Claire Danes

Claire Danes knows the power of a good wiggle. Amy hangs with the actor and talks about playing a teen murderer on 'Law & Order,' the lasting power of Jordan Catalano, and things that annoy an enneagram eight. Host: Amy PoehlerGuests: Mandy Patinkin and Claire DanesExecutive 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, and Aleya Zenieris; lighting director Caroline Jannace; audio producer Kaya McMullen; video editor Drew van Steenbergen; and booker Kat SpillaneOriginal Music: Amy Miles If you want to help, go to www.standwithminnesota.com for a directory of local organizations and mutual aid groups accepting donations. Use coupon code ‘EATCESAR10’ at Cesar.com for 10% off Visible. Start the year with a new way to save. www.visible.com 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 eBay Live. Here's how it goes. First, you're watching the eBay livestream telling yourself, I'm just looking. And then boom, you see a vintage Rolex go for an absolute steal. Suddenly, a rare Beanie Baby pops up. Adrenaline hits and you're bidding. You might lose that first one, but you bid again and win. And that winning rush? Incredible, because you beat everyone to it. Meanwhile, on eBay Live, you don't just watch the action, you're in it. Download the eBay app to stream and shop live. eBay Live, things people love.

• 0:38Amy Poehler?

  Hi, everyone. Amy here. I'm recording this the day before our new episode with the great Claire Danes comes out, and it's an episode we recorded a few weeks ago. And since then, so much has been happening in our country. And honestly, it felt strange not to address it. The intention of Good Hang has always been to bring levity and joy and laughs in these tough times, and we're going to keep doing that. But before we start this episode, I just want to send much love to the best people in the world, also known as Minnesotans. What we are all witnessing is terrifying and enraging and illegal, but we are also seeing neighbors helping neighbors. And if you want to help, there is a directory of local organizations and mutual aid groups

• 1:21Amy Poehler?

  that you can check out at StandWithMinnesota.com. Minnesota, you're in our hearts. Okay, on with the show.

• 1:31Amy Poehler?

  Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Good Hang. Very excited about our guest today. It is the incredible Claire Danes. I cannot wait to talk to Claire today. She is such a pro. She's so good at so many things. And I know she's going to be a good hang, and we are going to get into it today. We're going to talk about her big brain. We are going to talk about the lasting effect of my so-called life and how people still love it even to this day. We're going to talk about her stint on Law & Order and what that was like. And we're gonna hear about how she met Basquiat in an elevator when she was a New York kid. So much to talk about. Before we do, we always like to speak to somebody who knows our guest, who has a question for me to ask our guest, and we talk well behind their back.

• 2:16Amy Poehler?

  And we have a great one today, the incredible Mandy Patinkin. Mandy? Actor, singer, activist, now podcaster. You can check out his podcast, Don't Listen to Us, out now with his wonderful wife, Catherine, and his son, Gideon, and Mandy. Hi, can you hear me?

• 2:45Amy Poehler?

  This episode is brought to you by Zoom. Many of us have been there. The calls where you zone out for one second and miss six key points. The quick check-ins that are anything but quick. Because here's the thing, every conversation creates work. With Zoom, though, the conversation itself can actually move work forward. Zoom is now a full system of action that can actually complete work from the context of your existing meetings, calls, and chats. No more post-call panic, no more inbox avalanche. You talked about it, Zoom got it done. Visit zoomahead.com to learn more.

• 3:29Speaker 01

  Hi, Amy.

• 3:31Amy Poehler?

  Hi, Mandy.

• 3:32Speaker 01

  Don't look, Amy, I'm eating something again.

• 3:35Amy Poehler?

  Yum, what are you eating?

• 3:39Speaker 01

  Murray's tuna.

• 3:40Amy Poehler?

  Oh, perfect.

• 3:41Speaker 01

  And vegetarian chopped liver on Ezekiel cinnamon raisin toast.

• 3:46Amy Poehler?

  Wow, that's a lot of flavors.

• 3:49Speaker 01

  Well, I love the cinnamon raisin and I eat that because my trainer tells me not to eat this other bread, that this is the one he wants me to eat. And I'm feeling good, and so I do what he says.

• 4:00Amy Poehler?

  You're a podcaster now.

• 4:02Speaker 01

  Yes, I'm a podcaster.

• 4:06Speaker 01

  Do you only talk to podcasters? Is that the deal?

• 4:08Amy Poehler?

  I can't stand talking to someone who doesn't have a podcast.

• 4:12Speaker 01

  Trust me, Amy, I know.

• 4:13Amy Poehler?

  Right, when you see them, you're like, what are you doing with your life?

• 4:16Speaker 01

  It's unconscionable to even think of doing that. It's horrible. So I wouldn't even, even hearing you say it upsets me. That's not an option.

• 4:25Amy Poehler?

  You do a show with, um, uh, don't listen to us with Catherine, your wife and your son, Gideon. And, um, congratulations on that.

• 4:34Speaker 01

  And they, and they don't listen to me. So it always, the title is always in operation.

• 4:40Amy Poehler?

  How, how has it been? What have you been, uh, learning about yourself and, uh, in, in the process of making it?

• 4:45Speaker 01

  It's great, Amy. It's just great being with your family 24/7, never a break. What more could you ask? You know, be at home, work with them, you know, just like, you know, my son, you know, just can't get enough of his parents. It's just, it's a total joy 24/7. It's just like being in paradise.

• 5:03Amy Poehler?

  Before we get to Claire, just one more time, because I know Gideon will want me to get the log line. How would you describe the podcast?

• 5:11Speaker 01

  Oh, just in the, the podcast, to, to describe the podcast is just, uh, it's a podcast. It's undescribable. It's just extraordinary podcast. Um, it has, uh, my wife who I love. I've been with her for seven, 47 years. If I can stay with her for 47 years, you can tune in and stay with her for 47 minutes. And my son, my glorious son, Gideon, he, it's all his. And then the one mistake is having me at the table as well.

• 5:42Amy Poehler?

  I am such a humongous fan of your work, Mandy. It meant so much to me that I was talking to you today. And we're talking today to Claire Danes, who I know you absolutely love.

• 5:52Speaker 01

  I adore her. If I, if I had a daughter, it would be Claire.

• 5:57Amy Poehler?

  Oh, can you tell me where you two first met?

• 6:00Speaker 01

  We first met in the rehearsal room in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I believe that's where we met. I think that's where we were, where we had the first re-threw of Homeland. And I think that's where, I think that was the name of the town where we shot the first three seasons. Pretty sure it was Winston-Salem, but I could be wrong. I'm at that age. I don't just look it. It's the same thing inside my brain. It's just this wiry gray-white mess up there. And I'm pretty sure, I know it was North Carolina. Charlotte, no, no, it was Charlotte, North Carolina.

• 6:35Amy Poehler?

  So that's interesting. So you met in rehearsal for the first time. And obviously, I'm familiar with each other's work. What was your first impression of her?

• 6:45Speaker 01

  Well, I knew she was of the highest pedigree. And so I just was thrilled to be with her. And I knew that I wanted more than anything for her, both as Mandy and the character Saul. I wanted her to feel safe with me. And I wanted her to feel protected by me. And I wanted her to trust me. And I knew that was a tall order. But we sat down with our director to just have our first read-through. And she finished the first scene. And she said something that I never forgotten. I just left. She said, "Well, that was some of the worst schmacking I've ever done."

• 7:29Speaker 01

  And I never, I never heard that word schmacking. And I loved it. And I never heard her say it again because I think she's brilliant. I even thought she was brilliant when she thought she was schmacking. And so she is, she's as good as they come. You know, in the arena, she's a thoroughbred. Which leads me to my second thought that I had to offer you. Would you like that? Or do you want to run this?

• 7:57Amy Poehler?

  No, I love, I don't think with you and I that I'm ever going to run anything. I think, Mandy, whenever, you're going to be running it.

• 8:04Speaker 01

  I can, I can shut up.

• 8:05Amy Poehler?

  I know. I heard that you wrote down a bunch of questions for her, which I love, because I too have so many questions for her. How many you have on that page?

• 8:13Speaker 01

  I have, I wrote down one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

• 8:20Amy Poehler?

  Okay. Great.

• 8:21Speaker 01

  No, no, eight.

• 8:24Amy Poehler?

  Perfect. I, I, I, I understand why.

• 8:27Speaker 01

  And you can, you can buy these questions, probably.

• 8:30Amy Poehler?

  Just go to your website.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  Everything I have is for sale.

• 8:34Amy Poehler?

  But I understand why you have all these questions for her because she is, to your point, thoroughbred is a perfect word, like so incredibly gifted. And also, your story tells, tells me that she also does not take herself too seriously. It's that combination that's incredible to be around.

• 8:52Speaker 01

  She was a kid actor, you know? And, and the thing is, as you've known from working with kids, the, the magic of them, it's literally magic. They sit there, they play, they play with the other kids, and then the director goes action and they're there with a believability that if you worked at this craft till the day you die, you would never get to be that good, the way these kids are. And she's one of the rare ones that took it into adulthood. And, and she has that. She just believes. She just believes in a way that is, I'm transfixed. I, I had to do the least work in my life, because all I would do is just sit and listen to her.

• 9:34Amy Poehler?

  You can really feel the love between you two. So let's get to those eight, eight or nine questions.

• 9:38Speaker 01

  You got it. So the next one that I wrote down.

• 9:41Amy Poehler?

  Wait, what was the first one again?

• 9:42Speaker 01

  Uh, oh, God. I didn't know it was gonna be a challenge. The first one. I have no idea what the first one was. What did I say?

• 9:51Amy Poehler?

  Okay, okay, forget it.

• 9:52Speaker 01

  Look at me, will you, Amy? Look at me.

• 9:53Amy Poehler?

  I'm so sorry. You start, you start in the middle.

• 9:55Speaker 01

  Don't even ask me my name anymore. Just please, have a little, you know.

• 10:00Amy Poehler?

  Sorry, Mandy.

• 10:01Speaker 01

  Okay. In Yiddish, it's called rachmonos. Have some rachmonos for what you're dealing with here. Regarding her children, I'm very curious, because she's married to an exceptional young man, young in my book, and young in everybody's book. I would like to know who is better in the family at setting boundaries for the children?

• 10:24Amy Poehler?

  Ooh.

• 10:25Speaker 01

  Is it Claire or Hugh?

• 10:27Amy Poehler?

  Hugh or Claire, her great actor husband Hugh Nancy?

• 10:31Speaker 01

  Now, I would like you to ask her something that only she would know. What is Mandy's father's favorite chewing gum?

• 10:42Amy Poehler?

  That does, that question seems like what you have to answer to get into an exclusive private club.

• 10:49Speaker 01

  You are right on the money. And how did she commemorate the answer to that gift to me?

• 10:56Amy Poehler?

  Excellent.

• 10:57Speaker 01

  Which was one of the great gifts that I've ever been given.

• 11:00Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  Oh, here's a good one. How often does she feel she pees, she needs to pee before every take or every scene?

• 11:12Amy Poehler?

  Love that.

• 11:14Speaker 01

  It's, it's not a downside. It gives everyone a chance to breathe. We all know that, you know, there's a rest period coming up. So, okay. Um, okay. That was it.

• 11:26Amy Poehler?

  Okay, these are great. These are great questions. And they all speak to what I'm learning about her. And, you know, I, I've known Claire over the years through friends and loved my time, spending my, spending time with her. But what I've learned about her is, um, she's a really considerate person. She's a very considerate person. She really considers other people. I think it's what makes her a good actress and human in the world.

• 11:53Speaker 01

  You know, the gift of, one of the great gifts of a television series, in my humble opinion, is that you get to be there for a long time and you really get to know each other and you get to know each other's strengths and also each other's fragilities. And she learned mine. I sort of wear them on my sleeve, but she learned them quickly and she, she just took care of me. She knew how to take care of me when I needed holding and when I needed, you know, and, and she knew how to leave me alone when I needed leave me alone time.

• 12:24Amy Poehler?

  Beautiful. I know she's going to be so excited that we talked. I don't know if, if she knows, this is, might be a surprise to her.

• 12:30Speaker 01

  I, I didn't tell her. I saw her recently at a political event for Mam Donnie, which I was thrilled that she was there. Uh, and, uh, but I did mention, I, I hadn't known about this at that point.

• 12:41Amy Poehler?

  Oh, that's great. I think she's going to be so.

• 12:44Speaker 01

  No idea from me.

• 12:45Amy Poehler?

  Happy that we talked.

• 12:46Speaker 01

  Please, uh, take my phone number.

• 12:48Amy Poehler?

  I will.

• 12:49Speaker 01

  Do you have it?

• 12:50Amy Poehler?

  I'm going to take your phone number and I'm going to call you for advice on a lot, basically on most things in life.

• 12:55Speaker 01

  And you're welcome. Well, and you're just the dumbest fucking person on the planet.

• 13:02Amy Poehler?

  Thanks, Mandy. Take care. Bye.

• 13:06Speaker 01

  Have fun. Bye bye.

• 13:08Amy Poehler?

  This episode is brought to you by Visible. Got a resolution to save? Kick 2026 off right with Visible. It's a one-line wireless plan with unlimited data and hotspot for $25 a month. Taxes and fees included. All on Verizon's 5G network. It's the ultimate wireless hack to save money and still get great coverage and a reliable connection. Now, for a limited time, new members can get the Visible plan for just $19 a month for the first 26 months. Ring in the new year with code SWITCH26. Share the savings with a deal that is too good to keep quiet. Switch now at visible.com. Terms apply. Limited time offer subject to change. See visible.com for plan features and network management details.

• 13:56Speaker 02

  And you do talk about this being a number eight business a lot.

• 14:01Amy Poehler?

  The Enneagram? Wait, you're pretending you don't know what the Enneagram is?

• 14:05Speaker 02

  I know now because of you.

• 14:07Amy Poehler?

  Do you know what your number is?

• 14:08Speaker 02

  I did it last night.

• 14:10Amy Poehler?

  Yes! Don't tell me what it is, I want to guess.

• 14:12Speaker 02

  I do.

• 14:13Amy Poehler?

  You're an eight?

• 14:14Speaker 02

  I'm an eight. I'm an eight. I screamed.

• 14:17Amy Poehler?

  Oh, my God.

• 14:18Speaker 02

  I yelled out loud.

• 14:19Amy Poehler?

  Freaking out.

• 14:20Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 14:21Amy Poehler?

  Claire Danes just walked in with a balloon. With a... By the way, thank you, these are beautiful.

• 14:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, you're welcome.

• 14:28Amy Poehler?

  A beautiful eight balloon.

• 14:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:30Amy Poehler?

  I'm going to bring it into frame. Look at that, a gorgeous eight balloon. In reference to the fact that we are the same Enneagram number.

• 14:39Speaker 02

  Well, I didn't know that when I bought the balloon. I just knew that you were an eight girl. Because you do talk about it pretty consistently.

• 14:50Amy Poehler?

  This is an intervention and everyone's like, and now you've got the balloon and now shut up about it.

• 14:55Speaker 02

  It's an intervention. But I...

• 14:58Amy Poehler?

  Thank you!

• 14:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, you're so welcome. But I was so excited that I got to be your twin eight sister.

• 15:04Amy Poehler?

  Listen, if you're going to start with Enneagram, we're going to go... I'm very pleased that you're an Aries, 8.

• 15:11Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 15:12Amy Poehler?

  That makes perfect sense to me.

• 15:14Speaker 02

  Does it? I don't, I'm very new to this.

• 15:16Amy Poehler?

  Did you learn about the? Did you read the descriptions of it and feel like it was you?

• 15:20Speaker 02

  Sure, but I also worry that I might just be a little impressionable and, you know, kind of absorb and accept and make it work.

• 15:28Amy Poehler?

  Interesting, well that.

• 15:30Speaker 02

  That's not very 8-like, is it?

• 15:31Amy Poehler?

  It's not, but perhaps you've got a wing, you know? You can get a wing on the side.

• 15:37Speaker 02

  I don't know, I don't know what my wing.

• 15:39Amy Poehler?

  I'd love to see what your pie chart looked like.

• 15:40Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 15:41Amy Poehler?

  Like what you actually, what were your big? I wish you had told me you were taking the test because I would have sent a text that said, "Send me your pie chart, send me your..."

• 15:53Speaker 02

  Okay, I'm sure I can find it again. What's your sign?

• 15:56Amy Poehler?

  Virgo.

• 15:57Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 15:57Amy Poehler?

  What are you?

• 15:58Speaker 02

  I'm Aries, Virgo rising.

• 16:01Amy Poehler?

  Oh my god. Like Claire, run all of the things. Run all of the things, do all the things, be in charge of all of the things. I mean, do you find yourself to be like a? I mean, we know each other, but we don't know know each other. And I've had the pleasure of being around you a lot, a lot. And humongous fan of your work, of course.

• 16:22Speaker 02

  Right back at you.

• 16:23Amy Poehler?

  And, thank you. And we were very excited that you said yes today. And do you think you're an organized person? Like, are you an organized?

• 16:33Speaker 02

  I've gotten much more organized over time. But I do love the Container Store.

• 16:39Amy Poehler?

  I love the Container Store.

• 16:41Speaker 02

  So, so much.

• 16:42Amy Poehler?

  A good container will change your life. Jenna, why are you laughing, Jenna? Why are you laughing so hard? But, and what I love about, when, when, I love the idea of figuring out what things, what are, what do things mean to you in your life?

• 17:01Speaker 02

  Because they actually, it's a paradox.

• 17:04Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 17:04Speaker 02

  They don't mean anything and they mean a lot. They can be really valuable tools and I think they do carry energy. Like, I really do believe that. And they can transport you. They can be little tiny time machines.

• 17:17Amy Poehler?

  Yes, but, okay, of course you're an organizer, of course you're Virgo, of course you're Aries, of course you're an 8. Claire Danes is here.

• 17:26Amy Poehler?

  I mean, Claire, if I did not love you already. I mean, the theme of, I feel like the theme of today is.

• 17:34Amy Poehler?

  I've always felt like you and your work were ahead of its time.

• 17:39Speaker 02

  That's very nice. That's very, very nice.

• 17:42Amy Poehler?

  You've always brought me as an artist into worlds that I didn't know I was ready for. You're an intellectually curious person who's interested in interesting things. And therefore, you're drawn to those things, almost like the cartoon character when the pie's on the windowsill. Like, I feel that with you. You're drawn to interesting things.

• 18:01Speaker 02

  I am. That's true. Thank you for saying that. That's actually very, very touching and meaningful that you say that, really.

• 18:07Amy Poehler?

  Well, I can sense it from the choices you made as an artist. And, you know, it is like My So-Called Life and Homeland and Temple Grandin and The Beast in Me. Like, all these projects and the way you're kind of leading us into some new territory always, it feels like. A new territory for you, too, which is very exciting. Of course, you're an Enneagram eight. You're a challenger. You're incredible.

• 18:32Amy Poehler?

  But I'm sorry that we're the best, but we are. And I'm sorry to all the other numbers.

• 18:37Amy Poehler?

  But, like, and I just want to say this as we get this thing started, finally, which is, you have the ability, as an actor, to stay in your body and be in your brain. Those are two very hard things to do.

• 18:52Speaker 02

  This is so nice.

• 18:54Amy Poehler?

  Claire, you're so smart.

• 18:55Speaker 02

  This is so nice. This is so nice.

• 18:58Amy Poehler?

  But it's hard to balance those two things, body and brain. And that's why I'm obsessed with the fact that you love to dance.

• 19:04Speaker 02

  I do love to dance. I love to dance. I love it.

• 19:08Amy Poehler?

  And for me, it gets me out of my brain.

• 19:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 19:12Amy Poehler?

  Jinx.

• 19:13Speaker 02

  Yes. And I don't dance as much as I... I don't dance enough anymore. I had a good wiggle the other night all by myself in my bathroom. I really needed it.

• 19:24Amy Poehler?

  And that's where I've seen you probably the most, is on the dance floor.

• 19:28Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, our friend Rashida is a pretty great dancer.

• 19:31Amy Poehler?

  She's had some parties and we've danced in our pajamas together. And I feel like there's been some award shows where we've been on the floor. Like, where dancing regulates... What does it do for you? What does it do for your body?

• 19:44Speaker 02

  Oh god, it's so funny. Well, because it's my son's birthday today. My eldest son, he's turned 13 and it's like a superpower I have. I just like a little tiny wiggle in public. He will cross the street.

• 19:58Amy Poehler?

  Oh yeah.

• 19:59Speaker 02

  It's just, but yes, I could mortify him within a millisecond.

• 20:05Amy Poehler?

  And even worse is you stop and go, "I'm a good dancer." "People think I'm a good dancer." And they're like, "Mom, please."

• 20:11Speaker 02

  Oh my god, mom.

• 20:13Amy Poehler?

  Mom, mom, everyone's watching you dance.

• 20:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, but what does it do for me? Well, I mean, the best is when you enter that like flow state. When you, yeah, when it's, when it's, there's no thought and you're just totally synchronized with whatever sound is coming into, you know, through your ears. I love watching toddlers dance. You know, when they jump, they do that thing, they do the bouncing thing.

• 20:41Amy Poehler?

  That's so true.

• 20:43Speaker 02

  We all do it. And Shay, my baby, she's very kind of in her head and dreamy and sometimes she'll do this kind of dance. And I'm like, "That's fabulous."

• 20:53Amy Poehler?

  How old is she?

• 20:54Speaker 02

  She's two and a half.

• 20:55Amy Poehler?

  Okay, I heard something that's amazing, which is that kids from three on, like from three to four, three to five are, consider them like on mushrooms. Like hallucogenic mushrooms because they're like, "The floor is lava." And like, "I'm feeling the music." And they're like, "Why do we die?" And you're like, "Whoa, you are tripping." And it's so true that age.

• 21:16Speaker 02

  It's true. She's really fun.

• 21:19Amy Poehler?

  You're a real dancer.

• 21:20Speaker 02

  Well, but never, not like a formally trained one. I had this amazing teacher here in the city, a woman named Ellen Robbins. And she was great. And like from the age of four on, I worked with her. I say that like intentionally, it sounds ridiculous because I was a tiny human. But she really took every kid very seriously. And over the course of the year, you would work towards choreographing your own piece and you would choose the theme and the music. I was a moth to flame one year. Yes, I was. There was a lot of, a lot of, a lot of that.

• 21:57Amy Poehler?

  Closing up and opening again, finding your light.

• 22:00Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 22:01Amy Poehler?

  Little Claire in dance class at four. You are a New York kid.

• 22:05Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 22:06Amy Poehler?

  I'm really always interested in kids that grew up in New York.

• 22:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:09Amy Poehler?

  What was Soho? What was your version of little kid in New York?

• 22:12Speaker 02

  It was funky.

• 22:13Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 22:13Speaker 02

  And, you know, a little rough.

• 22:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 22:18Speaker 02

  I was born in 79. My parents were artists. They moved to the Bowery in the late 60s. And my dad, my dad's mom, Claire, who I'm named after,

• 22:33Speaker 02

  died when he was a kid. And then I guess he kind of had this money finally. And they bought a loft building with another couple that they still own on Crosby Street, where I was growing up. So it was, you know, we had a swing, we had a trapeze. I would roller skate on, you know, it was.

• 22:51Amy Poehler?

  It's kind of how we pictured New York kids to be living.

• 22:54Speaker 02

  I had some shame about it too. And I had cousins who lived in the suburbs. And all I wanted was to be in a cul-de-sac and have like a basement and carpet on the floor.

• 23:05Amy Poehler?

  We forget that when we're little. We don't want to be different, interesting. We want to be exactly the same.

• 23:11Speaker 02

  But, you know, it was, it was, it was also very cool. And, you know, Basquiat lived in our building and, you know, like, yes, like.

• 23:21Amy Poehler?

  Did you meet him?

• 23:22Speaker 02

  I, I remember him. I remember being really little and he, you know, he was kind, he was very sweet. Like, he was very.

• 23:30Amy Poehler?

  Charming.

• 23:31Speaker 02

  Charming and kind of tender. That's what I remember about him in the elevator.

• 23:35Amy Poehler?

  Wow, wow, wow, wow. That's amazing.

• 23:38Speaker 02

  Keith Haring was just around and, yeah, but there was, it was also violent. And the mafia still existed. So we were on Crosby and Prince. So just on the other side of Lafayette, that was the different world and felt quite active and.

• 23:57Amy Poehler?

  Did you become a vigilant, are you a vigilant person or a vigilant kid because of?

• 24:01Speaker 02

  On the street?

• 24:02Amy Poehler?

  No, in life, like, was there some hyper vigilance that was created because of that?

• 24:07Speaker 02

  Yes, because of New York. And also I have very funky.

• 24:13Amy Poehler?

  Groovy arty artist parents?

• 24:14Speaker 02

  Parents.

• 24:16Amy Poehler?

  Totally.

• 24:17Speaker 02

  So I, there was a rigidity that developed.

• 24:21Amy Poehler?

  Yes, yes, speaking my language.

• 24:24Speaker 02

  And like a hyper observance, yes, for sure.

• 24:27Amy Poehler?

  And so you go, and speaking of vigilance and hyper observance, you were on Law and Order as a young person. How old were you?

• 24:34Speaker 02

  I was 12.

• 24:35Amy Poehler?

  Can you tell me about?

• 24:36Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 24:37Amy Poehler?

  Being on Law and Order.

• 24:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was amazing. It was amazing. And I played a teenage murderer.

• 24:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, my mom was a prostitute, like, high-end. And her, like, pimp was grooming me to basically do the same thing. But he was kind of presenting himself as a modeling agent. And he was, you know, and I took these photos of me.

• 25:07Amy Poehler?

  Typical Law and Order light fare.

• 25:09Speaker 02

  And my mom found out about it and she intercepted. And I was furious. And I took the scissors from the darkroom and stabbed him. I think that's what it was.

• 25:21Amy Poehler?

  God, I would have killed to have been, that was what I wanted to do so bad. Really? As a teen murderer, yeah, on Law and Order.

• 25:27Speaker 02

  I then dated a boy, another guy, a kid, another kid actor. We met in an audition, who also had been a teen murderer on Law and Order. That was like our cute story. And now he was on Law and Order.

• 25:42Amy Poehler?

  I know.

• 25:43Speaker 02

  Which is wild.

• 25:44Amy Poehler?

  I know.

• 25:45Speaker 02

  And we have so much good, like, gear, like swag, Law and Order swag. We have a giant button that goes dun-dun. That the kids really, really like. And we do have to hide sometimes, but.

• 25:59Amy Poehler?

  That show is, it's just, first of all, it just employed so many actors.

• 26:03Speaker 02

  And still does. It's a total institution. I was also very sure the day after it aired, there was like a screening party. It was that, like, it was gonna be a problem for me to ride the subway. Like, because I was gonna be so famous. And it was fine.

• 26:22Amy Poehler?

  Everybody was fine, everyone was fine.

• 26:24Speaker 02

  No, it was, it was pretty comfortable still for me.

• 26:28Amy Poehler?

  Now, you brought up my so-called life. When, how old were you when you auditioned for that?

• 26:32Speaker 02

  I was 13 when I did the pilot. And I was, and then it didn't get picked up.

• 26:37Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 26:37Speaker 02

  Um, and I'd gone to public school my whole life, but then like had made money from these acting jobs and could afford to send myself to private school. So I went to Dalton and, but yeah, then, but in like the very start of my freshman year, we got this call saying, oh no, they are going to pick it up. So I was only physically there for a semester and then we were off to LA.

• 27:01Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 27:01Speaker 02

  And was kind of tutored from that point on.

• 27:04Amy Poehler?

  Now, I mean, I know you've talked ad nauseam about the experience you had making that show and it is still so zeitgeist-y, that show.

• 27:15Speaker 02

  It's really, it was a very special thing.

• 27:20Amy Poehler?

  When you were making it, it felt like a special sparkly thing?

• 27:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, I remember, I remember reading the pilot, um, I guess before the audition and, and, and, and just having a very profound, you know, experience. And it was really powerful to have some woman, some writer person so perfectly articulate my internal life.

• 27:44Amy Poehler?

  And that was Winnie Holtzman?

• 27:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was Winnie Holtzman, who, who, who's still a dear, dear friend and just wildly inspired, hilarious, loving person.

• 27:54Amy Poehler?

  And people should know, like, wrote Wicked.

• 27:55Speaker 02

  Wicked, yes.

• 27:57Amy Poehler?

  Just this little indie called Wicked.

• 27:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, which is basically about like teenage girls, you know, and, and their, their intimacies and their friendships. Um, yeah, she's divine.

• 28:12Amy Poehler?

  And Winnie was, Winnie was the creator of the show.

• 28:14Speaker 02

  She was, yeah, she was the creator of the show. And, uh, and we were both working so hard, we barely saw each other, but we were, you know, in this very deep relationship, um, in our imaginations, you know? Uh, yeah.

• 28:33Amy Poehler?

  Did you chemistry read with Jared Leto for?

• 28:35Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no.

• 28:37Amy Poehler?

  He just got hired and then you guys had to kind of get, find, find the chemistry there?

• 28:41Speaker 02

  He was like in the Noxzema commercial. That was very exciting.

• 28:44Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 28:45Speaker 02

  He was so hot. Oh, my God.

• 28:47Amy Poehler?

  Oh, my God.

• 28:47Speaker 02

  It was ridiculous.

• 28:48Amy Poehler?

  Are you kidding me?

• 28:48Speaker 02

  It was upsetting.

• 28:49Amy Poehler?

  You know, Jordan Catalano is like become-

• 28:50Speaker 02

  And it's also one of those names. It's always-

• 28:52Amy Poehler?

  Incredible.

• 28:52Speaker 02

  The full name.

• 28:53Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 28:55Speaker 02

  And there was also a character on the show called Tino that you never saw. Anyway, there are so many-

• 29:02Amy Poehler?

  But I, but do you have a theory? Because you know now with perspective, like what, what do you think resonates still with, with Angela's, like-

• 29:13Speaker 02

  Well, it's still radical.

• 29:14Amy Poehler?

  Yes, it is.

• 29:15Speaker 02

  I don't think-

• 29:15Amy Poehler?

  Ahead of its time.

• 29:16Speaker 02

  I think, and it remains ahead of this time.

• 29:19Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 29:19Speaker 02

  Like, I just-

• 29:20Amy Poehler?

  Why? Why?

• 29:20Speaker 02

  It shouldn't have been made. It, it, it almost wasn't made many times. And, um, and it just willed, wields itself into existence. I don't know. It's not very often that we spend that much time,

• 29:36Speaker 02

  intimate time with a, a teenage girl.

• 29:41Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 29:42Speaker 02

  Not really.

• 29:42Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 29:43Speaker 02

  Not, where we're seeing the world from her, from inside of her.

• 29:49Speaker 02

  And really through her vantage point when she's, and she's so earnestly wrestling with big stuff, you know? And, and it's, I, yeah, it's just so well balanced and it's so, it's so of her, you know, but it's so, there are some zingers. There's some really well crafted lines-

• 30:11Amy Poehler?

  You know, I was rewatching that moment, the like beautiful moment where, that is played over and over again on TikTok every day of my life, because it's on my FYP, but of, um, of when Jordan comes over to Angela and says, can we go somewhere? And you say, sure. And you walk off with him and he takes your hand in front of everybody. And that feeling of being

• 30:35Amy Poehler?

  chosen publicly is a big-

• 30:39Speaker 02

  Major.

• 30:39Amy Poehler?

  Major deal for a young woman and young man. But why the show, I think, separates itself from others is also editorially, we know what all the other characters are feeling in that moment.

• 30:52Speaker 02

  Oh, yes.

• 30:52Amy Poehler?

  Like, we cut to everyone else's feeling about not being chosen, or the wrong person being chosen. Like, everyone's having a feeling like, we're feeling everybody's pain, psychic pain, or joy in that moment. It's so good.

• 31:09Speaker 02

  That's a very well-stated, yeah, well-analyzed scene.

• 31:15Amy Poehler?

  I've watched it way too many times.

• 31:18Speaker 02

  No, and yes, it was, I feel wildly fortunate that that was my entry point.

• 31:29Amy Poehler?

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• 32:11Amy Poehler?

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• 32:45Amy Poehler?

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• 33:30Amy Poehler?

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• 33:55Amy Poehler?

  And you've worked with, what I imagine, only imagine, are really some very interesting, complicated, and maybe at times difficult people at a young age. I project on you that you have to like figure out how to be self-possessed and be your own artist and your own, you know, like protect yourself and also be among these like really complicated adults. Do you feel like there was some inner Claire thing that helped you navigate all that early stuff?

• 34:25Speaker 02

  I feel like kids are doing that all the time anyway.

• 34:28Amy Poehler?

  Not every kid.

• 34:29Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 34:30Amy Poehler?

  You know, I think this is...

• 34:31Speaker 02

  Um, I don't know. Also, I remember people, I never felt like a kid. And now, now that I am a parent and I have actual children, I'm like, yeah, no, I for sure was a kid. There's no...

• 34:42Amy Poehler?

  Do you think you were gonna, I sometimes think I never felt like a kid either.

• 34:44Speaker 02

  No.

• 34:45Amy Poehler?

  When I was about eight or nine, I was like, I'm in charge here. I did, I was like, these people, like, I just remember being like, no, I'm in charge.

• 34:52Speaker 02

  Okay, my first memory, I don't know if it's real or not, obviously no idea, but was pre-verbal. I was an infant. I remember where I was, I was by the windows on our loft on Crosby Street, Liverpool looking Lafayette Street, and I had been handed to some other adult that I didn't know very well. And they didn't know how to hold a baby. And I remember having, I was like, okay. This is one of those grownups who don't know how to do this. They're uncomfortable.

• 35:26Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 35:27Speaker 02

  There's nothing I can do about it. I'm just gonna have to wait it out. Um, yeah.

• 35:31Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, that person was lurid.

• 35:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, lurid. And then my second memory was being on the kitchen island and I was just about, I just was starting to have some language, but not quite enough. And I was kind of playing charades with my mom and I wanted to get to the counter, like, the other side of the kitchen. And she was really frustrated and I felt such empathy for both of us. And I was like, this cannot continue. Like, I really, really need to crack this language thing. Because, I mean, poor us. This is too hard.

• 36:07Amy Poehler?

  Amazing.

• 36:09Speaker 02

  So, yeah, it was like that always. And people would say, like, how, you know, you know, it's so remarkable that you can deliver performances at such a young age. I was like, what are you talking about? I feel like I've been here for, this has been an eternity. Like, 11 years is so many years. And it felt very rich. I was like, I've got enough material for four lifetimes.

• 36:33Amy Poehler?

  It makes total sense to me because when you're in Little Women and you're dying.

• 36:39Amy Poehler?

  I was like, she's been here before.

• 36:41Speaker 02

  We had to reshoot that scene.

• 36:43Amy Poehler?

  I can't even.

• 36:44Speaker 02

  Just my side.

• 36:45Amy Poehler?

  Oh.

• 36:45Speaker 02

  Because apparently, I got too excited about the death rattle. Because of course, I read like Five Stages of Dying. I like, and really studied whatever illness Beth had.

• 36:55Amy Poehler?

  Sure.

• 36:56Speaker 02

  And I got a little carried away.

• 36:59Amy Poehler?

  You rattled a little too much.

• 37:02Speaker 02

  I told this story to Matthew Reese and he calls me, um, death rattle Danes. But, but Gillian Anderson, the director, lied to me. I only learned this like last year.

• 37:11Amy Poehler?

  Oh, bless.

• 37:12Speaker 02

  Literally, then said that Coke had spilled on the negatives of the film. And that we needed to reshoot.

• 37:17Amy Poehler?

  Well, that's a nice thing to do.

• 37:18Speaker 02

  But it was really because she needed to like, like calm the death rattle down a little bit. Ah, yes. So that's a factoid.

• 37:28Amy Poehler?

  By the time you were 20, you were already in 13 movies.

• 37:33Speaker 02

  So that's a few movies, that's a lot.

• 37:35Amy Poehler?

  And you went.

• 37:35Speaker 02

  I did not know that. Okay.

• 37:37Amy Poehler?

  Went to school, went to Yale. What did you study there?

• 37:39Speaker 02

  I thought I was going to be a psychology major. And then it ended, there ended up being like a lot of lab work involved with that. Um, that's not what I meant.

• 37:51Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 37:52Speaker 02

  Eventually, I think I would have been, I didn't complete my time. Um, and I never had to declare a major. But if I had, I think I would have been an English major, which is what I meant, you know? I didn't.

• 38:06Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 38:07Speaker 02

  Um, I didn't want it to be, the sci, the science part was less interesting to me than the character studies.

• 38:14Amy Poehler?

  Do you have a bit of like a Slidy Doors fantasy that you would be a therapist in another life?

• 38:19Speaker 02

  Well, my best friend in the whole wide world, from the age of nine on, is a therapist.

• 38:24Amy Poehler?

  Congrats.

• 38:26Speaker 02

  Thank you. I did pretty well.

• 38:27Amy Poehler?

  Best friend and a therapist?

• 38:29Speaker 02

  I chose, I chose well at nine. Um, and, and actually, it's really fun. We do kind of play Barbies together with my characters. Like if I'm starting a project, we'll think about it in those kind of formal terms. And she'll diagnose her and.

• 38:45Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, cool.

• 38:46Speaker 02

  It is, it's actually very handy.

• 38:48Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 38:49Speaker 02

  Um, and occasionally at lunch, like I'll see her kind of, it'll be, I see her shift from Ariel, you know, into ther, and she'll ask, she'll say. Is it okay if I, you know, go into actual formal therapy mode with you now?

• 39:05Amy Poehler?

  Oh, a dream.

• 39:06Speaker 02

  Be like, yes, please.

• 39:07Amy Poehler?

  A dream.

• 39:07Speaker 02

  Um, so, so, yeah, I, I, I mean, that, so, okay. So I'd wanted to be an actor from the age of five onwards. And then people would tell me, you know, most actors actually don't make that much money. It's a fairly insecure.

• 39:25Amy Poehler?

  Which is true.

• 39:26Speaker 02

  Career choice.

• 39:27Amy Poehler?

  And continues to be.

• 39:28Speaker 02

  And I had a practical side. And I thought, okay, all right, fine, I'm gonna be a therapist and I'm gonna live in the suburbs. I was gonna live next door to Ariel. We were gonna share a pool and we would have two slides in our respective yards that would go into the same pool. I would be a therapist and do acting workshops, yes, to like nourish the soul. And that was my plan for a good year. And I made an actual announcement one night at the dinner table and I said, look, guys, who am I kidding? There is no plan B. I am an actor, money or no money. This is, this is my calling. And my parents like, uh huh, sure. Um, and.

• 40:10Speaker 02

  I was so serious. It's ridiculous. Um, and, yeah.

• 40:18Amy Poehler?

  But I love that person. That person's making a declaration.

• 40:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, I, and I really meant it. And I went to, you know, I took Saturday acting classes at Lee Strasberg, which is in my neighborhood and I pass almost every day and it's a total trip. But, yeah, anyway, um, so, yes. But actually, my favorite class was a graphic design class.

• 40:39Amy Poehler?

  Ooh.

• 40:39Speaker 02

  My very favorite class. And then I thought, oh, maybe if I were an actor, I would be a, a that kind of person.

• 40:47Amy Poehler?

  I can see that. I can see, I can see all of these things. Like what, what I like love about your work is that it feels, and again, it just feels like when you're watching you work, that there's just real life that exists in your life. Like you have a real life? You're a real person?

• 41:04Speaker 02

  I try.

• 41:04Amy Poehler?

  A sane, real person?

• 41:05Speaker 02

  I'm trying.

• 41:06Amy Poehler?

  And then, so then, when we're watching you play people, when you're, they feel like real people, there's just a little bit, you just kind of can't explain it. People have it or they don't, or they feel like they've actually existed on the earth and had a real life. And people that. Are kind of um in a just a different sphere of I don't know. And there's something that feels uh like you have taken care of other parts of your life.

• 41:37Speaker 02

  Hmm. It was it was good for me to do that.

• 41:40Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 41:40Speaker 02

  I really needed a time out.

• 41:42Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 41:42Speaker 02

  I needed to not have so much responsibility. Uh, and I needed to like fuck around a little bit.

• 41:51Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 41:52Speaker 02

  Get stoned and play Mario Kart, you know?

• 41:54Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 41:56Amy Poehler?

  And that doesn't need to go away.

• 41:57Speaker 02

  That was

• 41:58Amy Poehler?

  That doesn't need to go away.

• 41:59Speaker 02

  As important as, you know, the the work I was doing in class, which was also really, really wonderful. And um, and I also felt like validated as a thinking person.

• 42:12Amy Poehler?

  I feel like you've spoken about like the kind of wonderful things about perspective and getting older. What's the best thing about being the age you are?

• 42:21Speaker 02

  That it's perfectly okay to have the same breakfast every morning.

• 42:24Amy Poehler?

  Mm hmm.

• 42:25Speaker 02

  To exercise for forty five minutes to an hour.

• 42:30Amy Poehler?

  How's your bone density?

• 42:31Speaker 02

  I don't know, and I should know, and I don't lift enough weights.

• 42:34Amy Poehler?

  No.

• 42:35Speaker 02

  Nobody ever does.

• 42:36Amy Poehler?

  We have to lift so many weights.

• 42:38Speaker 02

  I'm I I I like lifting my own body weight. I really like yoga these days, but it's not enough. Apparently you have to lift actual iron.

• 42:46Amy Poehler?

  And you run. You're a big runner.

• 42:48Speaker 02

  I used to run more. The third pregnancy really kind of put a dent in the running.

• 42:52Amy Poehler?

  So for people who don't know, you had a pregnancy a few years ago.

• 42:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:55Amy Poehler?

  Kind of a surprise.

• 42:56Speaker 02

  Woo. Whoa.

• 42:58Amy Poehler?

  Out of the blue.

• 42:59Speaker 02

  That, whoa.

• 43:00Amy Poehler?

  Did you burst into tears like, oh, no, I have to be pregnant again?

• 43:04Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 43:04Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 43:05Speaker 02

  I called my my OBGYN in convulsive tears.

• 43:09Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 43:10Speaker 02

  Um, yes, no, I it was it it was a pure, like, it was all meltdown. Oh, no.

• 43:18Amy Poehler?

  Because you had, what, a what, like a twelve year old or like a ten year old and a six year old or something?

• 43:22Speaker 02

  Yes, I mean, he must have been around eleven, twelve, yeah. I they're five years apart, each kid. None of this was by design. Um, but, yeah, I didn't know it was physically possible. I was forty four and um, and actually, Rowan was very hard earned. I had to do two rounds of IVF. Like, it just was so unlikely. So this is a funny story that I'm gonna share about my best friend.

• 43:46Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 43:47Speaker 02

  So, um.

• 43:49Amy Poehler?

  And this is Ariel?

• 43:50Speaker 02

  This is Ariel.

• 43:50Amy Poehler?

  Okay, Ariel.

• 43:52Speaker 02

  She gets name checked a lot in these things.

• 43:55Amy Poehler?

  Well, she is your therapist.

• 43:57Speaker 02

  And she's other people's therapist, too.

• 43:59Amy Poehler?

  And I would like her to be mine.

• 44:00Speaker 02

  And I've just ruined her career.

• 44:01Amy Poehler?

  I'd like her to be mine.

• 44:02Speaker 02

  But, uh, yeah, so we, we had this like spa day scheduled and, and I admitted to her and I wasn't, I wasn't coping very well with the heat. I kept, I was like, I'm sorry, I'm such a pussy. I gotta get out of here. Anyway, and so I wasn't gonna say anything and finally I admitted. I was like, you know, I, I totally lost my mind last night and just decided that I was pregnant. I went down this crazy rabbit hole. And finally, like, looked up, what are the odds of naturally conceiving at 44? And they're like, less than 1%. And I was like, so that obviously is ridiculous. And she said,

• 44:42Speaker 02

  whoa, that's really weird. Because I had this dream last week. She said it was really vivid. And I told people about it. I mean, I didn't say it was you. But I had this dream where I was pregnant and I looked down and I saw my distended belly. And I said, oh, I'm, wait, but this is a really, this isn't my torso. This is a long torso. This is Claire's torso.

• 45:08Amy Poehler?

  You have a great torso.

• 45:09Speaker 02

  Thank you. But, um, yeah.

• 45:12Amy Poehler?

  She was in, she was-

• 45:14Speaker 02

  She had this dream-

• 45:15Amy Poehler?

  Whoa.

• 45:16Speaker 02

  Where she looked down and saw that she was pregnant, but she wasn't pregnant. She was in my pregnant body. And then the, you know, I had two strong cocktails when we had dinner. And then first thing in the morning, hit the CVS and it was just like, bold cap locks, you know?

• 45:31Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 45:32Speaker 02

  Pregnant! And I burst into tears.

• 45:36Amy Poehler?

  For me, the thing would just be like, you know what you know now. You know what you're in for.

• 45:41Speaker 02

  Well, I, well, that was, that was very deeply humbling.

• 45:45Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 45:46Speaker 02

  Because I realized, oh, I am not authoring this thing.

• 45:50Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 45:51Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 45:51Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 45:52Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 45:53Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 45:53Speaker 02

  This is really, this is the illusion.

• 45:55Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 45:56Speaker 02

  That I am- Like, driving this thing.

• 45:59Amy Poehler?

  Yes. So you had to surrender.

• 46:01Speaker 02

  I really did.

• 46:02Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 46:03Speaker 02

  And then this beautiful girl emerged, and she's the best, and none of it was up to me, and I'm just delighted.

• 46:10Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 46:10Speaker 02

  But, but she was disruptive. We had to move. It was a thing.

• 46:16Speaker 02

  It was a lot of work.

• 46:17Amy Poehler?

  Well, it's interesting, like, her origin story will be, I bet, will just, like, naturally be like, you really wanted to be here.

• 46:24Speaker 02

  She did. And she's psyched. Like, she is all about it. She's having a great time.

• 46:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 46:30Speaker 02

  Um, unequivocally, like, into this living business.

• 46:35Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 46:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:36Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. I mean, I, I, it is, that's the thing about, I, I think about the best and worst thing about late 40s, for me, mid 50s, is you kind of know the deal. So it's like, okay, that's gonna be this.

• 46:51Speaker 02

  Uh huh.

• 46:52Amy Poehler?

  And, okay, this one's gonna hurt.

• 46:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:54Amy Poehler?

  Or, you know, there's still stuff to discover, certainly, but there is a sense of...

• 46:59Speaker 02

  It is amazing to have so much of your life, like, established. And, you know, yeah, um, it, it, it, realized, like, and set.

• 47:14Amy Poehler?

  Well, you've experienced, it's basically, you've, uh, you've come through things, and you've, and you've made it. You've made it through something.

• 47:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, and there's a lot of, um, I don't know, power in that, and joy in that, and it's also sad. Cause I'm really, really aware of time now.

• 47:37Amy Poehler?

  Me too. It's really like the big thing I, I crave. I crave, time is my, time is a thief.

• 47:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:44Amy Poehler?

  And it's, and it's, it's, it's actually, and I'm sure you're this way too, more and more with work, or with any project, it's the thing I care about the most. How much, and, you know, it makes me think about your work on Home Land, which was a 10 year commitment.

• 48:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 48:01Amy Poehler?

  A lot of time.

• 48:02Speaker 02

  A lot of time.

• 48:03Amy Poehler?

  And hard work.

• 48:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was.

• 48:05Amy Poehler?

  Hard work.

• 48:06Speaker 02

  And, and we were all over the planet, like we were in so many different countries. And I had two kids.

• 48:13Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 48:13Speaker 02

  And I was like fighting terrorists while deeply pregnant.

• 48:16Amy Poehler?

  I know.

• 48:17Speaker 02

  It was weird.

• 48:18Amy Poehler?

  Did you have a, um, a thing like you liked to do on that show when you saw on the call sheet? You were like, oh, today I get to do this. You know, because like, was it like today? Oh, and you know, maybe it was like today I get to.

• 48:29Speaker 02

  It was cool that after a while, like, you know, a few seasons in, people knew Carrie Matheson. And, and every, it was almost like an anthology series, like we would reimagine ourselves every year. But, you know, so a new set of actors, you know, I'd walk into a room and they would like get quiet and be chastened. And I like had this.

• 48:48Amy Poehler?

  That's cool.

• 48:48Speaker 02

  This power that, you know, I, I had earned over seasons, you know? And, and that was pretty fun.

• 48:57Amy Poehler?

  I bet.

• 48:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and, and never have I ever had that experience in my life, nor will I ever again, even in a fictional realm, you know? But that was like amazing to have that kind of swagger.

• 49:11Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 49:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, and.

• 49:14Amy Poehler?

  And what was, what was hard to shoot? Like, was it like, I mean, just like balancing life, I'm sure, and traveling all over? Cause it shot everywhere. It shot all over.

• 49:23Speaker 02

  Especially when Brody died.

• 49:27Amy Poehler?

  Spoiler alert.

• 49:28Speaker 02

  Spoiler alert.

• 49:30Amy Poehler?

  Claire?

• 49:31Speaker 02

  I remember, so we, it was also like really rough, just really graphic. Like they really went there over, like, come on.

• 49:39Amy Poehler?

  Intense.

• 49:39Speaker 02

  It was so intense, but like he dies on a crane.

• 49:43Amy Poehler?

  I know.

• 49:43Speaker 02

  But then the crane, when we were filming, broke.

• 49:46Amy Poehler?

  Oh, no.

• 49:47Speaker 02

  So like, we were really hung up by that.

• 49:50Amy Poehler?

  Oh.

• 49:53Speaker 02

  But, uh, I don't know, it was, it was like landing in a, because that was in, where did we shoot that? That was in Morocco. But yeah, so the first three seasons, we were mostly in Charlotte, North Carolina, which was standing in for DC. And then we would make these jags, like we would shoot a month in Israel or Morocco or something.

• 50:11Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 50:12Speaker 02

  But then when we, when we had to really redefine the show in a more met, you know, macro way, we then became this traveling, you know, enterprise. So we were shooting in.

• 50:26Speaker 02

  In Cape Town for half a year, which was standing in for Palestine and Afghanistan. The next year, we were, where were we? There was a year in Berlin, then a year in New York, which, yeah, that was kind of, that was actually very strange to be home and weirdly stressful because like-

• 50:44Amy Poehler?

  It's sometimes harder.

• 50:44Speaker 02

  People expected me to go to dinner. Like, my friends were like, "You're here, let's hang out." And I was like, "I am working so hard."

• 50:50Amy Poehler?

  I had to get tied up and beat up tomorrow. And then I had to tie someone else up.

• 50:55Speaker 02

  I actually can't do this and live my life.

• 50:57Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 50:57Speaker 02

  There was something nice about being on location and just being allowed to like, give myself entirely to it because I didn't have any energy to spare.

• 51:04Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 51:05Speaker 02

  That was actually weird. That was the weird, almost the hardest season because I kept like, you know, there was this illusion that I was living my life and I couldn't.

• 51:14Amy Poehler?

  Yes, yes.

• 51:15Speaker 02

  And then, where were we? Then we were, I don't even, then it was a full year in Morocco.

• 51:22Amy Poehler?

  Wow. What was Morocco like?

• 51:25Speaker 02

  Um, pretty great. I was nervous about spending so much time there and I grew to really love it. Cyrus went to school in all these places too.

• 51:34Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 51:34Speaker 02

  So he still can't eat couscous because he ate it at every meal, every day, for six months at this school.

• 51:44Amy Poehler?

  That must be very cool for him to have his memories of traveling around.

• 51:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, I wonder what he, you know, what can, what he can consciously recall. I think that he was like five or six.

• 51:55Amy Poehler?

  So maybe quite a bit.

• 51:56Speaker 02

  Six that, he could.

• 51:57Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 51:58Speaker 02

  He also, his first school that he went to was in Berlin and he was, he was around three. And, uh, and he started to have temper tantrums like half in German. And he would scream, "Nein, nein." And you'd be like, "Whoa." Suddenly this like, sounds, this is a lot scarier in this language.

• 52:19Speaker 02

  And, and he would, around that time, like when we would come home and we'd be at the playground at Washington Square Park, you know, he would toddle over to other tiny people and say, "Hi, my name is Cyrus, I speak English." Because it was like not a given that another person would do.

• 52:35Amy Poehler?

  Does he speak, does he speak another language?

• 52:36Speaker 02

  Nein.

• 52:37Amy Poehler?

  If I could, you know, put a chip in my brain and be able to speak in a different language.

• 52:42Speaker 02

  Oh, same. Bat and fly.

• 52:45Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, fly.

• 52:45Speaker 02

  I mean.

• 52:46Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 52:47Speaker 02

  Yeah. But the lang- almost feels like it has the same thrill level.

• 52:52Amy Poehler?

  And you know what I love about speaking other languages? Is you have to do like a version, like a funny, you almost, you have to move your body and your face in a version that feels insulting. It feels stereotypical, but you have to, to get the language right.

• 53:08Speaker 02

  Well, there is that kind of.

• 53:10Amy Poehler?

  Yes, you have to. And you, or if you're Italian, you have to gesticulate, or like, there's all these different things. Like, there's a reason why people move the way they do, getting back to movement.

• 53:19Speaker 02

  Yes, I love learning dialects for this reason. Look, I think humans are humans and, you know, it is mostly a universally shared experience, whatever that is. But it's also true.

• 53:33Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 53:33Speaker 02

  That there are real differences and we go, we do like see the world through these slightly different, these different filters and it does shape us and inform us and that is also kind of amazing.

• 53:46Amy Poehler?

  Well, I'm really into that, those kinds of differences, again, without appropriating them or getting them wrong, but because we are in a monoculture now, everything is the same now. So now it's like, I'm like, whoa, the way you express this thing, or the way you, like, language still feels sometimes like a way of getting into some new little world.

• 54:05Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 54:05Amy Poehler?

  And it's so, like, it's, I, I'm, I delight in the ways that we're not the same anymore because everything is the same. Every fucking store is in the same.

• 54:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:15Amy Poehler?

  City and the same.

• 54:16Speaker 02

  And it's also kind of sad that we're not, I mean, that is what we do, you and I do. And I think a lot of different.

• 54:22Amy Poehler?

  I don't, I don't do.

• 54:24Speaker 02

  Well, you do, you totally do. You imagine yourself in a, you know, as being a different person.

• 54:30Amy Poehler?

  True, but dialects are their own real, I mean, that's a real, that's real acting.

• 54:35Speaker 02

  No, look.

• 54:36Amy Poehler?

  Claire.

• 54:36Speaker 02

  Look, I can't just, I can't just riff, though. Like, I'm this oo-oo-ooey person. If I have a good coach, I'm all about it.

• 54:46Amy Poehler?

  Do you like to improvise when you act, or?

• 54:48Speaker 02

  I haven't had that many opportunities to.

• 54:50Amy Poehler?

  Oh, interesting.

• 54:51Speaker 02

  I don't.

• 54:52Amy Poehler?

  I guess, I guess in more dramatic stuff, it's hard to do, right?

• 54:54Speaker 02

  They don't let you.

• 54:55Amy Poehler?

  They don't let you.

• 54:56Speaker 02

  They're very strict about it.

• 54:56Amy Poehler?

  Because they're on the crane. They're like, he's up on the crane, you can't, and you're like, just give me, I just want to riff.

• 55:04Speaker 02

  Crane work is pretty strict.

• 55:09Speaker 02

  But, no, I don't know. I would be really intimidated by that, actually.

• 55:13Amy Poehler?

  I feel like you'd be so good.

• 55:15Speaker 02

  That seems scary.

• 55:16Amy Poehler?

  I mean.

• 55:17Speaker 02

  I did one episode of Portlandia and they did give me pages and then they disappeared.

• 55:24Amy Poehler?

  They were like, "Don't look at those."

• 55:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, and I was like, "But wait, I learned them." And they were like, "Oh, sorry."

• 55:31Speaker 02

  Should've known that. And they were like, "You know what? We're just gonna like do it as we want to do it in the moment." And I wanted to vomit.

• 55:40Amy Poehler?

  I have no, I worked at SNL and it's where I realized like, "Oh, preparation is this thing that people do." No, it's this thing, it's this thing that when people bring it to the process and someone says like, "And also, let's try this," it's hard to not feel like, "Wait, wait, what are we doing?" Like, it is a learned skill to just assume that things aren't wrong if we are not doing what we prepared.

• 56:08Speaker 02

  Yes. I mean, I am, I mean, I'm ridiculous. I mean, I'll go to the writer and say, "Is it okay if I like put the comma here rather than there?" And they're like, "Don't come to me with this bullshit. Like, I'm sorry."

• 56:22Speaker 02

  But I, and I think actually because I started at such a young age, my socks are still up to my knees a little bit. You know, like, there's still that like little girl who's just wanting to do a good job. I don't know if that's because I was actually a little, like a literal, literal little girl, say that five times, when I began, or maybe that's just in me and would have been if I started at 30, but I don't know.

• 56:45Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, you do such a good job.

• 56:47Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 56:48Amy Poehler?

  You're so, you're so good at your job.

• 56:51Speaker 02

  You are so good at your job. And I love listening to your show. I listen to it a lot.

• 56:57Amy Poehler?

  Thanks. I heard that you love podcasts.

• 56:59Speaker 02

  I love podcasts.

• 57:00Amy Poehler?

  Me too.

• 57:00Speaker 02

  But you have one of the very best ones.

• 57:02Amy Poehler?

  Oh, my God. Thanks.

• 57:03Speaker 02

  And it's, it's, it's really wonderful.

• 57:06Amy Poehler?

  Thanks, Claire.

• 57:07Speaker 02

  Really.

• 57:08Amy Poehler?

  Speaking of wonderful, we do a thing on this podcast where we talk to someone who knows our guest. We talked to Mandy Patinkin.

• 57:14Speaker 02

  Mandy. Mandy, who I saw the other night. I hadn't seen him for a long time.

• 57:20Amy Poehler?

  He said, you guys were celebrating Mom Donnie together.

• 57:22Speaker 02

  Yes, we were celebrating Mom Donnie.

• 57:23Amy Poehler?

  I mean, he is, I mean, you could tell in the show, but I also loved knowing that outside of the show, the relationship you two had.

• 57:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 57:32Amy Poehler?

  It was, it felt very paternal, very respectful. There was a lot of love there.

• 57:36Speaker 02

  I love him madly, truly, deeply. And also, he's just an amazing person to act with. And

• 57:45Amy Poehler?

  How come?

• 57:46Speaker 02

  Okay. He's very musical. But that, this was a weird thing. In the first read-through, we barely met each other. And it, just like, the music worked. You know, my cadence and his cadence were in really good harmony with each other. And that was like, can't, can't, nobody can take credit for that. That was just really good fortune. And, you know, I played this manic person. I'm almost like getting into it now that you're saying, and I'm thinking about it. So she's like a stone skipping, you know, on the water. And he's, you know, has a much, you know, has this like low pulse rate.

• 58:26Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 58:26Speaker 02

  As Saul, and is so steady, and is her ballast, and, you know, this counterpoint.

• 58:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 58:34Amy Poehler?

  Well, he adores you. He calls you a thoroughbred.

• 58:36Speaker 02

  Oh, well, thanks. He's just a really, really, really good performer. I don't quite know how he does what he does, but it was also always fun to see him at the gym, the hotel gym, or whatever weird apartment complex we were living in, like singing his Yiddish songs, prepping for his tour, like on a Stairmaster.

• 58:55Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 58:56Speaker 02

  It's just, it's

• 58:58Amy Poehler?

  Also, I just love a big man.

• 59:00Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 59:00Amy Poehler?

  I do.

• 59:01Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 59:01Amy Poehler?

  I love a big man. Sometimes I love feeling small. Like in relationship, do you know the, like, the idea of like big and small?

• 59:08Speaker 02

  No.

• 59:08Amy Poehler?

  Which is basically like, some days you want to feel big and some days you want to feel small. So some days you want to be like, I'm gonna take us, get us to the airport. I'm in charge of whatever. I'm big today. And other times you're like, I want to be small today. And it's like being taken care of, but also can just kind of feel physical. Like sometimes when you're like at, you know, I don't know, you're bossing it up all day at work. You want to come home and feel small and vice versa. And being able to have someone kind of do that with you.

• 59:34Speaker 02

  It's like CEOs who go to the doms.

• 59:36Amy Poehler?

  Exactly. It's a sub dom thing. So those are all Mandy's questions. No, I'm just kidding. So Mandy wants to know, are you, no. Okay, so we had 10 questions for us.

• 59:46Speaker 02

  That's a lot of.

• 59:47Amy Poehler?

  We're not gonna, we can't get to them.

• 59:48Speaker 02

  That's a lot of questions. This is, Mandy had 10 questions?

• 59:50Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, he really over prepared, which is very nice, but also he couldn't get on the Zoom and he was eating when he was on the Zoom too. So it was like mixed messages, but.

• 59:58Amy Poehler?

  But he was so.

• 59:58Speaker 02

  He was eating the lockers that he had made.

• 1:00:00Amy Poehler?

  He was eating a delicious.

• 1:00:01Speaker 02

  The mayor.

• 1:00:02Amy Poehler?

  Cinnamon raisin bagel, I believe, with some other stuff on it.

• 1:00:06Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:00:07Amy Poehler?

  And it looked delicious.

• 1:00:08Speaker 02

  Okay, he likes peanut butter on an apple too.

• 1:00:11Amy Poehler?

  Oh, that's a great snack. That's a great set snack. Okay, so you had a couple of questions.

• 1:00:16Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:00:16Amy Poehler?

  Who is better at setting boundaries for the kids, you or Hugh?

• 1:00:20Speaker 02

  Oh, goes back and forth.

• 1:00:24Amy Poehler?

  Okay, that's good.

• 1:00:26Speaker 02

  So Cyrus wants to wear shorts. He's like a gaffer.

• 1:00:31Speaker 02

  All the time.

• 1:00:31Amy Poehler?

  There's a whole thing, you're not on TikTok, I'm sure.

• 1:00:34Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:00:34Amy Poehler?

  Oh, congratulations. But there's a whole thing about middle school kids always wearing shorts.

• 1:00:41Speaker 02

  It makes me so upset.

• 1:00:43Amy Poehler?

  Let it go. I'm here to tell you, my boys are older. Let them freeze their bunnaroonies off. Don't say one thing, don't, don't mention a coat.

• 1:00:51Speaker 02

  Okay, so.

• 1:00:53Amy Poehler?

  Don't mention a coat.

• 1:00:54Speaker 02

  So I've said 50 or below, you have to wear shorts. Hugh is more team Cyrus and apparently Amy.

• 1:01:02Amy Poehler?

  Below, you have to wear pants.

• 1:01:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, sorry, pants. Sorry, yes, thank you. And soon now Hugh is like kind of being more permissive and that number

• 1:01:12Speaker 02

  went down to 40.

• 1:01:13Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, there's a whole, literally a whole scientific thing about middle school kids waiting for the bus. And by scientific, I mean it's on TikTok.

• 1:01:22Amy Poehler?

  About kids waiting for the bus with shorts. They, boys love shorts in middle school.

• 1:01:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:01:28Amy Poehler?

  It's a whole thing.

• 1:01:29Speaker 02

  Why? Okay, whatever.

• 1:01:30Amy Poehler?

  And they run hot and they're not going to get a cold from the cold, you know that. And just let them do it.

• 1:01:35Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:01:35Amy Poehler?

  And they will grow out of it, I promise. Then they'll become obsessed with like sweats and sleeping and being warm and they'll always be freezing.

• 1:01:43Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah, okay, all right.

• 1:01:45Amy Poehler?

  It's just a warm period.

• 1:01:45Speaker 02

  I got that. My family thanks you.

• 1:01:48Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 1:01:48Speaker 02

  But, but I actually think that Hugh and I are pretty, we're very lucky, like, we're well-matched humans. And I think our parenting styles are pretty level and equal as well.

• 1:02:03Amy Poehler?

  Love that.

• 1:02:03Speaker 02

  It's good.

• 1:02:04Amy Poehler?

  You guys are a really, really special couple.

• 1:02:06Speaker 02

  Thank you. He's a very, he's a swell dude.

• 1:02:10Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, you can tell.

• 1:02:11Speaker 02

  He's a good guy.

• 1:02:11Amy Poehler?

  And you have a lot, like, a lot of love and a lot of like for each other. Both those things are important.

• 1:02:15Speaker 02

  We do. And so many children now.

• 1:02:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. So many. You're outnumbered.

• 1:02:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:02:22Amy Poehler?

  Anyway, okay. Mandy's next question. And this now, now Mandy's referring to himself in the third person.

• 1:02:27Speaker 02

  For sure.

• 1:02:30Amy Poehler?

  What is Mandy's father's favorite chewing gum?

• 1:02:33Speaker 02

  Oh, it's the black licorice. Oh, I embroidered something for him.

• 1:02:40Amy Poehler?

  That's what he was asking. How did you commemorate?

• 1:02:42Speaker 02

  Because he, he would chew it as Saul.

• 1:02:47Amy Poehler?

  Interesting.

• 1:02:47Speaker 02

  And I think he mentioned at one point that, but I'm forgetting the name of the brand.

• 1:02:52Amy Poehler?

  Did it come like in a tin?

• 1:02:53Speaker 02

  Blackjack. Blackjack.

• 1:02:55Amy Poehler?

  Blackjack was the gum?

• 1:02:56Speaker 02

  Was the kind of gum.

• 1:02:57Amy Poehler?

  And, and you embroidered something?

• 1:03:00Speaker 02

  I went, I went hard on the embroidery for a while.

• 1:03:03Amy Poehler?

  Let's talk about this embroidery. You embroider? Do you, I don't really...

• 1:03:08Speaker 02

  There was a point when I embroidered everything around me.

• 1:03:10Amy Poehler?

  Is that needlepoint?

• 1:03:11Speaker 02

  I embroidered an umbrella. That was weird. So my mom taught me, and, you know, it started because in my 30s, I was away from my friends and we were at the, everybody was having babies and I was really missing them. And so I embroidered onesies for my friends' babies that, I embroidered their name and then an image that related to the name somehow. But it was really more about just communing with them.

• 1:03:37Amy Poehler?

  Embroidery by hand?

• 1:03:38Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:03:38Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 1:03:39Speaker 02

  And, and it started with the onesies and then it just, then it went haywire. It's a great onset activity.

• 1:03:45Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 1:03:46Speaker 02

  And I did it a lot more before I had children. And I also found the contrast amusing and enjoyable, like, that I would be fighting terrorists as Carrie, and then I would go back to my seat and embroider.

• 1:03:59Amy Poehler?

  Knitting or crocheting, do you do that?

• 1:04:00Speaker 02

  I went on a knitting jag too. Then that didn't take. So I I embroider onesies for, of course, all of my kids. And I have one for Shay, this third child. She's all she she's this not she doesn't wear onesies anymore. I've missed that chance.

• 1:04:18Amy Poehler?

  It's OK.

• 1:04:19Speaker 02

  I'm confessing, I'm I'm actually confessing to you.

• 1:04:21Amy Poehler?

  You know, I mean,

• 1:04:22Speaker 02

  It's by my bed.

• 1:04:23Amy Poehler?

  Are we supposed to do it?

• 1:04:24Speaker 02

  Half done.

• 1:04:24Amy Poehler?

  You know.

• 1:04:25Speaker 02

  Anyway.

• 1:04:25Amy Poehler?

  You've done it all.

• 1:04:26Speaker 02

  OK.

• 1:04:26Amy Poehler?

  I mean, no, no more. You got to start giving us.

• 1:04:29Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 1:04:31Amy Poehler?

  That's what I tell every woman. And then I want to talk about The Beast in Me.

• 1:04:35Speaker 02

  OK.

• 1:04:36Amy Poehler?

  Because I love the fact that you are producing on this. And I want to know what that experience has been like producing.

• 1:04:43Speaker 02

  I loved it. It was just really fun to like, you know, hire people who I admired and trusted.

• 1:04:52Amy Poehler?

  And you have a I mean, you like you said, you've been producing, probably you've been producing without credit for a long time. And you've been producing and seeing you've been on sets for a long time.

• 1:05:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:05:02Amy Poehler?

  And you're realizing like, oh, I want to I want I want to bring my system here.

• 1:05:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, and that first week I was just I was I just had a blast. I was really like, I like everybody here. And I realized, oh, right. Because, you know, I asked them to the dinner party, right?

• 1:05:17Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:05:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, and it was so nice to like, I don't know, not be surprised by the home that suddenly I was discovering on the first day of filming. Like, I got to have a say on what that house would actually be. And yeah, I I really enjoyed it. And it was just like a lot of Zoom calls. And that's OK.

• 1:05:41Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, right.

• 1:05:42Speaker 02

  But they were conversations I wanted to have and be a part of. And yeah, so it's on this next gig, I'm more of an actor for hire.

• 1:05:49Amy Poehler?

  So you're playing a neurosurgeon. And can we talk about the pit?

• 1:05:52Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 1:05:53Amy Poehler?

  Because you love it.

• 1:05:54Speaker 02

  I do love it.

• 1:05:54Amy Poehler?

  What do you love about it?

• 1:05:55Speaker 02

  Well, Noah Wiley.

• 1:05:58Speaker 02

  I mean, Noah Wiley.

• 1:05:58Amy Poehler?

  Okay, did you watch ER when it was on?

• 1:06:00Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:06:01Amy Poehler?

  Oh.

• 1:06:01Speaker 02

  But I would think it was a little too little.

• 1:06:03Amy Poehler?

  Yep.

• 1:06:03Speaker 02

  It was on maybe while I was shooting My Soul Called Life, is that right? I don't know.

• 1:06:07Amy Poehler?

  That makes sense.

• 1:06:08Speaker 02

  Maybe I'm getting that timing wrong, but.

• 1:06:09Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:10Speaker 02

  Um, yeah, I was aware of it, but I didn't watch it. But no, he feels so credible. And I really think all those hours he put in as a TV doctor.

• 1:06:19Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 1:06:20Speaker 02

  Have accrued.

• 1:06:21Amy Poehler?

  Totally.

• 1:06:21Speaker 02

  And he has a kind of gravitational, you know, gravity now.

• 1:06:25Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, he does this, he, it feels like he's doing, he's doing his blocking without thinking.

• 1:06:29Speaker 02

  I am so convinced.

• 1:06:30Amy Poehler?

  Totally.

• 1:06:31Speaker 02

  Um, and, uh, no, and I just think it's, it's also like, feels a little throwbacky.

• 1:06:36Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 1:06:37Speaker 02

  Like, it's so nice to watch excellent TV.

• 1:06:40Amy Poehler?

  Love.

• 1:06:41Speaker 02

  Love.

• 1:06:41Amy Poehler?

  You've made excellent TV.

• 1:06:42Speaker 02

  Thank you, but I enjoy watching excellent TV.

• 1:06:45Amy Poehler?

  It's my favorite thing to watch. TV are better than movies, sorry. TV's better than movies.

• 1:06:49Speaker 02

  I love, I love movies too.

• 1:06:51Amy Poehler?

  Movies are very special.

• 1:06:51Speaker 02

  I'm a little worried about movies. I really am a little bit worried about movies.

• 1:06:55Amy Poehler?

  Well, they gotta get their shit together. No, I'm kidding. I love movies, I love movies, I love it all. Is there anything that you watch, I know you are a big pot, listen to podcasts, is there anything you watch like just for like kind of brain checkout fun?

• 1:07:07Speaker 02

  Yes, so what, okay. I know you ask this sometimes, so I had a prepared answer. Um, there is.

• 1:07:15Amy Poehler?

  You're the only person that's ever prepared. I want you to know this. Of course, Claire.

• 1:07:19Speaker 02

  But, is it, okay, Tim Robinson.

• 1:07:22Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 1:07:23Speaker 02

  So he's, he has this, there's this one sketch.

• 1:07:26Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:26Speaker 02

  From the show.

• 1:07:27Amy Poehler?

  Which one?

• 1:07:28Speaker 02

  Focus Group.

• 1:07:29Amy Poehler?

  Incredible. Look, you just got a O. You just got a O from that.

• 1:07:33Speaker 02

  We watch this all the time in our family.

• 1:07:38Amy Poehler?

  Do your kids watch it?

• 1:07:39Speaker 02

  Well, uh, so, so all the kids are allowed to watch this. So Cyrus is, so we tuck the little guys in and then, then we have like special mature viewing hour. And it started with like The Simpsons and.

• 1:07:52Amy Poehler?

  Oh, The Simpsons is always the gateway.

• 1:07:55Speaker 02

  Only Murders in the Building. OMB, which is basically Scooby Doo for grownups. And, um, and it's great. And, and then, and it's, and then Hugh, English husband, introduced him to Monty Python and stuff. He got really into that.

• 1:08:08Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 1:08:09Speaker 02

  Um, but now we've been watching, mostly because of this focus group.

• 1:08:15Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:08:16Speaker 02

  His latest show, which is The Chair Company.

• 1:08:20Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, which, there was a.

• 1:08:22Speaker 02

  So.

• 1:08:23Amy Poehler?

  Not safe for work moment.

• 1:08:26Amy Poehler?

  In that show.

• 1:08:27Speaker 02

  I mean, the whole genius of the show is that it takes you in very quickly to places that you are not prepared for. So.

• 1:08:34Amy Poehler?

  Totally.

• 1:08:35Speaker 02

  We're all like cuddling in bed.

• 1:08:37Amy Poehler?

  Totally.

• 1:08:38Speaker 02

  And then there is this giant erect penis. And he says, "Close your eyes. Everybody, close your eyes."

• 1:08:48Amy Poehler?

  Close your eyes.

• 1:08:50Speaker 02

  Everybody, close your eyes.

• 1:08:54Speaker 02

  We all, we, yeah, it was intense. We're still recovering.

• 1:08:58Amy Poehler?

  It was intense.

• 1:08:59Speaker 02

  But it was great. So we do love that show.

• 1:09:02Amy Poehler?

  I think that, like, what, Claire, what I understand why you would like this, because, number one, I think you are, like, I've known you to be a very fun, funny, and like comedy, you love comedy.

• 1:09:16Speaker 02

  I do.

• 1:09:16Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. And you have good taste.

• 1:09:18Speaker 02

  Thanks.

• 1:09:19Amy Poehler?

  And there's a tiny bit of a disruptor in you that I imagine is fun to watch.

• 1:09:24Speaker 02

  Yes. I think you're right. Speak, and we, the other thing that we've been watching is the latest South Park.

• 1:09:30Amy Poehler?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:09:31Speaker 02

  Which we should talk about.

• 1:09:32Amy Poehler?

  What?

• 1:09:33Speaker 02

  What? They're just saying the thing.

• 1:09:35Amy Poehler?

  Just a chicken in a hen house. A fox, no, it's a fox in a hen house. I didn't get that right.

• 1:09:42Speaker 02

  That makes me feel a lot better. Chicken in a hen house. Thank you for that. Um, well, thank you. This is, this was amazing. This was so, this was really nice.

• 1:09:51Amy Poehler?

  This is so fun.

• 1:09:52Speaker 02

  Um, birthday present to me.

• 1:09:53Amy Poehler?

  No one's ever brought me a balloon. Thank you for bringing a balloon.

• 1:09:56Speaker 02

  You're welcome.

• 1:09:57Amy Poehler?

  And again, for people that are sick of me talking about the Enneagram, I don't know what to say. I, but let me just redo this as we wrap up and see if any of these land. These are things that annoy an Enneagram eight. Are you ready?

• 1:10:07Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 1:10:08Amy Poehler?

  People who talk just to talk.

• 1:10:11Speaker 02

  That's very annoying. That is deeply annoying.

• 1:10:14Amy Poehler?

  And I have a podcast. But, um, yes. People who talk just to talk.

• 1:10:18Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:10:18Amy Poehler?

  Fake people. Beyond. I mean, I'm like, I literally, if someone's like, "I'm a, I'm a piece of shit," or whatever, I'm like, "Okay, great."

• 1:10:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:10:27Amy Poehler?

  But fake? No way, babe. Uh, people who aren't on time.

• 1:10:31Speaker 02

  Uh, I have to have some tolerance for that because I am not the...

• 1:10:36Amy Poehler?

  Same. I was late today.

• 1:10:37Speaker 02

  The, yeah.

• 1:10:38Amy Poehler?

  Jenna's always on time.

• 1:10:39Speaker 02

  Most punctual person.

• 1:10:40Amy Poehler?

  And then this one really scratches an itch for me. Others asserting power in a situation where they have none.

• 1:10:49Speaker 02

  So I went through a period in junior high where I became like a vigilante. And I, I would like rough, I would like confront the bullies for-

• 1:11:02Amy Poehler?

  Aids hate bullies.

• 1:11:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, really. And, and I went to the principal's office one time because I like slapped, like I hit a bully.

• 1:11:14Speaker 02

  I slapped a bully. And-

• 1:11:17Amy Poehler?

  It's exciting.

• 1:11:18Speaker 02

  And we've talked through it, the bully and I. And, um, and actually we made some progress. And then he was so deferential to me and so, and he would open doors, like he was really, you know. But, um, I, I had to stop that because it was like going on my record.

• 1:11:40Speaker 02

  But yes, I mean, so I think I-

• 1:11:42Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 1:11:42Speaker 02

  Yes, that, that, that, I, that makes sense that there would be an eight impulse.

• 1:11:48Amy Poehler?

  I have fantasies that I stand up to bullies and that everybody sees it. Like that's, that's my like embarrassing fantasy that I stick up for people in public.

• 1:11:58Speaker 02

  When I, so there was, there was a bully in elementary school and I admitted to my mother at one point that like my self-soothing, um, fantasy, it would, there'd be a circle of people and this boy and I would, were at the center of it and I was just beating the shit out of him.

• 1:12:17Speaker 02

  And I was like, is that okay to have that fantasy? He was like, your thoughts are your own. Enjoy them.

• 1:12:24Amy Poehler?

  I wanted a great answer.

• 1:12:25Speaker 02

  A nice bit of mothering there.

• 1:12:27Amy Poehler?

  What a nice bit of mothering there.

• 1:12:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, really.

• 1:12:29Amy Poehler?

  We've come full circle, back to New York, back to the apartment.

• 1:12:33Speaker 02

  It did help. It was nice.

• 1:12:34Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. I could talk to you forever, Claire.

• 1:12:36Speaker 02

  I could too. Thank you.

• 1:12:39Amy Poehler?

  Thank you so much. It was so fun. Thank you so much, Claire Danes. That was so fun. I could have talked to you forever and, ugh. You're so interesting and smart and funny. Um, so thanks so much for that time. And for, for the polar plunge today, I guess I just want to remind everybody how good Law & Order is, especially the first 10 seasons. Okay? Just go back and watch, find Claire as the young, you know, child maniac. And, um, just go back and, and here's a little tip. Whoever you recognize, they did it.

• 1:13:16Amy Poehler?

  So it's a young actor just starting out. They're the murderer. So take that tip with you and go check out a little show called Law and Order. I can't get enough of it. And you know, it's these kinds of new things that I'm going to fill you in on when you take the time to listen to The Polar Plunge. So thanks so much for listening and see you soon. Bye. 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 McMullen, and Aleah Zaniris. For Paperkite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell, and Jenna Weiss-Berman.

• 1:14:00Amy Poehler?

  Original music by Amy Miles.

• 1:14:06Amy Poehler?

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• 1:14:48Amy Poehler?

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• 1:15:30Amy Poehler?

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