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Griffin Dunn is our guest today um he's been part of a Americana for many many decades actually his first giant movie Was An American Werewolf in London that
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is a classic film giant such a cool movie yeah and um he did a lot of great movies he's out with the Memoir now um his father Dominic Dunn famously would
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covered the OJ trial he's had quite a journey in life he'll talk about his deep deep childhood friendship going
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into adulthood with Carrie fiser and we'll go over his how he writes and creativity and and just life as a
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celebrity and he's a he's a jack of all traits he writes produces direct writes produces I feel like I'm reading that writes produces directs and um acts so
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and he's a delightful person just incredibly real super likable light on his feet a lot of fun uh I I got turned
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on him when I saw after hours I'd seen American werewolf but after hours was such a cool movie by
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what is it scors Mar scors so that's yeah that's a big deal so uh I think you're going to have a good time with him we we we did here he is Griffin
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[Music] done hello hello hello come in Earth to Griffin come in I'm here oh my God we do this for a living see all this great light I'm
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look at this [ __ ] you really thought this through thank you for noticing that look at me I'm told this isn't being filmed so I this is I got the hair thing going on oh no we know I don't
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like it when you you agree to go on a podcast they go we're gonna we're gonna do a little shooting actually I'm taking
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my hat off too if you're gonna you're brave enough to look like that I'm gonna take my hat off okay your energy and
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Vibe reminds me of David doovy really already yes because there's something about oh I'm also a SE I do I'm a medium but uh also just looking at all your
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stuff I don't know you guys are both sort of smart but you don't wear it on your sleeve well thank you for that
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because I you know he's a fairly recent uh friend I don't know if you notice he he gave a beautiful blur for me on the book um oh he one of my very earliest
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readers because he's a um he's an incredibly if he was never an actor yeah he would have been a great novelist independently of that his novels are so good um really yeah like a seriously
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good writer he didn't need this acting [ __ ] at all well acting kind sucks doesn't it he's got more energy Dana this guy Griffin has more energy than the company I
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um I don't know you know I'm trying to think of a trifecta because I was think of the Texas Trifecta MCC he
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Woody and uh Owen Wilson so if there's a a third part to this but acting sucks we
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know that we had John Corbett on the podcast Sex in the City guy and at the end the end he just goes and he's incredibly nice guy very very interesting funny but he said I I made
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the wrong career choice because I hate being told what to do yeah you know but you you direct too though so I do I do
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but just going back to one more of a of do we like to go everywhere yeah is the the
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one that every time I look at this guy I go he's he's not doing me but I'm doing
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him or he's doing me but I feel and the same thing as uh Steve Carell I was thinking that before you said I feel it every time and you know I stopped acting
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for a while then we'll get back to how shitty it is and but I stopped acting for a while and then I kind of went and
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took a check off Workshop by this so pretentious Russian guy out of the Russian acting intitute perfect who didn't speak a word of English and uh
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you had a translator and I did Uncle van and I went oh my God I got to get back in acting at this age that I'm at now I'm tragic and funny tragic and funny
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I'm just born for check off and now Steve Carell's doing Uncle B oh wow but also with the office and the whole thing anyway I've always had a a some sort of no no he would have done a
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after hours potentially and he would have been great in it not as good as you no he's a good friend [ __ ] after hours I think I smell a Golden Globe
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nomination that was for you for after hours oh yes I did I get I did get nominated yeah that's when the Golden
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Globes was nine people from Europe you know who it was it was like it was after the um the the Pia Zadora um oh
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thing they gave her an award they for winning and it was clearly kind of bought by by monum Gob so when I went it was so unhip and my Fellowes were like
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Jack Nicholson and one incredible person after another and no one showed except me and Jeff Daniels with at another table and we're the only nominees in our category we're going the hell are we
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doing here and I a table with just Warner Brother secretaries who they were given they're so thrilled to be at the Golden Gloves right and um but it was considered a
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really tacky thing and when they were announcing the um the nominees the camera guy you know they stick the camera so you see your face filled with anticipation hoping you'll
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get it or pretending you don't care um the the cameraman I'm looking at the monitor while they're doing it the cameraman is filming a guy who looks kind of like me griffing gun and the guy
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is so excited to be on camera he starts waving going hi like hi Mom and the camera was right next to me and I just gave him a little kick and if you watch it you can see it on YouTube the camera
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just goes to the right as the guy falls down so a guy gets your Dopp linger gets
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knocked over yeah and then did you have a speech prepared was did anyone watch it then it was 85 watch it was on like
