Bryan Cranston

We have award winning actor Bryan Cranston on the podcast this week! He’s the star of Breaking Bad, Malcolm in the Middle and is currently starring in the West End in the play All My Sons. He popped round for lunch before his show that evening. We covered everything from working with Tom Hanks, his love of TV dinners, creating a Mezcal brand with Aaron Paul, embracing his fatherly role on every set, his daily routine for London’s West End, filming The Studio with Seth Rogen & Catherine O’Hara and we hear what it was like when he tried magic mushrooms in Las Vegas during filming! Plus we hear possibly the strangest nostalgic smell any guest has ever revealed on the podcast before… Talking to Bryan was a complete delight, he has the most soothing voice and we could listen to his stories for hours. Basically he needs his own podcast! You can catch Bryan in ‘All My Sons’ at the Wyndham’s Theatre until the 7th of March, you don’t want to miss it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:13Speaker 01

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• 1:05Jessie Ware?

  Hello and welcome to Table manners. I'm Jessie Ware and I'm here with Lenny. How are you, Len?

• 1:12Speaker 04

  Got a pain in the bum.

• 1:13Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 1:14Speaker 04

  Periformis syndrome.

• 1:15Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 1:16Speaker 04

  Yeah. My bum is strapped up.

• 1:18Jessie Ware?

  Ooh.

• 1:19Speaker 04

  I'm on strong painkillers.

• 1:20Jessie Ware?

  Oh, you're high.

• 1:21Speaker 04

  No, not at all, not at all. But I have taken drugs.

• 1:25Jessie Ware?

  I will do the heavy lifting today, Lenny.

• 1:26Speaker 04

  Okay, done.

• 1:27Jessie Ware?

  You just look at me.

• 1:28Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:28Jessie Ware?

  And I'll do it.

• 1:29Speaker 04

  What, what, what sign shall I give you?

• 1:31Jessie Ware?

  Well, just so.

• 1:33Speaker 04

  A Paddington look.

• 1:34Jessie Ware?

  What's a Paddington look?

• 1:35Speaker 04

  A long, hard stare.

• 1:36Jessie Ware?

  Hmm?

• 1:37Speaker 04

  Don't you remember that from the film?

• 1:39Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 1:40Speaker 04

  I gave him a long, hard stare.

• 1:42Jessie Ware?

  I am thinking about how incredible your memory is, Lenny. You were just talking about how, we were talking about what you've made today.

• 1:48Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:49Jessie Ware?

  And you were discussing the toughness of the brown meat on the bronze turkey last year.

• 1:54Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:54Jessie Ware?

  I don't remember.

• 1:56Speaker 04

  Remember. Jessie, if you can recall every single meal we've had.

• 1:59Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, but I, I don't.

• 2:00Speaker 04

  When we go out.

• 2:00Jessie Ware?

  But I think maybe you've got the superpower now.

• 2:02Speaker 04

  No, you think I've got it?

• 2:03Jessie Ware?

  What are we eating today, Mum?

• 2:05Speaker 04

  We're doing Nigella's lemon chicken with also, one pot lemon chicken with also.

• 2:10Jessie Ware?

  Perfect.

• 2:10Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:11Jessie Ware?

  Lovely.

• 2:12Speaker 04

  I thought it's a miserable old day. I was going to do something else, but it required me to go outside and barbecue it. And I thought, no, not doing that.

• 2:21Jessie Ware?

  God, no.

• 2:21Speaker 04

  So it's all prepared and it's all done. I've just got to do the veggies.

• 2:24Jessie Ware?

  And then you've done a...

• 2:26Speaker 04

  I've made a chocolate cake that's supposed to be gooey in the middle.

• 2:30Jessie Ware?

  Mmm.

• 2:31Speaker 04

  Let's hope it is and crispy on the outside. Let's hope it is. And it's just made with butter, chocolate and sugar.

• 2:39Jessie Ware?

  And I've.

• 2:40Speaker 04

  And eggs.

• 2:40Jessie Ware?

  I've got a little bit of a lisp today.

• 2:42Speaker 04

  Why darling?

• 2:43Jessie Ware?

  Because I've got a temporary tooth on. Cause I'm getting my veneer changed because my darling sister knocked it out when I was seven.

• 2:49Speaker 04

  Okay, Josie.

• 2:50Jessie Ware?

  And has never dealt with the dental bills, but I have to have a peg of a tooth. So at the moment I'm lisping.

• 2:56Speaker 04

  My veneer came out when I was in Los Angeles.

• 3:00Jessie Ware?

  No, it didn't.

• 3:00Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 3:01Jessie Ware?

  Jill, the dentist, asked if how the tooth was.

• 3:03Speaker 04

  The veneer came out. I was in Bell's Bagels.

• 3:07Jessie Ware?

  Oh, no.

• 3:08Speaker 04

  I wasn't eating a bagel. I was eating a pastrami sandwich. It came out to Hannah's horror. And I had to go to.

• 3:15Jessie Ware?

  Did you have your glue on you?

• 3:16Speaker 04

  No, I found a dentist in Eagle Rock.

• 3:20Jessie Ware?

  Mm.

• 3:20Speaker 04

  Who was very interested in cars. And he drove a Porsche and I'm not surprised because it was three hundred pounds to get the veneer fixed. So if you have a few veneers done. He's probably paid off the Porsche within two weeks.

• 3:32Jessie Ware?

  Was Chrissie Teigen in the waiting room with you?

• 3:33Speaker 04

  No, she wasn't.

• 3:34Jessie Ware?

  Oh, right.

• 3:35Speaker 04

  Her veneers come out. They pop off.

• 3:37Jessie Ware?

  Don't tell me this because my veneer hasn't come off for like. When did I get it done?

• 3:41Speaker 04

  Did you ever have it? Has it ever come off?

• 3:43Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 3:44Speaker 04

  Oh, see mine comes off all the time.

• 3:46Jessie Ware?

  Well, anyway, I've got this temp on. This is very interesting for everyone, but I, it could go at any time.

• 3:51Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 3:51Jessie Ware?

  The bite is weird too.

• 3:52Speaker 04

  I have got toothy pegs upstairs, which is, it's called toothy pegs and I bought it during lockdown.

• 3:59Jessie Ware?

  What is a toothy peg?

• 4:00Speaker 04

  It's a glue to stick your veneer on if it comes off. And I've got about four packets of it upstairs.

• 4:06Jessie Ware?

  And you just didn't have one on you when you were eating a bagel?

• 4:08Speaker 04

  No.

• 4:09Jessie Ware?

  Okay, I will take one of those. But anyway, enough of our teeth. We've got an amazing guest on today.

• 4:15Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 4:15Jessie Ware?

  He's acting royalty.

• 4:17Speaker 04

  Yeah, he's an iconic actor, I think.

• 4:20Jessie Ware?

  And we got to see him at the Wyndham's Theatre, performing in All My Sons. With the most stellar cast I think I've seen on stage in years.

• 4:29Speaker 04

  It was brilliant.

• 4:29Jessie Ware?

  Everyone in that cast. And I really want to talk to him about that. And Bryan Cranston is coming on. You will know him, of course. From Hal as like the most useless father in Malcolm in the Middle. Or Walter White from Breaking Bad, quite an incredible father, goody term baddie. He always plays a dad, Your Honour, he was the judge, wasn't he?

