Idris Elba

Idris Elba knows that life begins at 50 in Ibiza. Amy hangs with the actor and talks about his work as Stringer Bell on 'The Wire,' regional English accents, and DJing until 4 a.m. Host: Amy PoehlerGuests: John Cena and Idris ElbaExecutive Producers: Bill Simmons, Amy Poehler, and Jenna Weiss-BermanFor Paper Kite Productions: Executive producer Jenna Weiss-Berman, coordinator Sam Green, and supervising producer Joel LovellFor The Ringer: Supervising producers Juliet Litman, Sean Fennessey, and Mallory Rubin; video producers Jack Wilson, Belle Roman, Francis X Bernal Jr., Caroline Jannace, and Aleya Zenieris; audio producer Kaya McMullen; video editor Drew van Steenbergen; and booker Kat SpillaneOriginal Music: Amy Miles This episode is brought to you by Degree Deodorant. Grab the original Cool Rush at Walmart or Target today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

• 0:00Amy Poehler?

  This episode is brought to you by Subaru. There's something about being on the road that has a way of leading to those unexpectedly memorable little moments. And in the all-new 2026 Subaru Hybrid, it's like the destination isn't even important. It's the drive, baby. And let me tell you, I'm in that car and I feel like a million bucks. Quiet ride, comfortable. Love my Subaru. Can't get enough. With up to 581 miles in the Subaru Forester Hybrid, and even more, 597 in the Crosstrek Hybrid, you can go further between stops and stay in the moment longer. Visit subaru.com/hybrid to learn more. The Subaru Forester Hybrid and Crosstrek Hybrid, love goes the extra mile. Hi, everyone.

• 0:45Amy Poehler?

  Welcome to another episode of Good Hang. I'm very excited about our guest today. It is Idris Elba. Idris is in studio. And we're going to talk about a lot of great stuff. We're going to talk about growing up in the 80s. We're going to talk about Stringer Bell, of course. We're going to talk about cringe comedy. He's going to try to convince me to go to Ibiza. So there's going to be a lot of fun to be had. And we always start our podcasts the same way. We ask somebody who knows our guest to zoom in and give us a question so they can kind of help me get to know them. And we have a real big star zooming in today. It is John Cena.

• 1:29Amy Poehler?

  John? Look at your suit. You look so nice. Can you hear me? This episode of Good Hang is presented by Walmart. School supplies, we all remember getting them. I remember Trapper Keepers and so many colored pens, but now I'm sure there's a million more things to get. And thankfully, Walmart has essential back-to-school supplies starting at $0.25. Plus, all the latest tech starting at $9. Who knew? Hello Kitty pencil cases, Nintendo notebooks, food-shaped erasers, Chromebooks, keyboards, and more at low Walmart prices. They even have Lilo and Stitch headphones. Who knew? Shop walmart.com to score their favorite back-to-school tech and supplies.

• 2:22Speaker 01

  Oh, you got this. You have beautiful background. You guys have spent so much money on this production. I wanted to be able to see it. It was just a dot in the corner. I'm blind.

• 2:28Amy Poehler?

  I want you to be able to see my fake plants and my fake food.

• 2:31Speaker 01

  They're great.

• 2:32Amy Poehler?

  John, it's so good to see you.

• 2:34Speaker 01

  What's in the fake mug?

• 2:36Amy Poehler?

  This mug?

• 2:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:37Amy Poehler?

  You know what's in this, in this real mug is Real Berry's Tea, a wonderful Irish tea, my favorite tea to drink.

• 2:43Speaker 01

  Awesome. Excellent.

• 2:44Amy Poehler?

  Not even a sponsor. What do you have?

• 2:47Speaker 01

  Drinking my own urine.

• 2:51Amy Poehler?

  John's drinking a yellowy liquid. What do you got, what do you got in there? What are you drinking?

• 2:56Speaker 01

  No, it's my own urine. I'm going through Howard Hughes face. Okay. How are you? How's it going?

• 3:03Amy Poehler?

  It's great to see you. We haven't seen each other in person since we did a movie together. Well, we, we-

• 3:08Speaker 01

  No, we bumped into each other.

• 3:10Amy Poehler?

  We did. That's right.

• 3:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. Some, some conversations among friends about wine and, and good stories and sunsets and all that, which I'm very grateful for.

• 3:17Amy Poehler?

  I loved working with you. I would love to do it again. You're constantly working and doing such great stuff. And I, like, I, I think of our time together very, very fondly. That was a really good time on the movie Sisters.

• 3:30Speaker 01

  That was a great time. Where you were busy and I was kind of just playing Pazuzu in the background. So I had a lot of time to hang out and it was really, really fun. So, and that was a, actually the first time I'd been in a location, because of course Sisters was a massive ensemble piece. So like you're in, you're doing work and I'm like in a lot of the shots just fully tatted up. But a lot of my days weren't a lot of heavy lifting. So you kind of gave me my first vacation in like 15 years. I really, I'm grateful for that.

• 3:55Amy Poehler?

  I know, because no one works harder than you. You are, you work hard.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  Well, you're about to talk to somebody who I think wins that argument.

• 4:04Amy Poehler?

  Really? He, he beats you in the hard work category?

• 4:07Speaker 01

  Idris is a robot. Period and stop. Like, every, if you think you're working hard, you know, there's always somebody at the next level.

• 4:14Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 4:15Speaker 01

  Idris is crazy. Like, he, he goes. He goes. Yeah.

• 4:20Amy Poehler?

  That's amazing to hear from you because I know how you approach your work. It's very professional, very serious. You love it. You have fun and everybody feels fun when they work with you. But you work really hard. So you're telling me that Idris is even more of a machine?

• 4:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, he just like, I need to shut down. Like when I'm, when it's time to go, all right, cool. And I'm like a nine to five person. Idris will work a full day and then fly to Vegas to DJ for the whole night. And then fly back to work the next morning and then fly, go, go to the studio and make new music. Like, he just, uh, I'm like, I need to be put in my lane and be like, okay, this is the day's work. Go out and get it. He's everywhere all at once. I don't know how he does what he does.

• 5:04Amy Poehler?

  That's one of my questions is literally, how do you stay awake?

• 5:07Speaker 01

  Honestly, he does live an AM and PM life, like an AM, PM, AM life. You know, like he's doing his last set at 4 AM and then he's on, on set and insane when the camera turns on. Like he's, he's, and he's a, he's a great human being. I, I, I can't say enough good things about.

• 5:25Amy Poehler?

  Your movie Heads of State is coming out on Amazon and.

• 5:28Speaker 01

  Yep. Thank you very much for that. I appreciate it.

• 5:30Amy Poehler?

  You're so welcome.

• 5:33Speaker 01

  Hope everybody watches and enjoys it.

• 5:34Amy Poehler?

  It looks so great and you play, um, a fictional president of the United States. And he plays the prime minister of the UK.

• 5:43Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 5:44Amy Poehler?

  Um, never know if I should say England, the UK or Britain. So that's why I hesitated.

• 5:48Speaker 01

  We got all three, so you're covered.

• 5:50Amy Poehler?

  Great, covered. Um, and I have to say it's so, it's, it's, it's looks like such a satisfying, um, timely and fun and juicy film. Because I would like you to be president. Will you be president? And I'm putting you on the spot.

• 6:06Speaker 01

  Uh, they, they don't let folks who wear coats like this.

• 6:10Amy Poehler?

  That's true. That's true. You did ruin your chances.

• 6:12Speaker 01

  Myself out of the position. Yes, indeed.

• 6:14Amy Poehler?

  You're wearing a very striped coat and they're not going to let you in. Um, but, um, yeah, that was your first time working together?

• 6:20Speaker 01

  We worked together on a movie called The Suicide Squad.

• 6:23Amy Poehler?

  Of course.

• 6:23Speaker 01

  Where we played superheroes that were like, uh, a buddy comedy almost. But he's got, he's the head down guy, I'm the aloof ignorant guy. And Peter Safran, the producer of that movie was like, this is good. We need to do this again. And the thing about Heads of State that's very fun, and you said, you know, you play a fictional president. He plays a fictional prime minister. You being a writer would know that is the sooner you can define those characters and stand for, the more fun you can have. So basically what we have in Heads of State is a buddy comedy.

• 6:52Amy Poehler?

  It looks so fun and, and also, I mean, the.

• 6:58Amy Poehler?

  Can Idris, I'm gonna ask him about accents, but can he do a Boston accent? Because you're a Boston boy.

• 7:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, but my Boston accent sucks.

• 7:05Amy Poehler?

  It does?

• 7:06Speaker 01

  Have like, yeah.

• 7:07Amy Poehler?

  What, you lost it, John? What, you think you're better than us? What?

• 7:12Speaker 01

  Yes, I do. I do think I.

• 7:16Speaker 01

  It's gone away. It's been, I don't know.

• 7:18Amy Poehler?

  You what? You haven't watched the Karen Reed trial and gotten and brushed up on that?

• 7:23Speaker 01

  Family was, my phone would not stop with that.

• 7:26Amy Poehler?

  You have no idea. It's taken the state by storm.

• 7:31Speaker 01

  Uh, I, maybe I knew, if I stopped drinking my own urine and start drinking some, some, uh, some Sam Adams.

• 7:38Amy Poehler?

  It doesn't come back to you? The Boston doesn't come back?

• 7:40Speaker 01

  100% comes back. Every time I go to West Newbury to see my family, uh, my wife is literally like, what happened? You talk different. And it's just you go back and you just get into the vortex.

• 7:50Amy Poehler?

  There's just some friends who you can't say their name without having the accent.

• 7:54Speaker 01

  You cannot.

• 7:55Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 7:55Speaker 01

  I tried, but you cannot.

• 7:57Amy Poehler?

  Um, okay. So what question do you want me to ask Idris today? Is there anything you want to know about Idris that you didn't get a chance to ask him? Or something you think I should ask him?