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you know channel nine yeah yeah it was on ear out of WN Maka Channel n and winoka W I think padora I've only heard in Dennis Miller references that's about it
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but I did she did have that whole hubub well you know she's actually a very sweet person I met her but you know
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when she also on Broadway bad they had a um when she was on Broadway which was also kind of a paid for a production a bit you know by I love it um on opening
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night it was it was going so horribly she was playing Anne Frank and Di of Anne Frank and at the very end when the
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Nazis break into the apartment someone yells from the audience she's in the attic and the whole place falls apart oh I have a hot take for Griffin
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on theater you this is a new story just after this weekend and I know he has a lot of thoughts so oh Heather's GNA laugh The Lion King on Broadway
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Dana yes you've heard of this play it's a play Griffin it's a musical we call it I
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vaguely heard of it Nathan Lane voiced in the movie they have the auditions for what's the person Simba after all the singers come in all
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the kids and all the super talents and them who who gets the part Kim Kardashian's daughter is she our padora she she she
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she Simba yeah she is 10 years old maybe she played it she sang it and uh she got a standing Hollywood Hollywood Bowl this weekend I guess wow
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and there was a little bit of hubub going wait I don't remember heard at the auditions and everyone's like well my
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attitude toward that is no one ever asks to be born from a wealthy family or no one ever asked to have a famous dad so I'm instantly rooting for her and I'm
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hoping that she was great because she didn't ask for this she's just a kid she's 10 and she's in no no one's going
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after the kid it's more like the situation where is that detrimental for the kid to cut her in front it sort of
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child abuse um I'm gonna go to Griffin I'm gonna go to Griffin I'm cheating this more like I'm David
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suus let got to be a certain go around Robin yeah we go I'm going to Griffin to weigh in who if our listeners don't know grew up in a very asymmetrical household
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with with massive Hollywood parties and celebrity and all that so you might have something to say m Mr Dunn if you will I
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I yes if you don't mind calling me that um I I actually you know this whole you know we and we're constantly inventing
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new words to uh uh degrade people and the latest one is Neo babies yeah and I my feeling about that is I I don't think it should be an automatic thing um but
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but if we denied uh you know people who were uh just because they were related um to to someone I mean we wouldn't have Robert Downey Jr you know we wouldn't have the
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the bridges um uh you know we we'd lose out many Michael Douglas Michael Douglas
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yeah it only gets you so far it gets you maybe in the room um and you know my uh
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uh and it's also a brutal business you know when I yeah when I thought decided to become an actor I was in my late
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teens and my father who had been a uh successful film producer or a successful television producer a moderately successful film producer but then had sort of his ex
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imploded in his life by the time I entered and I watched the the the the uh the business the powerful agents in the
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studios cut him dead so he he really couldn't as much as he wanted to help me um he didn't I he couldn't you know it was more detrimental at that point almost wait a minute you're saying
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Hollywood agents and managers when the money dried up were not still loyal friends is this what you're suggesting
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don't say that you know it's shocking but they did not uh they did not stick by him they did not lend him money they did not offer him um lots of opportunities was it only because he was
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doing less as careers go all of ours it slows down at a certain point so they just kind of faded out yeah he he sort
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of um um do anything wrong actually he he was like um he he he he got sober years later but but he was really funny and um but when he and and he
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would when he would get high or stoned or something he'd be really funny but might say something that would be really
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scandalous that would find himself in a gossip column and then get in trouble and be pulled off a movie um well that happened I'm sure none of us can relate
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to that um and yeah but he um you know he he he just sort of imploded in his in his career um and then got it back and
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reinvented himself as a writer later on once he got sober and um but it was uh but you know back to the you know the The Inheritance thing uh you know and uh nepotism and
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everything it's it's it only gets you so far um and the rest is yours to screw up
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you know right it's good and bad I guess it's yeah I mean one well there's ways to go now I don't know show business is very different I'm gonna make a bold statement but you know I would like
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someone gave him a hip-hop manager hip-hop producer if they can dance a little bit and you know I mean there's
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ways to manufacture it now yeah right when we grew up it was different but um just so people know your story like so your dad was became Infamous and me for
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many reasons and your book I'm I'm just curious you must cover all this right in your book I'm just bringing it up the
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Friday afternoon Club coming out June 11th you better and you have quite a story I mean I saw last night my wife
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and I watched one of year documentaries thought it was brilliant Jane Joan didon
