again it's not I'm not gonna act like this is that bad like this is not on the grand
00:33:09
scale of things in life it's not that bad like and I've gotten much better at dealing with it as well and I think when
00:33:15
I was younger I really like did not have as much perspective as I do
00:33:20
and now I am not I do not carry it with me nearly as much as I used to you know
00:33:26
um yeah it's like it is the center of Your World though these things because you've pulled your creative heart into
00:33:31
into something so it's you oh yeah it's like it feels like a personal rejection it's like very much attached to yourself
00:33:38
oh yeah it feels like a very personal rejection and it doesn't and it doesn't feel like constructive it feels human
00:33:46
impact though what's like the human yeah yeah I don't know sometimes you try you try different things sometimes you go
00:33:51
out to dinner when you just try to forget about it sometimes you sit there and watch movies sometimes you literally just like sitting on the couch [ __ ]
00:33:56
pissed and devastated uh that I've had different approaches I use sometimes I would go to the beach I used used to
00:34:03
have a house on the beach and I would go to the beach the weekends my movies came out um yeah and and
00:34:10
any opening weekend honestly and anytime I have a thing coming out it sucks
00:34:15
because it just is stressful it's like birth like it which is just an
00:34:20
inherently painful process even though it is maybe bringing something beautiful into the world it is a painful act and I
00:34:28
think that is like what releasing a movie is for the people who made it is like
00:34:34
in some ways it's inherently painful and and in some ways it's inherently
00:34:39
beautiful and joyous but in some ways it's also just very painful this is the story of creativity yeah
00:34:44
making anything that you care about that is slightly challenging or original or new risks both exceptional success but
00:34:52
also um potential Faith like yeah and the more personal it is it's like
00:34:58
the more the the higher the highs can be if it works and the lower the lows are if if
00:35:04
it doesn't so you know the more the more personal the rejection feels yeah a lot of people can relate to that I know for
00:35:09
sure that that period say after you receive feedback on the interview how long is that process of trying to like
00:35:15
get back on your feet and get it out your head and stop it occupying your mind I mean
00:35:22
it's interesting like I think it's different and it rears its head in
00:35:28
different ways and I think like imposter syndrome or self-doubt or you know this phenomenon where like the more you know
00:35:34
about a thing the less you feel you know about it in some ways and vice versa
00:35:39
um you know I think that is something again that is like a common theme in Creative people's lives the fact that
00:35:46
you read about it all the time is is comforting honestly because you're like oh it's a thing it's out there you know
00:35:52
um but to me it's never been that hard to
00:35:57
to do the Creative really risky thing and it's never been that hard for me to
00:36:03
convince myself to like take the leap and do the thing that is maybe crazy and do the thing that is a big swing and and
00:36:10
to put myself out there and I think that's also what's good I guess about being rejected enough times is you kind
00:36:17
of like you see like it sucks but you can survive it and so it's ultimately worth
00:36:22
trying to do it again you know and and and even the worst case scenario
00:36:29
is survivable if you just keep going uh from a creative standpoint you know what
00:36:34
I mean so I think uh that's also like yeah uh where yeah we haven't stopped it
00:36:41
it'll nag at you at times but if anything my biggest fear is to make a thing that's like [ __ ] boring or not
00:36:48
taking a big swing or it doesn't seem like it's trying to push things forward
00:36:53
or or like it's just like happy to relax and you know like I I
00:36:59
think like the fact that we get to make anything movies TV shows it's like there
00:37:05
are so many people who are trying to do it and we get to do it so like we we should [ __ ] go for it and we're
00:37:11
spending the money of these giant [ __ ] conglomerate corporations like they're letting us spend millions of
00:37:17
dollars to make our crazy things like we should go for it like we should really
00:37:23
look back and be like wow like can you [ __ ] believe we did that we that we
00:37:28
spent hundreds of millions of Amazon's dollars doing that you know like like
00:37:34
that that's what's exciting so um yeah it's something that like nags
00:37:39
you but I think luckily for me and I and it's who I'm surrounded by you know to some degree as well but like we've
00:37:46
always you know there's moments where you doubt yourself and you kind of Bobble but I've had always someone being
00:37:52
like [ __ ] it let's do it you know I get the same it's funnily enough from just the couple of minutes we spent
00:37:58
together that you you have no choice like you almost don't you're such a lover of what you do at
00:38:05
heart that you almost couldn't not do it like yeah so here's a question then if I
00:38:10
told you today that you could no longer make movies or do anything in the entertainment or creative space
00:38:16
that would be hard I become a ceramicist
00:38:21
which I do spend a lot of time
00:38:27
a bummer though what would actually your life be
00:38:33
um I mean I would it would I could I I it's tough to think of because it is very like ingrained with who I am and
00:38:39
what I do and like and it is like I could stop working I have enough money to if I didn't want to keep working I
00:38:45
could I could never work again and live the exact life I live now until I die
00:38:51
you know um it I have no kids I have not trying to leave generational wealth to anybody
00:38:57
like I'm gonna I'm gonna you know like we could just keep going it's genuinely because like I enjoy it
00:39:05
and it's and it's a part of who I am and how I spend my day and and what I love
00:39:11
doing and and people generally seem to enjoy the output which I enjoy and and
00:39:18
it seems to be additive to the creative landscape of film and television the
00:39:24
things that I get to be a part of you know and so um yeah it's but it I it mostly comes
00:39:32
down to I just like doing it and so it would be hard to think of what else I would do because like on it like I I
00:39:39
