Rose Byrne

Actress Rose Byrne feels delighted about being Conan O’Brien’s friend. Rose sits down with Conan to discuss her Australian comic influences, her friendship with Heath Ledger, and playing patient and therapist opposite one another in their new genre-defying film If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. Plus, Conan recalls his earliest showbiz days as an awards show seat filler. For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com. Got a question for Conan? Call our voicemail: (669) 587-2847.

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

• 0:03Conan O'Brien?

  When it comes to insurance, Farmers doesn't like surprises. That's why there's Farmers coverage on a page. What is it you ask? Did you ask? I don't think you did, but let's pretend you did.

• 0:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, okay, let's go. What is that?

• 0:14Conan O'Brien?

  It's your coverage on a page, pretty straightforward.

• 0:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:18Conan O'Brien?

  That's good, because sometimes it gets confusing, you know? What am I covered for, what am I not? Here, it's all on a page. Does your insurance do that? Get a quote to get started at Farmers.com. Don't be confused, don't wonder. Farmers makes it pretty clear. Underwritten by Farmers Truck or Fire Insurance Exchanges or affiliate. Products not available in every state.

• 0:39Conan O'Brien?

  Who do you shop for first on the holidays, Sona? Was it, do you shop for the kids, or do you shop for Tac?

• 0:43Speaker 01

  My kids.

• 0:44Conan O'Brien?

  Okay.

• 0:45Speaker 01

  Or Okie.

• 0:45Conan O'Brien?

  You gotta get them their stuff.

• 0:46Speaker 01

  Or my dog.

• 0:46Conan O'Brien?

  And then your husband is last. Well, guess what? It's that time of year. You feel that, you smell that cinnamon cider in the air? Do you smell that?

• 0:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:56Conan O'Brien?

  And you see pumpkins around, people buying turkeys. Little early to buy a turkey. Doesn't matter. Holidays? I would say it's just around the corner, but that's a cliche. It's very nearby in the cupboard. Well, guess what? Amazon delivers joy with low prices on the gifts you want, even this early in the season. So get ahead of the season. Shop early gifts, top picks, holiday decor, and advent calendars at low prices. Get ahead, start on holiday gifting with Amazon's low prices. Shop now at Amazon.com/holiday.

• 1:33Speaker 02

  Hi, my name is Rose Byrne, and I feel

• 1:38Speaker 02

  delighted about being Conan O'Brien's friend.

• 1:41Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, that's nice.

• 2:05Conan O'Brien?

  Hey there and welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. I'm Conan. We got Sona in the house.

• 2:10Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 2:11Conan O'Brien?

  Matt Gourley and Sona.

• 2:13Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:13Conan O'Brien?

  It is almost your birthday.

• 2:15Speaker 01

  It's time.

• 2:16Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. Now, you take your birthday.

• 2:18Speaker 01

  It's happening.

• 2:18Conan O'Brien?

  You take your birthday more seriously than anyone I've ever met in my life.

• 2:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:23Conan O'Brien?

  What is it about you and your birthday?

• 2:25Speaker 01

  I don't, I just, I take this entire month as an excuse to see the people I haven't seen in a really long time, you know, so I celebrate all month long. Every dinner, every event that happens, I feel like is about me.

• 2:38Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 2:39Speaker 01

  I don't know. It might be a Libra thing. I don't know.

• 2:42Conan O'Brien?

  I know. I don't think so. I think it's a narcissist thing.

• 2:46Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 2:46Speaker 03

  It's a Sona thing.

• 2:47Conan O'Brien?

  It's a Sona thing.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  Maybe.

• 2:49Conan O'Brien?

  Do you demand gifts from all those meetings?

• 2:51Speaker 01

  No. I don't, it's not like, I mean, it is a milestone birthday. It is 43.

• 2:57Conan O'Brien?

  The big 4-3.

• 2:59Speaker 01

  It's a big milestone. So maybe, no, but nobody gives me gifts. It's not like we're giving gifts to each other. It's just like, let's do a dinner and then we just go to dinner and I see people from all different walks of life. I mean, it's fun.

• 3:12Conan O'Brien?

  Multiple presents over the month? Or do you think you just get presents on the day?

• 3:16Speaker 01

  I don't get any presents. I don't want presents.

• 3:20Conan O'Brien?

  You don't get presents on your birthday?

• 3:21Speaker 01

  I also just don't like, just like getting a lot of stuff. You know, I, I mean, this is really sad. I lost my stuff and so I'm really aware of all the stuff I'm accumulating now.

• 3:31Conan O'Brien?

  In the fire, you lost a lot.

• 3:32Speaker 01

  Yeah. I just don't want just stuff anymore. I just want things I need. So I'm very particular about it. But I do love going to eat and I do love celebrating my birthday.

• 3:44Conan O'Brien?

  So you're putting it out there that you don't want, I was, because I was gonna get you some really nice things.

• 3:49Speaker 01

  Oh, oh, wait, no, okay. No, we'll do that.

• 3:51Conan O'Brien?

  No, no.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  Wait, how?

• 3:52Conan O'Brien?

  Matt and I had lists of beautiful baubles and treasures that we were gonna give you.

• 3:56Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 3:57Conan O'Brien?

  But those apparently are out now. That's not gonna happen.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. No, it's okay.

• 4:01Speaker 03

  I guess I'll just keep this, um, hand signed by Cher Leather Bustier from the video Believe.

• 4:08Speaker 01

  You just have that?

• 4:09Speaker 03

  I do. I bought it for myself, but I was gonna give it to you.

• 4:11Speaker 01

  Oh, were you really? I did lose my share, share drawing.

• 4:16Conan O'Brien?

  And I'm gonna, I guess I'll just hang on to this bust of Dr. Kevorkian that's made out of dried.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  Come on!

• 4:22Conan O'Brien?

  Dried hummus!

• 4:23Speaker 01

  Why?

• 4:24Conan O'Brien?

  Dried hummus.

• 4:25Speaker 01

  Wait, did you say hummus?

• 4:26Conan O'Brien?

  Hummus.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  Oh my god!

• 4:28Conan O'Brien?

  You love it when I say it that way, don't you?

• 4:29Speaker 01

  I know, it's cool.

• 4:30Conan O'Brien?

  So, you should let me know, what are some things that you need? Cause I would happily get you something that you really need.

• 4:36Speaker 01

  Well, things I need are kinda lame. Like, I just realized, I don't have a tray.

• 4:43Conan O'Brien?

  A tray?

• 4:43Speaker 01

  Like, for my kitchen, to like, take things.

• 4:46Conan O'Brien?

  I don't understand what you need. Are you, is there, is there a drive-in window at your, at your house?

• 4:51Speaker 03

  A buffet? You guys always eat from a buffet?

• 4:53Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. Can I get some extra ketchup packets? Yes!

• 4:57Speaker 03

  Could you just hand me?

• 4:58Conan O'Brien?

  No, why do you need, I'm seriously, why do you need a tray? What do you need a tray for?

• 5:01Speaker 01

  In case I have a lot of stuff I have to transport from the kitchen to another room, you need a tray.

• 5:08Conan O'Brien?

  Who's eating in another room?

• 5:09Speaker 03

  Do you guys have sneeze guards in your kitchen?

• 5:12Conan O'Brien?

  Wait a minute, it says here, I just looked up your address, it's a Sizzler. You live at a Sizzler now.

• 5:19Speaker 01

  I wish I lived at a Sizzler.

• 5:21Conan O'Brien?

  So wait a minute, so, describe to me-

• 5:23Speaker 03

  No, the Sizzler burned down, she lives in a soup plantation.

• 5:25Conan O'Brien?

  She-

• 5:26Speaker 01

  I love soup plantation.

• 5:27Conan O'Brien?

  She needs to defend how you have a tray that takes things from one room to another.

• 5:33Speaker 01

  Why are you acting like this is weird?

• 5:35Conan O'Brien?

  Never has Liza ever come to me with food on a tray-

• 5:39Speaker 01

  That's not true!

• 5:40Conan O'Brien?

  When I'm in another room, it is true!

• 5:41Speaker 01

  It is a normal thing to have as a tray.

• 5:43Speaker 03

  When you like, watch TV, you put snacks and a little drink on a tray and stuff.

• 5:46Speaker 01

  On a tray, you have a tray!

• 5:47Conan O'Brien?

  No, Liza won't let that happen in our house. You can't eat over there! Some crumbs will get- No!

• 5:53Speaker 01

  But you're an awful eater, so that makes sense. I would not allow you to eat anywhere in my vicinity.

• 6:01Speaker 03

  I've heard you're ravenous, but are you messy as well?

• 6:03Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, I am, well, I've been called the wood chipper. So, what happens is you feed food towards my gaping ma. And then crumbs shoot out. Remember when Cookie Monster would eat? He couldn't, because there's no real throat to Cookie Monster. It just, there's no throat. You know, Cookie Monster just has this, these flaps.

• 6:24Speaker 01

  He's a puppet. He's not real.

• 6:25Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. There's no, there's no mouth hole. It's just flat there.

• 6:29Speaker 01

  Same mouth hole.

• 6:29Speaker 03

  That's ridiculous.

• 6:30Conan O'Brien?

  He's not real, you know.

• 6:31Speaker 03

  That's not true.

• 6:32Speaker 01

  You, I get it. I get why Liza would, the trays. That's a normal thing that a lot of houses have. Your, your house for sure has a tray.

• 6:40Conan O'Brien?

  When Liza serves me food, she is, uh, wearing a hazmat suit. And she's wearing one, you know what she's often wearing is one of those deep sea diving uniforms from the 1920s. And she'll come to me and she'll say, here is, and I can just hear an echo, here is your tomato soup, soup, soup, soup. And then I go, ah, boo. And then it's just a Jackson Pollock all over the walls.

• 7:04Speaker 01

  Oh, that's nice.

• 7:05Conan O'Brien?

  So yeah, stuff just goes flying. Um, that's why we don't have a tray in our house.

• 7:08Speaker 01

  You do have a tray. For sure you have a tray. You probably just never have used it.

• 7:13Conan O'Brien?

  Very small tray that just brings some grapes and a little bit of cheese over if a guest is here. We would have that, but you're talking about a big tray?

• 7:19Speaker 01

  No, I'm talking, you're, I think when I'm saying tray, you're thinking of like cafeteria trays. No, I'm talking about like a serving tray.

• 7:26Conan O'Brien?

  So you want a tray, and what else do you want?

• 7:28Speaker 01

  I've only, I only got to tray.

• 7:32Speaker 03

  Hey, that must be a pretty good life. If all you need is a tray.

• 7:35Conan O'Brien?

  A tray?

• 7:36Speaker 01

  I know I need a lot more stuff.

• 7:38Conan O'Brien?

  Does your new place, your new abode have stairs?

• 7:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:42Conan O'Brien?

  Do you need a stair chair that goes up the stairs?

• 7:45Speaker 01

  I don't need it, but I'd like one.

• 7:47Conan O'Brien?

  Would you use it if you had one?