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documentary fascinating and you directed that right that's your aunt I didn't te she was my aunt yeah so you're in an
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ecosystem of a lot of talented people yeah and uh you fit in well angled web thank you um uh yes I my my aunt and uncle uh when I was growing up um were
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were well-known writers my uncle was John Gregory dun um and then uh when my father sort of reinvented himself um he became what he always wanted to be was a writer and then he became a crime
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journalist for uh Vanity Fair covered the biggest trials OJ oh yeah the Menendez PR um Phil and and he was you know a real
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strong presence in in the courtroom and a and a courtroom pundit on on uh oh yeah and Vanity Fair all those articles can I ask you a question about that like because people a lot of people would say
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I want to write you know so I'm just curious what age was your dad when he you know he kind of went off the radar he he drove through Oregon it ended up in a cabin I mean it's really down and
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out and then he started to send letters to you that were in New York 10 20 30 pages long and you tell that he was practicing what was his writer so how
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old was he when he he wrote that his first book he he was if 50 51 52 like you know um yeah he he was not published until he was about 51 I
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think and that was in Vanity Fair and that was that was writing about um starting pretty high yeah well he was he he he came back to to New
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York um really just started over you know he was a a a a guy who went through a lot of money and and started in New York you know in in the 80s coming back
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to New York in really humble sort of circumstances and much small a smaller apartment than my first apartment in New York um and but when he really found his
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voice was uh you know tragically when um you know his daughter my my sister was murdered and he wrote about it Tina before he left for the trial before we
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all left for the trial um he met Tina Brown who was just starting at Vanity Fair to take over and she said um he was
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explaining how how scared he was and and and um intimidated he was by the judicial system he'd never been in a courtroom um certainly in these circumstances and she said
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keep a diary you know a family's perspective of their first time their abrupt um Awakening of of the judicial
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system you know as interesting yeah yeah she said keep a diary and he did and he
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wrote this his very first published piece in his 50s was uh in Vanity Fair and it was about what our family went through during the trial and it was U
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it's it's a landmark piece in in terms of victim's rights and and uh in court procedure and in the in in Injustice is an example of of courtroom Injustice so
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um from then on he he found his voice and he um became the Vanity Fair crime correspondent uh covering these trials always with the victims in mind he
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always thought of Nicole and the Brown family or right Lana Clarkson who was killed by Phil Spectre always had that
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perspective and David and I could relate to what but I think you go into probably
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in the book that the emotional impetus was he was had a rough time with his dad uh or or just the sense of being bullied and David and I both experienced that uh
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me specifically David maybe he's a little more his nickname is Silver Spoon no but we both uh root root for people
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fighting the bully and you can tell that it was viseral with your dad he did not
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hated bull so that's why I loved him I love reading because he just hated the bullies he really did he really did he you know when he you know when you're when you are bullied and you're a child
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you grow up with a lot of fear around you you grow up you know constantly nervous and you know when he when he
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found his voice he became fearless and just fought back at all those people all those people who had the money who had
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the power Who had who who were always keeping him down um and it was an incredible transformation to [Music]
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see what what a what a story what happened to your sister and and how your dad kept the diary and how the as a family being there that is that is
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beyond anything I could imagine because courtrooms I've been in them they're weird they're strange cold people say crazy [ __ ] on that stand you know their
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line and I didn't even know paid Liars everything comes out about your family and you don't want it you don't see that coming half the stuff probably yeah no they they they they try to
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destroy the person that uh the the one that was that was killed or or raped or whatever the they yeah they Tred to destroy the reputation of the very person that blame the victim like with
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me I had a a bypass they bypassed the wrong artery uh fine but it happens but they tried to say it was my fault because I had crazy anatomy in there that was their only defense that's
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something yeah yeah and so they blame the victim but anyway you know what was what was particularly sural for me
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though during the trial was in Santa Monica and I was my whole family we went every every day to represent uh our um uh Dominique my my sister
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on the days that I was not in trial I was shooting a ridiculously funny comedy called Johnny dangerously with micheel Keaton saw it Mike Katon
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and and who became a great great friend of mine and uh and I would go and I was playing Tommy um Tommy Doyle fighting da
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and trying to catch the criminal and I was like a Mickey Rooney character you know oh really
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and like hyperactive hyperactive and and then um and it was an incredible release