• 8:05Speaker 01

  So that's a great question. Idris is somebody I respect and admire. And the, a lot of the driving force there is because he's still so motivated. Somebody who's been an on-screen performer and a great one for decades and literally has so many achievements. It would be the same question if you, if you gave me a question to ask you, like, what keeps you going? And, uh, in the stories that Idris has shared with me, he comes from very humble beginnings. This is a former automotive assembly line worker, uh, who, you know, he was just talking the other day about how he moved to New York and worked the door at a club. And then we'd go after hours with all the club folks to a, a special place that you just lock the door and leave at seven in the morning.

• 8:46Speaker 01

  Like he's, everybody in life has such an interesting story and Idris is no different. But to be where he's at and to still go like he does, I just want to know, I don't, I don't want to know the secret because everybody's story is different. But I really want to know what keeps him so driven.

• 9:04Amy Poehler?

  You know what I love about you, John? And by the way, I hope someday you come do this.

• 9:08Speaker 01

  Say this houndstooth jacket, I agree.

• 9:10Amy Poehler?

  It's this houndstooth jacket that you're wearing and the urine that you're drinking. No, um, no, what I love about you is you love people.

• 9:18Amy Poehler?

  You are a curious person about people. You care and see, like, in my experience with you, you're very interested in how all different types of people approach life.

• 9:30Speaker 01

  Everybody truly does have a story and you can learn from everybody, you know?

• 9:35Amy Poehler?

  Thank you so much for doing this. It really means a lot that you gave the time and I can't wait to see your movie and see you in person. Let's like have a decant some wine somewhere.

• 9:46Speaker 01

  This is the soft open to an actual good hang.

• 9:48Amy Poehler?

  All right. Thanks so much, John. So good to see you.

• 9:51Speaker 01

  Amy, thanks so much.

• 9:51Amy Poehler?

  Thanks, buddy. Talk to you soon. Bye.

• 9:55Amy Poehler?

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• 10:32Speaker 02

  Oh my God.

• 10:33Amy Poehler?

  Wait.

• 10:34Speaker 02

  What?

• 10:36Amy Poehler?

  Wait.

• 10:38Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 10:40Amy Poehler?

  We're twinning.

• 10:41Speaker 02

  Wow. We queued a slow, slow, slow motion music.

• 10:46Amy Poehler?

  You know, there is a part of me that always tries to think about what the guest would wear and I do try a little bit unconsciously to just dress for my guests.

• 10:54Speaker 02

  Oh, no way.

• 10:55Amy Poehler?

  And look at us.

• 10:56Speaker 02

  You did it.

• 10:57Amy Poehler?

  Look at us. We did it.

• 10:57Speaker 02

  I could take this off and do the T-shirt.

• 11:00Amy Poehler?

  No, I feel like we got it. We have to stay.

• 11:01Speaker 02

  We have to stay in this now.

• 11:03Amy Poehler?

  I'm so thrilled to talk to you today.

• 11:04Speaker 02

  Well, thank you.

• 11:06Amy Poehler?

  And I, you know, we are the same age.

• 11:09Speaker 02

  I think I'm older than you.

• 11:11Amy Poehler?

  No, nineteen seventy-two, babe, nineteen seventy-one.

• 11:14Speaker 02

  Ah.

• 11:15Amy Poehler?

  And we're both Virgos.

• 11:16Speaker 02

  And when's your birthday?

• 11:17Amy Poehler?

  September sixteenth.

• 11:19Speaker 02

  I'm September six.

• 11:20Amy Poehler?

  And I saw that, and I wanna ask and start asking you a question, which is, what does it feel like to be a Virgo?

• 11:26Speaker 02

  What does it feel like?

• 11:28Amy Poehler?

  Do you identify as a Virgo? Do you see qualities in Virgo that you feel are yours?

• 11:33Speaker 02

  Okay, so if I'm really honest, I have this weird statistic thing, right? Let's just get this straight, that's all I understand, okay? It is like, how many billion people on the earth, right?

• 11:42Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 11:43Speaker 02

  Are we suggesting that everyone?

• 11:46Amy Poehler?

  This is very Virgo of you.

• 11:47Speaker 02

  I know, but everyone that was born in that particular time period, around that time, has similar traits. I mean, this is the logic that I

• 11:55Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 11:56Speaker 02

  find myself wrestling with.

• 11:58Amy Poehler?

  I understand, you're a challenger, you're a Virgo, it makes sense.

• 12:02Speaker 02

  Or is it that everyone you've met that says, hey, are you Virgo? I'm a Virgo, do you do, I do, and then that becomes a myth?

• 12:09Amy Poehler?

  Would this make you feel better? Beyonce is a Virgo, do you wanna be in the club now?

• 12:13Speaker 02

  Uh, yep.

• 12:14Amy Poehler?

  Okay, that's what I thought.

• 12:15Speaker 02

  I knew she was a Virgo, actually.

• 12:16Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah, well, Virgos see each other, they recognize each other. Yeah, it is, okay, we don't have to get into it.

• 12:22Speaker 02

  No, we can.

• 12:23Amy Poehler?

  But you are in your fifties, I wanna ask you, what is it like being in your fifties? What do you think of this decade?

• 12:29Speaker 02

  Um, really interesting, right?

• 12:31Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 12:31Speaker 02

  Because, you know, we were born, uh, when we were ten, eleven, the eighties happened. Our consciousness was born at the same time under the coolest decades generationally ever.

• 12:43Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 12:44Speaker 02

  And we were born into that, some of the coolest things, art, music, culture, some of the craziest world politics that set the dynamics for where we are right now. All happened when we were sort of like, our emotions were blossoming and our adolescence were growing. I mean, we're a very unique generation.

• 13:01Amy Poehler?

  Okay, I agree, I love being Gen X. I feel proud of it, do you feel, I feel like Exactly what you said, I feel like we straddled these two different worlds.

• 13:11Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 13:12Amy Poehler?

  Our young world was like our parents and now we're in future robot times.

• 13:17Speaker 02

  That's true, which, you know, partly we invented because it's like robots, toys, 2001. What was that gonna be like?

• 13:26Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm, we're in it.

• 13:27Speaker 02

  We got to see it, we got it, yeah.

• 13:28Amy Poehler?

  I know, we, we watched movies about flying cars and it's gonna happen.

• 13:32Speaker 02

  It's happening, robots that talk and aliens, ooh.

• 13:37Amy Poehler?

  Do you believe in aliens?

• 13:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:38Amy Poehler?

  Oh, but not astrology?

• 13:41Speaker 02

  Well, astrology is based on some weird alien science.

• 13:46Amy Poehler?

  Okay, okay.

• 13:46Speaker 02

  That has left us, left behind.

• 13:48Amy Poehler?

  Aliens left behind.

• 13:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, like, you know, did you know that these, anyway, I was gonna say that the other part about being 50 is that I don't love that at this age, the age of being wellness and consciousness is so upon us, yet our bodies fail us, well, me.

• 14:06Amy Poehler?

  That's the biggest bummer, I mean, the fact that you can get hurt just getting out of bed. That is the part that just feels like, well, I mean, what, you have to do, you have to use your body still a lot. You use it a lot in this movie that we're talking about, Heads of State. How do you, do you have to do, like, what do you do to stay flexible? That's what we have to do is stay flexible. Do you do yoga, do you do, what do you do for your stretching? Cause I'm trying to get my, more stretching.

• 14:33Speaker 02

  Really?

• 14:34Amy Poehler?

  I'm quite, I'm, I'm not very, I'm not a very flexible, like, do you have tight hamstrings?

• 14:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, tight hip flexors.

• 14:42Amy Poehler?

  Hip flexors, yeah, so mine are my hamstrings, which is embarrassing because I'm so short. There's, it's like to not be able to touch your toes. You ever say my, same outfit?

• 14:54Speaker 02

  Same age.

• 14:56Amy Poehler?

  So, do you do pigeon, pigeon pose?

• 14:59Speaker 02

  Ah, pigeon, no, what does that look like?

• 15:01Amy Poehler?

  It's the yoga pose where you get your, like, where you get, you stretch your hips, basically. Do you know that pose?

• 15:06Speaker 02

  So, you're sitting on your bum and you got your legs out like that?

• 15:09Amy Poehler?

  Put your knee up and you kind of lean over your knee.

• 15:12Speaker 02

  I don't do that.

• 15:12Amy Poehler?

  Okay, good.

• 15:13Speaker 02

  I do, uh, well, it's the squat.

• 15:16Amy Poehler?

  Just squatting.

• 15:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, you know, like the, like, uh, be- before we were Homo sapiens.

• 15:21Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 15:22Speaker 02

  Squat, you know?

• 15:24Amy Poehler?

  You do, you can squat.

• 15:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:25Amy Poehler?

  That's, that's impressive.

• 15:26Speaker 02

  It is, actually.

• 15:27Amy Poehler?

  Your knees can handle that?

• 15:28Speaker 02

  No.

• 15:29Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 15:30Speaker 02

  Getting down's easy.

• 15:31Amy Poehler?

  That's the thing, getting up. You got, you got a guy who helps you get up because you can't get, once you get down, you're stuck.

• 15:38Speaker 02

  No, my pride is to, there's no guy helping me get up.

• 15:41Amy Poehler?

  Of course.

• 15:41Speaker 02

  I am like, ah, ah, ah, I'm okay.

• 15:44Amy Poehler?

  And everyone's like, uh, we're ready to shoot, we're just waiting for Idris to get out of his squat.

• 15:48Speaker 02

  Get out of his squat. Good thing about squatting, though, not to be graphic, it's good for the...

• 15:53Amy Poehler?

  Pooping.

• 15:54Speaker 02

  I was gonna say number two, but we can go with pooping.

• 15:56Amy Poehler?

  It's really good. A lot of people know that. But I mean, I feel, I feel like my fifties, to your point, age-wise, uh, like, or like emotionally, mentally, spiritually, I feel great.

• 16:10Speaker 02

  Feel good, yeah.

• 16:11Amy Poehler?

  Right? I feel finally like I'm figuring myself out in a way that's very real.

• 16:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:17Amy Poehler?

  I have a lot, um, a lot, uh, enough wisdom and enough ahead of me and you're kind of the oldest, youngest person and the youngest oldest person.

• 16:24Speaker 02

  That's right. That's so true. And, you know, your influences change, you know what I'm saying? I think in my thirties and forties, like, I was sort of like blown with the wind a little bit with what was influencing me, what my goals were, and in the fifties, I'm like, oh, nah, that wind have to pass around me. I'm not getting as easily influenced.