• 7:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:48Conan O'Brien?

  I think those are so cool.

• 7:49Speaker 01

  Aren't they so cool?

• 7:50Conan O'Brien?

  Like, well, I guess I'll go upstairs now and you sit down and you actually put a seatbelt on and then.

• 7:56Conan O'Brien?

  And it's much slower.

• 7:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:58Conan O'Brien?

  And, and you don't, I think the fact that you don't need one is kinda cool.

• 8:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:01Conan O'Brien?

  But you, you still have one. And then you could put the tray on your lap and you could eat like you're on an airplane.

• 8:05Speaker 03

  Cause that's how slow it is going up. You could finish a meal.

• 8:08Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, you could have a whole turkey dinner and slowly Tac is going up the stairs at like, I mean, small, slower than a tortoise.

• 8:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:16Conan O'Brien?

  And, oh, it's really fun too to put a tortoise on a stair chair.

• 8:18Speaker 01

  Okay. Why? But the tortoise is already slow and it's already going up. It's just a slow thing on a slow thing.

• 8:24Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, it's really funny.

• 8:25Speaker 03

  And then you just let a rabbit go up the stairs on its own. Do you want a stair chair?

• 8:29Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 8:29Speaker 03

  You're putting a second floor in your house, aren't you?

• 8:31Conan O'Brien?

  I would love to.

• 8:32Speaker 03

  You haven't put it on yet? Give me some time.

• 8:35Speaker 01

  It takes a long time to do that.

• 8:36Conan O'Brien?

  You know what would be great is I'll build you a staircase and put a stair chair in even though you don't have a second floor. And it'd be funny when people smash their head on the.

• 8:47Conan O'Brien?

  And then just blood rolls down, blood rushes down the staircase and your guest is screaming in pain.

• 8:52Speaker 03

  I swear there was a second floor there yesterday.

• 8:55Speaker 01

  Or do an elevator.

• 8:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, I got, that's funny, we just got a thing in the mail. We got junk mail for something called like a SLIFT.

• 9:01Conan O'Brien?

  What's the SLIFT?

• 9:02Speaker 03

  And it's like an easy prefab elevator that you can put in your house.

• 9:06Conan O'Brien?

  Wait a minute, wait a minute, this is fantastic, we could get a SLIFT?

• 9:09Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 9:09Conan O'Brien?

  Wait a minute.

• 9:10Speaker 03

  I think it's called SLIFT.

• 9:11Conan O'Brien?

  We need one here.

• 9:12Speaker 03

  Can I say something? Can you Google, is it called SLIFT?

• 9:13Speaker 01

  SLIFT.

• 9:14Conan O'Brien?

  Um, that sounds disgusting, by the way. Um, the, uh.

• 9:18Speaker 03

  No.

• 9:18Speaker 04

  It's a band.

• 9:20Speaker 03

  It's a what?

• 9:20Speaker 04

  A band?

• 9:21Conan O'Brien?

  So it's not called SLIFT? You sick pervert. You're like, ah, here's something I wanna get, it's called SLIFT.

• 9:27Speaker 03

  Oh, that's right, it was a nudie mag we got in the mail.

• 9:29Conan O'Brien?

  But wait a minute, um, is there, this is a question for maybe for Adam, but this is our building here, we own this building at Larchmont, it is Team Coco Global Headquarters. We should have an elevator and I want.

• 9:42Speaker 04

  I love that idea.

• 9:43Conan O'Brien?

  And you know what I want? I want one, uh, that, we have three floors in this building. I like the idea that it's prefab, it's something that someone comes in, it's installed within a day.

• 9:52Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:52Conan O'Brien?

  Because I know it's not gonna be safe and that's funny.

• 9:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:55Speaker 03

  We also need fire poles.

• 9:57Speaker 01

  What?

• 9:57Speaker 04

  I think it's one or the other.

• 9:58Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, it's one or the other, and I say elevator. What's it, what's it called there, Eduardo? Stilts. That's it.

• 10:04Speaker 01

  Still.

• 10:04Conan O'Brien?

  With a Z. With a Z.

• 10:06Speaker 03

  And.

• 10:07Speaker 01

  Can we have an operator?

• 10:08Conan O'Brien?

  But how, I don't understand, I've never heard of, look at that. Oh my god, it looks like very Star Trek, doesn't it?

• 10:13Speaker 03

  It looks like you go in there and you get some kind of future medical thing done, like from.

• 10:19Conan O'Brien?

  No, like it's a chamber, you get into this chamber and how do they install that? They.

• 10:23Speaker 03

  That's where Spock dies.

• 10:24Conan O'Brien?

  What's that?

• 10:25Speaker 03

  That's where Spock dies.

• 10:26Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, but he dies of boredom because it's going so slowly. Wait a minute, um, do you think we could get this installed?

• 10:32Speaker 04

  I actually, I, I think it's a great idea.

• 10:34Conan O'Brien?

  I'll put up the funding for it.

• 10:35Speaker 04

  I think we should look into it for, for real.

• 10:37Conan O'Brien?

  Um, I would love it. Oh, look, there's a little animated part.

• 10:39Speaker 04

  It would make the building more accessible.

• 10:41Speaker 01

  On stilts. Yeah, it would make the building more accessible. That's true. It's good, it's a good thing to do.

• 10:46Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, and you know what would be great? If it made a lot of noise so that when we were recording the podcast.

• 10:49Speaker 03

  It should come up in this room.

• 10:51Conan O'Brien?

  And Ted Danson comes in to get ready for his podcast and of course, you know, he's no spring chicken, he'll get on the stilts and then.

• 10:59Conan O'Brien?

  And we can hear it on our podcast and I'm like, Ted! Ted!

• 11:03Speaker 03

  I'm sorry, but Slift makes more sense than Stilts.

• 11:06Conan O'Brien?

  I think you're right.

• 11:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:08Conan O'Brien?

  Maybe we can get, oh, look at this. It's quiet! It's quiet and there's a cartoon of a guy and his dog sleeping so that he can sleep on a couch while his wife quietly goes in an inner tube and sails up.

• 11:20Speaker 03

  Oh, it's got a remote control. What, so you could put someone in it and control what they do?

• 11:26Conan O'Brien?

  This lazy shit is having, this lazy shit is having his luggage sent down in an elevator. And he's saying, oh, okay, all right, this is a handicap person or handicappable, but this is a person who should use this. But can we go back to the guy saying, "Someone put my luggage in the elevator and send it down to me in our two-room house."

• 11:51Speaker 01

  I do, I do think you need to have an old-school guy with a hat as the elevator operator.

• 11:57Conan O'Brien?

  David Hopping is on the, is on this, let's just call it a Slift.

• 12:01Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 12:02Conan O'Brien?

  And Stilts, get your act together and change the name. Uh, David Hopping will be on it and he'll be wearing a, again, 1930 elevator operator costume.

• 12:12Speaker 03

  And when he arrives at this floor, he goes like, "Cosmetics, notions, unmentionables."

• 12:15Conan O'Brien?

  Unmentionables.

• 12:17Speaker 01

  We don't do any of that.

• 12:19Conan O'Brien?

  This is fantastic, because he doesn't do anything. When, David does a lot, but then whenever we're all here, he doesn't do anything.

• 12:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:24Conan O'Brien?

  So he could be riding up and down the elevator doing bits.

• 12:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:26Conan O'Brien?

  We have to get this, we need to immediately find out how much this costs. The company's called Stilts and I'm not doing an ad for them because I wish their name was Slits.

• 12:36Speaker 03

  Slift.

• 12:37Conan O'Brien?

  I say Slits.

• 12:38Speaker 01

  Slits?

• 12:39Conan O'Brien?

  And guess what? That's the even better name.

• 12:42Speaker 01

  Slits is like a strip club, kind of.

• 12:44Conan O'Brien?

  Trust me.

• 12:44Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 12:45Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, and you know what? Slits should have an elevator.

• 12:48Speaker 03

  Join the 100th of a mile club.

• 12:50Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 12:52Conan O'Brien?

  Listen, Stilts, you have 24 hours to change your name to Slit.

• 12:58Conan O'Brien?

  I want this, I've never wanted anything this badly.

• 13:00Speaker 03

  Get it, let's do it. Maybe they'll give us one for free. I mean, we've done a lot of promotion for them. Come on, listen up, Slits.

• 13:06Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 13:07Speaker 03

  Slit!

• 13:09Conan O'Brien?

  Knee, formerly known as Stilts.

• 13:13Speaker 03

  Slit's knee stilts.

• 13:14Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. You may know her as Stilts, but we call her Slit!

• 13:19Conan O'Brien?

  I've gotta have it, I've got to have it, and I will spare no expense. We're gonna sawn a hole in this joint, and we're running that thing up and down. And David Hoppings gonna get a uniform, and we're gonna shoot videos, and everyone's gonna love us again.

• 13:34Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 13:34Conan O'Brien?

  All right, let's wrap this up. My guest today stars in, this is very exciting for me to talk about, the new movie, If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You, alongside, well, another familiar face you might know. And this is a project that's very near and dear to my heart, and I absolutely adore our guest today. I can't, I don't know, just nothing more I can say. I'm thrilled she's here with us.

• 14:02Conan O'Brien?

  Rose Byrne, welcome.

• 14:08Conan O'Brien?

  I'm thrilled you're here on the podcast. You came on The Late Night Show a couple of times, and I never really got to talk to you, and we've had this incredible experience together, working on a movie. I had never done anything remotely like that, and everything I thought about you came true and was verified a million times over, just in terms of like, you're, I know you to be this incredible actress, and this very funny person who can do any kind of performance, and then you show up, and you are one of my favorite people of all time, seriously. And so, that was a blessing, and now I wanna, I wanna take you down. I wanna...

• 14:50Speaker 02

  Today's the day!

• 14:51Conan O'Brien?

  Today's the day. You claim you're from Australia, but I found out San Diego is where you were born, to Patricia and Lorenzo Bobkic.

• 15:06Speaker 02

  Finally.

• 15:08Conan O'Brien?

  So like you can come clean.

• 15:09Speaker 02

  Right? This is exciting.

• 15:11Conan O'Brien?

  We'll talk about the film in, in just a bit. I just wanted to start with, you grew up just outside Sydney?

• 15:17Speaker 02

  Like in a city suburb, like 20 minutes from the city, Balmain.

• 15:21Conan O'Brien?

  Balmain, and you're one of four?

• 15:23Speaker 02

  Youngest of four.

• 15:24Conan O'Brien?

  Uh huh, okay. I feel like a policeman now getting information. Says here, your eyes are hazel. And you're so innately funny, and I've seen this up close and in person, that I'm thinking that had to present itself when you were a kid. Did you know you were funny when you were just with your, in your family?

• 15:45Speaker 02

  I mean, the youngest thing of like, you're goofy, maybe, like trying to get attention and being a little bit goofy. And my mother says I liked the attention, but I was also quite shy. So one of those performers too, that's a little bit shy, but a bit of a ham.

• 15:58Conan O'Brien?