just write I love I enjoy writing and I've been doing it since I've been writing like you know screenplays since
00:39:45
I was 12 years old you know I'm 40. so it's like it's so much a part of who I
00:39:51
am that like I do it all the time if I have I'm generally working on a few things if I'm making up a coffee and I
00:39:58
have five minutes like I'll I'll write for a few minutes like uh you know I I I genuinely enjoy it so it would be hard
00:40:06
to imagine I wouldn't I don't know what I would do you're um you have ADHD I don't know maybe
00:40:16
I mean I'm pretty good at focusing honestly I read that um I read that you had Tourette's in ADHD I do have oh yeah
00:40:22
I guess threats I mean maybe I'm more true yeah I mean I I had some Tourette's like yeah some Tourette's which is
00:40:27
connected to ADHD yeah yes yeah is that ever had a role in your life is it been
00:40:33
caused a little Tourette's if I'm being completely
00:40:39
honest I don't well well it's kind of connected to like a compulsion uh disorder where you it's like it it
00:40:46
manifests in like physical uh ticks and Twitches
00:40:52
um the most extreme versions are like people you know screaming like you know swear words and [ __ ] like that but it
00:40:58
all roots from like a compulsion to do it um and like it's like scratching an itch
00:41:04
that's the best way I can describe it I'm sure you've been sitting across from people who twitch or have a weird
00:41:09
eyebrow thing they're doing or a weird thing they're doing you know what I mean and I see it so often and that is that
00:41:16
is a mild case of Tourette syndrome and I think so many people have it are undiagnosed and I know the exact feeling
00:41:23
those people have when they are doing that and it literally feels like you have an itch on your hand and you're
00:41:29
scratching it and it's the same thing from like a musculature like movement standpoint you
00:41:36
feel like if you don't [ __ ] up your eyebrow you're not scratching that itch and when you do you're like uh I did it
00:41:43
and you have fun uh yeah at times I for me it was always pretty mild physically
00:41:49
but I still it does I I feel the urge at times but I'm very good at not doing it
00:41:57
as you might know the show's now sponsored by Airbnb absolutely love Airbnb always have always been a you
00:42:02
know saved my life on so many occasions and my team when we first got in touch with Airbnb were talking about how most people don't realize that their place
00:42:09
where they currently live could become an Airbnb and I guess the second question there is how much could your
00:42:14
place be worth and it turns out you could be sitting on an Airbnb gold mine without even knowing it some people are
00:42:20
going to be their entire homes when they're away that's what I did in New York whenever I left New York my place was on Airbnb and people rented it out
00:42:27
sometimes for a day sometimes for two days sometimes for a week and it's a great way to cover some of the bills while you're away so whether you're
00:42:33
looking to go on holiday or you just want some extra cash for bills or you want to buy something nice for a valentine that you love whatever it
00:42:39
might be head over to airbnb.co.uk host and you can find out how much your
00:42:45
current property where you live can earn while you're not there I suspect it might blow your mind because it
00:42:51
certainly blew mine you know all that success you've had all those movies you named recently that you you know some of them of which are coming up soon you
00:42:58
know having spoken to you today I get work ethic I get your innate passion which seems to have been there since
00:43:03
you're a child but I but there's people that have both of those things and they're not Seth Rogen you know what I
00:43:09
mean so is there anything else when you look back on your life you talked about the circumstance your mother's you know being around that culture is there
00:43:15
anything about you in particular a talent and people find this hard to answer because it requires you to say something nice about yourself but and so
00:43:21
celebrities often say you know but is there any what is it that makes you good at what you do
00:43:29
um I think I I think I think man I honestly think
00:43:35
because I grew up watching so many movies um and having parents that appreciated
00:43:41
them um I from a very young age had an inherent
00:43:47
understanding of cinematic storytelling of what and that
00:43:54
specifically from a writing standpoint from how the movies were written that is
00:44:00
for whatever reason how my brain processed it how the characters were introduced how
00:44:05
the conflicts between them were set up how they played out throughout the movie how they resolved themselves or didn't
00:44:11
resolve themselves throughout the movie how they manifested and set pieces and sequences that exemplified the conflicts
00:44:18
and the themes and the and the the tensions between the characters for whatever reason from a very young age I
00:44:25
was able to understand and write those things and I you know I look back now as
00:44:32
like a 40 year old person who has produced and helped countless people with their screenplays and written
00:44:38
countless screenplays like there are things about like what we put into Superbad as like 14 year olds that are
00:44:43
like fundamentally functional and good in a
00:44:49
way that is like Beyond like the average 14 year old's ability the average the
00:44:55
average writer's ability in a lot of ways you know um like and and that is something that me and Evan really just
00:45:02
we we're lucky like we we got it and and I think honestly as an actor
00:45:10
I mostly credit my ability to act as my from like a right through a writing lens
00:45:16
and I think as an actor I understand what the story needs I understand
00:45:21
I understand how that character needs to affect things what that character needs
00:45:28
to do in order for this story to be told effectively I don't view my acting as
00:45:33
internally as the other actors I work with I know it I see it I talk to them about it all the time I view it much
00:45:39
more from like a big picture like okay here's the role this character plays in the story how do I make that work as
00:45:47
well as it possibly could you know um and I can do it so I I have some
00:45:53
performance ability which not everyone does but I think I think I am I think my
00:45:59
understanding of how story Works kind of helps compensate for my the fact that
00:46:04