• 16:42Amy Poehler?

  Yes, you, yes, exactly right. You're like a steadier tree.

• 16:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:46Amy Poehler?

  But it does hurt to get out of a car after a long car.

• 16:52Speaker 02

  You know what, though? I, uh, wellness.

• 16:55Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 16:55Speaker 02

  So I, people were like, really, that doesn't work, it's like astrology, but grounding mats?

• 17:01Amy Poehler?

  I love a grounding mat.

• 17:02Speaker 02

  Ah.

• 17:03Amy Poehler?

  I have a biomat, do you have a biomat?

• 17:04Speaker 02

  Uh, no, a grounding.

• 17:06Amy Poehler?

  Oh, is that the same thing?

• 17:07Speaker 02

  Is it? What's a biomat?

• 17:08Amy Poehler?

  Well, it's like a heated mat.

• 17:09Speaker 02

  Oh, no, this is not heated.

• 17:10Amy Poehler?

  Oh.

• 17:10Speaker 02

  This is just grounded, so.

• 17:12Amy Poehler?

  Okay, talk, talk to me about this.

• 17:13Speaker 02

  So basically, you know, the earth's frequency, electromagnetic frequency is a thing and it vibrates at a certain thing. You know, when you have a radio and it hasn't been grounded into the earth, it will have static. The moment you ground it, it stops that static and then our bodies work in a similar way.

• 17:30Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 17:31Speaker 02

  And the... Information to suggest that inflammation and blood circulation works better when you sleep.

• 17:39Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 17:39Speaker 02

  On the ground, in my, or if you're under a desk, barefoot, or, and by the way, you can do the same thing if you just stand in your garden.

• 17:45Amy Poehler?

  Mm hmm.

• 17:45Speaker 02

  In the grass for twenty minutes.

• 17:47Amy Poehler?

  Well, have you heard the young people say touch grass? It's like a term, basically, which is like, get off your phones, get off the internet and go outside and touch grass.

• 17:56Speaker 02

  I, I didn't think it meant that grass. I thought it was different.

• 17:59Amy Poehler?

  No, it's the real grass.

• 18:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, I was like.

• 18:01Amy Poehler?

  That's the Gen X in you.

• 18:02Speaker 02

  This is touch. Grass.

• 18:05Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, and you go touch it pot, touch pot. That's what they're saying. Go touch pot.

• 18:09Speaker 02

  Okay, that whole touch grass thing, I was like, dude, this is a little much. My algorithm is all messed up. I didn't realize.

• 18:15Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, that's exactly what it is, is the idea of just like actually getting your feet on the ground.

• 18:20Speaker 02

  But it works, and it works for our age because inflammation is a real thing, that stiffness you're feeling.

• 18:26Amy Poehler?

  Do you cold plunge?

• 18:28Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 18:29Amy Poehler?

  You've got to get into that, dude. I do it all the time.

• 18:32Speaker 02

  How often?

• 18:33Amy Poehler?

  I try to do eleven minutes a week.

• 18:35Speaker 02

  What?

• 18:37Amy Poehler?

  Not all at once.

• 18:38Speaker 02

  Why do you do that?

• 18:39Amy Poehler?

  It's really helped with inflammation. It is a huge, it is, I don't, it's really helped with anxiety, any anxiety, depression, inflammation, because you're like flooded with a serotonin, you know, you are like, it's like natural.

• 18:52Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 18:52Amy Poehler?

  I'm not gonna run. I can't run. I'm not gonna run. I gotta get some kind of feeling that I've like had this, you know, like big burst and cold plunge does it for me. And like, I don't like to do it. It's not like.

• 19:05Speaker 02

  I don't like to do it.

• 19:06Amy Poehler?

  All right, then you know.

• 19:07Speaker 02

  It works with, you talk about shrinkage.

• 19:11Speaker 02

  It's like, wait, what? Oh, no. This is not only very uncomfortable, but really killing my ego. What?

• 19:21Amy Poehler?

  Just do it on your own time. Just do it on your own time.

• 19:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm not doing it like naked at the gym. Hell, no.

• 19:29Amy Poehler?

  I'm telling you, it will change your life. I'm telling you. You know what? You're gonna look back at this interview, you're gonna be like, remember when I was in my fifties and Amy told me to cold plunge and I said, what? And now it's changed, it's gonna change your life.

• 19:40Speaker 02

  Okay, you know what? I'll listen to you because I think we have. A lot in common and there's some observations that you're making that is really making me think so.

• 19:47Amy Poehler?

  Also, I imagine something about you, and I'm tell me if I'm wrong, that you kind of like a forced austerity. Like you, you don't, you're not afraid of difficult things.

• 19:56Speaker 02

  Right. Yes, no, I am not afraid of um difficult things or challenges that make me uncomfortable.

• 20:04Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, and to choose your own discomfort is like a privilege at our age. Like I'm gonna be uncomfortable, so, but I'm gonna be in charge of it.

• 20:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, I agree, I agree with that. I agree. Actually, um what I also enjoy about my 50s, I'm 52, 53 this year, is that I really wanna learn more.

• 20:22Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 20:22Speaker 02

  I I wanna learn and it's about, oh, that's new, but how is it connected to what I already know?

• 20:28Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 20:28Speaker 02

  You know what I mean? And how that that cusp is really interesting to me, you know, like we talk about AI and all that stuff. I refer to it as like, wow, that's the future that we talked about as kids that was just in our imaginations and here it is.

• 20:40Amy Poehler?

  Well, I wanna stay in the present and I wanna talk about the future, but if you will indulge me a little bit of past because and I promise I'll make it fast, but I'm such a huge fan of The Wire. And I know you talk about it all the time. It is many years ago, 20 plus years ago. You've talked about it over and over again and I won't make you talk about it too much, but uh it's a series that changed my life. I watched it three times, the series three times. I could talk to you about it forever. And also, I feel like not to keep making comparisons, uh we are dressed the same.

• 21:17Speaker 02

  We are dressed the same.

• 21:18Amy Poehler?

  But um I was on a show that meant something to a lot of people still and like, you know, almost 20 years later, they come up and they keep engaging in it. And like, so you must get that too. You must all the time have people say to you what I'm saying to you. What is that like?

• 21:36Speaker 02

  Um, I mean, the truth is that I actually don't speak about The Wire as much as people might think, even though I am definitely, at least once a day, someone says, bro, string a bell, The Wire, whatever it is.

• 21:48Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 21:49Speaker 02

  Um, and it, you know, it really does.

• 21:54Speaker 02

  It surprises me. How much impact that show had. Um, in a good way, it surprises me continuously. Um, that, you know, multi-generationally, it's still being talked as people that are weren't even born then.

• 22:09Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 22:09Speaker 02

  Watching The Wire and be like, yo, I saw that, that's incredible. Um, I feel proud, I put a sense of pride. I feel a little bit though, if I'm really honest, like, I didn't watch The Wire.

• 22:21Amy Poehler?

  I've heard this, that you didn't watch it.

• 22:23Speaker 02

  I didn't watch it, and I feel bad. It's not that I'm not a fan of it, I was there, I made a show that was, you know, was so intense and so real, so important. And even though we didn't realize, I didn't realize, the importance of the show while making it.

• 22:36Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, rarely do we.

• 22:38Speaker 02

  Right.

• 22:39Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 22:39Speaker 02

  Uh, but, um, I didn't participate in its celebration as a viewer, as a fan. And so I feel a little bit like.

• 22:50Amy Poehler?

  Well, could you start celebrating it now?

• 22:53Speaker 02

  No, man.

• 22:54Amy Poehler?

  Why?

• 22:54Speaker 02

  I mean.

• 22:55Amy Poehler?

  You can't watch it now?

• 22:56Speaker 02

  No.

• 22:57Amy Poehler?

  I, but I bet, Idris, I bet you have, I bet you have a feeling about it that might, you might be kinder to yourself and it, watching it now.

• 23:07Speaker 02

  It's not that.

• 23:08Amy Poehler?

  Okay, so why, why can't you watch it?

• 23:10Speaker 02

  Um, again, like, I felt the presence of it.

• 23:14Amy Poehler?

  Hmm.

• 23:15Speaker 02

  All my, you know, life since The Wire, right?

• 23:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 23:19Speaker 02

  In terms of its impact, in terms of what, and I also was there making it. So to me, it was almost a bit like I was Stringer Bell. I'm not Stringer Bell, but I also feel like when Stringer Bell, no spoilers.

• 23:30Amy Poehler?

  Well, look, at this point, okay, let's get ready. If you're listening, spoiler, Stringer Bell dies.

• 23:37Speaker 02

  Yikes, there are people still watching it.

• 23:40Amy Poehler?

  Well, they gotta catch up, it's been.

• 23:43Speaker 02

  But when, uh, Stringer Bell died, there was a part of me. And.

• 23:47Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 23:48Speaker 02

  That died with that character, and it's weird for me to go back and watch it. I don't like being overly conscious of what my performance is like or whatever, because it makes me conscious about doing it. I like being in it rather than watching it.

• 24:00Amy Poehler?

  I hear you, oh, that is, that makes me sad that you can't, you can't enjoy how good you are in The Wire.

• 24:07Speaker 02

  Uh.

• 24:07Amy Poehler?

  You're so. Good.

• 24:12Amy Poehler?

  Idris.

• 24:14Amy Poehler?

  Okay, I know, okay, I'm gonna turn into like-

• 24:16Speaker 02

  From my twin, I'm taking this, thank you.

• 24:18Amy Poehler?

  Okay, okay. Because, okay, just a few questions, which is, Stringer Bells, can you just tell me, for the super fans that are listening, and again, if you haven't watched The Wire, skip through this part, and how dare you, but, um, that final scene when you are, uh, when you were killed by Omar, a brother of his own, and you just have this moment where you have, it's a beautiful acting moment, where you have to decide, where you have to realize that Avon has given you up. Like, it's just, your brother. I mean, it's so Shakespearean, this, this entire show, but that relationship in, in, um, specifically, and you have the tiniest moment that flashes across your face, where you,

• 24:59Amy Poehler?

  you know, you're resigned to the fact that not only are you gonna die, but you're gonna die, you know, by the hands of someone who you really love. And the acting with you and Wood Harris in that scene, previously, when you're on the rooftop and you're- is such good acting. And, and I just wanna, I have no question here.