  And you knew through certain comedic performances you saw growing up?

• 16:02Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 16:03Conan O'Brien?

  And you thought, that, and who is that? Who are we talking about?

• 16:06Speaker 02

  Well, John Cleese in Faulty Towers, that was a show that my family, one of the few shows that we all gathered around to watch. And it was like, I don't know how big it was here in the States.

• 16:16Conan O'Brien?

  Faulty Towers was, I mean, it wasn't like Friends, but it was, it played, I mean, the first times I saw it, I think PBS was showing it.

• 16:23Speaker 03

  It would only show on PBS.

• 16:24Conan O'Brien?

  PBS.

• 16:25Speaker 03

  Until cable came around.

• 16:26Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, and, but I would see it, and what drew me to that performance, and I'm guessing you might be the same, is that John Cleese is verbally very funny and kind of pitch perfect, but then,

• 16:40Speaker 02

  So true.

• 16:40Conan O'Brien?

  But then, he can use his body in the funniest.

• 16:44Speaker 02

  Which is not dissimilar to you, actually, now that you have the same physique, it's so tall.

• 16:48Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 16:49Speaker 02

  And like the legs and just the innately comic with, and just some brilliant, yeah, brilliant physical comedy sequences from that show that I can recall.

• 16:57Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, I mean, he's so, he could, he could do it both. And I always just thought, and I know Peter Sellers to me was the same kind of thing as someone who could, you know, deliver verbally the perfect performance, just in the face, but then if called to, could be very physically hilarious. And what about? What women were you watching where you thought that person's doing something I love?

• 17:20Speaker 02

  There's a great show called Kath and Kim from Australia. These two brilliant comedians, Jane Turner and Gina Riley, I believe. And they were brilliant. They were fantastic. Hysterical is a very popular show in Australia. There was satire about these two women. And then also I loved Ab Fab. I loved them from that. And Julia Louis-Dreyfus was one of my touchstones. I just grew up watching Seinfeld and Elaine was, I mean, yeah. I'd not seen anything like that in a sitcom in America before. I just thought she was like so groundbreaking, you know, and amongst these men. And just such a specific lived in character, so physically funny, verbally brilliant. So her intelligence just shines through.

• 17:59Conan O'Brien?

  But then the horrible dance that she had to do.

• 18:01Speaker 02

  Horrible dance.

• 18:02Conan O'Brien?

  I mean, yes, again, she could do, just like Cleese, she could do both.

• 18:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:08Conan O'Brien?

  One of the things I loved for her and for any fan of comedy is when she did Veep. She opened up this whole other can of whoop ass comedically.

• 18:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, she really did. It was a, it was a, it was a turn, wasn't it? It was a pivot.

• 18:21Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, I mean, she, you know, she, she could have moments of being a slight out of touch sociopath on Seinfeld, but then in Veep.

• 18:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:31Conan O'Brien?

  They wrote this incredibly, incredibly mean, horrible stuff for her to say and do. And she's so funny doing it.

• 18:40Speaker 02

  She's so funny.

• 18:42Conan O'Brien?

  And still, you know, still likeable.

• 18:44Speaker 02

  Were rooting for her.

• 18:45Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, I'm still rooting for her, even though she's clearly the worst person in the world.

• 18:49Speaker 03

  That's like working for you.

• 18:50Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, okay, okay. We'll have to edit that out. Oh, wait, you edit it out.

• 18:56Speaker 03

  I'll handle it, I'll handle it.

• 18:57Speaker 02

  Did you guys ever work together over the years?

• 18:59Conan O'Brien?

  I've done some bits with, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

• 19:04Speaker 02

  I feel like everyone has crossed over at some point. So always I love to hear those stories, you know, I'm such a geek about that. I'm like, tell me what happened.

• 19:11Conan O'Brien?

  And I have to ask you about someone who I got to meet through my show. Who seemed very cool and of course tragically, we lost him way too young, but Heath Ledger. And I know that Heath Ledger, I think was on my show and agreed to play a didgeridoo. So I remember I had a very distinct pleasure of talking to Heath and then us bringing a didgeridoo out and him blowing into it. And it makes that sound that, I'm sorry, I, you know, I don't know that he was hit playing it correctly or incorrectly.

• 19:43Conan O'Brien?

  I just don't know what the didgeridoo, I don't know what the tuning is.

• 19:46Speaker 02

  That's, that's really surprises me. I am shocked.

• 19:50Conan O'Brien?

  So.

• 19:50Speaker 02

  You didn't grow up doing that?

• 19:51Conan O'Brien?

  I know.

• 19:54Conan O'Brien?

  I couldn't pick out exactly what rush tune it was.

• 19:56Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 19:59Conan O'Brien?

  But, uh.

• 20:01Speaker 02

  I think I have a recollection of that now that I feel like.

• 20:03Conan O'Brien?

  Heath is an important part.

• 20:05Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 20:05Conan O'Brien?

  Of your early life and getting started. Tell us about that.

• 20:08Speaker 02

  Um, we were, I was 18 and I got cast in a film called Two Hands. Opposite Heath and Heath was the lead, he was the same age, we were just kids in the film. Um, it did very well in Australia. It was Brian Brown, myself and a cast of wonderful Australian actors and, um. Heath and I traveled to Sundance together and the film didn't ultimately really translate here as, as well as we'd hoped, but, um, it's become like a beloved classic in Australia. And yeah, we, he was integral in getting me agents and getting me to auditions. And he would always have a house full of Australian actors and friends. He was a very generous guy. Also shy, actually. There was a kind of, um, reserve about him, even though he was surrounded by people often, um. But he was really instrumental in those early years and very, as I say, a hugely generous spirit. So, but yeah, we were just kids.

• 20:53Speaker 02

  We were 18, you know, he had done a show called Roar and it was interesting, you know, he always had such a great creative, um. Instincts and he was being offered so many kind of corny TV shows. He was a heartthrob, you know, after, when he kind of hit. And he really had a specific goal of what he wanted to do and whose careers he loved and I admired that. He had confidence inside.

• 21:15Conan O'Brien?

  I still think that his Joker, I mean, that performance.

• 21:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:20Conan O'Brien?

  Had nothing to do with any performance he had done before. And it was so radical, that I had seen.

• 21:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:27Conan O'Brien?

  And it was so, it's so easy when you have that heartthrob, leading man status and you have that face to, uh. To just disappear into that world of playing the same person over and over and over again. And he came at that in this way and in so many of his roles, it just felt like it was very important to him to, that this is an art.

• 21:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, he had a creativity about him and a goofiness and that role in particular was so unexpected, right? The, the performance he gives, it's so, talk about a pivot. It was really, and it, you know, stands the test of time, obviously. It's like, I remember going to see it in the cinema and the gentleman next to me had obviously seen it several times and every time. Heath came on, he would start to recite the lines with him.

• 22:08Conan O'Brien?

  Oh no.

• 22:12Speaker 02

  And I was like, wow, this guy has seen this movie.

• 22:15Conan O'Brien?

  Matt, would you like to apologize?

• 22:16Speaker 02

  Twenty-five times in a cinema.

• 22:18Conan O'Brien?

  I would like to apologize.

• 22:19Speaker 02

  I thought you looked familiar. I wasn't gonna say. I was like, were you at a movie theater on?

• 22:26Conan O'Brien?

  But you have to admit, I was pretty good.

• 22:28Speaker 02

  Honestly.

• 22:29Conan O'Brien?

  You nailed almost every line.

• 22:30Speaker 02

  Yes, but it was, that's a mark of a performance that is like, you know, iconic.

• 22:36Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 22:44Conan O'Brien?

  You know, winning an award, that's a big achievement, right?

• 22:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love awards.

• 22:47Conan O'Brien?

  Every now and then in life, maybe something nice like that comes your way. Winning them consistently is almost impossible. It just doesn't happen, you know? Well, guess what? Winning five times in six years? You know what that sounds like to me? Sustained excellence.

• 23:01Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 23:02Conan O'Brien?

  Hyundai has done just that, earning the title of America's best SUV brand for 2026 from US News and World Report. You are a very happy Hyundai driver.

• 23:10Speaker 01

  I drive a Hyundai Palisade and I love my car. I love it. I love driving it around.

• 23:15Conan O'Brien?

  I've been tooling around in an Ioniq 5N, which I love. Beautiful car. Well, listen, whether you need an SUV for everyday life, your next big adventure, or extra room for family and friends, Hyundai has an option for you. The Tucson Hybrid is loaded with technology and built for everyday life. The Santa Fe Hybrid's fully capable and ready for adventure. The Palisade, that's yours, right?

• 23:34Speaker 01

  Hello!

• 23:35Conan O'Brien?

  They're gonna rename that the Sona. The Palisade Hybrid, yeah, delivers premium capability and class-leading interior space. With available, I had this memorized, H-Track all-wheel drive, up to an EPA estimated 619 miles of range on vehicles like the Palisade Hybrid and Hyundai's industry-leading warranty, it's easy to see why Hyundai continues to deliver the quality, innovation, technology, and value drivers expect from an award-winning brand. View US News Best Cars at cars.usnews.com and call 562-314-4603 for complete details.

• 24:08Conan O'Brien?

  Technology can generate salary recommendations in seconds. But building an offer that lands skilled talent, that takes more than just an estimate you came up with.

• 24:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're right.

• 24:18Conan O'Brien?

  That's where Robert Half's new 2027 Salary Guide can help.

• 24:22Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 24:22Conan O'Brien?

  Did we use a salary guide with you, Sona?

• 24:24Speaker 01

  Uh, no, but maybe-

• 24:26Conan O'Brien?

  For several years, I just gave you groceries, remember?

• 24:28Speaker 01

  I know, yeah, I remember that. That was not good.

• 24:30Conan O'Brien?

  Uh, well, anyway, now you got Robert Half's new 2027 Salary Guide. As a staffing firm placing talent every day, Robert Half combines compensation data with the experience of local recruiters. You can hire with the confidence that comes from experience. The new Robert Half Salary Guide is here. Visit roberthalf.com/salaryguide.

• 24:52Conan O'Brien?

  Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is so good, it's almost impossible not to finish it before the meal arrives. It's just too good to wait. That happens to me sometimes.

• 25:01Speaker 01

  Me, too.

• 25:01Conan O'Brien?

  You can try rules like no sipping until the appetizer arrives, or you tell your friend, "Don't let me touch my glass." But every time, you're staring at an empty glass. So if you've ever finished your Coke Zero before the first fry hits the table, you're among friends. It happens. Occupational hazard with Coke Zero.

• 25:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:19Conan O'Brien?

  Real Coca-Cola taste, zero sugar, too good to wait. Enjoy an ice cold Coca-Cola Zero Sugar today.

• 25:32Conan O'Brien?

  So you have success, things are going well, and then you do bridesmaids. I, I thought that you were getting to play so many very subtle comedic moves. The, the speech where you're each trying to... When I, when you first, when you first came on screen, though, I remembered thinking, okay, this is the, the beautiful friend who's gonna be kind of uptight, and you're just gonna hit that note, and then you don't, and you're, you're, you're, in many ways, being just as competitive, petty, and insane as Kristen Wiig.