• 4:50Speaker 04

  That was such.

• 4:50Jessie Ware?

  I couldn't watch that, it was very stressful.

• 4:52Speaker 04

  I found that quite sad.

• 4:54Jessie Ware?

  And now he's playing a dad, what's his name in All My Sons?

• 4:57Speaker 04

  How? Joe Keller.

• 4:58Jessie Ware?

  Joe Keller, did you do it for?

• 5:02Jessie Ware?

  Producer Alice's dad played Joe Keller, who Brian is playing on the West End.

• 5:07Speaker 04

  And it's.

• 5:08Jessie Ware?

  How did they fare, Al, the acting performances? Did they really take different? Your dad had a similar approach to Bryan Cranston, okay, I love that. So yeah, we've got Bryan Cranston coming up. I've heard nothing but wonderful things about him. I'm really looking forward to chatting to him about food and family. But you may have to, I'm really, I really feel like Shola Ammam.

• 5:30Speaker 04

  Can you do your whistle still?

• 5:32Jessie Ware?

  Yes, thank God, when am I gonna need to do that? Sorry, Al, that was really unfair.

• 5:37Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 5:37Jessie Ware?

  When will I need this?

• 5:38Speaker 04

  I don't know, but just checking.

• 5:40Jessie Ware?

  All the nativities are done.

• 5:41Speaker 04

  You're the only one in our family that can do it. And I'm very proud of you.

• 5:45Jessie Ware?

  Thank you. Bryan Cranston coming up on Table Mamas.

• 5:57Jessie Ware?

  Bryan Cranston looking very dashing.

• 5:59Speaker 05

  I am?

• 6:00Jessie Ware?

  You are. Really dashing, the voice is giving fruity. It's giving Leah, it's giving Joe, it's giving, yeah, it's giving like, did you have a late night last night? Are you okay?

• 6:11Speaker 05

  No, I'm fine. You know, when you're doing theatre, you become a night owl. And I eat dinner about ten thirty at night.

• 6:22Speaker 04

  Where'd you go? To Jay Shiki round the corner.

• 6:24Speaker 05

  We went to Jay Shiki's last night, some friends are.

• 6:27Speaker 04

  It's just round the corner.

• 6:28Speaker 05

  It's, of course.

• 6:28Jessie Ware?

  What was the order?

• 6:30Speaker 05

  What did I have?

• 6:31Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 6:31Speaker 05

  Of course, I had a nice Dover sole.

• 6:34Speaker 04

  Oh, lovely.

• 6:35Speaker 05

  A little broccoli and a couple of chips, I think, and then the.

• 6:39Speaker 04

  The Dover sole is particularly good.

• 6:41Speaker 05

  Really nice.

• 6:42Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 6:42Speaker 05

  Really nice, a little glass of white wine with it, just to.

• 6:47Jessie Ware?

  Just to take the edge off.

• 6:48Speaker 05

  Take it edge off.

• 6:49Jessie Ware?

  You need it after that play.

• 6:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, how long does it take you to kind of?

• 6:53Speaker 05

  Settle down?

• 6:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, not be.

• 6:54Speaker 05

  Well, the adrenaline is pumping pretty significantly throughout the play. And the emotional component of it at the end of the play.

• 7:03Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:03Speaker 05

  Is, you know, it takes it out of you, but not right away. You know, the adrenaline will fall off a cliff after about two hours. And then I better be home in that case.

• 7:16Speaker 04

  And then go to sleep.

• 7:17Speaker 05

  It's almost as if I was a fighter in a ring.

• 7:20Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:20Speaker 05

  And my legs get wobbly and I go, oof, I can't keep my eyes open. So I usually have a routine. I go home. I have a little.

• 7:31Speaker 04

  Are your family here with you?

• 7:32Speaker 05

  Well, my wife is is staying with me at times and then she goes home. She's from Southern California as well, so it's.

• 7:39Jessie Ware?

  She's enjoying the weather then.

• 7:40Speaker 05

  This is like, it's too cold for her.

• 7:42Jessie Ware?

  It's raining in L A too.

• 7:43Speaker 04

  I was, I've just got back from L A because my other daughter lives there.

• 7:47Speaker 05

  Uh huh.

• 7:47Speaker 04

  It rained every single day for ten days.

• 7:50Speaker 05

  It's very unusual for that to happen.

• 7:52Speaker 04

  And the water, you don't have drains like we do. The water kind of comes down like a river.

• 7:57Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 7:57Speaker 04

  You can't actually get into your car. It's like comes down. You think Noah's gonna come in his arse soon.

• 8:02Speaker 05

  It's an awful place to live.

• 8:04Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. So your routine, you go, you you'll maybe see friends and then you just, do you just go to bed after that straight away? Or do you have to read something or?

• 8:14Speaker 05

  Actually, yeah, I usually will see some friends right after the play. And I usually don't go out because it becomes too much time, too much. And so once in a while, like last night was a rare occasion. I'll go out, I'll greet some friends who ever came to see the show that day. Talk with them for thirty minutes or so, then go outside. Greet the fans who have come to see the play. And I I do that on every play I do and every performance after evening show. And I do it because they are happy to see the actors come out.

• 8:57Speaker 05

  And I want to regenerate the excitement of theatre.

• 9:02Speaker 05

  I want to make sure that generation after generation gets excited about going to the theater because especially in the United States, it's become so commercialized and so elite that only the wealthy can go.

• 9:20Speaker 04

  It's expensive.

• 9:21Speaker 05

  It's really, really tough.

• 9:23Speaker 04

  It's expensive here.

• 9:24Speaker 05

  And if you have a bad experience, if you're new to theater and you pay the money to go see it and it's a bad experience.

• 9:32Speaker 04

  You think I'm not bothered.

• 9:33Speaker 05

  That's it. I'm never going again.

• 9:35Speaker 04

  I'll watch the TV and stream everything, yeah. Have you done any Arthur Miller before?

• 9:39Speaker 05

  No, no, this was the first, first one, but he's such a beautiful writer.

• 9:45Speaker 04

  Stunning.

• 9:46Speaker 05

  It really cuts to the chase of it, yeah.

• 9:49Jessie Ware?

  When you, I presume you got offered the part because you're Brian and they're brilliant. Did you know the other cast, was everyone cast at that point or were you kind of the beginning of the casting?

• 9:59Speaker 05

  No, I was the first one.

• 10:00Jessie Ware?

  So were you involved in who else was cast? Were you, were you able to?

• 10:04Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 10:05Jessie Ware?

  Have an opinion on that?

• 10:06Speaker 05

  Yes, although I trust Yvo Van Gogh, our director, so implicitly and, and I realize that that's really his position, but he wanted to run the names of the, the people that he liked by me and, you know, I would either say, oh, yes, or I, oh, I don't know their work or whatever, but I didn't put the kibosh on anyone.

• 10:30Jessie Ware?

  The cast is, everyone in that cast.

• 10:34Speaker 04

  Everyone is brilliant.

• 10:35Jessie Ware?

  The most generous kind of performances to, you feel such an ensemble, you feel like a cast on stage, everyone's looking after each other and it was really exciting to watch everyone's performances.

• 10:48Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 10:49Jessie Ware?