I'm not the greatest actor and that I am able to work with actors who are much better than I am honestly um but I think
00:46:11
if I had to answer that question which I'm uncomfortable doing that is how I would answer it is for whatever reason
00:46:18
me and I found a guy with the same skill which is like miraculous but like from a
00:46:23
young age me and another guy had a very inherent sense of like
00:46:29
how to write a movie basically there's a young creative listening to this now sat in their bedroom or driving in their car
00:46:34
pushing that problem walking their dog whatever and they they're a creative in whatever industry it could be DJing or you know the author there could be an
00:46:41
actor no what is the actionable advice that you could give to them to to you know
00:46:47
give them a shot of because there's a lot of creatives out there that are struggling yeah and you you would have had this bird's eye view on creators
00:46:53
that end up being successful you know in their careers and those that maybe have the talent but don't end up getting that
00:46:58
is there anything actionable that you can say to them that would help them end up in The Talented successful group
00:47:04
um unfortunately the only way to mitigate not being successful is to not
00:47:12
quit that's it if you don't quit you might make it and
00:47:18
if you quit you definitely won't and and honestly I think after all the
00:47:27
years I've seen people make it and not make it the only common denominator is is that like I've
00:47:36
seen actors write themselves off be like I'm never gonna [ __ ] do this
00:47:42
try to get other jobs one of my dear friends who's an actor he's been an actor he's a great actor a
00:47:48
brilliant actor and his career Ebbs and flows comes and goes they'll star on a
00:47:54
TV show for a few years he won't work for two years he went and tried to get a job at like a car dealership one day and
00:48:00
I was like what are you doing man like and he's like I I can't I've quit acting No One's Gonna [ __ ] hire me again I'm
00:48:05
unhirable now he's like like the star of the most successful player on Broadway right now and like
00:48:12
because he just got this role a couple of years after that and he's in uh one of the biggest movies that's coming out
00:48:18
next year he's in it like and and it's because he didn't actually quit he he kept going you know and it's not you
00:48:26
know especially Hollywood it's not a fair industry it is not fair who makes
00:48:31
it the best people don't make it you know it's very luck oriented it's very
00:48:38
connections oriented um I'm lucky like and I also worked hard
00:48:44
and thank God I you know have I'm a good enough writer that I've been able to have enough longevity in my career once
00:48:52
I got lucky but like a lot of luck played Into My Success you know but that being said
00:48:59
I've seen people get lucky very random times through random ways I always think
00:49:05
about like Ian McKellen like did you have you heard of him before he was 65 years old like that guy I didn't like as
00:49:12
I had never [ __ ] heard the word Demi Kelly until he was Magneto and X-Men and all of a sudden he's like in Lord of the
00:49:18
Rings he's with one of the famous people on Earth he got famous when he's like 60. like like that's what happens to
00:49:25
people sometimes you know what I mean it's like you never know you know and so I think that is is what's interesting is
00:49:33
and if you like it then just don't quit and as long as you have enough to
00:49:38
survive then just keep trying to do it you know but this could be something that I can do to increase my luck be
00:49:44
really good at it I think making being nice honestly being
00:49:50
nice being the type of person people want to be around the people like that
00:49:55
people that comes down to it want to help instead of not help that is very
00:50:02
good like I've seen that just if people don't like being
00:50:08
around you then then then you will fail because you need other people to help
00:50:13
you succeed you know um working hard is like something you can control in a very uncontrollable
00:50:20
world I find and like um you know it's funny I was meeting
00:50:26
with someone recently who like ascended very high in Hollywood and she was like I always fetishized hard work like to me
00:50:33
that was like it like it it like if you weren't working hard
00:50:38
I like had no regard for you basically and like and to me that was like and and
00:50:44
that's a good reminder of like those are the people you're up against and that was something that I always knew from a
00:50:50
young age was like I I don't consider myself a competitive person but I knew
00:50:56
succeeding in Hollywood was inherently a competitive Pursuit there's only so many
00:51:02
jobs and there's way more [ __ ] trying to get their jobs those jobs than there are jobs available so by the
00:51:09
nature of that I was competing with people for these jobs and I knew I had
00:51:14
to be able to look at myself and be like am I at least working harder than
00:51:20
everyone else who is competing for this job I might not be better than them or smarter than them or have as many
00:51:26
connections with them or be as good looking as them or any of these things but I can at least work harder than them
00:51:33
you know um and that to me was something that was like controllable and I've never seen
00:51:40
someone regret the amount of hard work they put into their Pursuit and so you
00:51:45
know that that is something that will help you succeed I think has you certainly you don't have any kids I do
00:51:51
not that has helped me succeed as well [Laughter]
00:51:57
finally oh yeah but there's a whole huge thing I'm not doing
00:52:03
which is raising children people obviously someone's listening but
00:52:09
yeah but it would make you happier you know someone might say that I'm trying to rebuttal I don't think it would I've
00:52:15
been around obviously a lot of children I'm not I'm not ignorant to what it's like to I've I've seen everyone I know
00:52:20
has kids I I see I'm a you know I'm 40 again you know like it's not I I know
00:52:26
you know I've I've some of my friends have had kids for decades you know um
00:52:32
some people want kids some people don't want kids I think a lot of people have kids before they even think about it from what I've seen honestly you just
00:52:38
are told you go through life you get married you have kids it's what happens
00:52:43
um and and me and my wife we're just neither of us were like that you know and
00:52:49