• 25:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, no.

• 25:22Amy Poehler?

  But I guess, the last line-

• 25:24Speaker 02

  What was on the crafty table is what you wanted to know, yeah.

• 25:27Amy Poehler?

  But I think about Stringer's last line, because it's such a, it's such a testament to David Simon and the writers of that show. The writing was so incredible. When Stringer says, like, "I guess there's nothing I can say to change your mind, get on with it," then-

• 25:42Amy Poehler?

  you know, paraphrasing, but it's his entire arc as a character. He's spent the entire show trying to convince people to, like, that there's another way of doing things. It's, can you just tell me about that scene and shooting it with, rest in peace, Michael Caine Williams?

• 26:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, man, I mean, it was a really interesting time. I mean, yes, testament to the writing, David Simon, and the poetry of, of what, um, we're saying about beheading the man, the character, that is offering a slightly different perspective on this.

• 26:20Speaker 02

  Chaotic town, chaotic situation for, you know, um. The residents, the people of Baltimore, but also the, the, the towns across America.

• 26:34Amy Poehler?

  Mm hmm.

• 26:34Speaker 02

  In this sort of, um, I would say, what's the word, you know, not culture, but that lifestyle, that this is a perpetual thing that keeps going. And then along comes a spider where he's like, hey, let's try something different. Let's turn this into this and crawl out of this hole, but we kill that character.

• 26:52Amy Poehler?

  That's why The Wire is so good because the system is the, the machine.

• 26:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:00Amy Poehler?

  People keep trying to get up out of the machine.

• 27:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:03Amy Poehler?

  And the system keeps pushing them down.

• 27:05Speaker 02

  But the system is also using puppets to do it to each other.

• 27:10Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 27:11Speaker 02

  Right. So the system isn't really prevalent. It's the, the strings, no pun.

• 27:15Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 27:15Speaker 02

  Are holding brother in a zone who, you know, has his reasons. You've got Omar has his reasons, but the system has made everyone blindfolded. And Stringer was like, no, no, no, no, no, take them off.

• 27:29Amy Poehler?

  I know.

• 27:30Speaker 02

  All right.

• 27:30Amy Poehler?

  Um, I know Stringer had a plan. And what, do you ever think about, or did you guys ever talk about if Stringer stayed on, lived as a character, what he would go on to do, like?

• 27:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, we did. I mean, a lot because Stringer is a real person who is still alive. And Stringer went on to become a very successful businessman who, you know, will remain anonymous forever.

• 27:55Amy Poehler?

  Mm hmm.

• 27:55Speaker 02

  But successfully built a lot of businesses.

• 27:58Amy Poehler?

  Mm hmm.

• 27:58Speaker 02

  And, um, you know, crawled out of the, the hole. So in dramatic terms on The Wire, you know, it wouldn't have made sense.

• 28:08Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 28:08Speaker 02

  For Stringer to get out, although in reality, Stringer did get out.

• 28:12Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 28:12Speaker 02

  Okay, but that's not dramatic enough, you know?

• 28:15Amy Poehler?

  I mean, that, that, the, the.

• 28:17Speaker 02

  That's not the story.

• 28:18Amy Poehler?

  No, and it was like a season three gut punch. And it also, I mean, good shows do that is they sacrifice.

• 28:25Speaker 02

  They sacrifice, yeah. And I was for it. I, I, I had, I've told the story. I had reservations about how Stringer was dying.

• 28:33Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 28:33Speaker 02

  I mean, you know, the, you know, there was various ways that David Simon wanted to depict that. And I was a little bit against some of that, but the actual beheading of of Stringer was an important move.

• 28:45Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 28:46Speaker 02

  You know, just to illustrate to the world that, hey, man, take the blinkers off, you know what I'm saying? And um.

• 28:52Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. Okay, last question. The character of Bodhi that played by J D in your like mentorship with him.

• 29:00Amy Poehler?

  Is one of the of the many incredible relationships on that show. Like, that is a heartbreaker. It's a heartbreaker what happens to Stringer. And it's eventually a heartbreaker what happens to J D's character, Bodhi. What was it like working with him, like a young actor like that?

• 29:13Speaker 02

  Amazing, man. Like, you know, we, he was a, he's a fly dude.

• 29:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 29:18Speaker 02

  And he was a fly dude. He was the fly young kid on the set. Um, him and J Michael B. Jordan, actually.

• 29:24Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 29:24Speaker 02

  Um, and, um, you know, cause he was a little bit younger than us, you know what I mean? He was like fresh and green and he would hang out with his big brothers and I remember one time he challenged me. He was like, yo, man, I could drink you under the table. I'm like, Jay, leave it, man. He's like, no, I'll drink you under the table. And literally, I drunk him under the table. Like, he sat under the table. He was like, nah, I can't, I can't fuck with you no more.

• 29:48Amy Poehler?

  Did you hear my accent? Like, do you know where I'm from? Like, drinking is.

• 29:52Speaker 02

  I'm from London, man. Uh, but, um, nah, but actually, just in real life, we had that real dynamic. You know what I'm saying? Like, again, he was a young actor. He lived in, um, New Jersey as well. So we would travel up sometimes together on a train and whatnot.

• 30:06Amy Poehler?

  Uh, okay. So mentoring is important to you. Like, you've done it a lot now. And before we move on to, um.

• 30:14Speaker 02

  Heads to State, the movie that comes out on Prime.

• 30:16Amy Poehler?

  Thank you. Heads to State with the great John Cena and Priyanka. Um, uh, but, uh. You, can you talk a little bit about the stuff you're doing with the King's Trust? Love, I love the work that you're doing there and that was an important thing to you when you were young.

• 30:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, I mean, basically, I'm paying it forward, you know, like the King's Trust at the time, Prince's Trust. Gave me an opportunity via a cheque and some resources.

• 30:39Amy Poehler?

  What did it do? You were how old and what, and they, it was like a scholarship?

• 30:43Speaker 02

  I was around fourteen, fifteen years old. I auditioned to get into the National Theatre's Youth Programme, which is called the National Youth Music Theatre. And they were doing a production of Guys and Dolls and I got in, my drama teacher encouraged me to go for it. I went in and I got the audition, but I didn't realise you had to subsidise your, your board. Because they flew around the world, we were going to Japan, we went to Greenland, I mean, we. Taking this production, it was a semi-professional production, but you had to pay for it. My parents couldn't afford it. And my drama teacher said, hey, you know, the Prince's Trust, I'm like, sorry, are you talking about Prince Charles? Well, you want to audition for Prince Charles? No, not for Prince Charles, but he has a trust where he helps young people.

• 31:26Speaker 02

  And I was like, he's never gonna help me, why? I'm a kid from East London, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I auditioned, I got the gig. And I got the money that he helped me with and the resources to help, you know, get me into this theatre thing.

• 31:40Speaker 02

  And ever since, you know, I mean, without a doubt, that really structured how I thought my sort of myself as an actor. You know, it was a professional theatre, I was singing around the world and this was what I wanted to do. Just at that point in my age where I, I wasn't sure, I liked acting.

• 31:55Amy Poehler?

  What made you think it like, what, what was the thing? Did you, were you watching movies? And like, what, what made you know you wanted to be an actor?

• 32:03Speaker 02

  It was two things, really, it was my teacher.

• 32:06Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 32:06Speaker 02

  Miss McPhee. Her and I, I went to a boys' school, okay? She was a lovely. Blonde, blue-eyed teacher. Interesting. See what's going on? But she was this really lovely nurturing figure in my life at the time. At boy's school where no one really took drama seriously.

• 32:26Amy Poehler?

  Sometimes it just takes one teacher, man, to change your life.

• 32:29Speaker 02

  Real focus and she was like, you can go for it. It was mentorship, right? And also, there was an actor called Paul Barber, who was in a film called The Full Monty.

• 32:38Amy Poehler?

  Oh, yeah.

• 32:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, and he's a black actor in that film. And he came to this school just to sit amongst the boys and say, hey, what do you think about acting? And we were like, aren't you the guy that takes your clothes off in The Full Monty? Da, da, da, da. But I was just like, gassed. I was so moved by his storytelling and the fact that he came. He was famous, he's on TV. Came to our school to talk about acting. So those are the two real, like, if I can remember, junctions where I was like, okay, acting might be a thing. Crystallization of that. And ever since, you know, I realized that, you know, I can do exactly the same. It's an intervention moment of just a young person who isn't sure.

• 33:14Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 33:15Speaker 02

  Having a conversation and being like, let's examine what you want to do.

• 33:18Amy Poehler?

  I mean, sometimes it kind of scares me. Well, not sometimes. It's, what is scary is that the slightest change changes the direction of your life. Especially around that age. And the positive version of that is what you talk about, right? Which is like, you see someone that you want to emulate and you just realize like, this is the way my life's going to be. And then in the same way, like, the tiniest bit of nudge the wrong way and you're off on a track and then you're like...

• 33:44Speaker 02

  That's so true. You know, in our generation, right? You know, human empathy, we got a lot of our sort of magic from TV. And those are unilateral moments where we all sat, watched the same shows, whatever they were. And those are our influences, right? All at the same time, it was America, Europe, we were all watching the same sort of thing. The Fonz, Happy Days, you know, whatever it was, right? Now, and if, if, if an uncle or an auntie spoke to you about what you want to do, you know, that conversation meant something. Because you weren't getting a phone, you weren't staring at a phone, which has all these different influences. Now, all right, young kids... Kids are influenced by so much, they're just overstimulated. And a lot of it is negative.

• 34:28Speaker 02

  A lot of it's pitting themselves against things they'll never be able to afford or have. Uh, this elevated sense of self where, you know, in our day, I think, I hate to say in our day.

• 34:38Amy Poehler?

  Well, you were really feeling, we're really sounding really old right now.

• 34:40Speaker 02

  I know.

• 34:41Amy Poehler?

  If we're gonna talk about phones, we're screwed.

• 34:42Speaker 02

  We are.