  How they fed off each other. It was, it was electrifying.

• 10:52Speaker 05

  Well, I can honestly say that that's the same tenor that is happening offstage as well. It's a good group of human beings, very respectful. I take out my cast before we start, you know, at the, the very beginning of rehearsal, I, I want to take out the cast and, and I want to talk to them about. What we could establish, not essential again, but what kind of family can we create here? Because, and I think it's age related too. At this stage in my life, I want the experience offstage to be as rewarding as it is onstage.

• 11:36Speaker 05

  So that you look forward to going to work, seeing these people, laughing about something that happened the night before. Or, oh, can you, is it possible? Can you delay your entrance a second? Can you, is it, can you, we, oh, yeah, okay, yeah. Well, let's try that tonight. And you know, and you're, you're constantly talking about little incremental improvements.

• 11:57Jessie Ware?

  Will you move this production to?

• 12:00Speaker 05

  To this house.

• 12:01Jessie Ware?

  To New York.

• 12:02Speaker 05

  Or come into this house.

• 12:03Jessie Ware?

  Come to the, come to this house. Yeah, we'll get the whole street in. But will you move it to New York?

• 12:09Speaker 05

  I don't know.

• 12:10Jessie Ware?

  Maybe?

• 12:11Speaker 05

  Um, well, there's, there's a possibility.

• 12:13Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 12:14Speaker 05

  There's conversation about that.

• 12:16Jessie Ware?

  I think it would do brilliantly.

• 12:17Speaker 05

  Well, it's, you know, beyond that, it's.

• 12:19Jessie Ware?

  It's whether you can keep doing Joe for another year.

• 12:22Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's a, it, it takes it out of you. It's both invigorating and intervening.

• 12:27Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 12:28Speaker 05

  It's really an incredible experience because you are inspired by it and knackered by it.

• 12:36Jessie Ware?

  But it's, I, I'm sure you probably just want to get on set after, maybe have a break. And then it will be that thing that you kind of, you'll feel maybe the need to not be up and be a night owl for the, you know, next six months. And so, but how exciting that you can do both and like.

• 12:51Speaker 05

  Well, I joke that after doing a play for, we were doing this play for four months. And after doing that, I need to go off and do a movie so I can relax.

• 13:02Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 13:03Speaker 05

  It's like, because in the movie business and television business, it's bits and pieces. We're doing little bits, little pieces every day. In theater, if you've selected well and you've chosen a play that inspires you, motivates you, challenges you. Because otherwise, why would you do a play? It's every single performance. There's no bits and pieces. Every single performance, there's a gut punch and a mental draining and you're fully engaged and it's exhausting.

• 13:41Jessie Ware?

  When you talk about taking the cast out, talking about what you need and want and feel, did someone teach you that? Did you get inspired by someone who had maybe had that kind of father figure role to you?

• 13:54Speaker 05

  Growing up, when I was 23 years old, I started working in this business and I'm about to be 70. So it's been a while. And there are certain actors along the way who have really, I've really watched and James Garner was one.

• 14:13Jessie Ware?

  Oh, yeah.

• 14:14Speaker 05

  Dick Van Dyke was another. And more recently, Tom Hanks. I've done three projects with Tom. And the way he conducts himself with his company, with his cast and his crew, I made a mental note and it's like, okay, if I'm ever in that position, and I, this goes back 35 years that I worked with him first.

• 14:40Jessie Ware?

  What was that on?

• 14:41Speaker 05

  We did a, I think it got a called From the Earth to the Moon, which was about astronauts going to the moon back in the 60s. And I played the second man to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin. Then his movie, he did his movie called That Thing You Do.

• 14:58Jessie Ware?

  I loved that.

• 14:59Speaker 05

  Which was a sweet film.

• 15:00Jessie Ware?

  My agra. I had such a crush on all of them.

• 15:03Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 15:03Jessie Ware?

  That I know all the games you play. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. Were you in that?

• 15:08Speaker 05

  I was in that, but a very small role, very, very small role.

• 15:12Speaker 04

  It was about the band.

• 15:13Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 15:14Speaker 05

  I see how he behaved, coming to work with joy every day, getting the work done. I saw also that, oh, if you take it upon yourself, as you were indicating, to be the parent, the father of this organization, whatever, you can set the table for how you want others to comport. And I went, oh, so it's there. If no one takes it, there's a vacuum. When I did Malcolm in the Middle, Frankie was 12 years old.

• 15:54Speaker 05

  Jane Kazmeric was not the type of person to take control of a situation. So there was an opening and I thought, oh, I really felt there's a vacancy here. I need, someone has to fill this and I was third in line on that show. And I was like, I should probably step up and kind of organize things and, and I did. And I went, okay. Now, years later, Bob Odenkirk, who was on.

• 16:23Jessie Ware?

  Yep, Soul.

• 16:24Speaker 05

  Well, he was a star of Better Call Saul. I took him out, he, he wanted to say, well, I'm about to star in my own show. And I said, Bob, you know, I, for years, I kind of resisted taking control of things. And people, fans say, oh, you're a star, you're, you're a television star. Oh, no, no, no, no, I'm just an actor, no, no, no. And spending so much energy trying to push back, push back. And someone just said, just say thank you. And from that point on, I went, oh, you're a television star. Oh, thank you. And that's the end of it. So the energy savings was enormous.

• 17:08Speaker 05

  And I went, oh, there, there are different ways to just kind of manage your life.

• 17:13Speaker 04

  Right, so you're going to be 70.

• 17:16Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 17:17Speaker 04

  Which is, it's all right, once you get there, you hate getting there, but.

• 17:21Speaker 05

  How do you know you're not there?

• 17:22Speaker 04

  I'm way over there. So is there a role that you really love to do? That you feel you've still got the breadth to do? And that you, I don't know, Shakespeare or something that you would like to do now?

• 17:36Speaker 05

  Well, Lear is something that's always.

• 17:40Jessie Ware?

  That feels right.

• 17:41Speaker 05

  Been there. I'm now very much within the age range of.

• 17:46Speaker 04

  King Lear.

• 17:46Speaker 05

  Of King Lear. You know, there's, there are other roles, whether it's Ibsen or Odette's or more Miller to do, like Death of a Salesman perhaps, or something. But, you know, it's funny, you mentioned, you said that I'm kind of a father. Well, I'm a father in real life.

• 18:03Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 18:03Speaker 05

  And that's the roles I get to as the type of person that I am.

• 18:08Speaker 04

  How many children have you got?

• 18:09Speaker 05

  I just have one.

• 18:10Speaker 04

  One?

• 18:11Speaker 05

  Yeah. And she is an actor in her own right. She's.

• 18:15Speaker 04

  Well, I know.

• 18:16Speaker 05

  You do.

• 18:17Speaker 04

  Because I managed to watch the pit.

• 18:20Speaker 05

  Oh.

• 18:21Speaker 04

  That hasn't arrived here yet, strangely, but it was on the.

• 18:24Jessie Ware?

  Is your daughter in the pit?

• 18:25Speaker 04

  She's in the pit.

• 18:26Jessie Ware?

  Which is supposed to be incredible.

• 18:28Speaker 04

  Yeah, she is incredible. She stands out as one of the really engaging actors in it.

• 18:36Jessie Ware?