um honestly the older we get the more happy and reaffirmed we are with our
00:52:56
choice to not have kids like it was something we kind of talked about more and we're like are we
00:53:02
made the right choice are we sure now if more than anything the conversation is like honestly thank God we don't have
00:53:09
children we get to do whatever we want we are in our we are we are in the the prime of Our Lives we are smarter than
00:53:16
we've ever been we understand ourselves more than we ever have we have the capacity to achieve a level of work and
00:53:25
a level of communication and care for one another and a lifestyle we can live with one another that we've never been
00:53:31
able to live before and we can just do that and we don't have to raise a child
00:53:36
which the the world does not need right now and so that was and so yeah it's uh
00:53:43
we're very happy with our choice to not have kids and I just I work I I work
00:53:49
with a lot of people with kids and I see definitively that I uh have more time to
00:53:55
both do the things I need to do and the things I enjoy doing than they do and
00:54:02
not to say their kids don't bring them Joy but I I say this truthfully I I I I
00:54:08
I me and my wife seem to get a lot more active enjoyment out of not having kids than anyone I know seems to get out of
00:54:15
having kids speaking of your wonderful wife yes in
00:54:20
my very extensive research I found a series of photos I found this one yes that's my wife Lauren exceptionally
00:54:26
beautiful she's lovely and I found this one yes that's Lauren and her mother
00:54:32
that's a great photo wow it's like a real photo it's a real face where'd you get this
00:54:38
internet that's amazing yes this is Lauren and her mother Adele Adele a few
00:54:43
years ago yeah you've campaigned exceptionally hard for Alzheimer's following um Adele's diagnosis yeah can you tell
00:54:51
me about that Journey yeah definitely um you know what's funny it's like a celebrity I guess like you know I you're
00:54:59
kind of asked to do a lot of Charity things and find like a cause I think you know and there's I think there's pressure to find a cause and I think a
00:55:05
lot of people adopt causes that are not organic to them and who they are and and they kind of find themselves you know uh
00:55:12
in the midst of a cause and and um and that it happened to me in the past I would go to some charity events and I always felt very out of touch with
00:55:19
it and and didn't really understand it and um then uh I met my wife and um and this
00:55:26
is in regards to the charity but also in regards to just our relationship I'd never been in a serious relationship ever in my life really like a few months
00:55:32
here and there I had dated but never and in uh like 2005 I started dating my wife
00:55:39
Lauren and she was the first serious relationship I ever had um and very soon after we started dating
00:55:48
is when she realized her mother seemed to be showing the first signs of Alzheimer's and I knew nothing about
00:55:54
that it really it was not in my family um and and what I didn't understand is
00:56:01
like oh it was a disease that had like no treatment no cure it was only going to steadily get worse until she died
00:56:06
from it which was uh uh truly devastating and put me and my wife on
00:56:12
like a pretty intense Journey for the next you know uh 15 years or so basically
00:56:21
um and uh it really uh it really took a lot out of us and my wife especially you
00:56:27
know um Lauren felt very out of control and very devastated and really scrambling
00:56:34
for like uh Outlet or no way to gain some kind of agency over the situation
00:56:40
um yeah and our friend uh suggested we do a comedy show and maybe give the money to like an Alzheimer's charity and
00:56:46
we did and it went very well and my wife started telling her story as a young woman whose mother was in her 50s and
00:56:53
diagnosed with Alzheimer's and it was really not a thing like anyone was talking about at all and she found there
00:57:01
was like an enormous need for people to connect with someone who was going
00:57:06
through this because a lot of people were going through it and really no one was talking about it and um we very
00:57:12
we kind of found like a need for this organization that we made hfc which
00:57:18
um became like you know an Alzheimer's charity that really was like focused on
00:57:24
talking to young people um many of whom were caretakers for their parents with Alzheimer's you know
00:57:30
and and again it was just a thing it's very stigmatized disease and not a disease very many people
00:57:35
are comfortable talking about at all and uh yeah and Lauren as her mother progressed more and more
00:57:42
just talked about it more and more and uh and it really um yeah kind of made our charity more
00:57:47
and more prominent in the space and um yeah has allowed us to do kind of more and more things to help people you
00:57:53
see people don't talk about it enough and part of that is results in people thinking about Alzheimer's is just
00:57:58
losing your keys or forgetting a sentence or something yeah um what is the reality of Alzheimer's as
00:58:04
you've observed it well it's different for everyone but it's inherently for my mother-in-law like she forgot how to
00:58:11
speak how to go to the bathroom how to talk I mean how to eat how to walk
00:58:17
um and was essentially like you know uh someone you would move from
00:58:24
the bed to the wheelchair force feed essentially move back to the
00:58:29
bed she was like that for like seven years or something like that all right I think she didn't uh and again
00:58:35
I'm bad with years she didn't speak for several years um and
00:58:40
and it was yeah if you saw her you wouldn't assume it was Dementia or Alzheimer's you would assume she had
00:58:46
some like horrific stroke or something like that it was not it was not what I understood like cognitive decline could
00:58:53
could cause you know um it was far more devastating and and
00:58:59
yeah and I think uh people don't understand how kind of dire it is or
00:59:05
they do understand and they just again don't like talking about it because it's really scary and people are weird about their brains mental health obviously in
00:59:11
America especially people are very weird about not a thing they like talking about um and so yeah it kind of TAPS into a
00:59:18
lot of things people are just scared of in general we're told does that have on the people around her like yourself and
00:59:23
your wife um I mean it was just devastating for my wife especially like it was truly one of