• 34:43Amy Poehler?

  I mean, my phone is my best friend.

• 34:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, right.

• 34:46Amy Poehler?

  I mean, I don't wanna talk about my best friend like that.

• 34:49Speaker 02

  I've got an AI voice that's my best friend.

• 34:50Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, so you know, we're, you know, we're, we're sucked in too.

• 34:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, we are. But the truth is though.

• 34:56Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 34:56Speaker 02

  We at least had the benefit of the monoculture. And we had human intervention that actually could have that ripple butterfly effect.

• 35:04Amy Poehler?

  But the monoculture, different in the UK and the US, and I'm constantly surprised by how com- how comedy, when we were growing up, we were not watching the same things.

• 35:15Speaker 02

  Really?

• 35:16Amy Poehler?

  There were so.

• 35:16Speaker 02

  You weren't watching the phones?

• 35:18Amy Poehler?

  Okay, I was watching Happy Days. But there must have been, there must be American shows that you, comedy shows that you hear about that didn't make it over there. Because I know when we were watching British comedy, it was like contraband, like it was given to us on VHS tapes like.

• 35:33Speaker 02

  Benny Hill?

• 35:34Amy Poehler?

  Well, Benny Hill.

• 35:35Speaker 02

  Oh my god.

• 35:36Amy Poehler?

  That was what we got. We got Benny Hill nonstop, which is like, I guess, it was, it was Monty Python, Benny Hill and. But there were like so many shows, like, um.

• 35:47Speaker 02

  What about Mash?

• 35:48Amy Poehler?

  Okay, I loved Mash. You watched Mash?

• 35:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, we were watching Mash.

• 35:51Amy Poehler?

  Did you watch the Norman Lear shows, like, uh, All in the Family, um, see?

• 35:56Speaker 02

  All in the Family?

• 35:57Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, which was based off of the, um, British show, um. Yeah.

• 36:04Speaker 02

  That, that famous British show?

• 36:05Amy Poehler?

  Famous British show called something. Uh, I'll get it. But, but there was like all these like, um, famous, like the Jeffersons, um, Good Times, do you know them?

• 36:15Speaker 02

  We, I'd know later on in life. They weren't, yeah. Did you get Desmond's?

• 36:19Amy Poehler?

  No.

• 36:20Speaker 02

  Desmond's?

• 36:21Amy Poehler?

  Wait, I don't even know what Desmond's is.

• 36:22Speaker 02

  Desmond's is the barber shop show, man. It was a black show. It was comedy. It was like, I don't wanna say The Cosbys, but it was a family that run a barber shop. It was hilarious.

• 36:31Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, so we, there were versions of each other's comedy at the time that we didn't know about each other, which I think is so interesting, cuz we're so aligned, but there was something specific about UK and US comedy at the time in the seventies and eighties, where you like, found out about people's stuff and it felt like you were seeing it for the first time.

• 36:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 36:48Amy Poehler?

  I mean, I can remember like, learning about, yeah, Steve Coogan, for example, and no one knowing who he was, or like, um.

• 36:57Speaker 02

  I remember coming to New York, New York City.

• 37:00Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 37:01Speaker 02

  In the early nineties.

• 37:03Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 37:04Speaker 02

  And speaking with my accent, and black folk, black people were saying to me, "Wait, what? Why are you speaking like that? Yo, listen to this dude." They, they didn't know, no idea.

• 37:15Amy Poehler?

  They didn't think that they were black British people?

• 37:17Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 37:18Amy Poehler?

  Wow, America continuing to really represent.

• 37:22Speaker 02

  No, but to your point about monoculture, like,

• 37:24Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 37:24Speaker 02

  Our shows, you know, our culture did not, you know, ABC was not picking up Desmond's, you know what I'm saying?

• 37:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, we did not, we, we, we had really flat versions of each other. It felt like, like Americans were like, you know, confident and loud and taking up too much space, and the Brits were reserved and polite.

• 37:42Speaker 02

  Artistic.

• 37:43Amy Poehler?

  Secretly better than us. I mean, and I do think that the accent gets you, the accent gets you, people think people with British accents are very smart.

• 37:53Speaker 02

  This is, this is a, this is true, actually. You're right. We somehow give a sense of that the way we speak is, makes us more intelligent. You're right. I've dined off this for a long time.

• 38:06Amy Poehler?

  I would too.

• 38:07Speaker 02

  I'm not that smart.

• 38:08Amy Poehler?

  I was gonna say, that growing up is realizing that British people are not any smarter than you.

• 38:12Speaker 02

  Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not, what, I, what?

• 38:15Amy Poehler?

  That's what it is.

• 38:16Speaker 02

  How did we get there?

• 38:18Amy Poehler?

  That's, that's being an adult.

• 38:20Speaker 02

  You're right, you're right. Facing the truth.

• 38:22Amy Poehler?

  Yes, because it's so hard, easy to get sucked in. But you have to, I want to talk about your comedy, your, your, like what you were watching as a young person and getting into comedy, because you've done quite a bit of comedy and, you know, you're doing more of it now, which I think is so cool. But for a second about accents, you have had to do a lot of accents, a lot of different accents where you're playing Nelson Mandela, or you're playing like, you know, uh, uh, African warlord and you're playing, and you do them really well. Is there one that you can't do?

• 38:51Speaker 02

  American.

• 38:54Amy Poehler?

  That is not true. Your American accent is, no one knew you were British. When we watched The Wire, no one. Idris.

• 39:04Speaker 02

  This is, you know what it is? The truth is when I was doing The Wire that I was not British. I was like, uh, living in Brooklyn, then New Jersey, and in the depths of New Jersey near Newark. And at that junction, you know, I'd lived in America for four or five years, like my accent shifted.

• 39:20Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 39:20Speaker 02

  And Alexa Fogel, uh, the casting director of The Wire, she was like, but wait, don't come in here with that British accent.

• 39:26Amy Poehler?

  Now I see why you don't watch, now I get it.

• 39:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:29Amy Poehler?

  I think you don't watch The Wire because you're thinking about your accent.

• 39:31Speaker 02

  Of course, but also.

• 39:32Amy Poehler?

  I'm here to tell you, it's, and I, I have a thing about Brits and their accents.

• 39:38Speaker 02

  You do?

• 39:38Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 39:39Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 39:39Amy Poehler?

  Because they win a lot, they win a lot of awards. And their, their accents are like, let me tell you something, sir. Like they, they're, you're like.

• 39:50Amy Poehler?

  Everyone knows and it's like.

• 39:51Speaker 02

  You are.

• 39:52Amy Poehler?

  Well, I like how you say HBO. You've said HBO a couple of times.

• 39:56Speaker 02

  H, H.

• 39:57Amy Poehler?

  H.

• 39:57Speaker 02

  HBO.

• 39:58Amy Poehler?

  HBO.

• 39:59Speaker 02

  That's good.

• 40:00Amy Poehler?

  Thank you.

• 40:00Speaker 02

  I haven't done any sort of regional English or, um, English accents like, um, you know, Wells.

• 40:10Amy Poehler?

  Oof.

• 40:10Speaker 02

  Or, you know, Liverpool, I don't know, any of those. I'd love to.

• 40:15Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 40:15Speaker 02

  But boy, if I get them wrong.

• 40:17Amy Poehler?

  Let's try it right now.

• 40:18Speaker 02

  No. I'll go. You go first.

• 40:21Amy Poehler?

  Okay, Liverpoolian. I'm gonna think about Paul McCartney. Just think about the Beatles. Right? That's all you need to do.

• 40:32Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 40:33Amy Poehler?

  Liverpool.

• 40:33Speaker 02

  Liverpool.

• 40:34Amy Poehler?

  Liverpool.

• 40:35Speaker 02

  Hey, hey lad, what's going on now? Oh my days.

• 40:37Amy Poehler?

  See, you're too hard on yourself.

• 40:38Speaker 02

  No, because I'm gonna get memed.

• 40:41Amy Poehler?

  I'm asking you to do it, anyone listening, no one's gonna meme you.

• 40:44Speaker 02

  Okay, do Welsh. Can you do Welsh? Tom, Tom, Tom, uh, Tom Jones.

• 40:48Amy Poehler?

  Oh, oh, yeah, um.

• 40:52Amy Poehler?

  Hi, well, I'm Welsh.

• 40:55Speaker 02

  Hey, yeah, okay, yeah. Hello, boyo. Hey, boyo from Wales, eh, boyo, eh?

• 41:00Amy Poehler?

  That is so, they speak-

• 41:02Speaker 02

  I can't go back to Wales now, ever.

• 41:08Amy Poehler?

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• 41:49Amy Poehler?

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• 42:31Amy Poehler?

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• 42:50Amy Poehler?

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• 43:35Amy Poehler?

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• 43:47Amy Poehler?

  OK, so talk about comedy, your relationship to it. Because I think people probably think you're very serious.

• 43:56Amy Poehler?

  And I've learned that you're not.

• 44:00Amy Poehler?

  So I bet people assume you're mad, you're serious, you're tough.

• 44:05Speaker 02

  I'm an actor.

• 44:05Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, and they come up to you, and they take you, and you probably were like, I like to have fun like everybody else.

• 44:11Speaker 02

  I'm a little goofy. I'm very goofy.

• 44:12Amy Poehler?

  You are. You're a goofball.

• 44:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, a little bit. But, you know, I like playing dramatic roles. I do. I just, also, when it comes to comedy, most of the comedy I've done has been the straight guy that isn't meant to be funny. So when I did The Office.

• 44:27Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, tell us about that. How'd you get that job?

• 44:30Speaker 02

  I mean, I got that job because I think John Krasinski was a big Wi-Fi fan. He was like, we need that guy. We need that guy. Paul Feig.

• 44:38Amy Poehler?

  Yes, Paul Feig, great director.

• 44:40Speaker 02

  Great director. He, but it was a part of that casting process for me. And, you know, it was described as this guy who's a bit like Stringer Bowles, real serious, is a businessman. But, you know, you don't laugh at anyone, you don't suffer fools, and da-da-da. And I was like, OK. But first of all, the UK office.

• 45:00Amy Poehler?

  Incredible.

• 45:00Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 45:01Amy Poehler?

  He the biggest fan.