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to be able to which my family did not have to be able to put that aside and then just go and just be hilariously funny the funniest people on Earth and
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who didn't or at least they didn't pop my concentration by asking me where I spent my days off from the movie and oh
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great and I was just I had it's it's absurd almost sinful to say but I had so much fun making this movie and it just was such a release and then I go yeah
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from such a bummer the extreme opposite just walk into a courtroom and just schizophrenic I go from 20th Century Fox
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to Santa mon courtroom and you know do this back and forth um and such a i because I watched the trailer again and I did see the movie and loved it I loved what are you doing come on get out of here I know and it was it was really
00:20:55
balls out silly it was really really funny almost like air plan or something yeah so I totally relate to you know
00:21:03
compartmentalization just sort of happens intuitively you get your get up on in the movie you could be kind of sad
00:21:10
in the trailer and say you get out there and then you see Joe Piscopo or Michael Keaton there's your lines and you're
00:21:15
doing ridiculous stuff I mean that is the dichotomy of those two things is hysterical yeah bizarre yeah and I was
00:21:22
very very grateful and very lucky to have had that you know Michael Keaton is a blast too he's super cool greatest the
00:21:28
greatest he's probably yeah he was he was where you are he was where you are he was in a box
00:21:34
on the zoom we were a month ago uh yeah he's about yeah I could see how you and him would just be could talk for hours without even missing telling stories
00:21:46
comment yeah no no we hit it off like right away and uh you know that was over 40 years ago and um you know he's been uh we've been really close friends ever since he's funny as hell yeah just funny
00:21:59
and just and you're the same way just no pretense I mean guy no sense of any awareness of that he's Michael Keaton at all so I was gonna ask you uh just
00:22:11
pivoting around here yeah like because I wanted to say to Michael Keaton what I thought his superpower was was that he's
00:22:18
just really really good thinking on camera MH he's great at thinking um and we told him how the founder was his sleeper movie but for you I was just going to ask you because you got in
00:22:31
American warwolf in London which I think is I think it's a classic horror comedy film sure and you're in massive
00:22:40
Prosthetics was that the first time because I love looking in the mirror and it doesn't look like me but that was was that your first time yeah really was
00:22:47
that was that was uh baptized by fire um Rick Baker Rick Baker the genius Rick Baker he uh you know when I never read for the movie I'd never done in a movie that started the movie uh maybe small
00:23:00
part here and there but Landis didn't even uh the director John Landis didn't even audition me he just we talked for
00:23:07
about 10 minutes I done nothing and he gave all he asked Landis who was probably still he was huge at that point he the Animal House the number one movie oh my God so he talked to you in what
00:23:20
way like he came to his office well if you know Landis he did all the Talking I don't remember saying a thing and uh
00:23:29
all he did was asked me are you a claustrophobic I said no I would have said yes I would have said no even if it was yes um so I figured it was a guy trapped
00:23:41
in an elevator he wouldn't tell me what the movie was about um and he gives me the part and he says you're going to Los
00:23:47
Angeles for for makeup oh the I read the script thought it was amazing he sent a
00:23:53
guide to my apartment made him stand in the hallway and made me hand the script back and and uh nine hours later yeah
00:24:01
yeah I'm slow reader wait guy up and uh but anyway I went to LA and then uh for a makeup test and they put um my head in plaster
00:24:16
with two terrifying and that's what he meant about the claustrophobia yeah is terrifying and you don't and your entire
00:24:24
life depends on these two straws and I know did you did you did you give a signal you just were give me a safe sign I think they left the room and had lunch um because
00:24:37
it's terrible I've had it and I've had panex yeah but I but I held it but I was I was and then what happened was is that they get it on your head for people don't know and they it keep going then
00:24:50
you can't hear yeah it goes you can't see then it's shut in your mouth and there's just these two little straws if
00:24:56
someone Clos those off you're lights out did they out you know yes yes and they're working on you and they're kind of frantically working on you and what you hear inside the thing
00:25:11
is so I thought they were panicked yeah so then they redid it and I said guys just talk softly like let's do this here so right go ahead so you do that then he puts on then then they start to apply it
00:25:25
and Rick and each new layer yeah it gets darker and dark don't want to look like a [ __ ] in front of Rick you do not and I eventually did because when I look at
00:25:41
that Wiggly Vein on my neck and he's painting it and I looked at my face torn in half oh Claude so CLA but it was the first transformation and the first
00:25:54
application and when I saw that um you know some people love Halloween and you know they love around with their head cut off and hatchets in their head and everything I I never quite had that
00:26:05
about the relationship to Halloween um most people would have loved this but I I was I was kind of freaked out by it I was like wow this is what I'm would look
00:26:18
like if I died violently really scary scary yeah you know my mother has always had health problems and and has had M&S and I thought this is going to really upset her and so
00:26:32
you know of course people once we were shooting they wanted to take me into pubs and give people heart attacks and
00:26:38
right I just wasn't into it I was I was there I was I don't know um but part of it I mean the scene that I was looking at yesterday is like you're in all this thing and you look like a I don't
00:26:49
werewolf zombie man it's incredibly intense it's it's not funny makeup it's not comedic at all but you're you're talking very real and casual and I think
00:27:00
that that's probably what Landis picked up from you that you could be a real regular person you wouldn't you're not
00:27:07
theatrical if you don't want to be you're just notas he wanted he wanted that the
00:27:13
Rhythm the way I talk or something the Casual looking that crazy and then like you know you got you're gonna have to
00:27:18
you're gonna be a werewolf in 24 hours exactly right I think and the the transition that is still chilling I
00:27:25
think it was James notton David David David and he turns into one and i' never seen anything like that in the movie Just the muscle the the stretching and the sound I know all natural no CGI that
00:27:39
took you know David was you know prone you're on all fours or you know for like a yeah um oh really they applied Hair by hair you know all over sick you know uh
00:27:52
in a related story it's not related at all um but I had to get that that stuff on my face for a life mask and um day and I did the same thing and they put it and the guy goes some people really