00:59:29
the the most upsetting thing you could imagine is like very slowly seeing your mother die over the course of years and
00:59:35
years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years you know um it's uh yeah I mean it caused uh
00:59:43
uh yeah it was it was very Grim you know um but through the charity you know
00:59:50
there was a lot of like kind of hope that came up at times and a lot of like uh
00:59:56
you know kind of like wonderful things that it felt like we were able to do as a result of it so there was kind of
01:00:04
Bittersweet moments but in general it was terrible
01:00:10
these times if you're um last couple of decades for you that that process oh yeah for sure I mean yeah
01:00:17
especially you know being married to someone who is going
01:00:23
through something incredibly traumatic
01:00:28
um is yeah is is you know it's hard for them
01:00:33
and it's hard for you to know how to support them properly and and how to you
01:00:39
know navigate their feelings and they you know uh productive and loving way
01:00:44
you know um and it's obviously much harder for them um and uh you know it it is uh but yeah
01:00:52
it's a it's a it can be hard for everybody Adele passed away 2020 yeah
01:00:59
what impact does that have on the family um I mean in some ways it is uh a relief
01:01:08
of Burden you know especially with someone who
01:01:14
was so sick for so long with no hope in sight for any for any way to get better
01:01:21
you know um and and also like devastating you know and
01:01:28
and it's something that I'm always having to not having to remind myself of something I'm always reminding myself of
01:01:33
is like you know your wife her mother died recently like there's there's a lot going along with that and and although
01:01:39
there's like this constant thing that we are not dealing with there is there is
01:01:46
another thing you know um and and again in many ways like the
01:01:51
active Agony of her mother kind of slowly dying was was probably worse but
01:01:57
this is also bad in its own way you know you mentioned Americans don't like talking about their mental health yeah
01:02:03
or really anything cognitive no this is their cognitive functions yeah I've never heard you speak about your mental
01:02:08
health yeah I don't think it's that interesting
01:02:13
that might be why anxiety
01:02:18
um not really not more than the average you know I often think I often think that the creatives over index with
01:02:23
anxiety for kind of some of the reasons we talked about earlier yeah I don't I think I have anxiety but
01:02:29
I also am constantly reminding I'm good I think at analyzing my own feelings and behavior to some degree I do have
01:02:35
anxiety sometimes but I'm also having to remind myself that I am like going through things that are
01:02:41
objectively anxiety inducing to almost anyone and I would probably be weird if I wasn't feeling some sort of anxiety
01:02:48
with the amount of public facing uh pressure uh and exposure I have at times
01:02:55
um so you just tell yourself like yeah you feel you uh this is you are feeling anxious right now because you are
01:03:02
dealing with this thing that has a lot of public pressure on it you know um so I
01:03:07
think in general no in general I have pretty good mental health I think
01:03:14
ask the people who work with me [Laughter] it seems like an unhuman way to live
01:03:20
right being in the spotlight and being being um receptable to so much public feedback like you talked about how shoes are kind
01:03:27
of unnatural in rooster and natural there's the way that we all live these days seem to be so far from what is what
01:03:33
it is to be a human yeah what can we like what do we need to do
01:03:40
do you think to get back to being a little bit more human um I don't know I don't know if I'm the
01:03:46
best person to ask you but I uh I personally have tried to spend less
01:03:52
time on social media I think that is a good thing I don't think that contributes to one's Humanity
01:03:59
necessarily uh I uh what are the things that make you feel most human then and
01:04:05
most connected um spending time with my loved ones my wife
01:04:11
my you know my my my dog my my sister my family my my parents you know my friends
01:04:17
going to dinner with my friends going to their houses hanging out with my friends I I even though I don't have kids I enjoy going to my friend's house and
01:04:23
hanging out with them and their kids you know um you know writing with being creative with my friends doing things with my
01:04:30
friends making things with people that I respect and the the feeling that I'm a
01:04:35
part of making something that I am excited about and that I think is really good um that is I I again for me that's like
01:04:44
those are the moments where I feel like I am personally like living up to my
01:04:49
potential you know and and feeling like and and and it is about the other people even at times when it is work related
01:04:57
you know and I and I do think you know uh the connections that you make with
01:05:02
people even when they are creative are are relevant and important you know and
01:05:08
um and so yeah I think those are the things that I like I value is like
01:05:13
personal relationships and and creative ones which I also view as personal you've done you've done so much in the
01:05:20
in the space of writing and um and entertainment you've then embarked in other Pursuits businesses you know Point
01:05:26
gray which success house plant massive success that's in a different industry that's in you know the more
01:05:32
entrepreneurial side of your your passions what is it what is it now for you like what is the the thing what
01:05:38
makes you having achieved all of this fired up and excited about a challenge
01:05:45
um I get excited when I and it's it's a simple metric I think which is any time
01:05:52
we're making a thing that I know I would be psyched if I saw it or got it or saw
01:05:57
it was out in the world I get excited like and and that's kind of it like if
01:06:03
I'm making a movie and I'm like I would love this movie I would see this movie and be like this is [ __ ] great whoever made this movie like [ __ ] they
01:06:10
went for it they did it I'd be jealous I didn't make this movie that's when I know I'm doing something good and it's
01:06:16
the same thing with houseplant if we make a thing and I'm just like this is awesome if I saw this I would want this
01:06:21