• 45:03Speaker 02

  Better than The American Office?

• 45:05Amy Poehler?

  No.

• 45:06Speaker 02

  What?

• 45:07Amy Poehler?

  Different, not better, but but in in many ways, like I I I've talked about this with Mike Schur, who created Parks and Rec and who went on to who started working on The American Office and and did Parks and Rec and many other shows. And I remember when he was going to do The American Office, I thought this is a terrible idea.

• 45:23Speaker 02

  Really?

• 45:24Amy Poehler?

  Like, because the the British Office was so good. It was a complete, specific POV, and we thought, no way.

• 45:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:32Amy Poehler?

  But then we heard that Steve Carell was hired, and I knew Carell from Chicago. And I was like, he's funny.

• 45:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:38Amy Poehler?

  He's really good. And suddenly it was like, oh, this is just gonna be a different version.

• 45:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 45:44Amy Poehler?

  So I would say, I can't, I can't compare the two. But I do have a special place in my heart for the British version, because it was the first one I saw.

• 45:51Speaker 02

  Me too. And the cringe humor, this is what is cringe humor. And I think the Brits do cringe humor better, not better, but do it well, because we're so repressed.

• 45:59Amy Poehler?

  Totally. Because.

• 46:01Speaker 02

  Anything that's like embarrassing, we're like, oh, my days. And in America, where it's la- larger personalities.

• 46:06Amy Poehler?

  America's embarrassing.

• 46:07Speaker 02

  Well, you again, no.

• 46:10Amy Poehler?

  America's embarrassing, there, I said it, whoa.

• 46:12Speaker 02

  No, no, what I mean is, is that Americans are okay with big personalities coming in. That's that's part of the comedy, you know, fabric. However, I really loved working on The Office, because I did get to be in a comedy, right? And I did the guys working on the show basically tried to make me laugh all the time.

• 46:32Amy Poehler?

  Hmm.

• 46:32Speaker 02

  And the joke was that I, you're not gonna get me.

• 46:35Amy Poehler?

  Hmm.

• 46:36Speaker 02

  And the more silly they got, the more I stayed straight. And that was became the the comedy.

• 46:40Amy Poehler?

  Hmm.

• 46:41Speaker 02

  It was amazing, it was a lot of fun.

• 46:42Amy Poehler?

  So you're good at keeping a straight face?

• 46:44Speaker 02

  No, I'm a, I'm a proper good, I wanna be in the stupid side, I wanna be doing stupid shit. But the gig was that I.

• 46:53Speaker 02

  I stayed really serious.

• 46:54Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm. Even just now, you got very serious.

• 47:00Speaker 02

  It was a lot of fun. It was amazing. It was amazing. And then, since then, some of the comedy stuff I've done is really playing the straight guy.

• 47:08Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 47:08Speaker 02

  Um, in Heads of State.

• 47:11Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, you get to, you get to get in there. Yeah.

• 47:14Speaker 02

  But we're still playing on the trope of repressed British Prime Minister.

• 47:17Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 47:18Speaker 02

  Doesn't like this big American personality, and we're still playing with that, so, but yeah.

• 47:23Amy Poehler?

  But, but, but, like, do you wanna do more comedic stuff? Do you like it? Isn't it fun?

• 47:27Speaker 02

  It is, man.

• 47:28Amy Poehler?

  Cause I gotta say, like, your job, a lot of the stuff you do, it combines a lot of things I, I don't wanna do. Running, shooting nights, like.

• 47:37Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 47:38Amy Poehler?

  So many night shoots on the wire, like, I watched and I was like, ugh.

• 47:42Speaker 02

  Crying.

• 47:43Amy Poehler?

  Crying, um, like, jumping, but you've said that you like all this action stuff. You like doing stunts?

• 47:50Speaker 02

  I do. I do.

• 47:51Amy Poehler?

  What do you like about it?

• 47:52Speaker 02

  Um, it's a choreography, it's a dance, you know? I love learning a new fight, and I like, I'm always convinced that I can make it look realer.

• 48:01Amy Poehler?

  Uh-huh.

• 48:02Speaker 02

  You know, you see someone that's like kicking butt, but I wanna make it look a little bit more real. Um, I love it, though. I love the, you know, the technicalities of it.

• 48:11Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 48:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, I like fighting.

• 48:12Amy Poehler?

  Do you, well, I mean.

• 48:13Speaker 02

  I like to fight.

• 48:16Speaker 02

  That's plainly it.

• 48:17Amy Poehler?

  I mean, I, I mean, I think about, like, I, I, I do, I do sometimes have fantasies about doing an action film that requires very little talking, cause that's the one thing I like about action films, is like, your day is just walking, like, the Bourne Identity, like, the, like, a shooting day is just him walking from one train station to the other, like, wearing a leather jacket, what a dream.

• 48:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 48:39Amy Poehler?

  Um, so, in this movie, you're working with John Cena, the great John Cena.

• 48:43Speaker 02

  The great John Cena.

• 48:44Amy Poehler?

  Tell me about, uh, you and John worked together first in Suicide Squad?

• 48:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:48Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, how, how do you guys get along? What do, what do you think about John?

• 48:51Speaker 02

  Uh, you know, I think everyone had a bit of a crush on John Cena, right? The wrestler, you know, he's like this big personality, cool, big wrestling type. And then, you know, I watched him transition into acting and thought, wow, like, yeah, you know, the wrestlers tend to be great at performance regardless, so they end up transitioning to acting in really cool ways.

• 49:14Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 49:14Speaker 02

  And I felt John was one of those transitions that did really good.

• 49:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 49:18Speaker 02

  I liked him. Then, when I got to work with him in Suicide Squad. I mean, first of all, have you ever met John Cena?

• 49:24Amy Poehler?

  I did. He was in a movie that me and Tina Fey were in called Sisters and we spent like a couple of weeks together. He's a Renaissance man.

• 49:32Speaker 02

  Dude.

• 49:32Amy Poehler?

  He loves wine and art.

• 49:34Speaker 02

  Classical piano.

• 49:36Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, he's a very sweet, like artistic, tender guy. I find him to be very emotional and sweet.

• 49:41Speaker 02

  I agree. And it turns out that, you know, when I met him, I thought he was gonna be this goofy, big character. And he's like, hey, Idris, how are you? Nice to meet you. I'm a really big fan of your work. And I'm like,

• 49:52Speaker 02

  what's going on? Are we acting? I'm more goofy than John is.

• 49:56Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, you did the thing that happens to you where people are like, Idris is very serious. You were like, John is so funny. And Tom was like, I'm kinda serious.

• 50:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, he's very serious.

• 50:04Amy Poehler?

  And you were like, I'm a goofball.

• 50:05Speaker 02

  Yeah. When I first, when I walked into his trailer one time, we're gonna just run some lines and then I was like, oh, there's a, there's a grand piano in here. Why is that? He's like, oh, yeah, I'm teaching myself to learn classical piano. Anyway, so about these lines. I'm looking at him like, well, what now? First of all, he has fingers the size of like, you know, he's like, just one of John's fingers, you know? So, playing the piano.

• 50:28Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 50:30Speaker 02

  Anyway, I was fascinated.

• 50:31Amy Poehler?

  Giant finger piano.

• 50:31Speaker 02

  But he's a really lovely guy. I think he and I knew that, you know, working together, we could play into the dynamic of, you know, I'm, I'm not naturally comically funny, but I can play against someone that is really trying to, you know, is really funny in that way.

• 50:47Amy Poehler?

  But what is naturally comically funny? I mean, like, it's kinda, but it's an interesting, you bring up something very interesting, which is like, I think sometimes people don't realize that playing the scene is like pretty much the same if you're doing a comedy or a drama. Like, you just gotta play it real.

• 51:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's true.

• 51:03Amy Poehler?

  Have you hosted SNL?

• 51:05Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 51:05Amy Poehler?

  And how was that experience?

• 51:07Speaker 02

  It was a classic. Everyone talks about it.

• 51:08Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, sorry.

• 51:08Speaker 02

  No.

• 51:09Amy Poehler?

  Who was the musical guest?

• 51:10Speaker 02

  Uh, Khalid.

• 51:13Amy Poehler?

  Oh, yeah.

• 51:13Speaker 02

  Khalid, yes.

• 51:15Amy Poehler?

  How, what year was that? Sorry.

• 51:17Speaker 02

  What year was that? It was the year that I did that very famous film I was promoting.

• 51:23Amy Poehler?

  Yes. What year was that? Because we'll never be able to find out. I have a laptop here. We can never find it out. What year did Idris host? Can we find out? And what is the name of the British show that all in the family was based on?

• 51:37Speaker 02

  You're gonna come back.

• 51:39Amy Poehler?

  Jenna, please tell me.

• 51:41Speaker 02

  That's what happens if you can't let things go. I know.

• 51:44Amy Poehler?

  Forget it. Memory is, it's done. Because we have too much stuff to think about.

• 51:48Speaker 02

  This is true.

• 51:49Amy Poehler?

  The storage is full. Sometimes I like to think about dragging files in my brain to trash. Like, I'm not gonna need to know that anymore. I don't.

• 51:58Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 51:59Amy Poehler?

  Because I mean, I think I was dragging it to trash to make some room. Don't you feel like all the lines you had to learn as an actor, like sometimes, I'm like, it just has taken up too much space in my head.

• 52:12Speaker 02

  No, I don't. No.

• 52:14Amy Poehler?

  Are you good at learning lines?

• 52:16Speaker 02

  Uh, I'm good at learning the sense of things and then the lines will follow.

• 52:20Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 52:20Speaker 02

  I hate when like, it's like, okay, you have to go to this address at five o'clock to pick up that person. I'm like, what? But if I understand that you and I have a debate about something, I'll remember the lines based on that.

• 52:32Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 52:33Speaker 02

  But SNL, which was

• 52:34Amy Poehler?

  What year?

• 52:35Speaker 02

  The classic.

• 52:36Amy Poehler?

  To what? Not that far, not that long ago.

• 52:38Speaker 02

  Oh, it was a seminal year.

• 52:40Amy Poehler?

  So in 2019, when you hosted SNL.

• 52:42Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 52:43Amy Poehler?