• 26:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:09Conan O'Brien?

  And, um, and I was just like, oh, okay, Rose, yeah, Rose Byrne. And then I think that was everybody's reaction.

• 26:16Speaker 01

  Uh, you know, it's like, those guys-

• 26:17Speaker 02

  Guys are so willing to like, I had auditioned for Get Him To The Greek and ended up doing that film. That's how I met Chad, who was producing Kristen's script that Paul Feig directed, Kristen and Annie Marmalos' script that Paul Feig directed. But those guys are really open minded. They're like, I was on damages. I'm like, sure, come in. You know, a lot of people would be like, why would you want to see this dramatic actress who's not got comedy chops to come in and work with these like, you know, hardcore, all those girls are from Groundlings, UCB, like really properly trained improv comedic actresses, all brilliant, like, as you say, like, what an ensemble of like incredible actresses. One of my, like, probably my favorite film to ever shoot. And Helen really is the straight man in many ways. She's just buttoned up.

• 27:02Speaker 02

  But I remember early on when we were rehearsing and just trying to figure out exactly like the inspiration for that character and how competitive she is and her, the need for status and how important that is and what that kind of, how people wear that entitlement and, you know, it's very fun, very fun. And working with, oh my god, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, you know, Melissa, Ellie, Wendy. It was just such a heavyweight cast of these women, you know.

• 27:28Conan O'Brien?

  Did you find that that because what's been remarkable about your career is, of course, there are people that do comedy and drama, but you excel at both of them. And I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. No, but I'm telling you, I mean, I watch you and I love.

• 27:49Conan O'Brien?

  I love horror and I love the insidious films. So it's like, but like, I'm watching you in that and you can just, you're always able to really break my heart. And then I'll see you being hilariously funny with Seth Rogen. And I'm just a little mystified as to what that's all about. And I think there's something very wrong with you that would show up on a, show up on a CAT scan, frankly. There's a large line dividing your skull.

• 28:21Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, I'm sorry. I just want to reduce.

• 28:23Speaker 02

  That's definitely true.

• 28:24Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, all your, all your talent.

• 28:26Speaker 01

  Just because she has range, you're like, something's wrong with you.

• 28:29Conan O'Brien?

  I just think she has a terrible brain problem. That's my take on her acting.

• 28:33Speaker 02

  And he's right.

• 28:35Conan O'Brien?

  I think I'm right.

• 28:36Speaker 02

  He's correct.

• 28:38Conan O'Brien?

  But, and then I, we, we need to get to this because this script comes along. This creative force named Mary Bronstein.

• 28:49Speaker 02

  Our friend.

• 28:50Conan O'Brien?

  Our friend.

• 28:51Speaker 02

  Our friend.

• 28:51Conan O'Brien?

  Writes a movie. How does the script come to you? What happens?

• 28:55Speaker 02

  My agent sends me this script and she's a very discerning Irish woman.

• 29:02Conan O'Brien?

  You best be reading me script.

• 29:06Speaker 01

  What is wrong with you?

• 29:07Conan O'Brien?

  You best be reading my script. I'm sending it your way.

• 29:11Speaker 01

  Pretty, pretty much.

• 29:12Conan O'Brien?

  I'll tell it to a donkey.

• 29:13Speaker 01

  Pretty much like that. She's a pirate agent.

• 29:16Conan O'Brien?

  I said she was a pirate. I didn't, I heard pirate, not Irish. Arrgh.

• 29:19Speaker 01

  Pretty much.

• 29:20Conan O'Brien?

  Ka, ka.

• 29:21Speaker 02

  Weirdly exactly like that.

• 29:23Conan O'Brien?

  Why did my parrot go ka, ka? Parrots don't go ka, ka.

• 29:27Speaker 03

  You're an Irish pirate with a raven.

• 29:29Conan O'Brien?

  I couldn't get a parrot, so I had to get a raven.

• 29:35Conan O'Brien?

  Sorry.

• 29:37Conan O'Brien?

  Sorry, sorry, sorry. I'm sorry. So anyhow, you've got a line down your head.

• 29:43Speaker 02

  That's a real visceral cellular reaction to an Irish woman. I feel it. I feel it.

• 29:47Conan O'Brien?

  They terrorized me.

• 29:48Speaker 02

  Straight up.

• 29:49Conan O'Brien?

  Throughout my life.

• 29:50Speaker 02

  From the island, straight up. No, she's, she, she's very discerning, you know, and she's only written a few times over the years. And she said, you need to read this. And I was like, hmm, okay. But she, you know, read like fire. It's like she lit the page. It's such an unbelievable script. And I want to hear your thoughts on it when you read it. And I devoured it. And there's an incredible symmetry to the script with the imagery. It's kind of the metaphors that are going on and what's happening in front of Linda. What's happening to her and what's happening outside of her is a wonderful symmetry. And it's, and you really do see it, I think, in the finished product as well. It's very much there. And I just thought, oh my God, what an opportunity. It's someone throwing you the ball, right? And you've got the bat and you're like, can I really? Oh my God, oh my God.

• 30:35Speaker 02

  And it was extraordinary. And it's sort of genre. Defying in a way, there's many, John, there's horror, tropes of horror in there, there's tropes of drama, there's

• 30:44Conan O'Brien?

  There's comedy in there too.

• 30:45Speaker 02

  And there's comedy. So I, I, you know, I couldn't believe it. And then I started to, you know, I met with Mary and we started to work together and I just thought, I'm like, I cannot fuck this up. I was like, I cannot fuck this up.

• 30:56Conan O'Brien?

  So I have this funny experience, which is this script comes my way and we talked about this with Mary on the podcast, but Adam Sandler calls me and

• 31:06Speaker 02

  Oh, I didn't know that Sandler called you. Yeah.

• 31:07Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, just to tell me he admired my work. And then he, uh, hold on. And then he called me.

• 31:12Speaker 02

  Copy that.

• 31:12Conan O'Brien?

  I'm just name dropping now. And then Brad Pitt texts me. He wants to know where I got my four tourists. And so anyway, all these famous people are always calling and texting. Now Adam called and he said, is it okay if I give one of the Safdie brothers your, your number? And it's for an eight twenty four film. And I went, I guess so. And he, he was like, oh, you think so, Coney? Yeah, dummy, idiot. And so, um, at first I thought it's going to be, if someone like me gets offered a part, it's always to play myself. Do you know what I mean? It's, uh, it's, oh, and then the characters turn on the TV and Conan O'Brien's there.

• 31:53Conan O'Brien?

  And he's saying, you all heard in the news, the story about insert character's name here. And, uh, and then I, they were like, no, no, you're, you're playing a character. So I talked to Mary and tried very hard to talk her out of it. I just was like, well, this is a really great script and you don't want me in there. And, but she was adamant. And then

• 32:14Speaker 02

  What was your reaction when you were like, oh, I, it's playing a therapist?

• 32:18Conan O'Brien?

  I, I mean, my first reaction was there's, be honest with you, was there's been a mistake. You know, like, why, why am I, why is someone, and I should talk to my therapist about that, but I, it, it was, um, very surprising to me that she has this, this beautiful thing that she's written. It's, uh, a real statement by her and, and I, and, and comes from her life. And I, I just, this is her big shot and I'm in there. And I thought, okay. And I, I really didn't want to, um, Mess things up. So she was very like-

• 32:57Speaker 02

  So we felt the same way. We felt the same way.

• 33:00Conan O'Brien?

  Only there's a difference.

• 33:01Speaker 02

  We're gonna mess it up.

• 33:02Conan O'Brien?

  Here's a little difference. You're Rose Byrne. And, um, and I'm-

• 33:06Speaker 02

  Gunner Brian.

• 33:07Conan O'Brien?

  Uh, so.

• 33:10Conan O'Brien?

  So then, um, I'm starting to feel better because she's given me all the reasons why I'd just be perfect for it. And she said, trust me, everyone is excited about you doing it and you're perfect for it. And I thought, well, they're, they're professionals. They must know. And then Mary sets this, uh, meeting at the Whitby Hotel that I show up at, you show up at, and, um, Mary shows up at, and you proceed to say, uh, excuse me, Conan, what acting have you done? And I, I start saying, well, I haven't really done that. No, but I mean, what films have you done? And I went, um, I haven't done any films. And then you said, uh huh. And I said, I've done sketches. And she said, but what about like dramatic roles, film? And I went, I haven't really done that. And then you, you start drilling down deeper and you went, but surely you did plays in high school?

• 33:56Conan O'Brien?

  And I said, no, I didn't. And Mary, I didn't know you that well then. So I thought, Rose Byrne does not want me in this. And then I find out later that you're taking the piss out of me.

• 34:09Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 34:10Conan O'Brien?

  And, and I, like, you winked at, you winked at, at Mary and, um, but I, I left thinking, oh my God, like she's gonna go to her Irish script reader and say, put down that, put down that bowl at Taters. And get Conan off this feckin', not fucking, but feckin' movie.

• 34:32Speaker 02

  But I often feel like the, like people have secret histories. You don't know, like, I, you know, maybe you had a rich history of doing a play or at Harvard, you know, like, and like-

• 34:40Conan O'Brien?

  You knew I didn't do anything.

• 34:42Speaker 02

  But I don't, no, honestly.

• 34:43Conan O'Brien?

  Now you're being the nice person.

• 34:44Speaker 02

  No, no, no, I honestly, like, I was like, but, and I, I think I remember, I remember, I remember going, but has anyone approached you before? Or has anyone asked you to do a dramatic role that didn't work out? And so, you know, like, I was like, doing investigative, like, because I feel like-

• 34:59Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. It was like you were wearing a wire. And people were listening in a van.

• 35:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:03Conan O'Brien?

  And then all I remember is, is you slammed your plate down at one point and said, who do you think you are?

• 35:09Speaker 02

  That did happen.

• 35:10Conan O'Brien?

  Remember that? And then you slapped me.

• 35:11Speaker 02

  And then it hit you.

• 35:12Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 35:13Speaker 02

  It hit you.

• 35:14Conan O'Brien?

  And then I hit me.

• 35:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:16Conan O'Brien?

  Uh, it was, um, no. And then we start- We start the process of making this movie and I will admit, I was saying that I um, I worked really hard with Mary and there's no-

• 35:29Speaker 02

  For a longer than, for a year. You were attached forever.

• 35:33Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 35:33Speaker 02

  Long before, as was Rocky.

• 35:34Conan O'Brien?

  So you're making the point that you got it much quicker than I did. Um, I see what you're doing. Look at this, this Rose is such a master at passive aggression. Are you seeing it? Yeah, you, a long time, a long time. I mean, much longer than me and I'm really 99% of the film. But anyway, I had that experience of worked very hard with her, tried to prepare as much as I possibly could. And then, before you know it, it's a very small room. All our scenes are in a tiny-

• 36:00Speaker 02

  Tiny room.