if I saw someone else made this I'd be like [ __ ] why didn't we think of that why didn't we make this what were we why
01:06:27
were we not thinking of this you know um that to me and and then when we do it and we're like we did it and we and it
01:06:33
worked as well as you wanted to and it feels how you wanted it to to me that's like it's exciting and because it is a
01:06:40
creative uh expression and and and I think that's what's exciting to any
01:06:45
again I think person with like a creative person suit which I view house plan as and I kind of view everything as
01:06:51
to some degree which is like it's all output that is meant to reflect my taste
01:06:57
and my sensibilities and and those and that of those who are working on it with me you know
01:07:03
um and and that could be a movie it could be a TV show it could be an ashtray it could be it could be any
01:07:09
number of things but but to me when I'm excited about it and and when it works
01:07:14
is when I really think it is the thing that I wanted it to be which is a thing
01:07:19
that I'm excited about and a thing that if I saw it and someone else made it I'd
01:07:24
be like yes that's awesome you know um and that's the same thing since we've
01:07:29
been writing super bad like that's why we wrote super bad we were like let's write our favorite movie let's write the movie that we want to see and no one
01:07:36
else is making and it was the same thing with Pineapple Express this is the end and the boys was a comic book we loved
01:07:42
we were like let's make this no one else is gonna [ __ ] let's make this into something you know um it's the same thing with everything that we've done
01:07:48
for the most part which is like let's make the thing we want more than anything why not make the thing that you
01:07:53
think other people want and because who the [ __ ] knows what other people want
01:07:59
and I think luckily that's a thing we've been lucky with is
01:08:05
like either our taste in the public taste has coincided or or the public has
01:08:10
been willing to take cues from our taste and and and and and and bite to to what
01:08:16
we're putting out there you know what I mean um which is which is just uh an
01:08:22
almost intangible skill I think to some degree which is just making things that
01:08:28
connect with people in a big way and that's not even what every creative person is trying to do you know what I
01:08:34
mean I know plenty of filmmakers I some of my favorite movies are movies that
01:08:39
are not trying to connect with giant audiences you know what I mean but those
01:08:44
are the movies we grew up loving and to us that's a fun challenge is like how do
01:08:49
we put everything that we think is like risky and subversive and difficult about
01:08:57
this idea into something and then have it connect and then have everyone go crazy for it and have everyone be like
01:09:03
yes like I can't wait to see that you know um and that that's just our taste you know what I
01:09:10
mean is we like to we're thinking of like a packed theater Friday night and
01:09:16
just wanting people to like go Bonkers you know and like that's not everyone's goal you know and so that that that's a
01:09:24
big part of it too is like what kind of audience are you are you hoping to have you know when people you know study
01:09:31
people like you they're always looking for like the the themes like what's the three things he does that it would like
01:09:36
they're trying to find like the secrets and whatever else they do that what's his morning routine whatever else um your creative process what is from
01:09:43
your own observation the most unusual part of it the part that you go no one else seems to do it this way but [ __ ] it
01:09:51
I I tend to be able to work on a not everyone and I work with a lot I'm
01:09:57
lucky also because I get to work with a lot of like literally like the most brilliant people in the world who do
01:10:03
what I do so I have a very front row seat to like an incredibly high level of
01:10:09
performance you know um on a writing standpoint acting standpoint directing standpoint
01:10:16
all these things I'm getting to see like truly the best versions of it you know
01:10:22
um but I think you know for me I I am I am good at
01:10:29
Switching gears and compartmentalizing I find some writers maybe would think that is strange and and the idea of like
01:10:35
writing two things it two different things in one day would be strange to
01:10:40
some writers the idea of like okay I'm gonna write one TV show in the morning and then a movie in the afternoon I
01:10:47
think that but again to me it's very intuitive some writers find Switching gears creatively especially midday
01:10:52
difficult I I can work on five different things throughout the day and whenever
01:10:58
I'm working on whatever thing it is I'm pretty able to like fully engage on that
01:11:04
thing um I I physically write more than I think
01:11:11
most people would depend no with on a keyboard but like I find a lot of
01:11:16
writers want to talk about like to me I'm like just write it let's just write it let's just see how it looks let's
01:11:22
just try it just write it down like and I think a lot of people are precious with writing and a lot of people
01:11:28
you know it's like a big they kind of like they try to like it's very like sanctimonious or something like that you
01:11:35
know but I I try to like really just write different versions of things share
01:11:40
I share a lot of early versions of things with like a group of people that I trust I'm sending rough versions of
01:11:46
things to people I'll rewrite it instantly I'll do a hundred drafts or something you know um I'm really not
01:11:53
precious with that you know but but I don't know I mean I I don't know if like
01:11:58
yeah I don't know what other I don't know people expect I I'm I'm more Curious than other people's creative processes honestly like it's so
01:12:04
ingrained in who I am yeah I've been doing it since I was so young like it's it it's truly like a part of like my
01:12:11
brain chemistry is and my development was is built around you know writing and
01:12:18
and Writing Movies specifically so like my my personality I think in some ways is is is is engineered around writing
01:12:28
and and and making movies in some ways because I've been doing it since I was so young so I really think it's like
01:12:33
it's become a very fluid part of who I am and it doesn't feel like often I'm like sitting down to work it's like it's
01:12:40
just kind of a fluid part of my day I do also have like I'm very I get a schedule
01:12:45