  So when she said, Dad, I want to be an actor, did your heart sink? Or did you go, okay, because your father was an actor?

• 18:42Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 18:42Jessie Ware?

  So did it kind of feel like?

• 18:44Speaker 05

  His father was an actor.

• 18:45Jessie Ware?

  So it's kind of a family biz?

• 18:46Speaker 05

  And when you think of it, it is much more common to go into your family business than not. Think of all the, the, the population of the world. If your family is fishermen, that, that you're fishermen.

• 19:03Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 19:03Speaker 05

  You're, I mean, this is what it is. It's a family business. So this shouldn't be any different. And we knew early on, when she was about eleven or so, or twelve, we thought, oh.

• 19:16Jessie Ware?

  Here we go.

• 19:16Speaker 05

  Here we go. She's going.

• 19:18Jessie Ware?

  We do need to talk about food a bit.

• 19:20Speaker 05

  Oh, okay.

• 19:20Jessie Ware?

  And let's bring it back to growing up in California.

• 19:23Speaker 04

  And we will eat. It's coming.

• 19:24Jessie Ware?

  We will eat. It's coming. California, who was around the dinner table and what were you eating?

• 19:28Speaker 05

  Okay, I was born in nineteen fifty six. So by the time that I was able to hold a fork and knife on my own, it was the nineteen sixties and we had no money at all. So the size of that pot you had.

• 19:45Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's coming back out, don't worry.

• 19:47Speaker 05

  Anytime you saw a pot that big, that held, you know, gallons and gallons of substance, you knew that mom was making something that we were going to eat for the next four days.

• 20:00Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 20:01Speaker 05

  That was it. It was like a stew.

• 20:04Jessie Ware?

  Batch pit, right, okay.

• 20:05Speaker 05

  Or chili, or something that was something that you ladle in and have to chunk of bread, you know, soak it and that's what you ate for lunch and dinner.

• 20:16Jessie Ware?

  Was she a good cook?

• 20:18Speaker 05

  No, in retrospect, I realize that my mother was not a good cook.

• 20:21Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 20:22Speaker 05

  But when you're a child, you really don't know. Did you know she was, your mom was a good cook?

• 20:29Jessie Ware?

  I probably didn't appreciate, but I loved food, but I definitely felt like mum was quite adventurous. I don't think we appreciated the level of effort that you put in. Thank you. So I'm putting that out there. Thank you.

• 20:41Speaker 05

  Yeah, very nice. My mother was not a cook.

• 20:44Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 20:44Speaker 05

  She was, she was an actress who, who met my father in nineteen fifty one, fifty two, on a television show that Betty White was the star of. And they met and she wanted to continue being an actress. But in those days, in the fifties, women really felt that pressure. You are either going to be a professional woman or a mother, a housewife and mother. And you had to choose. She chose to be a housewife and mother. And always, for decades after that, always went, I wish that wasn't the case. I wish I didn't have to choose that. And because my mother wasn't a very good cook, we too also wished that she didn't have to choose.

• 21:31Speaker 05

  And by the way, in the nineteen sixties, it was the advent, the newest thing came out.

• 21:36Jessie Ware?

  What?

• 21:36Speaker 05

  Called TV dinners.

• 21:38Jessie Ware?

  Oh, okay.

• 21:39Speaker 05

  And they were aluminum trays sectioned off with different.

• 21:44Jessie Ware?

  Plane food, like aeroplane food.

• 21:46Speaker 05

  Like, like not very high quality aeroplane food.

• 21:50Jessie Ware?

  Were you excited about TV dinners?

• 21:52Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 21:52Jessie Ware?

  Everyone was, right?

• 21:53Speaker 05

  Yes, because it was kind of new and different and, and it wasn't mom's cooking and we couldn't tell the difference. Now, my, my mother actually was a pretty good baker, however.

• 22:04Jessie Ware?

  Oh, okay.

• 22:05Speaker 05

  Because her father was a professional baker and made cakes and cookies and things like that. And so she was able to do that pretty well.

• 22:12Jessie Ware?

  You've talked about your grandparents kind of stepping in to look after you when you were, was this when your dad left?

• 22:19Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 22:20Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, okay. Were your grandparents good cooks?

• 22:23Speaker 05

  No.

• 22:23Jessie Ware?

  Oh, okay.

• 22:24Speaker 05

  No. My grand, my grandfather could bake and he could, he could make bread and he could make cakes and cookies and things like that.

• 22:33Jessie Ware?

  That must have been a lovely scent smell.

• 22:36Speaker 05

  When he did that, but when, when my brother and I, when my parents split. Actually, my father left the family when I was eleven. And we went off to live with my grandparents for a year on like a, a small farm, like four or five acres. We had duties on the farm. We had to kill chickens and then dress them and cook them and pluck them and gut them and do all the, and ducks and things like that. It was a very, you know, hard learning experience for a kid from the city to go to this farm and have my very German grandparents go, ah, come on, this is how you do it.

• 23:21Speaker 05

  And we were kind of intimidated by him and he was a no nonsense kind of guy. We slept either on the floor in the living room during the winter or on the patio during the, the spring and summer.

• 23:37Jessie Ware?

  Was that because there wasn't enough space?

• 23:38Speaker 05

  Not enough space. It was a one bedroom, one bath house. And the bathroom was for my grandmother. We went outside. We showered.

• 23:47Jessie Ware?

  Wild wees. You did a lot of wild wees, okay.

• 23:49Speaker 04

  And where was this?

• 23:51Speaker 05

  This was in a rural area in San Bernardino County called Ukaypa, which is an Indian name, but it's a.

• 23:59Speaker 04

  So in California.

• 24:00Speaker 05

  In California.

• 24:01Jessie Ware?

  It sounds quite tough. Was it quite like a, life lessons were learnt there and was it a fun time for you? Or I guess you were maybe wondering where your dad had gone and all of, there was a lot of things going on.

• 24:14Speaker 05

  A lot of confusion going on. At eleven years old, all of a sudden you don't see your father anymore. And I didn't see him again until I was twenty two.

• 24:24Speaker 04

  Did you fall out with him? You were disappointed in him? Did you even get the chance to fall?

• 24:29Speaker 05

  I suppose. I don't even know. I mean, it was like he was just gone.

• 24:32Speaker 04

  And he didn't try to keep in touch?

• 24:34Speaker 05

  No.

• 24:36Jessie Ware?

  Was that because he was trying to fulfill this kind of need to be an actor?

• 24:40Speaker 05

  Yeah. I think, you know, parents are always teaching us. Parents are always teaching their children. In the best case scenario, it's how to be. What is a good family? What is, what is a respectful, loving environment?

• 25:01Speaker 05

  That's not exactly what I had after age 11. But it was it was dichotomous because from the time I was very young to about nine or 10, it was really great. My parents were in nucleus and and they they coached and my mother was a a team mom and we did sports and we then she made our Halloween costumes and it was very, very great.

• 25:30Speaker 04

  Wholesome.

• 25:31Speaker 05

  Until it wasn't. I mean, and to us, it kind of fell off a cliff. We didn't realize what was happening.

• 25:37Speaker 04

  God, I'm sorry.

• 25:38Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 25:39Speaker 04

  So your mom lived with your grandparents as well?

• 25:41Speaker 05

  No.