00:28:05
panic I go well not me because I'm like obviously super tough and then they get closer and they go now we go to the ears
00:28:11
and they kept telling me are you okay so far I go yeah yeah let's just get it over and they go well some people it
00:28:17
makes them panic and they literally like slowly put it like over my mouth and I go take it off take it off immediate
00:28:22
Panic immediate like they just told me and I was all prepped for it I couldn't even believe how fast my body changed
00:28:29
and my brain just said I can't handle this and then I had someone get me a valuee from the car of course in the car
00:28:36
and then I took it right there and I was like I hope this takes effect within seconds because I couldn't believe how
00:28:43
how scared I was and how I had to get out of that thing it reminds us of that Jeff Daniels debacle on SNL but it
00:28:50
that's a scary the Jeff Daniels I don't I don't what happened he he got a a would you know better David I think you were there he had a life mask put on but they used the wrong they Ed real plaster
00:29:01
I think they used real plaster instead of whatever they used for us and they had to get the paramedics in there to
00:29:07
get it off was this was this years ago or or or0 SNL early 90s yeah relax 90s Dana Jesus yeah he it was when I was there and uh you I miss your show
00:29:21
Griffin by a little bit Dana missed it barely and uh Daniels was about 93 94 and he said they saidd do not he goes I he wrote down I feel sick and they go
00:29:34
don't throw up or you'll die because you know if you throw up in your mouth it there's nowhere to go no there's nowhere
00:29:39
you're you're you're Jimmy Hendricks so they couldn't get it off for hours um anyway I'm not gonna so I've got two
00:29:46
that I want to well one is I read the excerpt from your book which uh I I'll just say it I could tell you you really
00:29:53
are a great writer I know you've written screenplays and stuff but now you have a memoir
00:29:58
um and the excerpt that they released the pr people was all about you and Carrie fiser which was hysterical I
00:30:06
don't know if you want to just pre preview that a little bit sing such anes we met when she was 15 I was 16 um and and we lived some blocks away
00:30:20
from each other and we just became immediate best friends and just you know we talk to each other in s breaking into silly musicals whenever we'd have
00:30:33
conversations and uh you know when I moved to New York to be an actor well she she also introduced me to
00:30:41
um uh u a girl I don't think this is in the exert but she introduced me to a girl that um uh I eloped at the age of 17 to Tiana and married um and she just wanted
00:30:54
stories out of me um and then I went to New York and we became roommates in New York and we lived in U interesting we well we we I I
00:31:08
my my Narrative of being in New York was to be a starving uh struggling New York actor
00:31:15
who lived in the East Village that was what I was doing then Carrie came to New York to be in a um in the chorus of a
00:31:22
musical that her mother debie Reynolds was in and I would always go backstage and you know I knew all the stage hands
00:31:29
while the show was going on and the lyrics to every all the songs and one day one night Debbie said I I need you
00:31:37
to Carrie wants to live in New York but I won't she I won't let her live alone I we had found an apartment for the two of you it's in a building called the days artist which is a very fancy on
00:31:50
the upper west side oh and I go no I'm a village guy I was born to be in a village can't do that and uh
00:31:58
and but they they were maid's rooms in the days AR and they weren't the the big Loft windows that that it was famous for and we lived in that um
00:32:11
apartment and uh we just had a ball I was I was a waiter at beef steak Charlie I was a popcorn concessionaire at Radio City Music Hall where you know I would feed the camels
00:32:23
with popcorn with during the Nativity shows and and walk on to the set of walk on go to Studio 8 there were tunnels that would lead there I watched Saturday
00:32:34
Night Live rehearse yeah I'd wander onto the the set of NBC Nightly News um and it was just like a great job uh but then Carrie got a job and actually acting
00:32:48
which is what I was hoping to do um acting in a movie and she was going to have to go to London for months at a time and I said said what movie and she said well it's it's got a really stupid
00:33:01
title but um and it's not a very good script you would hate it you would have turned it down I
00:33:07
went because it's called Star Wars I said is that pass who words one word what what star war w no it's star and then Wars and it's you know it well I
00:33:23
said what who who's in it because Mark somebody who's yes he's your age but I again you would have turned it down and Harrison Ford who you wouldn't know and I did know
00:33:35
Harrison because when he was a carpenter he built my aunt and uncle's deck in Malibu and I would share joints
00:33:44
with him and try to help him build the deck but I was too stoned to really be of anything so Han Solo would get
00:33:50
blasted and try to put a bookshelf together that's but he could do it I couldn't even I didn't know difference
00:33:57
between you know measuring tape and a hammer and uh anyway she goes off everyone call me while she's doing this movie in the middle you know she'd be as
00:34:09
she was getting up to work I was I was dead asleep and I go how's it going and she would
00:34:16
just go on I wear Bagels on my head on my ears I I um by a big monkey there's some you know little person in a trash who follow
00:34:31
R22 and we have ray guns that don't even have triggers um this movie is going to
00:34:37
be such a flop and um so when she came back um there was a screening at the zek Feld and there had never been any you know uh test screenings or anything for
00:34:52
this movie so but somehow people seem to know about this movie and you know science fiction people like came from other planets to come to see
00:35:06
this thing and from the moment it started with that crawl yeah we knew you know movies will never be the same um yeah and and you know what I deal with in the book too is that that point that
00:35:19
happens in in uh in many friendships of people in this business where one person
00:35:24
just hits it so big time and I'm still a waiter at Beef St Charlie you know were
00:35:31
you guys buddy buddy or were you dating or what oh no no no we always platonic although you know go ahead never mind
00:35:38
continue There was a accidental um okay it's more like it yeah um it was you know just a brief um a brief period um
00:35:49
she just needed some help in a particular area you're and um [Music] you're a waiter at be steak Charlie and she's blowing up
00:36:07
globally phenomenon and then you know when you when you see someone when that happen suddenly the phones just never stop ringing and the the the the the
00:36:18
quality of friends become more and more famous and you know I would come back from beef steak Charlie's with you know wearing a little apron with my tip Ste on you i' go into my into my bedroom and
00:36:31
there would be you know James Taylor Who's breaking up with Carly Simon crying and all these you know the Eagles
00:36:38
and all the people I'm taking out my quarters my quarters um Glenn Fry can you give me
00:36:44