sent to me by my assistant at the end of every night it tells me what I'm doing the next day
01:12:51
pretty much just do what's on the schedule she sends you an email right yeah and it will say 10 p.m do this Seth
01:12:57
yeah it'll be like 10 a.m to 2 A.M but and they'll be like giant free blocks of time in there where I will write usually
01:13:03
or me and my partner will organize our own we'll we'll organize our own writing time amidst that but uh yeah I mean I'm
01:13:09
pretty regimented from a schedule standby which does surprise people because people will encounter me and be like
01:13:15
let's get together like sometime this week and I'm always like like I'm like scheduled like like a month out pretty
01:13:23
rigorously throughout the days but if I asked you what your schedule was next week would you have no [ __ ] clue
01:13:28
I know my schedule is Monday I've also yeah like I'm not I'm good at I I like
01:13:34
dealing what's right in front of me honestly as well like I I I can't begin to process what's happening next week
01:13:40
like I I truly that's too much for me like I I know like the big things like the
01:13:46
benchmarks you know what I mean but if you're leaving the country yeah if there's some big thing I have to do but like in general I have no idea what's
01:13:52
happening the week before a bit of a left filled one but have you
01:13:57
um observed a a point in your your trajectory where you become somewhat so successful or
01:14:04
somewhat you know so famous that happiness begins to decline no
01:14:13
it was never like being famous was never like a goal for me you know what I mean and so I don't
01:14:21
have like this this complicated thing where I was like I was trying to become famous and then I
01:14:26
got famous and I realized being famous sucks I always stop being famous kind of would suck a little bit and so the idea
01:14:33
that it is you know it's great in a lot of ways and it and it does suck in some
01:14:38
ways but that's not honestly a thing that I have a very conflicted relationship with I've also been pretty
01:14:43
famous since I was like 23 years old and again like like it's been a you know it's been a very long time since I got
01:14:49
pretty famous so I've had a lot of different relationships with it throughout that time uh you know almost
01:14:56
20 years I guess and where I've been at for quite some time has been a pretty
01:15:01
good place and I have a lot of famous friends I see them have much rockier roads dealing with it than I do
01:15:09
you know um yeah and as far as success goes like no like if anything it's like great like
01:15:16
we I get to work with the best you know the filmmakers that inspired me to make movies in the first
01:15:22
place I get to you know make you know I they they bring us Ninja I get to make a
01:15:28
movie out of a thing I've loved since I was a kid we just sold a show to Apple that I'm writing and directing and
01:15:34
starring in with um with my partner so we can come up with original ideas and do whatever the [ __ ] we want you know
01:15:40
and so uh what's the cost there's no cost I don't have kids
01:15:48
I think that I was not being a good father that would suck I do not have that feeling at all
01:15:55
we have a we have a closing tradition on this podcast where the last guest leaves a question for the next guest okay great
01:16:01
not knowing who they're leaving it for we have a new tradition on this podcast which I'll talk to you about great the the question left for you yeah okay the
01:16:08
handwriting is not the best um who left it I can't tell you okay
01:16:13
looking back on your love life okay can you see patterns in it good or bad and
01:16:20
what was the greatest love of your life what did it feel like and how has it
01:16:25
affected you up until this present moment I guess this is a good time to slide that to you there you go Lauren
01:16:30
yeah I mean I I made a whole movie about how I was not well liked in high school by women and
01:16:37
yeah I was never uh no Lauren my wife was the first serious relationship I ever had uh I
01:16:45
felt deeply in love with her very fast we essentially moved in together after like a week and almost have not spent
01:16:51
any like significant time apart since then you know um we've never broken up we've never had
01:16:57
any serious issue throughout the entire uh time we've been together which has been like 17 years or something like
01:17:04
that um and if anything she is like really
01:17:10
helped me do better work she's been a real supporter and also she herself is a
01:17:16
brilliant writer and director and filmmaker and she's been you know a very
01:17:22
at times kind of direct voice in in improving our work I
01:17:28
think the most tangible thing is the movie Neighbors which we've talked about in the past which is our most successful
01:17:33
movie we've made and and one of the things people really liked about it specifically was the relationship
01:17:38
between me and and Rose Byrne's character and how we are a couple you know traditionally in comedy for years
01:17:45
and my entire childhood pretty much it's like the comedic Dynamic of a married couple was they hated each other that
01:17:52
was the joke they [ __ ] hated each other they they got on each other's nerves they didn't like spending time
01:17:57
together the woman was usually annoying the guy was usually cool and laid back that was it that was the comedic Dynamic
01:18:05
that essentially was like frozen into movie you know forever and and Lauren
01:18:12
was the one who was like What if it's like us and they [ __ ] like each other and they both like to smoke weed and
01:18:19
they both do stupid things and they both go out and party and I'm not telling you ever to not do something [ __ ] stupid
01:18:25
if anything I'm doing stupid things too and we put that in the movie and it
01:18:30
completely changed the dynamic and I honestly think it's like one of the reasons the movie became so like liked and and successful and and so that's
01:18:38
like a specific example and there's there's many like what's life like without her though
01:18:44
um thank God there's not a whole lot of life without her we hang out a lot uh and I I don't really leave LA to make
01:18:51
movies anymore honestly part of the reason is I just like spending time with her and and I don't like leaving Los
01:18:57
Angeles as a result of it I used to travel much more to make movies and shoot movies in other cities and it
01:19:03
sucked and I would go weeks we'd go weeks without seeing each other and and ultimately you're just like this isn't