• 25:41Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 25:42Speaker 05

  No, my mom and my little sister uh, lived ironically with my father's mother.

• 25:50Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 25:50Speaker 05

  Because they had, we we got foreclosed on. Our house was

• 25:54Speaker 04

  Oh, God.

• 25:56Speaker 05

  Poster was put up on the door. The bank is taking.

• 25:59Speaker 04

  Terrifying as a child.

• 26:01Speaker 05

  You know, it's less terrifying. Well, those things are all internalized, though.

• 26:07Speaker 04

  Hmm.

• 26:07Speaker 05

  They they'll come out later. They've came, they've come out.

• 26:11Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 26:11Speaker 05

  My work later. This is my own therapy.

• 26:14Speaker 04

  This is very good.

• 26:14Speaker 05

  Doing my, doing what I do is is my own therapeutic experience. And going to therapy and and trying to ask the questions. Why do I feel this? Why do I feel that? What's? What is going to be a harmonious relationship for me and my partner? Going forward? How do I do that when it was such a terrible experience? With my parents. So as I was saying, under the best circumstances, your parents are are living by example. They're not telling you this is how you should live, but they're just living it. And and hopefully, it's it's loving and and respectful and and warm and you go, that's what I want.

• 26:59Speaker 05

  And that's what I knew and that's what I was raised with. With me was a little different. I look at my parents and the overwhelming emotion that I have whenever I think of my parents now is just sadness. It's just sadness that they've both kind of wasted their life. My father was very ego driven. I'm gonna be a star. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do, you know. And my mother was a lovely, sweet, fun, immature person. Who was like the character from a Tennessee Williams play. You know, always depending upon the kindness of strangers. She always loved the idea of male attention.

• 27:41Speaker 05

  And so she, once my father left, she was, she dated, she married. She was married four times. My father was married three times. So.

• 27:51Jessie Ware?

  That must have been so confusing for you.

• 27:53Speaker 05

  I don't know. I guess it was.

• 27:55Jessie Ware?

  But like, maybe even though, you know, it sounds like your grandfather was quite stoic and kind of, well, like, kind of no nonsense.

• 28:02Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 28:03Jessie Ware?

  Did you feel secure in that environment?

• 28:05Speaker 05

  Completely.

• 28:05Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 28:06Speaker 05

  Completely. My brother and I, who's, he's two years older than me. We went to our grandparents' little farm to live for a year, kicking and screaming. We didn't wanna go at all. Why would we go in the middle of nowhere and, and sleep on the floor and what, what are we, what's going on? By the time it was, my mother had set herself up and we were gonna go back to live with my mother. We didn't wanna go. It was like having consistency and discipline and knowing the parameters of where we need to operate in was something we didn't have for many years.

• 28:43Jessie Ware?

  Did your sister's experience, did you even talk to her a lot about that? Like, was hers kind of as secure as yours?

• 28:50Speaker 05

  No.

• 28:50Jessie Ware?

  No, because she was with your mother.

• 28:52Speaker 05

  She got the worst of it.

• 28:53Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 28:54Speaker 05

  She was five years old when my dad left. She didn't ever, she didn't remember him at all. Only through pictures. I remember she, she looked at a picture once and there was an old photograph of my father holding up my sister when she was a year old or something. And I remember my sister saying, oh, yeah, I guess I did have a father. She, she didn't remember him at all. And she had to endure my mother's life of, you know, flirtation and dating men who were, who were really kind of less than people. She was an alcoholic.

• 29:39Jessie Ware?

  Your mom?

• 29:39Speaker 05

  Yeah. And she seemed to attract not only alcoholics, but she seemed to attract men who were a little less able than her. So that she could run the show.

• 29:53Jessie Ware?

  Right, okay.

• 29:54Speaker 05

  So she was spending her time developing relationships with all these men to get the attention of them, to fill the hole that is lack of love. The love she wasn't getting, she was getting attention and she thought that was love. And it wasn't love, but that's what she thought and she, she was immature. Oh my goodness.

• 30:18Jessie Ware?

  God, mom, showstopper.

• 30:20Speaker 05

  Wow. Look at that.

• 30:25Jessie Ware?

  Delicious. Yeah. That won't be coming up on you when you're being Joe later, I don't feel.

• 30:29Speaker 05

  No, no.

• 30:30Jessie Ware?

  Light, you know?

• 30:31Speaker 05

  No, no, this looks gorgeous. Wow, what a treat.

• 30:37Speaker 04

  It's just a one pot chicken thing.

• 30:40Speaker 05

  Beautiful.

• 30:40Speaker 04

  Thanks, mom.

• 30:41Speaker 05

  Thank you. So you do this in one pot? This is just, everything goes in one?

• 30:48Speaker 05

  Oh, this is so good.

• 30:49Jessie Ware?

  It's really good.

• 30:49Speaker 04

  I'm so pleased.

• 30:51Jessie Ware?

  You can give him a little takeaway box so you have it later.

• 30:55Speaker 05

  Talk about a hug.

• 31:05Speaker 02

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• 31:41Jessie Ware?

  Do you cook, Brian?

• 31:42Speaker 05

  I don't. Primarily, the way I was raised is that unfortunately, food in my house was something that you needed to do. It was a task.

• 31:55Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 31:55Speaker 05

  As opposed to.

• 31:57Speaker 04

  A joy.

• 31:58Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 31:58Speaker 04

  I think that's why I don't, I mean, I can cook, but I'm not that keen on cooking, to be honest.

• 32:05Jessie Ware?

  Really?

• 32:05Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 32:06Jessie Ware?

  But enjoy your food, Brian.

• 32:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 32:08Jessie Ware?

  Enjoy it.

• 32:08Speaker 05

  You don't enjoy it. I mean, the assumption is, of course, you do.

• 32:13Jessie Ware?

  I enjoy cooking.

• 32:14Speaker 04

  I don't enjoy cooking as much as you.

• 32:16Jessie Ware?

  I love it. So you don't cook?

• 32:18Speaker 05

  No.

• 32:19Jessie Ware?

  So you must eat out a lot then? Or is your wife, is your wife a good cook?

• 32:22Speaker 05

  My wife is a good cook, but she's not a confident cook.

• 32:26Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 32:26Speaker 05

  She tends to do, find something like four or five dishes that she knows how to do well and stay with that.

• 32:35Jessie Ware?

  Okay, what's gonna, let's talk about a hero dish from your wife. What's her name?

• 32:39Speaker 05

  Robin.

• 32:40Jessie Ware?

  Robin.

• 32:41Speaker 05

  The thing that she will make more than anything that is really good is a piece of fresh salmon.

• 32:47Speaker 04

  Oh, I love you.

• 32:48Speaker 05

  Yeah, with lemon and Parmesan or something like that.

• 32:52Speaker 04

  Oh, great.

• 32:53Jessie Ware?

  Lovely.

• 32:54Speaker 05

  Get it crisp.

• 32:55Jessie Ware?

  Oh, yum.

• 32:56Speaker 05

  On the outside kind of thing. And, and maybe some potato dish, but small and always with asparagus or broccoli or something like you have here.

• 33:07Jessie Ware?

  We ask everybody, Brian, what their last supper would be. So you're going to a desert island for a very, very long time and you're allowed your last supper.

• 33:15Speaker 05

  About to die.