  What was that like? Was it fun doing it?

• 52:44Speaker 02

  Man.

• 52:45Amy Poehler?

  You had a good, you had a good time?

• 52:46Speaker 02

  I had a most amazing time. It was really hard work, but I had the most amazing time and I was a comedy giant, you know?

• 52:54Amy Poehler?

  But see, SNL, growing up, was not big in the UK when you were growing up, right?

• 52:58Speaker 02

  That's right. It's, it's really true.

• 53:01Amy Poehler?

  It's really true. And now there, I think there's starting one over there.

• 53:04Speaker 02

  Yes. Yeah, I'm trying to be a main

• 53:07Amy Poehler?

  Really?

• 53:07Speaker 02

  Character.

• 53:09Amy Poehler?

  You wanna be in the cast?

• 53:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, that, it's, you know?

• 53:12Amy Poehler?

  No, just go in there and say, you know what? If you showed up and set him in the cast, everyone would be like, okay, I assume he is.

• 53:18Speaker 02

  I'm doing it. And they'll see how goofy I am, how the writing sessions, how really funny I am, come up with the wackiest shit.

• 53:25Amy Poehler?

  That was always the toughest thing, Idris, is when a, when a host would come in and be like, I'm really funny. And I'd be like, okay.

• 53:34Speaker 02

  I did.

• 53:35Amy Poehler?

  And be like, okay. They'd be like, I, I know I'm usually pretty serious, but I love to do characters and I'm like.

• 53:41Speaker 02

  Dude, let me tell you, I was that guy. I, I remember the first writing meeting, I walked in and everyone was like, hey Idris, man, we love you, man. What's going on? Drinking their coffee, what's going on? So what time is it? You guys, what are you into? What are you thinking? They're, you know, soft and they're hanging. They're like, okay, what do you do? What do you wanna do? I was like, yo, man, I got this idea about these football presenters.

• 54:02Speaker 02

  And they're like, hmm, you mean football as in? What kind of football? Losing.

• 54:08Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, man.

• 54:08Speaker 02

  But they were kind.

• 54:09Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, they were like, I just thank you so much for your ideas.

• 54:12Speaker 02

  You know what? There's so much here to work with. We're gonna. We're gonna just say that we're gonna come back. You take a break.

• 54:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, you know what? Do less. They were like, you know what? Take a break this week. Have fun.

• 54:23Speaker 02

  I had a great meeting with Pete, though, in his office. Walked in.

• 54:29Speaker 02

  What's up, Pete? Yeah, what's up, man? What's up with that? Yo, I love that bit that you was talking about, man. I love football.

• 54:37Speaker 02

  It was actually a really good week.

• 54:39Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, people don't know that you walk around from office to office and you just kind of go into everybody's office.

• 54:44Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 54:45Amy Poehler?

  And you're just like meeting, it's like speed dating or something. And you're just like getting people's ideas. And I'm sure you got pitched a lot of like. I have an idea where you're a guy who, you know.

• 54:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:57Amy Poehler?

  You're a bouncer and you throw people out of a club. Okay, I have another idea where you're a boxer and you beat me up. I have another idea. I bet you got a lot of like.

• 55:04Speaker 02

  I got, I got a lot of, what do we do, like a James Bond?

• 55:08Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, James Bond.

• 55:09Speaker 02

  I'm really trying to stay away from that. Like, come on, man, this James Bond. No, I want to stay away from that.

• 55:16Amy Poehler?

  You're like, I just want to play gig, I just want to play like little giggly characters who are real goofballs.

• 55:21Speaker 02

  I want to be really unrecognizable.

• 55:23Amy Poehler?

  Mm hmm. And everyone's like, oh, fucking hell, this guy doesn't want to do his, he doesn't want to pitch his fastball.

• 55:29Speaker 02

  We want to do some string a bell shit. You know, where you're like string a bell in the hood, whatever.

• 55:35Amy Poehler?

  But before we wrap it up, I want to talk a little bit about your relationship to music. Because I feel like, we've been talking a little bit about it today, but you know, like, there's this musicality to the stuff that you do. And it's obviously influenced by your, your actual love of music. You talk about it a lot, how it, you know, talk about acting coming at a certain time. Like, music came to you at a young point in your life. When did you start? Like, what? Speak to how important music is to you. And when you, especially when you were a young person and growing up in East London.

• 56:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, definitely, music was my first love, first first love. My dad, I have this record, a picture of me holding a Marvin Gaye album. I'm four years old and I'm about to put it on the turntable. That was like my earliest memory of music and listening and being able to put the record on. But as I was like fourteen, I was convinced I wanted to be a radio host. That was what I wanted to do. I wanted to talk on the radio and play music. And at the same time, I was getting introduced to acting. And what, and the first show I did was a musical. I was singing, all right? I wasn't musical. I didn't play, learn to play the guitar. I could play the drums, but I couldn't, I wasn't really a musical guy in the sense of, you know, making music. Okay, I just loved music.

• 56:56Speaker 02

  And at the same time, I was doing, uh, acting, I became a radio host on pirate radio. And I was on pirate radio around fifteen, sixteen years old, shouldn't say that, but yeah. And, um.

• 57:08Amy Poehler?

  It was the eighties, nobody cared. We all worked, we had jobs at twelve.

• 57:11Speaker 02

  You could go to jail, though, back in the day for being on pirate radio.

• 57:14Amy Poehler?

  Oh, really?

• 57:14Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, man. The mean streets.

• 57:18Amy Poehler?

  That'd be pretty funny if they were like, what are you in jail for? And you're like, being on the radio. And everyone's like, oh.

• 57:24Speaker 02

  Drive time, six to eight. What?

• 57:27Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, they got me. They got me on drive time.

• 57:30Speaker 02

  Hard times, but you could go to jail for pirate radio. And, but the truth is, you know, I think the music, um, because I really leaned into playing music. And then I started buying equipment, drum machines. This is the eighties, this is where the drum machines were growing and that electronic sound. You know, music and acting was like doing this at the same time. So music became my sort of, uh, my guilty pleasure.

• 57:57Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 57:58Speaker 02

  And.

• 57:59Amy Poehler?

  Like for, just for you.

• 58:00Speaker 02

  Just for me, yeah.

• 58:01Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 58:01Speaker 02

  And, and when I would DJ, I would love it. I, I, you know, actually coming to New York because the vinyl shops, that's when I started to really come to New York. Late eighties, early nineties.

• 58:11Amy Poehler?

  What a time. You talk about the spirituality of house mu, like, house music is really important to you.

• 58:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, really much.

• 58:17Amy Poehler?

  Like, it's that, what is it about it that? Hooks you and what do you think it, how does it hook people?

• 58:22Speaker 02

  It's uh, it's the mono moment, that mono moment that you know, everyone feeling that new instrument come in. It's a bit like being at church. I don't know if you're religious, I'm not, but that spiritual vibe of adding layers of a mono moment that everyone can join into is like magic. When I'm on the DJ, when I, you know, I just played Coachella with Cascade, who Shalit's Cascade and make amazing DJ. And I think we have 15,000 people.

• 58:50Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 58:50Speaker 02

  And we're doing a back to back and it's, it's a spiritual moment to have that many people going, let's go.

• 58:56Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. And how do you stay up so late?

• 59:00Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 59:01Amy Poehler?

  Because you have to stay up so late.

• 59:03Speaker 02

  Yes, yes, that's what DJs do.

• 59:07Amy Poehler?

  I know, it's such a nighttime activity.

• 59:09Speaker 02

  No, come on Amy, you got to come out with me one time, man.

• 59:11Amy Poehler?

  I mean, I would have to go to bed at 7pm and wake up at 4am and meet you out. Like, there's no way I could get to the other side at 4am.

• 59:19Speaker 02

  Have you been to Ibiza?

• 59:21Amy Poehler?

  No. That is, seems.

• 59:24Speaker 02

  Okay, life begins at 50, alright?

• 59:28Amy Poehler?

  Okay, first of all, I, I would only want to go with someone who knew Ibiza well. But I, I'm already stressed thinking about how late I would have to stay up. Like, I'm already, like even thinking about, I don't have to take the longest power nap.

• 59:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 59:42Amy Poehler?

  But it's incredible.

• 59:44Speaker 02

  Do you think, uh, that whole power nap thing really works?

• 59:47Amy Poehler?

  No, I can barely nap. I mean, I, I truly, I would have to go to bed at 7pm and then be like, I'll see you at the club at 4.

• 59:56Amy Poehler?

  But it is, it, but I mean, I've, I've, I've loved to dance, I love music, but I just, I can't do the, I can't do the hours. It's not easy to be an actor and a DJ.

• 1:00:05Speaker 02

  It is not, no. I think there's a cell, there's a energy cell that gets awakened with the naughtiness.

• 1:00:13Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:13Speaker 02

  You know, then, it's like, okay.

• 1:00:16Amy Poehler?

  Ibiza?

• 1:00:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:00:18Amy Poehler?

  Ibiza sounds very, sounds very stressful.

• 1:00:21Speaker 02

  Ibiza, Ibiza.

• 1:00:22Amy Poehler?

  Ibiza sounds very stressful.

• 1:00:24Speaker 02

  No, you'd love it, trust me, you know? Flip flop, sunshine all day.

• 1:00:28Amy Poehler?

  Boom.

• 1:00:30Speaker 02

  You can have an ice, ice bucket thing.

• 1:00:32Amy Poehler?

  An ice bucket thing, why do I?

• 1:00:34Speaker 02

  No, you know, like the plunging thing.

• 1:00:36Amy Poehler?

  Oh yeah, could you, you know what? If I could plun, if I could cold plunge in Ibiza, I would be.

• 1:00:41Speaker 02

  You can do anything in Ibiza.

• 1:00:43Amy Poehler?

  Believe me.

• 1:00:43Speaker 02

  Ibiza.

• 1:00:44Amy Poehler?

  That's what stresses me out, Idris. Okay, so we're gonna finish with two questions because we always start our podcast with asking somebody to speak about our guest. I always talk to somebody who knows our guest to give me a question, ask them. And so we talked to John Cena before this.

• 1:01:03Speaker 02

  You did?

• 1:01:03Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:03Speaker 02

  What?