five if I give you a 100 quarters but it's it was it was a you know we had to adjust to that and then she does Blues Brothers we won't talk about her but you know what
00:36:57
blasts what a fun but then you had such a friendship that yeah I'm assuming it didn't it changed but it didn't really change she's still like you were her Muse you were her buddy absolutely I
00:37:09
mean you know I changed because I was um so bitter bitter a bitter competitive angry ugly soul of an actor yeah an act an actor all of
00:37:23
us I only wished her little ill will well also sometimes when you get famous like that you need some people that you just know casually because you you miss
00:37:35
the normal normal boring parts that are just like fun to hang out with someone and and and I'm sure everyone is like a
00:37:41
surfacy show busy friend after that they don't know what's going on they don't you know I'll tell you if you know
00:37:47
someone I'll just insert this you know someone before they're famous and you're really human with them and nice to them
00:37:53
and actually do a a favor for them or whatever and then they become really famous they never forget like you knew
00:38:00
Carrie when so you were not late to the lunch I was not late to the lunch and so you know we were um you know we had the
00:38:08
same DNA we had the same sense of humor we had the you know um you know her life
00:38:13
changed I made adjust once I quite honestly I it took me garnering a certain amount of success on my own um before I uh you know started not
00:38:26
having those feelings you know not comping myself not um of course I could just relax and get out of my own head
00:38:32
you know um but you know we picked up she was always the same with me um it was always on me that kind of and then uh like this was just sort of interesting because the way it this
00:38:45
person Rea uh affected the culture uh so you do who's that girl in 87 Madonna with Madonna and you could see the influence of her extrapolating out but this was her first movie and she was new
00:39:01
and you were you done after hours you done so you were like the bankable one and you got they need an anchor with her
00:39:08
you're the film actor yeah I was a film actor they wanted to have someone who acted with her but as far as
00:39:16
fame um they did not need me on the Marquee I have never I've never to this day seen anyone
00:39:23
so famous um well Peak Madonna is hard to it it was Unreal and she handled such Grace and humor and everything but I mean we had to reloop every exterior
00:39:35
shot because of the helicopters that were hovering um to Sea Penn then as well she was she wasn't double whammy did he ever beat you up what did he ever
00:39:47
beat you up no but I kept thinking I would imagine that would happen it'll happen she is a real flirt
00:39:54
and um kid I was open to possibility I beat him up on Saturday Night Live so we'll talk about good good in character yeah of course of course
00:40:06
but there were there were there were those long lenses that I would see in my peripheral
00:40:12
vision for months after the movie was shot I I mean oh really everywhere you look there was a lens somewhere from some location um and a certain amount of
00:40:25
like hysteria it didn't look like fun to be that that that famous was it hard was it
00:40:31
harder to shoot she seems cool I've seen her totally cool uh she seems like pretty light pretty fun even in the middle of that it's probably just goofy but it's very hard movies are tough
00:40:41
anyway I think people understand like you're cramming lines you're trying to get things done you're losing the light
00:40:46
any distractions are just so tough to deal with on top of you're missing a day yeah and then we had you know U um mountain lions uh that we had to deal
00:40:58
with um in La you know no no no on the set the character oh oh oh okay the movie P they were called Patagonian fices but they were big ass cougars and
00:41:10
there were five of them in each in degree of temperament um so if we want the cuddly one was number five and you to you know when he came on the set but
00:41:22
number five they need if they wanted one to growl and look menacing and then all
00:41:27
cougars were in between and oh and so if we were with number five on the streets
00:41:32
of New York or any of the Cougars for that matter there would be snipers a New York City Cop snipers on all the
00:41:39
rooftops and then Nets to keep in case the cougar made a run for it um and then one time and then one time they brought uh they they brought a number one to the
00:41:53
wedding scene and you know we all knew number one we love number one it's so great and then number one's coming in and somebody goes and the cougar it's on a location
00:42:05
in a house takes his paw and cuts a sofa in half and we go wrong cougar wrong ohx wasn't the right numbers or it was the wrong they got
00:42:19
somebody yeah I I could see that happening plus the cougar they want to get into acting they got to deal with
00:42:25
this [ __ ] you know absolutely yeah absolutely I blame them did you did you go through a phase I'm just curious this
00:42:31
transition where you get famous for a moment and what happens is all of a sudden um girls like you let's put it that way yeah in a different way sort of
00:42:43
interest I'm not saying you acted on whatever but it's sort of well your first blush of Fame was that after um
00:42:49
the uh sort of after after werewolf where I yeah got like fan mail and also girls finding out where I
00:43:01
worked um beef steak showing up but they no I moved on a little bit you threw that apron in their face that was weird when that came up um when that movie came out you know I ALS produced movies
00:43:16
so I then had an office when that movie came out um at um uh in on 57th Street with my production company and so girls would come to the production office but
00:43:31
there's a different kind of fan girl in horror movies than there are if say I did you know French if I did truo films very
00:43:44
different so you know a lot of girls with things with Hoops in their noses and studs in their lips and you know
00:43:53
half shake heads we've been a ComiCon yeah you get the look yeah that's right did people try to come to the set when you were with Madonna or was there no set visits there um yes they didn't care
00:44:07
back then did they you know who came to our set was this unbelievable scumbag um I think
00:44:19
president oh Sho in front of his building and this man he's got orangey long hair covering some sort of spot Dan is going to sound like him in one minute here we go have no idea who it could be
00:44:36
so he comes down in front of his building and he just wedges his way um onto and brings his own photographer you have a
00:44:50
picture there's a picture of me Trump Madonna and Dan akroy also came the same day love it we're coming in we're coming in bringing in
00:45:03
either C you want I've got no fear cougars and I can talk to a cougar I dated a couple cougars anyway uh there
00:45:13
3,482 American citizens do Trump at this point I love it I was waiting for that you took to Longway so you early on I
00:45:21
mean I don't know how you were informed by seeing Hollywood from your perspective growing up and everything you early on were producing you ended up
00:45:29
uh directing mag Ryan and Matthew Broad and love I'm just Diane Lane so I it seems to me that you saw the whole dance of hot not hot medium hot they want you
00:45:43