01:19:09
worth it like this is my life like this is like like I'm not like saving up to
01:19:14
cash in on something later like I'm I'm living my life not being surrounded by the people I want to be surrounded by so
01:19:21
I can go make a movie and like that that that at times might be worth it but I've done
01:19:29
everything I can to not have that happen and if you're willing to make a little less money you can more often than not
01:19:37
shoot a movie in Los Angeles it's funny when I asked you what makes life great and what makes life more
01:19:43
human everything every answer you gave came with the second part of the sentence which was with friends with the
01:19:49
person I love with everyone every answer was with people and so it's it's quite I think inspiring and important to hear
01:19:56
that um you're orientating your life now that you can so that it's surrounded by people yeah I think it's always how I
01:20:04
came up thank God and like I you know my parents had a lot of friends they always had people living with us in
01:20:10
our house that were divorced or talented like it was I was was in like I felt like I was in like a community and then
01:20:15
I moved to LA and I like fell in with the community and I had my friend Evan and he moved in and we kind of made a
01:20:21
little community and like comedy especially feat is like a is more of a team sport
01:20:27
than other I think creative Pursuits um and it's it's funny like I remember
01:20:34
years ago being at like that Vanity Fair Oscar party and it's like
01:20:39
you know big crazy party everyone in Hollywood's there and there's like one corner of the party where every comedian
01:20:45
is and they're like all together in one little lump and like and and it was like
01:20:51
and it was so funny and I was just like no other genres like that like they're not it's like all the serious actors are
01:20:56
together they're they're all spread out they're all talking to people but if you were a comedian you were in this one
01:21:01
little like Circle where you kind of felt safe you kind of felt insulated you kind of felt like you were with your
01:21:07
people and that that Community as far as work goes and I'm friends with like
01:21:13
everyone I work with which is like great like the guys I do sausage party with I grew up with them the guy you know like
01:21:19
the the the it like goes on and on and on and on like I I I I tend to work with people
01:21:25
that I've known a really long time and so when I'm working I'm getting to be with people that I that I genuinely care
01:21:33
about and I'm friends with you what a privilege yeah you're the first person to open this box great the first person
01:21:38
to ever open this box this is a new tradition we're starting from here on now it's exciting all the guests that have been on this podcast all the
01:21:44
questions they've written in this book they're on cards now they're on cards now fantastic yeah
01:21:50
you got swag called The Diary of SEO conversation
01:21:55
cards you're going to be you're going to be I've put 20 of them there's 60 of them in total 60 or 100 of them in total I've put 20 of them in here all I'm
01:22:01
going to ask you to do is to pick one at random yeah and then answer the question okay I'm gonna do it
01:22:11
okay it's got a QR code [Laughter]
01:22:18
hey it's got their handwriting what is the greatest gift another human
01:22:23
has given you [Laughter]
01:22:31
also I got paid a lot of money to make green hornets so that was no it was love though it's for sure love
01:22:38
[Laughter] thank you Seth the hardback version of your the paperback version of your book
01:22:43
is is now out it's out and it's phenomenal thank you hilarious
01:22:48
I mostly didn't want to humiliate myself that was Michael I was talking to another friend of mine who's writing a book the other day uh and I was just
01:22:56
like my whole goal was to for the book to come out and they're into the general consensus to be that I'm not a [ __ ]
01:23:03
idiot which I did I feel I feel very secure with that thank you thank you
01:23:09
[Music] it's now been a healed Drinker for about four years roughly so much so that I
01:23:16
ended up investing in the company um and I play a role on the board of the company but they also very kindly sponsored this podcast and to be honest
01:23:22
I've never said this before but he all believed in this podcast before anybody else the CEO Julian um told me before we even launched the
01:23:29
podcast how successful it would be and that heal would back it and I absolutely have a huge amount of gratitude for them for that support but an even greater
01:23:36
sense of gratitude for the fact that they've helped me stay nutritionally complete throughout the chaos and hecticness of my tremendously busy
01:23:43
business schedule so if you haven't tried out here which I hope most of you have at least given it a go by now try
01:23:48
it out it's an unbelievable way to try and stay nutritionally on course if you have a hectic busy schedule and let me
01:23:54
know what you think send me a tweet and a DM tag me let me know what you think quick word from one of our sponsors I have to say I've been on a bit of a
01:24:01
journey with this brand because when I started my business in new territories when we first moved social chain to the
01:24:06
to New York City the first place we went to was we rework we moved four of our team members out to New York City and we
01:24:13
built the business from there um I have to say there's something magical about weworks I've spent the
01:24:18
last two or three weeks in LA in a wee work and as you walk in the front door every day it's almost like that sense of
01:24:24
community that sense of magic excitement camaraderie is tangible and you don't
01:24:30
get that when you're working at home you don't get that often when you're sat in your bed on your laptop there's something about getting out and getting
01:24:36
into a wee work that makes me feel a sense of Entrepreneurship and and creativity and building and the way that
01:24:43
we work to design both both in the way that they offer subscriptions so that you can work you know on demand but also
01:24:49
that the flexibility of the contracts means that it's just the perfect place for businesses to scale their companies
01:24:55
and if you haven't checked out where you work and you want to you can go to we.co CEO and there you can get 50 off
01:25:03
at trial Day At wework Close to You
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oh [Music]