• 33:16Jessie Ware?

  Well, you choose. Do you wanna die or do you wanna go to a desert island? Which one do you fancy?

• 33:20Speaker 05

  You mean a slow death or a quick one?

• 33:23Jessie Ware?

  I don't know. Like, wow, we're really, you have to think like you're going method on me with the last meal. Starter, main, dessert, drink of choice.

• 33:33Speaker 05

  Okay, my partner from Breaking Bad, Aaron Paul.

• 33:37Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 33:38Speaker 05

  And I have our own.

• 33:39Speaker 04

  Tequila.

• 33:40Speaker 05

  Mezcal.

• 33:40Speaker 04

  Oh, mezcal, sorry.

• 33:41Speaker 05

  And we're coming out with a tequila. So we have a company called Dos Sombras and.

• 33:47Speaker 04

  Dos Sombras.

• 33:48Speaker 05

  Dos Sombras. And we're now, you know, like the fourth largest mezcal company.

• 33:53Speaker 04

  Where is it? Your?

• 33:54Speaker 05

  In, in Oaxaca, Mexico.

• 33:56Speaker 04

  Oaxaca.

• 33:57Speaker 05

  Yeah. It's like Champagne France.

• 34:00Speaker 04

  Oh, so all the mezcal, all of them are made around there?

• 34:03Speaker 05

  Yes, it has to be.

• 34:05Speaker 04

  Is that because there's expertise?

• 34:07Speaker 05

  Very much so.

• 34:08Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 34:09Speaker 05

  And like a chef, our mezcalero has a recipe.

• 34:13Speaker 04

  Mezcalero, I like that name.

• 34:15Speaker 05

  Gregorio has a family recipe. He's a third generation mezcalero. His son is going to be the fourth generation mezcalero. And it's about how, how you treat it, even in the plant stage. You know, where we make this in Oaxaca, there's a lot of natural fruits. And so the bats and the bees that cross pollinate our plants.

• 34:40Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 34:41Speaker 05

  From the fruit trees and stuff. So there's a sense of a fruity foundation. Not sweet, but just a like, what is that? It's a fruit.

• 34:50Speaker 04

  So it's a hint. It's kind of, yeah, like wine. Who got into?

• 34:54Jessie Ware?

  Who got, who got who into tequila? Were you both into it? And that was why you were like, hey, we should both do this? And was it around Breaking Bad time?

• 35:01Speaker 05

  He got me into it.

• 35:02Jessie Ware?

  Okay. Was it whilst you were filming Breaking Bad?

• 35:06Speaker 05

  Three years afterward.

• 35:07Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 35:08Speaker 05

  Basically, we missed each other. We really did. Three years from six years of being together constantly.

• 35:16Jessie Ware?

  You were like father and son. I mean, it was so intense, that relationship.

• 35:19Speaker 05

  Yeah, there is a father-son thing, but we, our personal relationship is just really, really close friends.

• 35:26Speaker 04

  Tequila drinking buddies that, you know.

• 35:28Speaker 05

  I love his kids and his wife is phenomenal. And so it's just, and actually, right now, he's in Paris with his family. And so my wife and I are gonna go over to Paris on a couple of days off and.

• 35:41Speaker 04

  Nice.

• 35:41Speaker 05

  Spend the, spend a couple of days with him.

• 35:43Speaker 04

  So he got you into the tequila and then?

• 35:47Jessie Ware?

  You liked the kind of scythe and, you know, the, the site, what do you call it, silent, like you, you liked all that and it felt quite representative of Breaking Bad and you two back in the cooking room.

• 35:56Speaker 05

  It was, it was, it was really because we missed each other and men have, uh, we're, we're stranger beings than women. Women are really smarter than we are. When women.

• 36:09Jessie Ware?

  Thank you for acknowledging that.

• 36:11Speaker 05

  No, it's true. When women miss each other, you make a point to see each other.

• 36:17Jessie Ware?

  Hmm.

• 36:17Speaker 05

  Have lunch, go for a walk, go for a hike, do something, but you, you bond and, and talk. Men feel that we have to have some kind of.

• 36:26Jessie Ware?

  A reason to me, yeah, yeah, like playing football or, yeah.

• 36:30Speaker 05

  Or going to see a football match or, or we've got, so are we going to play golf? Are we gonna, what, what are we doing? Oh, let's start a business together. That'll give us reason to see.

• 36:41Jessie Ware?

  Good idea.

• 36:42Speaker 05

  It's crazy when you think about it, but that is truly why we started Dos Hombres. Is because we missed each other.

• 36:51Jessie Ware?

  But it's been very successful.

• 36:52Speaker 05

  It's been very successful. It's, it's a lot of fun. It opened me up to a new world of, of business that I wasn't aware of, which is very, very much up the, the alley of an actor. Because we always step into positions that we don't know very much about and we have to learn. If my character's a chef, okay, I really, I have to figure out. And because when you watch a character as a chef, for example, if they're not handling the instruments, if they look like they're tentative or something, it's like, I don't believe this. I don't believe that they are who they are.

• 37:31Speaker 05

  So you really have to learn that as well as possible so that you can pull it off before you move on to the next thing.

• 37:39Jessie Ware?

  Before getting all of your Last Supper, I do, you know, you're talking about learning. You did take some mushrooms, didn't you, when you played the, um, the exec in the studio, which also is one of the best things on telly and your character. That was such fun.

• 37:56Speaker 05

  Crazy. Well, I look for opportunities. If I've been doing more dramatic roles, I look for opportunities to do comedic roles.

• 38:05Jessie Ware?

  That was quite a comedic opportunity.

• 38:07Speaker 05

  If I'm doing television, I've done enough television. I look for theatre, I look for films. So I keep moving so that the audience and people in the industry don't think of me as one way or one, I do one thing.

• 38:24Jessie Ware?

  So did Seth Rogen approach you with that character or did you kind of create it together?

• 38:29Speaker 05

  He approached and he said, I'd like you to play my boss in this series. I read it and I laughed out loud.

• 38:36Jessie Ware?

  It's very funny.

• 38:37Speaker 05

  Very funny. And

• 38:39Jessie Ware?

  Chaotic.

• 38:39Speaker 05

  He and his partner Evan Goldberg, they create an environment that encourages you to just go off and go crazy.

• 38:48Jessie Ware?

  So quite a lot of improv?

• 38:49Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 38:50Jessie Ware?

  Even though it's like one takes and it's kind of

• 38:53Speaker 05

  We go off. I mean, there are certain responsibilities that one will have in bringing up any information that is plot necessary

• 39:02Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 39:02Speaker 05

  in a scene. Aside from that, say whatever, go, go, go, go. And we're like bouncing all over the place. I'm throwing things at him. I pitched him the idea. I said, what if my character was a studio head? What if he's not in his 60s anymore? What if he's actually 82 years old? But he's had so much plastic surgery.

• 39:27Jessie Ware?

  Oh, my God.

• 39:28Speaker 05

  He's been pinched and pulled so much. So he said, I love that idea. So we went with it.

• 39:34Jessie Ware?

  Wasn't your hair like dyed? It was fab.

• 39:38Speaker 05

  Well, I said, this guy is so egocentric that I went to the costumer. I said, I want to wear a body girdle.

• 39:47Jessie Ware?

