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Griffin Dunn is our guest today um he's been part of a Americana for many many
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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incredible transformation to [Music]
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see what what a what a story what happened to your sister and and how your
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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doing ridiculous stuff I mean that is the dichotomy of those two things is hysterical yeah bizarre yeah and I was
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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
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on the zoom we were a month ago uh yeah he's about yeah I could see how you and
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him would just be could talk for hours without even missing telling stories
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comment yeah no no we hit it off like right away and uh you know that was over
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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
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and just and you're the same way just no pretense I mean guy no sense of any
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awareness of that he's Michael Keaton at all so I was gonna ask you uh just
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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
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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
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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
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about 10 minutes I done nothing and he gave all he asked Landis who was
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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
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all he did was asked me are you a claustrophobic I said no I would have
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said yes I would have said no even if it was yes um so I figured it was a guy trapped
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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
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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
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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
00:24:30
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
00:24:43
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
00:25:03
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
00:25:17
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
00:25:33
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
00:25:47
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
00:25:59
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
00:26:12
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
00:26:24
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
00:26:44
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
00:26:54
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
00:27:31
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
00:27:44
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
00:27:58
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
00:28:55
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
00:29:15
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
00:29:28
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
00:30:12
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
00:30:27
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
00:30:46
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
00:31:00
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
00:31:43
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
00:32:05
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
00:32:16
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
00:32:29
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
00:32:41
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
00:32:54
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
00:33:14
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
00:33:29
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
00:34:04
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
00:34:24
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
00:34:46
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
00:34:58
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
00:35:11
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
00:35:44
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
00:36:00
[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
00:36:12
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
00:36:23
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
00:36:50
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
00:37:02
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
00:37:17
angry ugly soul of an actor yeah an act an actor all of
00:37:23
us I only wished her little ill will
00:37:28
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
00:38:19
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
00:38:38
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
00:38:52
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
00:39:30
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
00:39:41
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
00:40:01
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
00:40:18
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
00:40:36
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
00:40:51
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
00:41:05
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
00:41:16
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
00:41:46
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
00:41:58
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
00:42:14
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
00:42:36
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
00:42:55
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
00:43:08
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
00:43:24
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
00:43:37
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
00:44:00
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
00:44:13
scumbag um I think
00:44:19
president oh Sho in front of his building and this man he's got orangey
00:44:29
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
00:44:43
onto and brings his own photographer you have a
00:44:50
picture there's a picture of me Trump Madonna and Dan akroy
00:44:58
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
00:45:37
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
00:45:48
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
00:46:10
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
00:46:23
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
00:46:45
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
00:46:58
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
00:47:19
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
00:48:34
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
00:48:54
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
00:49:07
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
00:49:19
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
00:49:54
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
00:50:21
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
00:50:32
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
00:50:45
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
00:51:06
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
00:51:16
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
00:51:37
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
00:51:54
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
00:52:19
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
00:52:31
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
00:52:43
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
00:52:54
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]
00:53:12
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
00:53:33
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
00:53:47
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
00:54:12
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
00:54:43
them that's a drum solo from the
00:54:48
1960s and so I um but but I would also talk to Lauren
00:54:54
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
00:55:06
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
00:55:19
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
00:55:33
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
00:55:44
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
00:56:10
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
00:56:44
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
00:56:56
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
00:57:09
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
00:57:37
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
00:58:02
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
00:58:20
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
00:58:39
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
00:59:00
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
00:59:13
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
00:59:37
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
00:59:50
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
01:00:11
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
01:00:36
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
01:00:49
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
01:01:01
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
01:01:14
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
01:01:26
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
01:01:42
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
01:01:53
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
01:02:04
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