every day go and you you've worked consistently for 40 years incredible so are you kind of do you are are you Zen about show business at this point I mean um how has your attitude changed
00:45:56
toward it good better and different well I mean I've been through all the colors you described I've I've been uh me too
00:46:04
you know I'm just like I I I I I'm experienced like early early success before I could truly appreciate it I finally appreciate it and I'm and my my
00:46:15
my stock has dropped and I'm not there and then you know I I do something else and I and I I'd make a choice of like when I did have heat as an actor I then
00:46:28
decided to produce a movie I wasn't even in um right you know I I'd be in a movie
00:46:34
that was supposed to be like the Madonna movie um supposed to be a huge hit turns
00:46:39
out to be a flop um all and then I produce again then I go well I'm gonna become a director then and that goes that goes great and it just I've been
00:46:51
writing the ups and downs all the way through but when I was writing the book I actually had to like take my entire life career trajectory through all its
00:47:06
phases and I kind of came to the end like going all these things that I used to kick myself for I'm so glad they
00:47:13
happened I mean each one was like an experience I actually did learn from um and I can look back and even though I'm looking forward as well but when I did
00:47:24
look back uh while writing the book I was actually really pleased with how everything turned out I of not having a
00:47:31
real game plan or maybe there was a plan of foot but I knew I was the kind of person who wasn't um comfortable just
00:47:39
being settling into one particular aspect of of Storytelling of just being an actor or just being a producer um so
00:47:48
that sort of served me well in the long run it just didn't feel like that short run yeah and in recent times you did
00:47:54
this is yeah this is us Uncle Nikki you know like intense drama and funny at the
00:48:00
same time and so you you kind of have this you know you're like you could play drama or you can be funny yeah yeah but
00:48:08
it's interesting to write a memoir was it nerve-wracking away when you started like what's the discovery process what
00:48:15
is it painful to write certain parts and other parts like man that was an awesome time or guess you just have wisdom now
00:48:22
or or perspective is that we all we get I've always known that I had a lot of um funny stories that either happened to me
00:48:28
or happened to family members that I grew up with that were you know really outrageous and many very after hours e and you know in my personal life and so
00:48:41
I would always kind of keep a little log of like I gotta remember that I gotta remember much like you guys do and you
00:48:46
know bits and so I thought um I thought when I came to write a memoir which I always kind of thought in the back of my head I I eventually would um I thought it would be sort of a
00:49:00
series of really funny anecdotes of David Sedaris type me talk one day and um and then when I and and not have it be chronological have it be almost
00:49:14
anecdotal um but then I thought no that's kind of a cop out just just start at the beginning and then I realized the beginning wasn't the beginning of my life it was the beginning of my
00:49:25
grandparents and great grandparents so I started way back in how the Mexican Revolution affected my mother's side and
00:49:32
the great Irish famine affected my father's side and I just went chronologically and with that came you
00:49:40
know we were talking about my my father was very bullied as a child and you know his painful childhood memories and then
00:49:47
my mother is being being um growing up on a ranch on the border of Mexico um with her father absent because during World War II and you know kind of
00:50:00
bringing them up up until I was born and it just sort of turned into an actual Memoir I call it a family
00:50:07
Memoir because it's not just about me it's you know the biographies of everyone in my family um so it was it
00:50:16
wasn't painful it was um sometimes it was so exciting I'd be acting in something and I would when the camera would be turning around I'd go back back
00:50:26
to my dressing room and I just knock off a paragraph I I could not wait to get back to it yeah um because it was like I was bringing my family back alive you know only my brother is the only person
00:50:38
left out of my immediate family and um you know who I spoke to before I uh wrote a word I really wanted his his Blessing which he gave me and um so I it
00:50:51
was like having my family with me um it was it was more difficult to finish it than it was to write it if um because I
00:51:00
I really love the company of of these people I really um I really admired all their struggles and i' so I'd like to do it I just think writing I've only done a
00:51:11
few things when President Bush one died the New York Times asked me to write an article you know I did it with my wife she's a great she knows about grammar she went to Catholic school that and
00:51:24
she's a great editor and a great bounce but it's it's it's it is can be exhilarating to write a sentence like in
00:51:30
the XR I read was laugh out loud funny when um car Fischer is asking you about your sex life or whatever or your add so that's kind of a thrill right to when
00:51:42
you writing is rewriting all these cliches but when you get a great paragraph like that's it or if you want
00:51:47
poignancy how do I end that H yeah I landed it so and it's immersive it's just you so did you run it by U your wife or do you have a confidant or David
00:51:59
dney asked to read it or David I gave it to David pretty early on oh okay and uh
00:52:07
you know I I uh I had a wonderful editor at penguin uh who who published the book
00:52:13
um guy named John Burnham Schwarz who was a novelist that I by coincidence I'd read his novels before I didn't even know he was an editor um but I liked his writing so much uh and I learned a great
00:52:25
deal from him but I I did I I I gave early copies um you know a great friend of carriers is Beverly D'Angelo and ours and sweetheart and so
00:52:38
I gave her she's a hilarious person and I gave her like the carry chapters to make sure I got it right and you know I mean that was one of the most fun Parts um because I always knew the book would
00:52:49
be dealing with the tragedy we you know the the trial and a lot of really stuff coming up but they also knew it would be funny and especially if I
00:52:59
channeled Carrie um and Beverly said God man you just got her it was like she was there in the room with you so that gave
00:53:06
great confidence you [Music] know speaking of funny stuff just we don't have you all day but we love to this is so fast it's just you're um
00:53:21
after hours it's a big movie Martin scores sisy you can talk to that if you want because that seems he'd already
00:53:27
done raging Bowl which is you know and then you you're on SNL um you know it's kind of a thing in Hollywood in those days you I was there I arrived six months later I think yeah yeah you were
00:53:40
in March I arrived in I premiered in October so um I don't know just it must have been I mean your monologue was so quirky yeah I didn't ever say anything quite like it where because I was
00:53:54
thinking you're playing it very real I'm really excited to be here just so people you it's on YouTube and then it's clear
00:54:01