  Oh, my God.

• 39:48Speaker 05

  And I have this body girdle that I wear that

• 39:51Jessie Ware?

  You just look very swell.

• 39:52Speaker 05

  Yeah, squeezes everything.

• 39:54Jessie Ware?

  Very swell, swell.

• 39:56Speaker 05

  Do you remember, I don't know if they called him over here, but there was like a, it's not a jumper, but underneath it, it, we called him Dickies.

• 40:04Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 40:04Speaker 05

  And it was like a, it was like a little turtleneck collar.

• 40:07Speaker 04

  And you just wear the collar?

• 40:09Speaker 05

  And just the collar.

• 40:10Speaker 04

  It's like, is that what you were wearing?

• 40:11Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 40:11Speaker 04

  So you wear the turtleneck, but you don't wear it as a whole jumper?

• 40:15Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 40:16Speaker 04

  That's so funny.

• 40:17Speaker 05

  It's an odd piece of-

• 40:18Speaker 04

  It's like a false, yeah, false collar.

• 40:20Speaker 05

  Yeah. So he wore that and he wore, you know, shark's tooth and all these kind of toxic masculine kind of iconography, you know?

• 40:31Jessie Ware?

  But you did take mushrooms because in the last episode, I don't want to give it away too much. Well, yeah, there's lots of drugs being dealt out.

• 40:40Speaker 05

  Lots of drugs.

• 40:41Jessie Ware?

  But you microdosed on mushrooms, but.

• 40:45Speaker 04

  Maybe it's helped my brain.

• 40:46Speaker 05

  I had never done that before.

• 40:47Jessie Ware?

  Have you got any on you now, Brian?

• 40:49Speaker 05

  No, I don't.

• 40:49Speaker 04

  Don't carry them on my-

• 40:51Speaker 05

  I don't really do any drugs, anything, but I'm in Las Vegas, shooting this crazy show with Seth Rogen, who is known to be an imbiber.

• 41:01Jessie Ware?

  Yep, Pineapple Express, shot.

• 41:04Speaker 05

  And we're all going to see The Grateful Dead at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

• 41:11Speaker 04

  Are they still going?

• 41:12Speaker 05

  Yeah. And I thought, I think God is telling me something.

• 41:16Speaker 04

  Now's the time.

• 41:16Speaker 05

  Now is the time. So I got Catherine O'Hara and I, I said, I said, Catherine, are you gonna do it? And she goes, I think I might do it, I might do it. I go, I'll do it with you. We'll do it together. And, and Ike Barinholtz, who was, had some, some mushrooms. I said, we said to Ike, Ike, you gotta promise us, cause we've never done this before. Be kind, don't, don't. He go, I assure you, you will be absolutely okay. I promise you, I won't mess you up.

• 41:46Speaker 04

  How did you feel when you took them?

• 41:48Speaker 05

  If this was a glass of wine.

• 41:50Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 41:51Speaker 05

  That's what it felt like.

• 41:53Jessie Ware?

  Oh. Oh.

• 41:54Speaker 05

  Like you drank a glass.

• 41:56Jessie Ware?

  You needed a couple more. This time.

• 41:57Speaker 04

  Relax.

• 41:58Jessie Ware?

  Chunks.

• 41:59Speaker 05

  There was nothing.

• 41:59Speaker 04

  So it's not like cocaine, it's not like you're kind of feeling alive.

• 42:04Speaker 05

  Well, I don't know, I've never done.

• 42:05Jessie Ware?

  Did Catherine feel?

• 42:07Speaker 05

  She didn't do it.

• 42:08Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 42:08Speaker 05

  She chickened out at the last minute.

• 42:10Jessie Ware?

  Well, I think you need to take more next time.

• 42:13Speaker 05

  Really?

• 42:13Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 42:13Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 42:14Jessie Ware?

  Right, last supper, we haven't, we've got, I think we've got dos hombres as your drink.

• 42:19Speaker 05

  Yes. Okay.

• 42:20Jessie Ware?

  Starter.

• 42:21Speaker 05

  My, my starter would, I'm, while I'm very partial to salads, and I'm, being from California, fresh vegetables, fresh lettuce.

• 42:32Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 42:33Speaker 05

  That's always been the important part of our lives. I love soups as well, so. I, and again, it depends on the season, and if it's fall or winter, I'm having a starter of soup, whether that's a lentil, it could be French onion, could be.

• 42:52Jessie Ware?

  A bit fatty though.

• 42:52Speaker 05

  Potato leek. Oh, no, I don't know.

• 42:56Jessie Ware?

  French onion's a bit fatty.

• 42:57Speaker 05

  Is it?

• 42:58Jessie Ware?

  Oh, I don't know.

• 43:00Speaker 05

  Well, that's for your after dinner walk, that's what that's used for.

• 43:03Jessie Ware?

  Fatty after dinner.

• 43:04Speaker 05

  With, with each stride.

• 43:07Jessie Ware?

  That's you. I love that. So French onion, okay, we're going lentil, right, okay, mains?

• 43:15Speaker 05

  Well, a nice chicken is really so clean and, I mean, what you served here was just phenomenal. I would probably have fish, though.

• 43:25Jessie Ware?

  Okay. I love this. I thought, I thought Lenny's chicken was about to be named as your last supper, and then you made a swift turn.

• 43:34Speaker 05

  Yeah, I mean, this, I take this very seriously, it's a last supper.

• 43:38Jessie Ware?

  Brian, Jesus. Okay, what's your fish?

• 43:40Speaker 05

  I really do love salmon, and then vegetables, fresh.

• 43:45Jessie Ware?

  It's quite light, this.

• 43:46Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 43:47Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 43:47Speaker 05

  Yeah, but.

• 43:48Jessie Ware?

  But are we going in on the dessert?

• 43:51Speaker 05

  I would have a side of pasta.

• 43:53Jessie Ware?

  Okay, well, that's okay, I think that's allowed. What kind of pasta? Are we going saucy?

• 43:58Speaker 05

  I would probably do a pesto.

• 44:01Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 44:02Speaker 05

  Maybe a little swirl clump of linguine pesto. It's comfort food, isn't it?

• 44:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, it is, it is. I'm just moving this away so I can put the-

• 44:12Speaker 05

  Wonderful.

• 44:13Jessie Ware?

  Thank Mum, that was really brilliant.

• 44:14Speaker 05

  Really, really good.

• 44:15Jessie Ware?

  Come, let me get this, come, let me get yours. So Mum, you've just brought over delicious looking chocolate cake. What is, do you wanna introduce the chocolate cake?

• 44:24Speaker 04

  It's kind of a gooey chocolate cake.

• 44:26Jessie Ware?

  Ooh. Like a tort, would we call it?

• 44:28Speaker 04

  I don't know darling, what you call it, but I'm gonna try and make it look nice. How big a bit?

• 44:32Speaker 05

  No, no, not too big. Yeah, thank you. Thank you.

• 44:37Jessie Ware?

  Do you avoid anything before being on stage? Like, that will like affect kind of the old voice.

• 44:43Speaker 05

  I think-

• 44:44Jessie Ware?

  Big piece of chocolate cake before you're about to go to the window?

• 44:46Speaker 05

  Yeah, thank you.

• 44:48Speaker 04

  Tastes lovely.