• 1:01:03Amy Poehler?

  And we just talked, we just zoomed with him and he wanted me to ask you, and it's such a John question, I think, and it's so indicative of what you talk about, like, both of you have such an incredible work ethic. You really, you know, you work hard, you're very professional. Both of you are, like, for lack of a better term, like, going for it. You really have a lust for life and learning, like you said. And his question was kind of like, basically, you work really hard. What motivates you? It's such a, it's such a straight male question. What motivates you?

• 1:01:41Speaker 02

  Um, okay, I mean, look, I don't wanna, you know, end on a low note, right?

• 1:01:45Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 1:01:46Speaker 02

  But I became, you know, successful around the age of 35 years old, okay?

• 1:01:51Amy Poehler?

  Hmm.

• 1:01:52Speaker 02

  And up until that point, you know, life wasn't always great. There were some very tough times, you know? I've spoken publicly about some of the times I've gone through. Both my parents, you know, working class, didn't have much at all, all right? So I've been, you know, reasonably, I would say, poor, just reasonably, you know, um, living a life that is very opposed to where I'm living for longer than I have been famous or successful. And there's part of it which is like, ah, I don't wanna let this go.

• 1:02:24Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:24Speaker 02

  So I just keep chugging for it.

• 1:02:26Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:26Speaker 02

  But the second thing is really and truly is that I used to work nights, on the night shift, at Ford Motor Company in Dagenham, East London, okay? That is grim.

• 1:02:37Amy Poehler?

  Hmm.

• 1:02:38Speaker 02

  It's a grim job, all right? Nothing compares to doing that. So when I get an opportunity to come and work with you, to come and work on a set, it doesn't even feel like work.

• 1:02:47Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:48Speaker 02

  Now, to everyone else, it's like, you guys are working really hard, but actually...

• 1:02:51Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, it's not that hard.

• 1:02:52Speaker 02

  It's not that hard.

• 1:02:52Amy Poehler?

  I mean, the stuff we're doing is not that hard. Compared to real, real hard jobs.

• 1:02:56Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 1:02:57Amy Poehler?

  It's not...

• 1:02:58Speaker 02

  We...

• 1:02:58Amy Poehler?

  I agree.

• 1:02:59Speaker 02

  And obviously, we get to do very different things. You know, in a job like that, I did the same thing every night. Every night.

• 1:03:06Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:06Speaker 02

  For two straight years. My dad did the same job for twenty five years.

• 1:03:09Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:10Speaker 02

  So I consider this a privilege.

• 1:03:12Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:12Speaker 02

  This ain't work.

• 1:03:13Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, so what motivates you is gratitude.

• 1:03:16Speaker 02

  Basically.

• 1:03:17Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:03:17Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:03:18Amy Poehler?

  And what is making you laugh these days? How do you go, what do you watch, read? You know, listen to that like, like where do you, where are you finding your comedy?

• 1:03:27Speaker 02

  Uh.

• 1:03:29Amy Poehler?

  What do you?

• 1:03:29Speaker 02

  The studio was really funny to me.

• 1:03:32Amy Poehler?

  So good.

• 1:03:32Speaker 02

  Self reverential, but I loved it. I thought it was really good writing. Um, I'm laughing at myself, letting go of some of my tough man shit and being a bit goofy. I, I, I actually enjoy when people go, what?

• 1:03:48Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:48Speaker 02

  I enjoy that.

• 1:03:49Amy Poehler?

  I've seen you do, like, you're doing some really, like, I have a really fun TikTok idea I want us to do later.

• 1:03:54Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 1:03:54Amy Poehler?

  Um, I have to talk to your team about it.

• 1:03:56Speaker 02

  I didn't, no, seriously?

• 1:03:58Amy Poehler?

  No, yeah, I do. And, and, and listeners, if you don't know this as we wrap up, but, but Idris and I are wearing the exact same thing right now. We're wearing, what, what, how would you describe this color?

• 1:04:09Speaker 02

  Petal blue?

• 1:04:09Amy Poehler?

  Yep, it's a.

• 1:04:11Speaker 02

  I was thinking, you know, um, do you watch football, soccer?

• 1:04:15Amy Poehler?

  Ish.

• 1:04:15Speaker 02

  Ish, right? At the end of a really great game.

• 1:04:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:18Speaker 02

  There's a tradition where the greatest players against each other.

• 1:04:21Amy Poehler?

  They trade, they trade. Okay, let's trade shirts. We're gonna trade shirts.

• 1:04:26Speaker 02

  That's good, buddy. All right.

• 1:04:30Amy Poehler?

  We're trading shirts. Okay, this is exciting.

• 1:04:32Speaker 02

  This is exciting.

• 1:04:33Amy Poehler?

  And I have a feeling this is gonna.

• 1:04:35Speaker 02

  This is not gonna fit. No, I get.

• 1:04:36Amy Poehler?

  This, you're, let's see how far you can get into my jacket.

• 1:04:39Speaker 02

  Technically, you don't have to wear it because usually it's full of sweat.

• 1:04:42Amy Poehler?

  By the way, the shirt smells great. Listeners, if you wanted to know, the shirt smells great.

• 1:04:45Speaker 02

  Oh, wow. Okay, hold on a minute.

• 1:04:46Amy Poehler?

  Oh, I like this look. You're just trying to get one sleeve, just one sleeve.

• 1:04:52Speaker 02

  This one's good.

• 1:04:57Amy Poehler?

  Tiny jacket, but tiny jackets are funny. Tiny jackets are so funny. Look, we did it. We traded.

• 1:05:06Speaker 02

  Okay, this is funny.

• 1:05:06Amy Poehler?

  This would be a good comedy where like.

• 1:05:08Speaker 02

  Yes, but I don't laugh.

• 1:05:10Amy Poehler?

  Okay, very straight.

• 1:05:14Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, play it very straight where you're, we're in some kind of shrinking machine or, you know what it is? It's a body switch comedy is really what it is.

• 1:05:20Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:05:21Amy Poehler?

  We should be in a.

• 1:05:21Speaker 02

  Let's go all the way, buddy. Let's go.

• 1:05:26Speaker 02

  Idris, uh, so, The Wire.

• 1:05:31Amy Poehler?

  Well, um, I enjoyed, uh, working for HBO.

• 1:05:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, because, you know, I watched it nine times.

• 1:05:39Amy Poehler?

  Well, I don't watch it. I...

• 1:05:41Speaker 02

  And I have to say, Stringer, when he did that scene, I'm just gonna show you.

• 1:05:48Amy Poehler?

  Oh, my God. Okay, sign us up. We're ready. We're ready. I loved it. Idris, thank you so much for this time together.

• 1:05:55Speaker 02

  Good times.

• 1:05:56Amy Poehler?

  This was so good, my jacket is completely ripped. Literally can't, he can't even get it over his wrist. He can't get it over his wrist.

• 1:06:02Speaker 02

  It's because I'm tall.

• 1:06:05Amy Poehler?

  He's just, his, his...

• 1:06:06Speaker 02

  No, I really can't get up here.

• 1:06:09Speaker 02

  Ah, okay.

• 1:06:10Amy Poehler?

  You're gonna hear from my lawyer, because it's a very expensive jacket.

• 1:06:14Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 1:06:15Amy Poehler?

  That was so fun. Thank you so much for doing this.

• 1:06:18Speaker 02

  Oh, no, thanks for having me.

• 1:06:19Amy Poehler?

  I really, really appreciate it. And congrats on your movie.

• 1:06:21Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 1:06:24Amy Poehler?

  Okay, today's Polar Plunge is brought to you by Wayfair, here to help you make your home your happy place. So that was a great interview. Idris is so much fun. Um, I hope I wasn't too much of a Wire geek when I was interviewing him, but I could have asked a million more questions and made the entire episode about that, but I tried to restrain myself. But we did talk about a lot of other things, and we talked about British comedies, and so I thought I could use this Polar Plunge, um, to talk about shows that maybe you didn't know about, that you should try to find somewhere on your TV or your phone. Um, Brass Eye, The Day Today, Alan Partridge, Look Around You, French and Saunders.

• 1:07:08Amy Poehler?

  We also, um, realized that the show that All in the Family was, um, based on was Till Death Do Us Part. It took us the entire episode to get it, and it's because we're in our 50s. So, um, but, uh, yeah, there's a lot of British comedy. Oh, and, um, and Desmond's. I'm gonna check out Desmond's now that, um, Idris has, uh, has brought it to my attention. So, um, a lot of good comedy in the UK, especially in the 80s and 90s, that we, that didn't always come over here, so check it out. Uh, but you know what you really should check out is Wayfair, because it makes you turn your home into a happy place. Express your style, create a space you love, cozy sofas, smart essentials.

• 1:07:54Amy Poehler?

  Free shipping, easy setup. Head over to wayfair.com, find something that's just your style today. That's W A Y F A I R dot com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Okay, thanks for listening, bye.

• 1:08:08Amy Poehler?

  You've been listening to Good Hang. The executive producers for this show are Bill Simmons, Jenna Weiss-Berman, and me, Amy Poehler. The show is produced by The Ringer and Paperkite. For The Ringer, production by Jack Wilson, Kat Spillane, Kaya McMullin, and Aleia Zaneras. For Paperkite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell, and Jenna Weiss-Berman. Original music by Amy Miles.

• 1:08:33Amy Poehler?

  This episode is brought to you by Sephora. Holiday gifting can be a tough gig. You're frantically searching, second guessing everything, and accidentally buying your dad eye cream he's never gonna use. Thankfully, Sephora is here to save us from ourselves. Whether you're shopping for a total beauty guru, or someone whose whole routine is hand soap, Sephora has the perfect gift for everyone on your list. And if you're still lost, don't panic. Their beauty advisors can guide you to safety. This holiday season, we all Sephora. Shop gifts at Sephora and give something beautiful.

• 1:09:06Speaker 03

  Pink Pantheress here. Coach and Spotify are teaming up to bring music and style together, and they want you to be part of it. Grab your friends and head to the Tabby Tour, hitting cities around the country with live performances from special artists, exclusive experiences, and personalized products. And discover custom playlists on Spotify, booked just for you, based on who you are and how you listen. Live your story with Coach. Learn more at coach.com.