• 36:02Conan O'Brien?

  Tiny room. And I'm a, a large fellow and we're in this tiny room.

• 36:06Speaker 02

  Tiny room.

• 36:07Conan O'Brien?

  And-

• 36:08Speaker 02

  Was it quite hot or how was the temperature? I don't remember.

• 36:12Conan O'Brien?

  You think you were very excited to see me.

• 36:16Conan O'Brien?

  That's what that happened. You kept saying, is it hot in here? And people were like, it's actually 33 degrees.

• 36:20Speaker 02

  Was it stuffy? I just remember, was it?

• 36:24Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, it was. They had sealed all the windows for sound and it's just a regular office on the Upper East Side. So it was um-

• 36:31Speaker 02

  And this is not a fancy, this is like, we shot this fast and it was like a big budget. It was just to set the scene. It's not like it's a-

• 36:38Conan O'Brien?

  I was told, uh, you got all the money, all of it.

• 36:41Speaker 02

  Of course I did. All the money.

• 36:43Conan O'Brien?

  And you came in the first day wearing a grill?

• 36:48Conan O'Brien?

  It said Rose Rocks?

• 36:49Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 36:50Conan O'Brien?

  And I was like, that's a little over the top.

• 36:51Speaker 02

  That's how I work.

• 36:52Conan O'Brien?

  I know, but I-

• 36:53Speaker 02

  Establish my boundaries.

• 36:54Conan O'Brien?

  That was really off putting. Um, every time you stood up, just money fell out of you. But I um, we had these, I'll never forget, just sitting opposite you and we're in that room and then I hear, "Action!" Like the whole, the hallway's packed with people, "Action!" And you and I have this scene to do. And I think the first take, I was just trying to process, I'm in a movie, why am I in a movie?

• 37:23Conan O'Brien?

  Why am I in a movie with Rose Byrne? This is insane. And then I kind of got it together, I think, for the second take and was able to just, okay, just be in it. But I think on the first take, I was freaked out, you know? That's how it felt.

• 37:39Speaker 02

  You were great. I looked at you and you were there. You were my scene partner and you were present and I never felt not safe.

• 37:45Conan O'Brien?

  But then I see a close up.

• 37:47Speaker 02

  I know. I've worked with a lot of people and it's like, you know, when someone is there with you and you were there with me, you know?

• 37:54Conan O'Brien?

  Well.

• 37:54Speaker 02

  And the scenes were very hard. They were challenging. There's a destructive relationship. It's at the end of this relationship with this therapist and their patient, and it is someone in a crisis and it's, they're not treating each other well.

• 38:06Conan O'Brien?

  Right.

• 38:07Speaker 02

  It's like complicated.

• 38:08Conan O'Brien?

  Well, I was saying this to Mary Bronstein, the writer-director. I was telling her that one of the things that was a little difficult for me is I am extremely fond of you and I'm also a caretaker. So in real life, if it started to rain, I would scramble to like have a tent built around you. It's that kind of thing where, oh my God.

• 38:30Speaker 02

  It's counterintuitive. It's counterintuitive.

• 38:31Conan O'Brien?

  And my character is the exact 180 degree opposite and you are in, we're in this tight space and you are begging me. You know, screaming for help and I'm, I'm, I'm not doing the thing. Every cell in my body is saying, we must help Rose Byrne. And then I have to remind myself, this is not Rose Byrne right now.

• 38:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:52Conan O'Brien?

  This is my, my patient. But it was.

• 38:55Speaker 02

  That's the scenes were challenging. I agree.

• 38:58Conan O'Brien?

  But you, and I've told this to everybody and you can see it in the film, I just was present for you turning yourself inside out in the scene. It's so insane to watch someone do that, especially in an enclosed space, not up on a proscenium in a theater, but just take their own heart out and, and crush it in front of you. And then I'd hear cut and you would start laughing or giggling or you'd say, I want a sandwich, you know? And making jokes. And then Mary would come in and go, okay, let's do another one. You'd be like, all right. And I'm like, oh, what do you mean another one? No one can do that twice. And you'd do it like 19 times.

• 39:42Conan O'Brien?

  You want me to pull my heart and my lungs out this time? I could try that for you. Or just one lung and two hearts. It was just weird to see. I'm very impressed.

• 39:51Speaker 02

  They were epic. They were like, I hadn't done that that sort of scene before. With that sort of, where are you in a therapist's office like that? Where it's really like in real life where you're having these sort of moments with your therapist. So it was wild. That was definitely a, um, those days were, where they were, I mean, they were fun. There's a fun, for me, a fun element of like, can we do this? And like, you're taking off together in this scene, like, what's gonna happen, you know?

• 40:15Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 40:15Speaker 02

  And then, and then seeing, you know, where it kind of goes.

• 40:19Conan O'Brien?

  There was one, um, I can't remember if this made it into the film or not, but there's one scene where you're, I think you're lying, there are some scenes where in the chair and there are some scenes where on the therapist's couch, but where, where you're going through all these emotions and, and at one point, you're just trying different stuff and it was so fun to watch you play. At one point, your feet went up in the air.

• 40:40Speaker 02

  I remember that, yeah.

• 40:42Conan O'Brien?

  And you're doing some sort of yoga feet up in the air thing.

• 40:45Speaker 02

  Like obnoxious stretching in the chair. So stupid. Like, she's so obnoxious. She's like a child. Yeah.

• 40:50Conan O'Brien?

  You're trying to provoke your therapist and so you're doing like this weird yoga stretch where your feet go up into the air and your head, you know, and I'm...

• 40:57Speaker 02

  I don't think it made it in.

• 40:59Conan O'Brien?

  No, I don't think so, but...

• 41:00Speaker 02

  I think it might have been a bridge too far, but...

• 41:02Conan O'Brien?

  I know, but I was, I like, uh, what you and I do is galaxies apart. But then I see flashes of, oh, I know what that is. That's you playing to find things and offering Mary all these choices. And I know that, we do that in comedy.

• 41:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's the same, absolutely, an offering, like you're, and she allowed us to do that, you know? There was these, you know, and her, especially in those scenes, it's always, I mean, I'm always looking for a little levity, right? And those scenes were heavy. So it's like, how can we sneak in some, something that is a little bit, you know, that we, that might be, that might be funny? I don't know. So.

• 41:41Conan O'Brien?

  So I have a question, which is your, something I find very endearing is your refusal to take yourself seriously in a profession where everybody takes themselves very seriously. Is that an Australian thing or is that a Rose Byrne thing?

• 41:57Speaker 02

  You tell me. What do you think? Because you've probably spent, had Australians in this chair before, so I don't know.

• 42:02Conan O'Brien?

  That's right. We had all of Akadaka here. Which is the correct way to say ACDC.

• 42:07Speaker 02

  Akadaka. This is true.

• 42:09Conan O'Brien?

  I did a show in Sydney once at some big theater downtown.

• 42:12Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 42:13Conan O'Brien?

  And one of the best crowds ever. I mean, an Australian audience is-

• 42:17Speaker 02

  They are such a good- I'm so glad you say that, because it's such a long way to come. So when people do get there, they really do appreciate it.

• 42:23Conan O'Brien?

  People kept thanking me for coming and I said, you know, I kept saying, you know, you have a really good country.

• 42:30Speaker 02

  I'm happy to be here.

• 42:31Conan O'Brien?

  But, um, but no, the crowd was insane.

• 42:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:35Conan O'Brien?

  And great, but they're, what I love is they just, uh, there's no formality. Like if I would call on someone, instead of just ask, answering my question from their seat, they'd come running up on stage and then would end up being scene partners and doing a bit. We would just-

• 42:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, right.

• 42:48Conan O'Brien?

  There's a lot of improvising and having fun and taking the piss out in Australia, which is really lovely.

• 42:54Speaker 02

  Cultural language, for sure.

• 42:55Conan O'Brien?

  But do you think that's part of your, anytime a compliment comes your way or people say, oh my God, and you're like, well, thank you. And then I see the deflection.

• 43:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:06Conan O'Brien?

  Which is-

• 43:07Speaker 02

  I mean, I was, I would say the same of you. You're a bit of a deflector, I would say. Is that an Irish thing? I mean, I am-

• 43:13Conan O'Brien?

  I think so, maybe.

• 43:14Speaker 02

  I have Irish, you know, ancestors.

• 43:17Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 43:18Speaker 02

  But culturally-

• 43:19Conan O'Brien?

  How Irish are you, are you?

• 43:20Speaker 02

  I haven't, well, Byrne, so I, B Y R N E is like one of the most common names in Ireland. So when I went there, they said, welcome home. They did. And my full name is Mary Rose, which is like literally a ship, you know, from Ireland, you know, so. But I, funny, when I went there, I felt melancholy. I don't know. I felt like the Irish kind of streak of pain.

• 43:43Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 43:43Speaker 02

  If I may say, I share with you guys. I felt, I felt that, I felt the joy, but I also felt that. Did you feel like that when you were there?

• 43:49Conan O'Brien?

  I had a-

• 43:50Speaker 02

  Any reaction? I was like, I'm gonna feel like the motherland. And I had that to an extent. And then I felt like the, the deep kind of history of, you know, the stuff.

• 44:00Conan O'Brien?

  There's, um, I went back for my travel show and I got very sad. And I'm not someone who lets myself probably, I have a difficulty accessing that. And there was no hiding it there. I just really felt, I said, oh my God, the view here, it's such a beautiful- You can see these mountains, they're so gorgeous and oh my god, and I said, why did people leave? And the woman I was with said, because you can't eat the view. Like, they didn't, you know, and they needed, this wasn't working and they had to go. And I thought, right, idiot.

• 44:37Speaker 02

  That's intense, that's a real, well, that's.

• 44:39Conan O'Brien?

  It was really intense, but that's why they left.

• 44:41Speaker 02

  A true, like, return to your roots.

• 44:42Conan O'Brien?

  Did they try to eat the view? They did. I looked at the mountains and there was one big chomp out of it.

• 44:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, maybe they didn't need some seasoning.

• 44:49Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 44:51Speaker 02

  But that's real, I get that, I get that.

• 44:53Conan O'Brien?

  Always good to bring levity into famine, I always say. I'm serious, I'm serious, I appreciate that, because I needed an out and you gave it to me. But no, but like, that, that is part of it, but I think Australia is so fascinating to me because so many Irish went there or were sent there.

• 45:14Speaker 02

  We were really sent, most of us were.

• 45:15Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah, well, you were clearly sent.

• 45:17Speaker 02

  I was clearly sent, so yeah, no, the jails were overflowing and they did this crazy experiment where they were like, let's put all these people on a ship and ship them out there and they can live out their sentence there and then hang out with the people who put them in jail in the first place. Yeah. That's a short history and also ruin all of the indigenous people culture and, you know.

• 45:38Conan O'Brien?

  There's a reason they don't use you.

• 45:39Speaker 02

  That whole thing, that whole thing that happened.

• 45:42Conan O'Brien?

  There's a reason they don't use you in the tourism ads anymore.

• 45:45Speaker 02

  I know.

• 45:45Conan O'Brien?

  Can we try another take, Rose?

• 45:47Speaker 02

  I know, exactly. Yeah, yeah, wait, let's not focus on that, yeah.

• 45:50Conan O'Brien?

  And then you forgot one of the most important things, which is everyone from Ireland who got shipped over there has my skin coloring and they're suddenly living at the equator.

• 46:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:01Conan O'Brien?

  And they're running around shirtless in that sun and that's not.

• 46:05Speaker 02

  It is, it is the weirdest story, it's a pretty crazy story, that, you know.

• 46:09Conan O'Brien?

  Everyone is beet red there, everybody.

• 46:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's wild.

• 46:12Conan O'Brien?

  And so, I was thinking, okay, that's the currency in my family, where I come from, which is you make fun of yourself before anyone else can make fun of you.

• 46:20Speaker 02

  I think so, no, I do, to your point, I think it's absolutely a cultural fact, you know, we definitely don't take ourselves too seriously, there's a thing called tall poppy, never get too big for your boots and. You know, like, there's definitely an element of that culturally for Australians. And I guess I kind of embody that a little bit. But, you know, my, you know, yeah. Humor's always been a big thing in our family and I've always been firmly, you know, made fun of, so. And supported at the same time. But, but no, it's not, I, I, yeah. And I find earnestness pretty, pretty hard to swallow, to be honest.

• 46:55Conan O'Brien?

  I do too, that's why I've surrender myself.

• 46:59Conan O'Brien?

  With the least earnest people in the world.

• 47:01Speaker 02

  It's like, yeah.

• 47:02Conan O'Brien?

  Fuck you.

• 47:04Conan O'Brien?

  What a good joke.

• 47:06Speaker 02

  But, but, but I take the work seriously. I love the work and I love the, I love the work and that, that I would absolutely take seriously.

• 47:13Conan O'Brien?

  Well, I mean, it was clear to me that you're not screwing around in this role. And it's been delight to see the reaction to your performance. It's just made me so happy because universally, people have been saying, yeah, Rose Byrne, and Mary likes to use the phrase hiding in plain sight. You've been here, you've been doing incredible work, everyone loves you. And then you do this role and everyone is saying, Jesus Christ, this is, yes. It was just really nice.

• 47:48Speaker 02

  Yeah. Oh, look, I feel very emotional about it. I'm emotional about the movie. I'm protective of it. Like, I think it's such an incredible piece of art. I think Mary's a force of nature. I think her story is so punk rock, how she's taken this tackled motherhood and being a caretaker and really in a radical way. Like, it's very unconventional and it's uncomfortable and I love the film. So I'm, I'm still figuring it out, as we were chatting about earlier. Like, I'm still discovering it and seeing it through, particularly a lot of friends who are now seeing it, seeing it through other people's eyes and what they're discussing with me about it and what feelings they're responding with. And I, I, it's been, I'm so grateful, not to be corny, but to be a part of that. And I feel, yeah, I feel, I feel, I feel very, like, so proud to be in this and.

• 48:33Conan O'Brien?

  There's something about, maybe you could tell me what it is, but it is a different movie and there aren't a lot of movies like this.

• 48:43Speaker 02

  Well, there's the tradition of sort of the woman falling apart. That is.

• 48:47Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, that's a tradition, but Mary pointed out to me, those are all written by men.

• 48:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, totally, through the lens of the gaze of a man.

• 48:53Conan O'Brien?

  And she was like, no, no, no, I'm gonna write this.

• 48:55Speaker 02

  And this movie is like refusing to ignore this woman. You know, a lot of mothers feel invisible, they don't feel seen, they don't feel acknowledged. And this, this movie is like, no, no, no, you, you can't look away. This is a mother in a crisis with a child and you will not, she will not be kind of ignored. Okay?

• 49:15Speaker 02

  Which is a response, a friend was, we were chatting with a friend and she was like, I felt seen. And I was like, wow. And so, um, and then I have friends who don't have children, who really understood other aspects of the movie and other, other, other things she's bringing up in people. So I think that's a mark of her.

• 49:32Conan O'Brien?

  Well, my wife has not seen the movie yet because, and she, I wanted her to see it.

• 49:38Conan O'Brien?

  She's not a fan of my work.

• 49:40Speaker 02

  What a shame, that's so hard.

• 49:43Conan O'Brien?

  Has no awareness I did television, really, just doesn't like the podcast. But, um, no, Liza hasn't seen it yet. And she wants to see it, but, and she was gonna see it, uh, tonight when we go to this event.

• 49:55Speaker 02

  She, she can't come?

• 49:56Conan O'Brien?

  She can't come because she has to be in Seattle and so, um, to see her lover.

• 50:03Conan O'Brien?

  Who, by the way, is, he's a great guy.

• 50:06Speaker 02

  He's hot, too, yeah. He better be, I mean.

• 50:09Conan O'Brien?

  He's a ferry captain.

• 50:10Speaker 02

  The weather's really bad there.

• 50:11Speaker 01

  He's very tan.

• 50:13Conan O'Brien?

  He's the most tan guy. Cause he takes her to Mexico all the time. I'm like, well, I'm closer, I could take her. And he's like, I got it. They're actually going to see the movie together tonight.

• 50:27Conan O'Brien?

  They're gonna come up to me afterwards. We thought it was great.

• 50:30Speaker 05

  Yeah, I loved it.

• 50:32Conan O'Brien?

  God damn it, why is your voice so low and resonant?

• 50:36Conan O'Brien?

  But anyway, um. But I've been telling her because, you know.

• 50:42Speaker 02

  I really like her podcast.

• 50:44Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, yeah.

• 50:45Speaker 02

  She introduced me to.

• 50:46Conan O'Brien?

  She is the brains of our outfit. And she, but she said an interesting thing, which is, I mean, I was telling her that, that this movie, I don't, it's gonna be tough for you. It's not gonna be easy because it's very visceral about what a woman goes through, who's a mom and trying to handle it all when her husband's off doing talk shows.

• 51:12Conan O'Brien?

  And, uh.

• 51:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:13Conan O'Brien?

  But I know she's gonna love it, but also that it's going to push some buttons.

• 51:17Speaker 02

  Did she read the script?

• 51:18Conan O'Brien?

  She did read the script and she said to me, I didn't know people made, wrote scripts like this anymore. In the nicest way, yeah.

• 51:24Speaker 02

  That's right. That's such a cool.

• 51:25Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, so, uh, I'm, you know, Mary really wanted to get, the film is so you, up to the point where the, the camera is so close to you so much of the time. And initially, did that freak you out at all or?

• 51:41Speaker 02

  Well, the first day, the camera got closer and closer and closer. It was like here and I could hear it. It's film, you know?

• 51:48Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 51:48Speaker 02

  And I said to her, are you gonna be that close? Is that, that's how close we're gonna be? She was like, mm-hmm.

• 51:53Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 51:53Speaker 02

  Yeah. And I was like.

• 51:57Conan O'Brien?

  You sent the dailies to your dermatologist.

• 51:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. And I was like, I'm gonna get best mask.

• 52:01Conan O'Brien?

  Okay to you? We'll, we'll, we'll just freeze it.

• 52:06Speaker 02

  Uh, but I could, I could hear it. Okay, here we go. So it was, it was cool. I mean, it's just technical, right? So just sort of adjusting for that and making sure. We were always in dialogue, like, did you get this? Did you get that? Should I try one like this? Try one like, you know, even though we'd had this great rehearsal period, her and I. But that technical side of stuff, you don't know until you're there, right? You've gotta like figure it out and, and understand it and get my sea legs with working with the camera department. But, um, but I knew she was doing something, you know what I mean? I was like, she's pulling something off here. And the conceit of not, which is not really a spoiler, but the conceit of never seeing the daughter was also something she told me early on. And I was like, hmm, okay, right. So I knew she was crafting this language and this tension to tell this story in her,

• 52:47Speaker 02

  you know, vision, her cinematic vision. And it wasn't until I saw it that I was like, oh, good lord, wow. My goodness me. She, she, nothing could have prepared me. Yeah.

• 52:58Conan O'Brien?

  You've done so much work in film and yet this seems like a big evolution or step forward or change in some way. Because it pretty much is, I mean, yeah ASAP Rocky, myself, you guys have some people tossed in there, but we're and we're playing the parts that we need to play, but this is, this is you. And that was, that was, that was, I think it's one of the most powerful things about the film is.

• 53:27Speaker 02

  It's interesting, yeah.

• 53:29Conan O'Brien?

  It is your journey and I think I've heard you say that so often it's easy for a woman to be an appendage in a film or like, you know, you're the.

• 53:40Speaker 02

  Of course, yeah.

• 53:41Conan O'Brien?

  You're the co-equal or less.

• 53:43Speaker 02

  Yes, yep, which I've done many times, oh my gosh, many times, but this is truly from the perspective of this character, like you have no other perspective really and sometimes you don't know what's real and what's not, like when through the eyes of this woman who's just so disassociated, you know, it was a real, it's a real tightrope, the whole thing. It's like, and as that mother myself, like just confronting all of these, you know, it's very, people are not comfortable, there's a lot of shame around women who are disappointed with motherhood or have anger around motherhood or have, you know, feelings that aren't.

• 54:13Conan O'Brien?

  Anything, anything less than total fulfillment.

• 54:17Speaker 02

  Total fulfillment, yeah.

• 54:18Conan O'Brien?

  You know, isn't it just the most joyous, totally fulfilling and Andy, Andy Richter told me when his kids were really little, he said, you know what it is? It's high stakes boredom. And I said, what do you mean? Cause this is before I had had my kids and he said, it's a two and a half year old and you're, they're not doing anything and you're just staring at them. But if you, if you're not vigilant for a second, they will try to run in front of a car and that's what it is.

• 54:47Speaker 02

  That's the reality.

• 54:48Conan O'Brien?

  And so there's, of course there are moments of resentment. Good feelings, bad feelings.

• 54:53Speaker 02

  And at this point, she's not even a mother, she's a caretaker more, you know, so she's not even getting those joy, the joy of it and the like, the extraordinary parts of it. And it's like this, she's just in this crises of being a caretaker. So I felt that was, you know, yeah, such an opportunity, you know, it's just an opportunity. It's like, you don't get these shots often. So I feel, yeah, you know, I feel a bit too like, I can't believe it came to me. I'm like a little bit like that too.

• 55:21Conan O'Brien?

  Now it got back to me, you've tried to cut me out of the film.

• 55:25Conan O'Brien?

  And you said it was.

• 55:27Speaker 02

  Just the first scenes.

• 55:28Conan O'Brien?

  You said.

• 55:30Speaker 02

  The last scene I thought was pretty good.

• 55:32Conan O'Brien?

  Pretty good.

• 55:33Speaker 03

  Smart.

• 55:34Conan O'Brien?

  You requested, this is true, Rose.

• 55:36Speaker 02

  You would have done that.

• 55:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 55:37Conan O'Brien?

  Rose suggested that maybe, because she saw a rough cut and said.

• 55:42Speaker 03

  This is really rough.

• 55:43Conan O'Brien?

  We could get, yeah. She said, I've seen rough cuts, but this is, and she said, what are we gonna do about him? And then she said, can you just put a CPR dummy in there?

• 55:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 55:52Conan O'Brien?

  And put an orange wig on it.

• 55:53Speaker 02

  I have a.

• 55:53Conan O'Brien?

  And they tried it.

• 55:55Speaker 02

  I have a question for you. When you, when did you first see the film?

• 55:58Conan O'Brien?

  I saw the film for the first time.

• 56:01Speaker 02

  At Sundance?

• 56:02Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, at Sundance. We were at Sundance together, yeah.

• 56:04Speaker 02

  What was your experience of watching it?

• 56:06Conan O'Brien?

  I think a little disassociated.

• 56:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like you were out of it.

• 56:09Conan O'Brien?

  I watched, no, I could watch, I, I really loved it and I could watch you, I could watch everything. You know, my scenes, I just, I just think it's, it's a weird, I can't really connect to it.

• 56:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 56:24Conan O'Brien?

  I can't, I can't watch that.

• 56:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 56:25Conan O'Brien?

  Dispassionately.

• 56:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 56:27Conan O'Brien?

  And I know anyone who's been, like you, an experienced, you know, actor, can do that. I can't do that. I'm just happy I didn't look at the lens at some point and give a little wink.

• 56:41Speaker 03

  Well, here's a crazy hypothetical. I know there's a lot of awards buzz for you, Rose, but let's just say, supporting actor. I know, hold on. Supporting actor nomination for Conan O'Brien. He wins, but he's also hosting the Oscars. What happens?

• 56:55Conan O'Brien?

  The world implodes. First of all, you've just ensured it won't happen.

• 56:59Speaker 03

  That was my, that was my call.

• 57:00Speaker 02

  How superstitious are we?

• 57:02Conan O'Brien?

  Very superstitious, yeah. I come from that island.

• 57:05Speaker 02

  Me too.

• 57:06Conan O'Brien?

  That pirate island.

• 57:06Speaker 02

  We're probably related.

• 57:07Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, I think so.

• 57:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 57:09Conan O'Brien?

  No, I don't think so.

• 57:12Conan O'Brien?

  I just looked in a mirror and then I looked at you and I'm like, mm, okay.

• 57:16Speaker 02

  I have cousins that look like you.

• 57:18Conan O'Brien?

  You have cousins that look like me?

• 57:19Speaker 02

  I do.

• 57:20Conan O'Brien?

  I have an uncle with no leg.

• 57:21Speaker 02

  I do. I do have cousins very similar. Very, very similar.

• 57:26Conan O'Brien?

  Say it. Handsome, handsome.

• 57:27Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 57:28Conan O'Brien?

  Okay, there we go.

• 57:29Speaker 01

  That is so sad.

• 57:30Conan O'Brien?

  I have a cousin that looks like you.

• 57:32Speaker 02

  I do.

• 57:32Conan O'Brien?

  But then they fixed it.

• 57:34Speaker 02

  No.

• 57:36Conan O'Brien?

  Listen, you can't help me. The damage is too deep, Rose, too deep.

• 57:40Speaker 02

  You're not getting my sympathy.

• 57:41Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, I don't think we'll encounter that problem ever. And I think the important thing...

• 57:46Speaker 02

  But you are hosting again, correct?

• 57:48Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, that's the plan.

• 57:49Speaker 02

  Wow. You were so great. I loved you. Loved, loved last year's ceremony. It's wonderful. I couldn't think of the word. I was like, event, ceremony, whatever. I know, all of a sudden I'm the queen of England, but I...

• 58:06Speaker 02

  I couldn't think of the word. I was like, what is it? An event? No, it's not an event. It's a ceremony. It's a ceremony.

• 58:13Conan O'Brien?

  It's so Rose Byrne is to be so elegant, using just the correct... But then also so goofy at the same time, crossing your eyes, doing a bit, and then right back into, oh, we're here with Dame Judi Dench.

• 58:27Speaker 02

  That was like, you had to thread such a crazy needle. It was such a... Following such a tragedy here in California, remember? And you had to... It was like, kind of an impossible... I know.

• 58:40Conan O'Brien?

  Do you remember, Conan?

• 58:41Speaker 02

  Disassembling. But it was like, that's like, kind of an impossible task, so... That's a tough, that's a tough gig. That is a tough gig.

• 58:48Conan O'Brien?

  Okay, now I don't want to do it again.

• 58:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do.

• 58:52Conan O'Brien?

  Get the CPR dummy out there.

• 58:53Speaker 02

  If it ain't tough, it ain't fun.

• 58:55Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, now you're talking.

• 58:56Speaker 01

  CPR dummy.

• 59:01Conan O'Brien?

  Hosted tonight by the CPR dummy.

• 59:06Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, Leo DiCaprio comes out, gets chest compressions.

• 59:10Conan O'Brien?

  Well, the movie, uh, I mean, this is cool. We get to plug the movie. If I had legs, I'd kick you. It's a weird thing to say, but I feel like as like an uncle figure, whatever. I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of Mary. I'm just happy for both of you.

• 59:24Speaker 02

  Thanks, buddy. Thanks for having us. And October 10th, you can go to the cinema to see it. And thanks for your support, my therapist, my therapist.

• 59:32Conan O'Brien?

  You know what? My, my character, I don't, doesn't have a name.

• 59:34Speaker 03

  Oh, really?

• 59:35Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. And I looked at, there's a degree on the wall, which you can't see in the movie. But I, I walked up to it one point and where it says name, it just says therapist.

• 59:43Speaker 03

  Did you give yourself a name in your, in your character work?

• 59:46Conan O'Brien?

  No, I didn't. No, I didn't.

• 59:46Speaker 03

  It's not too late. The movie's not out.

• 59:48Conan O'Brien?

  Nigel G. Sopsip.

• 59:52Speaker 03

  I think it's best if we take him out of the show.

• 59:55Speaker 02

  That was a bad one.

• 59:58Conan O'Brien?

  Anyway, uh, just a joy to work with you and to get to know you better. And, um, I'll be seeing you around the circuit.

• 1:00:05Speaker 02

  I'll see you on the circuit. Yep. Thanks for having me. Thank you for such a wonderful room of funny, lovely people here. Thank you.

• 1:00:12Conan O'Brien?

  That's what we do.

• 1:00:20Conan O'Brien?

  You know, winning an award, that's a big achievement, right?

• 1:00:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love awards.

• 1:00:23Conan O'Brien?

  Every now and then in life, maybe something nice like that comes your way. Winning them consistently is almost impossible. It just doesn't happen, you know? Well, guess what? Winning five times in six years? You know what that sounds like to me? Sustained excellence.

• 1:00:37Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 1:00:38Conan O'Brien?

  Hyundai has done just that, earning the title of America's best SUV brand for 2026 from U.S. News and World Report. You are a very happy Hyundai driver.

• 1:00:46Speaker 01

  I drive a Hyundai Palisade and I love my car. I love it. I love driving it around.

• 1:00:51Conan O'Brien?

  I've been tooling around in an Ioniq 5 N, which I love. Beautiful car. Well, listen, whether you need an SUV for everyday life, your next big adventure, or extra room for family and friends, Hyundai has an option for you. The Tucson Hybrid is loaded with technology and built for everyday life. The Santa Fe Hybrid's fully capable and ready for adventure. The Palisade, that's yours, right?

• 1:01:10Speaker 01

  Hello.

• 1:01:11Conan O'Brien?

  They're gonna rename that the Sona. The Palisade Hybrid, yeah, delivers premium capability and class-leading interior space with available. I have this memorized. H-Track all-wheel drive up to an EPA estimated 619 miles of range on vehicles like the Palisade Hybrid and Hyundai's industry-leading warranty. It's easy to see why Hyundai continues to deliver the quality innovation technology and value drivers expect from an award-winning brand. View U.S. News Best Cars at cars.usnews.com and call 562-314-4603 for complete details.

• 1:01:45Conan O'Brien?

  Did you know that 1 in 4 Americans targeted by scams end up falling for them?

• 1:01:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:50Conan O'Brien?

  You fell for one.

• 1:01:50Speaker 01

  I fell for a scam.

• 1:01:52Conan O'Brien?

  Now, you didn't lose too much money, but you did lose.

• 1:01:54Speaker 01

  I did lose, and it was very inconvenient. And now they put protections on my account like I'm, uh, dumb.

• 1:02:00Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. I don't know where they got that impression.

• 1:02:04Conan O'Brien?

  Criminals are now using AI to make scams look more realistic than ever. In 2025, AI fraud spiked 1,210% and cost Americans $893 million. That's incredible. Well, with AI, it can get so smart now.

• 1:02:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:21Conan O'Brien?

  Do you know what I mean?

• 1:02:21Speaker 01

  Maybe I should start scamming.

• 1:02:23Conan O'Brien?

  No, that's not the point.

• 1:02:24Speaker 01

  Oh, no, that's not the point of this.

• 1:02:25Conan O'Brien?

  That's not the point.

• 1:02:26Speaker 01

  It's so much money.

• 1:02:26Conan O'Brien?

  One accidental click, Sona, can expose your information, putting you at risk of identity theft. Luckily, this is the point. Not that you should start scamming, but that everyone should get LifeLock.

• 1:02:36Speaker 01

  Right, right, right, right, right.

• 1:02:37Conan O'Brien?

  LifeLock has live, U.S.-based restoration specialists who will be with you every step of the way to fix your identity theft from first alert to full restoration. This is fantastic. How do you not have this?

• 1:02:48Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:02:49Conan O'Brien?

  If you have expenses or money stolen due to identity theft, you're backed by the million-dollar protection package with up to $3 million coverage in some plans. Join now and save up to 30% off your first year. Go to lifelock.com/conan. That's lifelock.com/conan to save 30%. Terms apply.

• 1:03:07Conan O'Brien?

  Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is so good, it's almost impossible not to finish it before the meal arrives. It's just too good to wait. That happens to me sometimes.

• 1:03:16Speaker 01

  Me, too.

• 1:03:16Conan O'Brien?

  You can try rules like no sipping until the appetizer arrives, or you tell your friend, "Don't let me touch my glass." But every time you're staring at an empty glass, so if you've ever finished your Coke Zero before the first fry hits the table, you're among friends. It happens. Occupational hazard with Coke Zero.

• 1:03:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:35Conan O'Brien?

  Real Coca-Cola taste, zero sugar, too good to wait. Enjoy an ice cold Coca-Cola Zero Sugar today.

• 1:03:47Speaker 03

  What's this thing about you being a seat filler?

• 1:03:49Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, we'll do it, sure.

• 1:03:50Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:03:50Conan O'Brien?

  Just say, "Hey, Conan, any childhood, any memories from your early days in show business?"

• 1:03:54Speaker 03

  Okay, ready?

• 1:03:55Conan O'Brien?

  Yep.

• 1:03:55Speaker 03

  "Hey, Conan, any memories from your childhood days in show business?"

• 1:03:59Conan O'Brien?

  Try it one more time.

• 1:04:02Speaker 03

  "Hey, Conan, do you have any memories about your childhood days in show business?"

• 1:04:07Conan O'Brien?

  Childhood days in show business? Early days. He said early days. What am I, Shirley Temple?

• 1:04:13Speaker 03

  You just TV'd up to do that.

• 1:04:15Conan O'Brien?

  It was time to shoot on the Good Ship Lollipop.

• 1:04:19Conan O'Brien?

  Puff, puff, I'm smoking a cigar.

• 1:04:22Conan O'Brien?

  No, we were just talking earlier and you guys said, "Hey, bring that up on the podcast." It's one of those early memories of young Conan out in the world. I think I was a writer on Saturday Night Live. This would have been the, I don't know, sometime between 1988 and 1991. I think we were in a hiatus. I wasn't doing much, I was bumming around. And someone, because I did sketches on the show occasionally, I would appear in the background of some SNL sketches. And someone said, "Hey, Conan, they could use you over at," I don't know, if it was the MTV Video Awards or VMAs or something. It was some early version of one of those types of shows. And it was shooting at the Armory in New York. I remember this.

• 1:05:04Conan O'Brien?

  And they said, "At rehearsals, they need people to pretend to be the winners." So you sit in the audience and they say, "And the winner is Phil Collins." And then a black woman stands up and she walks up on the stage and she says, "I want to thank the other members of Genesis." And she, basically, just so they can get the lighting right and the blocking right, because you're certainly not going to get that person there. They never read the real winner, because that can never be revealed before the show. So they always say at the beginning of rehearsal, "This is for rehearsal purposes only, the winner is Phil Collins," or whatever. So I just thought, like, this is interesting, I'll do this. And I think I got like $50 or whatever I got. So I went over and I think about this now, because I've, when I do award shows now, I'm there when I see the people

• 1:05:48Conan O'Brien?

  who are doing that same thing that I used to do.

• 1:05:50Speaker 03

  Did you ever think you'd be up there hosting the Oscars? And here you are, just a seat filler. A fake award winner?

• 1:05:55Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, I did. I knew.

• 1:05:56Speaker 03

  You knew.

• 1:05:57Conan O'Brien?

  I just knew. I said it's gonna be probably around 2025.

• 1:06:00Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:06:01Conan O'Brien?

  Global warming's gonna be a real problem. People don't think so. Ozone layer would have been fixed. And, yeah, I just knew the whole thing.

• 1:06:09Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:06:09Conan O'Brien?

  So, anyway, uh, no, I would have had no idea. But, um, I was there and I was doing that and I think I had to be someone in Oingo Boingo once or, I mean, it was just, these crazy, these references are so funny, you know? And I was like, well, on behalf of Boingo, I just wanna say, I was joking around a lot and they probably told me to shut up. But what I remember very clearly is, um, someone who was there in person was Tina Turner was hanging out at the rehearsal.

• 1:06:41Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:06:41Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. And so I'm sitting there just wearing my little lanyard that says backstage goofball. And Robert Palmer was there, simply here was just a bull. He was there. They, the two of them were there. I think they probably had a sound check, but they were just hanging out. And I remembered they announced the category. And again, they said, you know, okay, what's, the winner for best song of 1988 is, and they opened the envelope and someone said Tina Turner. And this person got up, I think a 62-year-old, um, very pale man stood up with crutches and went up on stage and said, oh, I'm just really excited that I'm here to win this award. And Tina Turner was there and she got really excited because she thought this means that she's gonna win that night.

• 1:07:26Conan O'Brien?

  And I saw her manager have to go up to her and say, no, no, no, this is just for rehearsal. And I remembered seeing someone's, a huge icon of rock dreams get crushed in that moment. I saw that happen. It wasn't that bad. I think she probably ended up winning anyway. But, um, yeah, it was one of those things where I had a lot of experiences like that where,

• 1:07:47Speaker 01

  Fun.

• 1:07:47Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:48Speaker 01

  Showbiz.

• 1:07:48Conan O'Brien?

  It was showbiz and I was just this young.

• 1:07:51Speaker 03

  Your childhood showbiz.

• 1:07:52Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. It wasn't childhood. I would have been in my twenties at that point, mid twenties. And, uh, but it was, it was an exciting, exciting moment for me back then. And now, all these years later, I still treasure it.

• 1:08:05Speaker 01

  Was that sincere?

• 1:08:06Conan O'Brien?

  Nope.

• 1:08:06Speaker 01

  I didn't think so. Okay.

• 1:08:08Conan O'Brien?

  It's just one of those things that, you know.

• 1:08:09Speaker 03

  So the year it was 1988?

• 1:08:11Speaker 06

  Eighty-six, according to what I found.

• 1:08:12Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, it was eighty-six, okay, so guess what? I wasn't on SNL yet, it was pre-SNL.

• 1:08:18Conan O'Brien?

  Nineteen eighty-six, and what was it?

• 1:08:20Speaker 06

  Uh, the VMAs.

• 1:08:21Conan O'Brien?

  It was the VMAs, was it at the Armory?

• 1:08:23Speaker 06

  It was in New York, not at the Armory.

• 1:08:25Speaker 03

  What was the Tina Turner song? We don't need another hero.

• 1:08:29Conan O'Brien?

  No, I bet it was gonna be. What's love got to do?

• 1:08:32Speaker 03

  Is that eighty-six?

• 1:08:34Conan O'Brien?

  What's love a secondhand emotion?

• 1:08:38Speaker 06

  Typical male?

• 1:08:40Conan O'Brien?

  What's that? Typical male, you got a typical male.

• 1:08:44Speaker 01

  Is that, what?

• 1:08:45Conan O'Brien?

  It's much so much better than an atypical male.

• 1:08:49Speaker 03

  Her video was. To the mailbox.

• 1:08:51Conan O'Brien?

  Nope.

• 1:08:51Speaker 06

  We don't need another hero.

• 1:08:53Speaker 03

  That's what I said.

• 1:08:55Conan O'Brien?

  Okay, well, anyway, I was there, and what would Robert Palmer have been there for? Was that Simply Irresistible?

• 1:09:00Speaker 06

  Yes. Robert Palmer was there, and he presented a Video Vanguard Award to Madonna.

• 1:09:06Conan O'Brien?

  Okay.

• 1:09:07Speaker 01

  Get out.

• 1:09:07Conan O'Brien?

  I didn't see Madonna at rehearsal. Cause you didn't get to go to the show? No, of course not.

• 1:09:11Speaker 06

  His video was Addicted to Love.

• 1:09:12Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:20Speaker 01

  We can't afford it, we can't afford it, you guys have to stop.

• 1:09:22Conan O'Brien?

  We don't have to pay this.

• 1:09:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, we do.

• 1:09:24Conan O'Brien?

  I don't think we have to pay if we sing a song, do we?

• 1:09:26Speaker 03

  I think we're singing it so.

• 1:09:27Conan O'Brien?

  Let's get that from Adam. Adam, do we have to pay if we sing a song?

• 1:09:30Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:09:32Speaker 06

  I don't know.

• 1:09:32Speaker 03

  Let me ask you this.

• 1:09:33Conan O'Brien?

  You don't know.

• 1:09:33Speaker 03

  Let me ask you this.

• 1:09:34Speaker 06

  It's murky.

• 1:09:36Speaker 03

  The verses we're singing are so.

• 1:09:39Conan O'Brien?

  Yes.

• 1:09:40Speaker 03

  So far from the original.

• 1:09:41Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:42Speaker 03

  That they can't be, you know.

• 1:09:44Speaker 06

  Works for me.

• 1:09:44Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:09:45Speaker 01

  No, I think you can't.

• 1:09:46Conan O'Brien?

  And she's a commoner, stay with a heaven.

• 1:09:49Speaker 01

  Oh, boy. You can't do it.

• 1:09:52Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, you can, because I just sang it incorrectly.

• 1:09:55Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:09:55Speaker 01

  I mean, legally you can, but.

• 1:09:58Conan O'Brien?

  I said, shh, stay away.

• 1:09:59Speaker 01

  I know, but you shouldn't. You're just ruining things, I think. It's okay.

• 1:10:04Conan O'Brien?

  Look, we're gonna get some clarity on this.

• 1:10:06Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:10:06Conan O'Brien?

  Because I think we should be able to sing these things. People know me as a crooner, and I'm a jukebox. Shh, quiet. They know me, I am America's jukebox. I've got these golden pipes.

• 1:10:18Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:10:19Conan O'Brien?

  They call me the Velvet Smog, and I think that we should be able to sing songs.

• 1:10:23Speaker 03

  Well, we should look into this, and I would say, stay tuned.

• 1:10:27Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:28Speaker 03

  To a future episode.

• 1:10:29Speaker 01

  To a future episode. I don't know what we're doing.

• 1:10:33Conan O'Brien?

  Oh.

• 1:10:33Speaker 01

  Oh, boy.

• 1:10:38Speaker 03

  Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend with Conan O'Brien, Sonam of Sessian and Matt Gourley. Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross and Nick Liao. Theme song by The White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away Jimmy.

• 1:10:58Speaker 03

  Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista and Britt Kahn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan? Call the Team Coco hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. You can also get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at siriusxm.com/conan. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.

• 1:11:48Speaker 03

  Hey, it's me, Teddy Swims. You hear that? That's life. So go grab it. Grab your old friends, grab new friends, grab a white club. Grab flavor for everyone in your crew. Grab music, laughter and moments you'll never forget. You'll never regret it. Oh, hey, man. Grab new friends, grab old friends, grab life by the glow, White Claw. Please drink responsibly. White Claw Seltzer, Chicago, Illinois.

• 1:12:19Conan O'Brien?

  When you hear Alka Seltzer, you probably think heartburn, right? Yep. Well, did you know Alka Seltzer has a line of cold and flu medications known as Alka Seltzer Cold? Ooh. Did you know that, David? No, but I feel like-

• 1:12:30Speaker 07

  Like we need it.

• 1:12:30Conan O'Brien?

  Why didn't you know that, David?

• 1:12:32Speaker 07

  I know, you expect me to know everything.

• 1:12:33Conan O'Brien?

  I knew this.

• 1:12:34Speaker 07

  Did you?

• 1:12:35Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, I've tried it, it's really good. And I like that fizzy, fizzy, fizzy when you drop the Alka-Seltzer Cold into the water.

• 1:12:41Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 1:12:41Conan O'Brien?

  Alka-Seltzer Cold, fast dissolves tablets are designed to deliver cold and flu relief, fast. Just drop the two tablets in water and hear those bubbles bursting into action. Ready to work faster than pills. Bubbles faster than pills. Pills take time to dissolve, not bubbles. Next time a cold or flu strikes, quick! Alka-Seltzer Cold, nothing works faster for cold and flu symptom relief. Among oral products used as directed.