• 44:48Jessie Ware?

  Do you want cream or creme fraiche or berries?

• 44:50Speaker 04

  I'm just berry, so.

• 44:51Speaker 05

  I like berries. I'm not much of a creme or creme fraiche person.

• 44:56Jessie Ware?

  Oh, okay. You're raw dogging it, okay. Um, yes, please, thank you.

• 45:01Speaker 05

  I'll try a little bit and see what that's like.

• 45:04Jessie Ware?

  So we've got salmon with a side of pesto and fresh vegetables.

• 45:08Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 45:08Jessie Ware?

  Now, how are we gonna end the meal?

• 45:11Speaker 05

  I would probably go for something like a creme brulee.

• 45:15Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 45:16Speaker 05

  Something-

• 45:17Jessie Ware?

  But you don't like cream much, Brian.

• 45:19Speaker 05

  But, you know, it's a custard, it's-

• 45:21Jessie Ware?

  Creme brulee? Yeah, it's burnt cream.

• 45:24Speaker 04

  But it's custard, Jessie.

• 45:25Jessie Ware?

  But it's still loads of cream.

• 45:26Speaker 04

  But you make it with eggs.

• 45:28Jessie Ware?

  All right, guys.

• 45:28Speaker 05

  Or a clump of ice cream.

• 45:30Jessie Ware?

  I love ice cream. What's your flavour? Ice cream.

• 45:32Speaker 04

  Now, what's your flavour?

• 45:35Speaker 05

  I would, I'm really-

• 45:37Jessie Ware?

  Cloty cream.

• 45:37Speaker 05

  I think something like, like a caramel, caramel nut.

• 45:42Jessie Ware?

  Or like pralines and cream?

• 45:44Speaker 05

  Mmm.

• 45:45Jessie Ware?

  Haagen Dazs best.

• 45:46Speaker 05

  Some, maybe a coffee with a little fudge in it or something.

• 45:50Jessie Ware?

  Ooh, that's a nice idea.

• 45:52Speaker 05

  Strands of fudge and coffee.

• 45:53Speaker 04

  Jenny's do a monthly-

• 45:55Jessie Ware?

  I love Jenny's.

• 45:56Speaker 04

  Hannah's got one. Jenny's ice cream.

• 45:59Speaker 05

  Oh.

• 46:00Speaker 04

  Hannah's got one on the next door to her house, her flat. And this, this month is banana cream ice cream. Yeah, that would be good.

• 46:09Jessie Ware?

  Before we let you go, can you give us a nostalgic taste that can transport you back somewhere?

• 46:14Speaker 04

  A smell.

• 46:15Jessie Ware?

  Scent, let's go with scent.

• 46:17Speaker 04

  Scent, sorry.

• 46:19Speaker 05

  God, this is gonna sound terrible, but I'm gonna say it. And no one else on this podcast will ever say this.

• 46:28Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 46:28Speaker 05

  I can guarantee you that.

• 46:29Speaker 04

  Oh, God.

• 46:30Speaker 05

  Chicken manure, chicken shit.

• 46:32Speaker 04

  Oh, where'd you get that from?

• 46:33Speaker 05

  Okay, going back to the earlier conversations, my dad leaves the family. My mother starts drinking. We split up. My brother and I are going, what's happening? Where are we going? You're going off to live with your grandparents on this little farm. And he happened to, and this little farm, he had three acres or so. Next door to him was an egg ranch. A huge, like, 12-acre egg ranch with rows and rows and rows and rows of chickens in cages, dropping their eggs. And the guy Danny Teeter, who was the owner of the egg ranch, he gave my brother and I jobs. I was 12 years old and he was 14.

• 47:16Speaker 05

  And he gave us jobs after school and on the weekends, collecting eggs. We drove the little mechanical carts around and stacking eggs. We would take the eggs into a little house that we would put the eggs one by one onto, like, an egg car wash. It would go through and wash the egg. And so we're collecting eggs. We fed the chickens. At night, once every two weeks, we would dress up in dark clothes and we'd have cages on top of our Cushman carts. And chickens would get out of their cages and they wouldn't know where to go. So they would roost on top of the cage. And we'd come by and we'd go about halfway down.

• 48:02Speaker 05

  We'd put them in the cage and then find another cage for them to go. And then we'd sell the eggs through Danny, through tourists, who are going up to an apple orchard kind of resort area that was further up the road. It was such a warm respite. It was such a different feeling from the confusion and despair that we were feeling. And it gave us that parameter of, hey, go to school, do your homework, come home, you have a job, pay this in cash. And we were like, oh. It was a business that we started to have and it really changed things. So by going over there nearly every day.

• 48:47Speaker 05

  We got used to the smell of chicken shit. And it didn't affect us. It meant we related that smell to that enterprise. And the idea that someone trusted us with a job and and respected us and and listened to us when we said this needs to happen and that. And it was just.

• 49:10Speaker 04

  So it's positive because I was starting to regret making chicken today.

• 49:15Speaker 05

  It was a completely positive thing. And part of that was when they've lived the end of their chicken laying egg laying lives. It's time to eat them.

• 49:25Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 49:25Speaker 05

  And my grand and I would we would chop the heads off chickens and do the whole thing.

• 49:33Speaker 04

  All right.

• 49:33Speaker 05

  So it was a full chicken relationship.

• 49:35Speaker 04

  A full chicken relationship.

• 49:36Speaker 05

  It was a very foul child.

• 49:39Speaker 04

  Foul, foul.

• 49:39Jessie Ware?

  Very good, very good. Brian, thank you so much for coming on. It's been such a pleasure to meet you. And good luck with the rest of the run. And we can't wait to see you do King Lear, maybe, you know, in a few years.

• 49:51Speaker 05

  Yeah, I think it's essential. Yeah.

• 49:53Jessie Ware?

  Thanks, Brian.

• 49:54Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 50:09Jessie Ware?

  Bryan Cranston is fabulous.

• 50:12Speaker 04

  Just wonderful.

• 50:12Jessie Ware?

  Loved chatting to him, appreciated how open he was in the conversation. He was really wonderful.

• 50:20Speaker 04

  The voice is like velvet.

• 50:22Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 50:22Speaker 04

  Just gorgeous. And he just makes you relax, doesn't he? Very warm person.

• 50:28Jessie Ware?

  He should listen to the podcast or just tell stories.

• 50:30Speaker 04

  Tells stories. He's a very warm person.

• 50:33Jessie Ware?

  The food was delicious.

• 50:34Speaker 04

  Good.

• 50:34Jessie Ware?

  Loved it. Thank you.

• 50:36Speaker 04

  Pleasure.

• 50:36Jessie Ware?

  I know your back's hurting.

• 50:37Speaker 04

  It's fine.

• 50:38Jessie Ware?

  My tooth hurting a bit too.

• 50:40Speaker 04

  Is it hurting?

• 50:41Jessie Ware?

  Yes, a bit.

• 50:41Speaker 04

  But it shouldn't be hurting, Jess.

• 50:43Jessie Ware?

  If you haven't managed to go and see All My Sons in the West End, then fear not because the National Theatre are recording one for the NT Live, which will be available in cinemas in April. Thank you to everyone for listening and we'll see you next week for another episode of Table Mummers.

• 51:20Speaker 02

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