you're kind of nervous you're looking a little sweaty you're starting to kind of itch your head and clumps of hair come
00:54:07
out it's just really building and you go is it me or is it hot in here and then you're drenched in sweat and that's quirky enough I thought okay that's a great monologue and then they bring out
00:54:18
a surfboard and you play WIP out with one hand was such a non sequer completely how did that happen well well
00:54:25
you know you know as they know as you know from the you know when you have the first time the the cast meets the host
00:54:31
you know have any special activities that you were really good at you do accents and all that I said well I know
00:54:37
how to play whitee out one-handed I just threw that out I didn't um throwing them that's a drum solo from the
00:54:48
1960s and so I um but but I would also talk to Lauren about you know my monologue my opening monologue you know and I was kind of nervous about it he goes well you know
00:55:00
all the gash all they do is talk about their opening mon well that's the most important part of the show it's just an intro we don't care take the pressure
00:55:13
off we don't care because every guest I'm so you know like just so tired of it all he's had it yeah all these hosts he had it back then yeah exactly he's got another he was
00:55:26
burned out 50 years ago and um so uh I don't know somehow that evolved into um just being the most nervous guest in the history of SNL yeah
00:55:39
um and they had a they put you know things in my hair there oh yeah wet yeah there was a guy off camera like a watering can you know pushing it's always good to get soaking wet right
00:55:50
before you're doing a whole night of sketches well that's what's so fun about it is like yeah you must you must know
00:55:57
this have seen it happen a million times all you guys we the dress is disastrous
00:56:04
yeah and you go my god um how is this ever gonna work Cobble you want to go back out and many just tap out just like let's just disappear and um and then for
00:56:18
some reason it all comes together wait I have a big question for you were you there I this is we talked to litz
00:56:24
yesterday litz told me you were in this sketch with Damon wayes where he got fired so is that true that's pretty it's
00:56:31
totally true he we were doing like a Scarface kind of a thing and I was doing a like a Pacino Scarface thing and we
00:56:38
did the dress and he's a cop um interrogating me and uh you know where's the where are the drugs kept where's you know when's the shipment coming in or whatever it was
00:56:50
and suddenly and once we're shooting is where are the drugs when's the shipping coming in and there's a whole list involved I'm like well that's on the air show right live yeah yeah and I go I
00:57:03
guess I didn't get the rewrite on that um there's such chaos between Dr and air you're like they definitely forgot to tell me they definitely completely forgot that I didn't know or I didn't notice I don't know um and uh
00:57:18
uh apparently soon as he got in the wings it was like you know go home really oh wow I wasn't privy to it I
00:57:24
didn't know I didn't actually note till I read it in the book um I thought you fired
00:57:30
him God Damon ways is a brilliant uh comedian you know he went on and did fine Living Color what he probably thought yeah I should go to a Living Color and he proved himself a brilliant
00:57:44
just so we get that out I I'm just curious what because I I was possessed and still imp possessed by Al Pacino's
00:57:50
performance in scarve face literally how did how did you do that did you look at
00:57:56
tape or was it was a I totally looked at tape and I just did just I was really loud just like him um open the yelling part yeah you your man they tell you where to
00:58:09
go tell you I [ __ ] kill you I kill you you know yeah he was loud sometimes Dan in
00:58:15
just normal scenes I think I remember he just goes a little louder and uh Over Steven Bower who was kind of seems quieter it's an operatic performance you know I guess call that but I I I think
00:58:28
I've heard it's his favorite film I by the way I'm always curious with film actors like and you as a kid or now or
00:58:34
then like what are the people who kind of you looked up to or just you know oh I can tell you in a second um uh it's always been from The Moment I
00:58:48
Saw The Graduate which I was too young to see but somehow got on theater and saw it I looked at that guy I looked at
00:58:54
that guy Justin Hoffman I went I'd never seen an actor like that in a movie and also be so nervous and so funny and so all over the place I thought and then I
00:59:06
found out he grew up blocks from me in LA and moved to New York to be an actor boom that's what I'm going to do um and when I you know when you grow up in La
00:59:21
uh is that Brentwood getting a driver's license is the most important day of your life and that happens on your
00:59:26
birthday on your 16th birthday and so on my 16th birthday I wake up and I got to
00:59:32
go to the DMB to get my license and there's nobody home not one adult my my mother's gone or whatever so I get in the car and my family station wagon I drive myself to the DMV and um the
00:59:45
instructor goes uh gu's G me a test go is your chaperon here and oh she's in the bathroom all right fine go I finish the test I pass I need your chaperon to
00:59:56
sign this I go I don't know where she never mind I get in the car greatest day of my life I'm so excited I'm leaving uh
01:00:05
Montana Street outside the DMV in Santa Monica and I run a red light and a car comes six inches almost smashing into me and I the driver is screaming at me
01:00:17
calling me a [ __ ] I'm looking at the veins in his neack and my eyes travel up and it's Dustin Hoffman oh my
01:00:24
God no and I just smile I'm going oh my gu what the [ __ ] you got why you you K
01:00:31
Wow and I went I'm moving to New York I can't wait wow love it love Dustin um major he was I watched that movie six
01:00:43
weeks ago my wife and I are we will watch certain movies you know every few years uh and that one is so brilliant I think I've seen that movie more than any
01:00:54
other movie um ever nothing no Mike Nichols and D I mean no no one captures the way you feel about your parents when you're in your 20 early they seem like bobbling drunken fools AB it's so
01:01:09
amazing all right well Griffin thank you so much the book is I'll do Larry King here the book is the Friday afternoon Club it comes out June 11th and uh just
01:01:20
if you've listened to this podcast um I'm hoping you will get excited to go uh read this book because you're a great Storyteller verbally did you did you do the audio on tape I I did I did it was
01:01:34
kind of uh amazing uh to read your entire life in four days um I'm going to try to get the audio book and start walking and and go keep walking until I
01:01:48
you finish you will look up will'll be in San Francisco all right anyway such a pleasure to meet you good luck to you
01:01:58
and love you you guys are great I'm so honored thrilled you have me on this has been a presentation of Odyssey please follow subscribe leave a like or review
01:02:09
all the stuff smash that button whatever it is where you get your podcast fly on the wall is executive produced by Dana
01:02:15
Carvey and David Spade Jenna Weiss Burman of Odyssey Charlie finan of Brill entertainment and Heather Santoro the
01:02:21
show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman