Matt Damon

It's Boston's own Matt Damon. Amy hangs with 'The Odyssey' star and talks about where he was when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, getting pranked by George Clooney, and checking out 'Temptation Island.' Host: Amy PoehlerGuests: Christopher Nolan and Matt DamonExecutive 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; social producer Bridget Geerlings; video editor Drew van Steenbergen; and bookers Kat Spillane and Paige GarbariniOriginal Music: Amy Miles Check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds: https://Allstate.com This episode is brought to you by Subaru. Love goes the extra mile in the Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid and Subaru Forester Hybrid. Visit https://subaru.com/hybrid to learn more. 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.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:05Amy Poehler?

  Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Good Hang. I'm very, very excited about our guest today. It is a superstar, and that star is Matt Damon. Matt Damon is joining us, Boston's own, so good at so many things, such a professional and in the peak of his career in a huge movie. And we're going to talk about a lot of things today. We're going to talk about long-lasting professional relationships and how important they are. We're going to talk about hating pranks,

• 1:33Amy Poehler?

  but loving a little bit of reality TV. We're going to talk about shooting in caves and working with giant puppets. And we're going to talk about The Odyssey, the new film that is out, the giant new film by Christopher Nolan that he is the star of. He plays Odysseus. He's on the journey, babe. But before we get to talking to Matt, we are going to talk to somebody who knows our guest, who wants to speak well behind their back and give me a question to ask them. And we have a great get. We've got a little indie filmmaker named Christopher Nolan. He is on the rise. Keep an eye out for this kid. He's doing great work. And Chris Nolan is joining us. And we are very, very excited to talk to him. And let's see if we can we can get him on the Zoom.

• 2:24Amy Poehler?

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• 3:05Speaker 02

  How are you doing?

• 3:05Amy Poehler?

  Hi, Chris. Nice to meet you.

• 3:08Speaker 02

  Nice to meet you.

• 3:09Amy Poehler?

  Oh, you're pouring some tea?

• 3:11Speaker 02

  I am. I don't do anything without tea.

• 3:13Amy Poehler?

  I also am an excessive tea drinker. What's your brand?

• 3:17Speaker 02

  Earl Grey.

• 3:19Amy Poehler?

  Oh, I see. I enjoy a black tea. Who makes your Earl Grey?

• 3:24Speaker 02

  Uh, Twinings.

• 3:25Amy Poehler?

  I see. Have you heard of Berry's Tea?

• 3:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:29Amy Poehler?

  But you don't like?

• 3:30Speaker 02

  I would say that. I wouldn't have done one of the Irish contingent. No, but every, every country, every nation has their own particular blend. Twinings works for me.

• 3:39Amy Poehler?

  Well, thanks for talking today. I'm very, very excited to talk to Matt. Congratulations on another incredible film.

• 3:48Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 3:49Amy Poehler?

  How do you compete with the imagination of people who have read and studied The Odyssey? It is, it's like you're competing with the idea of The Odyssey in a way.

• 4:02Speaker 02

  I mean, you can't. And I learned this, you know, we all learned this who worked on the Dark Knight trilogy. Like you, you couldn't compete with people's idea of. That amazing character and at the time seventy five years of history behind it. This is three thousand years people imagining. It's every these words you so you can't compete with it. What we realized addressing character of Batman and I brought that very much to the the Odyssey is you have to trust that what people want from you is your most sincere attempt to do justice to the material, to do it with a seriousness and with an appreciation of the original text.

• 4:46Speaker 02

  But it has to be your own interpretation. Certainly, I, as a filmmaker, respond to that and other people. If I go see a movie and I realize that people have loved this and have really tried to to give you an experience and try to put something across in the way that they really believe is great. Uh, I think I think people cut you a lot of slack for that because, yes, you cannot compete with people's own imaginings when they read a text.

• 5:07Amy Poehler?

  If we are to care that Odysseus makes it home, we we need to care about the person trying to make it home. Um, we we need to just feel like they even care about home. And there's something about Matt as just an actor, I think, that's innate in him and able to express that. What made you cast him in this film?

• 5:32Speaker 02

  Well, you know, I'd gone to nine or ten other people by the time I got that.

• 5:38Speaker 02

  No, the truth is, I actually don't think about actors when I'm writing. I try not to. I try to really just just live through the characters and the writing process and then come out the other side and go, okay, how's this going to work? Who who are we getting for this? And Matt really immediately popped into my head because you're looking for this, what you're talking about, that kind of empathetic ability to draw the audience into a character's dilemma. And he has that openness. He brings the audience with him, but he also can project an iconic, frankly superhero presence. I mean, he's, you know, he's the guy from The Martian, or We Bought a Zoo, and then Good Will Hunting, and then he's Jason Bourne.

• 6:23Speaker 02

  And to be able to do such disparate things and sort of fuse them into a character was exactly what I, what I needed. I also worked with Matt twice before, and I knew that the way we wanted to take this on and what was really important to us in making it, honestly, was to try and get out there and find a way to bring the audience with us, put the audience on the deck of his ship, and climb mountains, and go into the Cyclops Cave with him. So, you know, I needed a partner. I needed somebody who would leave from the front and just dive in and do all of this crazy stuff without complaining about it. And he's just a, he's in such a wonderful place in his, his life and career. He really appreciates what he

• 7:08Speaker 02

  gets to do. He understands how good he is at it, I think, you know, in a really comfortable way, in a really great way. And he just leads from the front. He gets everybody inspired with him. And I think without that, you know, we would have crashed and burned horribly. Except from, from a practical point.

• 7:26Amy Poehler?

  You can't have an Odysseus complaining that it's cold, or it's late, or, and I mean, you put him through the wringer.

• 7:33Speaker 02

  Put him through the wringer, and what's fun about working with Matt is, you know, he's a great writer himself. You can have really, really specific and detailed conversations about the script, and about how we're going about things. But he also doesn't, he doesn't talk for the sake of it. You know, he doesn't want to just use you as a sounding board and hear his own ideas about the character. He sort of goes off and figures out who he is, and then brings that to the floor, which is, yeah, really fun to deal with.

• 8:02Amy Poehler?

  Well, he has to go rest because he has to work out a thousand, do like five thousand sit-ups a day, because you're insisting on making this, let's face it, middle-aged man.

• 8:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, he's exactly the right place in his, his time of life. Life and everything to do it. And I actually had a had a had a moment with him at his first wardrobe fitting. Because we'd been fitting all of the supporting cast, all the guys who play his crew and some younger actors and everything. And they'd all come in and they've all got tattoos, which is a nightmare for a period film. It means hours in check, because you have to cover all that up.

• 8:36Amy Poehler?

  Yep.

• 8:36Speaker 02

  And then put the costume on and then rain and wind and your costume will rub it away. And then I, you know, and I thought, okay, well, here's about, you know, he takes a shirt off the fitting and he's got a fucking tattoo. And I was like, not you as well. Like, what? And it was, you know, very small tasteful tattoo, you know, name of his children and all that, you know. And he said to me, well, if I were to be perfectly honest, I thought my bare bicep days were over. And I said, okay, fair enough. The truth is, I think they're just beginning, but you know.

• 9:08Speaker 02

  So yeah, a little extra time in the chair.

• 9:10Amy Poehler?

  Do you have to physically train to get ready for a film too? I mean, it is exhausting to be directing you like, do you do? Do you physically train when you're getting ready to go on set?

• 9:20Speaker 02

  No, I don't. But the it's no, it's actually kind of a natural process of it. Because what happens before you shoot the film on a film like this is you start jumping on planes and getting in vans and driving all over the place. And you you go off to scout to find these places. And I do that with my design and just the two of us, we go off and gradually we add people to that group and we make multiple trips. But we cover thousands, thousands of miles and we're just constantly climbing up hills and, you know, all that. And the first couple of trips are bad, you know, I'm like, well, not up to this, like, how is this gonna work?

• 9:55Amy Poehler?

  And you're doing that thing where you're like, I know it's beautiful, but maybe that maybe Odysseus is.

• 9:59Speaker 02

  Maybe something a little closer to the hotel.

• 10:02Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 10:02Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 10:03Amy Poehler?

  Well, I congratulations. It's just such a triumph and everything you make is so incredible. And just what a career you've had. And and I I ask my my my guests a question from someone I speak to beforehand. And we talk well behind their back and then I I we ask a question of them. And I want to get to that, but but but just one last thing before I do, which is your wife, Emma Thomas, is so instrumental in the stuff that you make. Such a badass, so incredibly talented. And I don't really have a question other than I just want to remind people of your. Beautiful union.

• 10:47Speaker 02

  I'm just thinking right now, I wish I'd also leave the room before I did the interview because she heard all that stuff.

• 10:52Amy Poehler?

  Well, Emma, if you're there.

• 10:54Speaker 02

  I will never hear the end of it.

• 10:55Amy Poehler?

  Emma, I mean, just like, hey, hi, you're such a badass. I'm leaving now. He's never gonna forgive you for that. Only. I, I mean, it's so cool how you guys work together and, and what you do together and how you work together. I have such great respect for Emma and her work.

• 11:16Speaker 02

  Well, me too. No, that's really lovely thing to say.

• 11:20Amy Poehler?

  That's all. I mean, no question other than how, isn't it great to be married to such a cool lady?

• 11:26Speaker 02

  It's very great to be married to such a cool lady. It's very great to have such a great producer on the film. So, I mean, you take something like this, it's like it wouldn't, it would be really unthinkable without her calm, clear, you know, we'll get through this, we'll find a way sort of sensibility. So thank you for bringing it up.

• 11:46Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, of course. So, um, do you have a question you think I should ask Matt specifically about the project or about him or anything you want to know about him, big or small, that you, you don't feel like you know?

• 11:56Speaker 02

  There is a question that I've tried to ask him before and I've never got

• 11:59Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 12:00Speaker 02

  a clear answer. So I think you might have better luck, which is, so Matt, as I'm sure you know, but he's, obviously he's an amazing actor, wonderful movie star as well, as we talked about. Uh, he's also a great writer. He's an Academy Award winning writer, as he occasionally reminds me when he agrees with something in the script. But, and a fantastic producer, produced, you know, best picture nominees, all the rest of the films he wasn't in, you know, everything. And I'm pretty curious, and I haven't got a straight answer from him about this, as to why he hasn't directed.

• 12:36Amy Poehler?

  Ooh, great question.

• 12:38Speaker 02

  It's something he could have chosen to do. Um, he's, he's so knowledgeable, you know, you get on a set with him, he knows more about everything on set than, than anyone, well, almost anyone. I'm going to claim a little bit more knowledge of what I want to do on my set. But he's pretty, he's.

• 12:56Speaker 02

  He's pretty in control of every aspect, you know, holding in his head. It does what everybody's doing, which is one of the reasons he's such a great collaborator as a, as an actor, because he's not just looking at his part. He's looking at how what he's doing is advancing the story and he's very, very cognizant, respectful of all the other things I'm trying to balance in terms of how the scene we're doing interacts with the rest of the narrative.

• 13:21Amy Poehler?

  Okay, I'm gonna ask him that. And I'm gonna say that you said that he would make a great director.

• 13:27Speaker 02

  I don't know if I actually said that. I was just curious as to why he doesn't try. Maybe he knows something. I think he know, he, yeah, he has such, he has such a clear ability to be able to step into that role if he wanted to. So I'm curious. I mean, maybe there's, maybe there's something about him that.

• 13:46Amy Poehler?

  Have you ever acted?

• 13:51Speaker 02

  I have far too much respect for actors to try and tread on their toes.

• 13:57Amy Poehler?

  I know. We always say on a set, everyone should just do everyone's job, just for one take.

• 14:03Speaker 02

  Yes. I think nobody's afraid of being the director. They all think it'd be a great gig. They'll have to do it. But I think that may, that might be the be honest you get from that. It might be that he knows so much about it and he's seen so many people do it, that he doesn't, he doesn't fancy sitting in the hot seat.

• 14:19Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time. Thanks for, for your incredible work. I'm gonna let you get back to your tea. I know it's sitting right under frame. And we all know, any good director, they've set up the tea in the beginning. We need to see that tea very soon. This is gonna be a big part of the story. Thank you, Emma, if you're still there. And really nice talking to you. Thanks, Chris. Pleasure.

• 14:44Speaker 02

  Nice talking to you.

• 14:44Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, you too. Take care. Bye bye.

• 14:48Amy Poehler?

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• 15:34Amy Poehler?

  We were just talking about, we just got to see, we got-

• 15:36Speaker 03

  I'm so happy. I have talked to so few people who've seen it.

• 15:39Amy Poehler?

  Oh, I mean, I feel really lucky that we got to see it.

• 15:42Speaker 03

  Great.

• 15:43Amy Poehler?

  And it was so great to be able to see it. Like, congratulations.

• 15:48Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 15:48Amy Poehler?

  It is such a huge movie.

• 15:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's by far the biggest thing I've ever been anywhere near.

• 15:53Amy Poehler?

  It's gonna be big, and it is big, and it's so loud. It's a really loud movie.

• 15:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:58Amy Poehler?

  Get brain, IMAX is intense.

• 16:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 16:02Amy Poehler?

  IMAX is intense.

• 16:03Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's, um-

• 16:04Amy Poehler?

  It's incredible.

• 16:05Speaker 03

  The whole experience was like that. It was just-

• 16:07Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 16:08Speaker 03

  It was, it was awesome.

• 16:09Amy Poehler?

  Now Damon's here, everybody, sorry. We're jumping into the Odyssey. But like, but I wanted to start there because I was lucky enough to get to see it. I've been thinking about it a lot. It's one of those things that sticks with you, of course, because it's like, in many ways, probably the most famous story ever told. I watched it and it's been swirling around in my head, obviously because of what it represents, but I'm thinking about it as this meditation on aging.

• 16:36Speaker 03

  Okay. I, I, no, no, I hear you and I agree.

• 16:38Amy Poehler?

  Because it, you and I are the same age. It feels like there's this moment in life now where it's like, there's a past and all of the wreckage, or whatever joy and love and drama that comes with that, and trauma that comes with the past. This like, real present that like, is really hard. And there's like, a lot of people you're taking care of, aging parents, kids, and then this version of, of how people think we are, or-

• 17:08Amy Poehler?

  Are we still the version that people think we are? It's a very cool, I've been thinking about it a lot because it's just really hitting me at this age. Does that resonate at all?

• 17:17Speaker 03

  It definitely does, and that's what I love about this movie and about the script. Like, he is, he's a really underrated writer, I think, Chris, because he's such a brilliant director that it kind of overshadows his writing is, I've read three of his scripts now. This is the third movie I've done with him, and they're just so well-written. And thematically, this touches on so much. And what I love, why I love hearing that is because, because to different people, it's going to mean completely different things. And where you are in your life, where we both are in our lives, like, that piece will resonate with us. But for instance, there was a, there was a guy who worked on the film named Duff, who's a Navy SEAL.

• 18:00Speaker 03

  And we were on the boat one day out in the middle of, you know, the ocean and sailing back, and he just turned to me and he, and we started talking about the screenplay. And, you know, this is without having seen the movie. And he said, "I think this is the most, you know, the best movie about PTSD" that I've ever read or seen, you know? And it's like, so I think it depends on where you are and where you've been. And that's what's so great about The Odyssey is I think that's why it's survived for, you know, 3,000 years is because it works for every, you know, everybody who encounters it. It encounters it at a different place in their life, and it's got some resonance for them.

• 18:36Amy Poehler?

  I ask this to people my age, because I've found that this, life is getting better. And it certainly feels, I mean, from the outside, not knowing your life, it feels like you've been able to just keep making more stuff that you enjoy and like, just growing as an artist and all this stuff. What is great about being our age?

• 18:52Speaker 03

  I think, honestly, I think that, I think that, that, look, the business we're in is tough. And I think, you know, the first time we met and worked together, we were probably in our late twenties, early thirties. And you don't know how things are gonna work out. You know, there's so much up in the air.

• 19:10Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 19:11Speaker 03

  And there's a lot of pressure. And you know, there's a lot you wanna do. There's a lot you feel like you have to say.

• 19:17Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, everything feels ahead of you.

• 19:19Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 19:19Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 19:19Speaker 03

  And then I think the place we're at now, or at least speaking for myself, is a place, there's a greater sense of calm.

• 19:27Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 19:28Speaker 03

  I think.

• 19:28Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 19:29Speaker 03

  And really, like, when Ben and I started a company together a few years ago, it was partly because we were like, what are we doing?

• 19:36Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 19:36Speaker 03

  Like, this is the most joyful, like, our dream, like, that we had when we were kids, literally children together, you know, teenagers.

• 19:44Amy Poehler?

  What, you met, what, ten and eight or something?

• 19:45Speaker 03

  Ten and eight, but then we really were bizarre kids who were serious about acting. And we were in the union.

• 19:53Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 19:53Speaker 03

  You know, and at sixteen and fourteen years old, we were going to New York together to audition for stuff. And our friendship was, you know, founded on quite a bit of common experience. But that was central to it.

• 20:06Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 20:07Speaker 03

  And very unique to the two of us. And here we are forty years later. And it's like, we should make every single movie we can together.

• 20:17Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 20:17Speaker 03

  You know what I mean? Because it's the most.

• 20:19Amy Poehler?

  It's an unusual, you said this before, that you're really good at partnerships.

• 20:23Speaker 03

  Right.

• 20:23Amy Poehler?

  And it feels like Chris is another one. Like, you know, where you're like, I'm really good at picking people who can be partners in my life. And the fact that you guys still work together this many years later and that you love working together, it's unusual. It's just like, it's like, what do you like about working with them?

• 20:39Speaker 03

  I think for us, we've experienced so much of life.

• 20:44Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 20:44Speaker 03

  Together. You know, it's not a, it's not a friendship that could ever be replicated.

• 20:50Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 20:50Speaker 03

  Just because we grew up together.

• 20:53Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 20:53Speaker 03

  And which meant we were together all the time. You know, we, you know, writing a screenplay together. And I think, I think working together is, one of the great things about writing with him was always... The fact that there was a deep and abiding love and respect underneath everything that was never in question.

• 21:15Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 21:15Speaker 03

  It's very helpful.

• 21:16Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 21:17Speaker 03

  And when you're working creatively, because you're not worried about their feelings.

• 21:20Amy Poehler?

  And I mean, I imagine you guys have a pretty quick shorthand about what worked is nothing, nothing is taken that personally when you're creating something.

• 21:27Speaker 03

  Ever.

• 21:28Amy Poehler?

  Exactly.

• 21:28Speaker 03

  It's just, it's just the allegiances to the thing that we're making.

• 21:31Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 21:32Speaker 03

  And we're trying to get there as quickly as we can and as efficiently as we can. And there's a deep trust. If you're like, you can get hung up on an idea sometimes, you know, as a writer.

• 21:40Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 21:41Speaker 03

  And, and, and dig in. And, and sometimes you can be wrong. And if you have somebody that you trust that much, they'll also, they'll also hear you out.

• 21:51Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 21:51Speaker 03

  And they'll, they're humble enough to know they might be wrong, too.

• 21:54Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 21:55Speaker 03

  So it's just a very easy experience. And it also ends up being just really fun because you're doing it with, you know, for me, it's like, you know, my closest friend for 40 years, 45 years, it's like,

• 22:08Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 22:09Speaker 03

  Um, who else would I want to hang out with and do?

• 22:11Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. Tina and I went on tour this year. We've been friends now for like over 30 years. And we have a similar dynamic, which is we just work so well together.

• 22:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 22:20Amy Poehler?

  Like, we don't, we don't care about the same thing. Like, we don't, like, we have similar things that we don't stress about.

• 22:28Speaker 03

  Right.

• 22:28Amy Poehler?

  And then things that we're like, this is really important. We have to get this right.

• 22:31Speaker 03

  Right.

• 22:32Amy Poehler?

  There's this theory that the age you meet people, like, you were 10, Ben's eight. I'll compare, I'm gonna compare you guys to the Beatles, so get ready.

• 22:38Speaker 03

  It's coming from you, not me.

• 22:41Amy Poehler?

  Paul McCartney. No, you said I had to.

• 22:43Speaker 03

  [laughing]

• 22:45Amy Poehler?

  You squeezed my arm when you came in and you said-

• 22:47Speaker 03

  You had one note that came before me.

• 22:49Amy Poehler?

  Okay, I got slipped a note and you said, you call me Paul McCartney before this interview's over. But, no, but, like, it was like, Paul McCartney is a couple of years older than George Harrison, and they always had an older brother, younger brother dynamic, just because they, they were two years apart.

• 23:00Speaker 03

  Right.

• 23:01Amy Poehler?

  Do you guys have an older brother, younger brother dynamic?

• 23:03Speaker 03

  No.

• 23:03Amy Poehler?

  No. Sit like, same age dynamic.

• 23:05Speaker 03

  No, and in fact, Ben is an older brother and I'm a younger brother, even though I'm older than him.

• 23:10Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 23:10Speaker 03

  So, so I'm sure we fall. And I, and I've noticed that, you know, my, my wife is also an older sibling.

• 23:15Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 23:16Speaker 03

  And there's something about- That, I think that makes it easy. You naturally fall into your, into your role.

• 23:23Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 23:23Speaker 03

  Like, as a younger sibling, I had one, you know, my big brother and, and he was like a god. And it was just, I just had to follow him around.

• 23:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 23:30Speaker 03

  My mom, you know, she worked, she was like.

• 23:32Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 23:33Speaker 03

  My brother joined the YWCA swim team.

• 23:35Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 23:36Speaker 03

  Because his girlfriend was on the YWCA swim team. So I had to join the YWAS, YWCA swim team. You know, it doesn't matter, like, I could swim, okay, but didn't love it. But, you know, I was on the swim team.

• 23:47Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 23:48Speaker 03

  And, and so, but it never occurred to me that I could protest.

• 23:54Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 23:54Speaker 03

  You know what I mean? Whereas, an older sibling is questioning everything. Because they're the ones who are kind of trailblazing and they're kind of responsible.

• 24:01Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, you can tell an older sibling right away.

• 24:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, for sure.

• 24:04Amy Poehler?

  You really can. And they're also like translating life to other, their other siblings, even though they're, they could be like 12 months older than you. And they're like, here's how it goes.

• 24:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 24:14Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 24:14Speaker 03

  Here's the thing about this.

• 24:16Amy Poehler?

  But, but you brought up your mom. I, my mom was a teacher, both my parents are teachers growing up. Your mom was an educator, author, like academic. You guys grew up in Boston, as we know famously. I also did. Sometimes you do feel like you got out.

• 24:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 24:31Amy Poehler?

  And people are like, oh, good for you if we're getting out. You know, and sometimes they're like, I'm, I'm still, you know, here. And you're like, that's great. I have no judgment about that, that's fantastic, your life is great. And sometimes they have a feeling about it.

• 24:44Speaker 03

  Well, Krasinski has this, has this great character called Bitter Boston Guy.

• 24:49Amy Poehler?

  Must be nice.

• 24:50Speaker 03

  And he, and he was, he leaves occasionally voicemails. And they're just, I mean, but it's like, no, good for you.

• 24:57Amy Poehler?

  Good for you.

• 24:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 24:58Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 24:58Speaker 03

  Good for you, no, I know, I'm sure you're real busy, Amy, you know, with your big life and everything.

• 25:02Amy Poehler?

  Oh, yeah.

• 25:03Speaker 03

  From what I understand, you're bi-coastal now. I mean, not to Boston, but to New York, and I get it, you know? And it's just, and it's one of those, and they go, it goes on and on for like five minutes. And I'm just crying by the end of these things.

• 25:13Amy Poehler?

  You know, I said to myself, if I go up there and talk to her, she's not gonna want to talk to me.

• 25:17Speaker 03

  She probably won't remember me.

• 25:18Amy Poehler?

  She won't remember me, but I remember you. I remember you, and good for you. And then lastly, on behalf of all Bostonians, I'm sure you've talked about this a lot too, but I don't think I know. On behalf of all of us, where were you when we won in 2004, when the Red Sox won?

• 25:35Speaker 03

  I was, so I was making a movie called Sirianna. And, and that was shooting at the time in Dubai. And I was watching all the Yankee games.

• 25:46Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 25:46Speaker 03

  In fact, I was in Geneva during.

• 25:48Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 25:49Speaker 03

  During the, when we clinched against the Yankees. And I was supposed to work the following week in Dubai. And George Clooney, thank God, was a producer on the movie. And I called him immediately and he said, I already redid the entire schedule. You can go home.

• 26:03Amy Poehler?

  No way.

• 26:04Speaker 03

  So I came back, I landed at JFK. I was, I was living in New York. I landed at JFK. The game was just starting. I made it to my apartment by like the second or third inning. And we won that game.

• 26:17Amy Poehler?

  Yep.

• 26:18Speaker 03

  You know, obviously we won all four, but, but once we won that game, I knew that I had to watch every single moment on that couch by myself, because that was the lucky way to do it.

• 26:26Amy Poehler?

  Oh, you watched it by yourself?

• 26:27Speaker 03

  Absolutely. I was just like, whoa, I didn't want to jinx anything.

• 26:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah. We used to scream at my mom to leave the room. She walked into the room, she couldn't, she was holding the laundry, she had to hold it the whole time. Totally.

• 26:37Speaker 03

  Yeah. And I do feel like something psychically changed for all of us when that happened.

• 26:42Amy Poehler?

  I know it did for my family. My, my dad like was, it felt like a release of a, a long awaited something. It felt like the Odyssey.

• 26:52Speaker 03

  This can't be true, but it is.

• 26:54Amy Poehler?

  Wait a minute, is the Odyssey about that? Wait a minute.

• 26:59Amy Poehler?

  What did your mom think about you not finishing Harvard?

• 27:02Speaker 03

  Well, by then, I mean, I was working, they, they were.

• 27:05Amy Poehler?

  But you were really close to finishing.

• 27:06Speaker 03

  I was, I was. In fact, I, I, I probably, I probably did five years of classes there.

• 27:13Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 27:13Speaker 03

  Because I would go and then there was one semester, the last semester I left, I was two weeks away from the end of the semester. So I'd done everything. All I had to do was take the finals. But the rule was, at the time at least, you had to take your finals at the exact moment they were offered in Cambridge.

• 27:30Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 27:30Speaker 03

  And I was like, I'm number five on the call sheet. You think I'm going to shut a movie down like for three hours, four different times? Like, I just had to eat the semester.

• 27:38Amy Poehler?

  Do you ever have a fantasy about going back?

• 27:40Speaker 03

  I think I used to, like, there was, but I, but I also, you know, I was an English major and, and in fact, I started writing Good Will Hunting for a class. I just had wonderful professors and, and, and that professor really encouraged me to keep going with it. And I didn't know what, I'd never tried to do that.

• 27:58Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 27:58Speaker 03

  And, and in fact, I, I wrote, we were supposed to write a one act play and I wrote. I wrote the first act of a three act movie. And but at that point, I'd already been leaving and going, you know, I mean, I was kind of out in the world working.

• 28:12Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 28:12Speaker 03

  So I wasn't like sweating grades the way I was kind of in the I was I was kind of out of the pipeline.

• 28:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 28:19Speaker 03

  And I was really in school for myself at that point.

• 28:21Amy Poehler?

  That's cool.

• 28:21Speaker 03

  And I and I went to the to the guy and I said, I I think I failed your class. I like but this is the first act of a movie and and and he read it and he gave me a straight A and he just said, don't stop, keep going. Like, he gave me all this encouragement. And that was when I just took it out and showed it to Ben.

• 28:38Amy Poehler?

  It's so cool because you can you can also tell that respect you have for teachers in the film, like it's in Good Will Hunting. And we grew up around educators and like we're saying the obvious, but it is still wild how people can remember the teacher.

• 28:53Speaker 03

  Oh, my God.

• 28:53Amy Poehler?

  The three teachers.

• 28:54Speaker 03

  I had multiple teachers.

• 28:56Amy Poehler?

  Me, too. That were like, you're doing good, hang in there, that just that those like positive reinforcements about anything you were doing.

• 29:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:04Amy Poehler?

  Um, so, OK, you guys moved to Hollywood. Congratulations, you win an Academy Award, you do Good Will Hunting, everybody's favorite movie, give the best of each ever, you bring your moms. It's incredible.

• 29:15Amy Poehler?

  And.

• 29:16Speaker 03

  We didn't have a choice.

• 29:21Amy Poehler?

  But from that moment, like where, you know, you've been working to your point, what you were saying, you've been working for a long time, we know you then, we meet you then, and I'm the same age as you, I'm watching you like be my age, like entering into some system, and you're from Boston, and it's like, oh, OK, we don't have to live near the game to be in the game, basically. What is your relationship to work now? Because when you're young, like we talked about, you're like, I want to do this and this, and then you start getting these things. Then like, so then, what is your relationship to are you tired? That's a long question to ask. But I'm personally asking for myself.

• 29:56Speaker 03

  Sometimes.

• 29:56Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 29:57Speaker 03

  I mean, yeah, but but I think that's that's where this I feel like, and for both.

• 30:06Speaker 03

  Ben and me, that we are at the same time kind of stepped into this new phase of life and really felt it.

• 30:13Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. What is that new phase?

• 30:15Speaker 03

  That we just want to work on, it's about, it's about really the pursuit of joy in our lives and in our work. And like this movie, I never would have, I think 20 years ago, I would have bitched a lot about, you know, I don't think.

• 30:32Amy Poehler?

  That actually hits home.

• 30:34Speaker 03

  It was, like, the physical discomfort in making this movie that everybody, everybody had to go through, the entire crew. So, the experience of doing this movie, though it was the hardest movie that I've ever done by far, was so joyful.

• 30:50Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 30:51Speaker 03

  It really, and also, it felt more like an expedition than a movie because of how we made it. And to know that every single person around you was weathering those same difficulties and pushing themselves, like, it's just, this feeling of, you know, of being a part of that, that team of people was just, it was, it just, it was, it was one of the best feelings I've ever had.

• 31:18Amy Poehler?

  That's very cool. I mean, you're making me think of that, like, Sanskrit idea that life is what you say it is, basically.

• 31:24Speaker 03

  Right.

• 31:25Amy Poehler?

  So, you can be like, this is the worst, this is the hardest thing, and this is, or you can be like, this is the most incredible opportunity I'm getting to do.

• 31:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, and I definitely, from the moment Chris gave me the part, I felt, I felt that. Because, first of all, he, it's, first of all, it's one of the great roles of all time.

• 31:44Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 31:45Speaker 03

  And, and he was gonna make this thing at the scale that it deserved to be made.

• 31:50Amy Poehler?

  And not, and like, pretty practical, right?

• 31:53Speaker 03

  All practical.

• 31:54Amy Poehler?

  Like, that's, like, you know.

• 31:55Speaker 03

  He's gonna make it the way David Lean would have made it.

• 31:57Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 31:58Speaker 03

  The way somebody would have made it 80 years ago.

• 31:59Amy Poehler?

  It's that, for people that are gonna see it, and you guys can tell us if it's too spoil-y and we'll cut it, but like, there's scenes where Cyclops is, you're meeting Cyclops, who by the way, I was proud of myself, I was like, is that Bill Irwin?

• 32:12Speaker 03

  You got him right away.

• 32:13Amy Poehler?

  I'm obsessed with him.

• 32:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's amazing, he's amazing.

• 32:15Amy Poehler?

  Rachel getting married, amazing. And, and I was like, oh my god, is that Bill Irwin's face? That, I find out, is a giant puppet?

• 32:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:26Amy Poehler?

  What the fuck? That is wild!

• 32:28Speaker 03

  It's really wild when you realize we shot it in an actual cave. And so, there's no soundstage.

• 32:34Amy Poehler?

  That's wild.

• 32:35Speaker 03

  So, we would hike to this cave, and it was called Zeus's Cave. They say it's where Zeus was born. And we would hike up to this cave. And the rigging that the guys did in this cave, they basically turned it into a soundstage, almost.

• 32:50Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, right.

• 32:51Speaker 03

  There were... I mean, it was just... The amount of work that went into doing this was like...

• 32:57Amy Poehler?

  And I bet you shot at places that no one had ever been allowed in, and like...

• 33:01Speaker 03

  Or that nobody would be crazy enough to try to shoot in, was what it really was. Like, honestly, every time I would show up, and I would start laughing. I would be looking like, "You gotta be kidding me."

• 33:11Amy Poehler?

  You're like, "We're going up there."

• 33:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's where...

• 33:13Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 33:13Speaker 03

  Like, "So what are we shooting?" "Well, we're not shooting anything till we get up there, 'cause that's where everything is."

• 33:17Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, that's wild.

• 33:18Speaker 03

  So, that part of it was... That's what I mean about an expedition. And we were all in it together. We all hiked up the mountain. And in that cave, that was, you know... Chris was like, "No, we got a 60-foot puppet." And so, basically, he does as little special effects as humanly possible, which means you can do quite a bit without CGI. And where he needs it, you know, he'll, you know... He understands what year he lives in, and he has the absolute best special effects teams.

• 33:49Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 33:50Speaker 03

  They really help, you know, try to figure out how we can do everything, almost just about everything, in camera.

• 34:20Speaker 04

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• 35:45Speaker 04

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• 36:00Amy Poehler?

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• 36:39Amy Poehler?

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• 37:26Amy Poehler?

  Much like I compared you to Paul McCartney, I'm gonna compare the Odyssey to SNL. But SNL is like, SNL? That's another thing that I told you.

• 37:38Amy Poehler?

  But similarly, there's few places left that's like, we have a show tonight, and you know, because you've done it, hosted it many times, and you're like, everyone's just, it's like comedy emergency room. Everyone's doing the best version that they can do in a time that they have, and therefore everything feels really human. It's very cool that way. Like, things feel practical and tactile and stuff. And you've done the show a bunch of times. I don't know if you remember, the first time you hosted, I think, it was like 2002. I was like, my second year there. I have a great picture of us, me and Dratch, and you have your arms around us. We look like 10 years old, all such babies. And we're all like, the whole world.

• 38:18Amy Poehler?

  But it was, I remember just starting when you came, and I remember that exact feeling of like, holy shit, look at all these talented people trying to make something. Like, real and human, basically. What was it like to, what is it like to do that show? Do you like doing it?

• 38:35Speaker 03

  I still remember, yeah, I love doing it.

• 38:38Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 38:38Speaker 03

  And, and I, that first time, the reason I did it, Patrick, my agent, called me and said, "You're hosting Saturday Night Live." And I said, "Oh, okay." But I don't have anything coming out. And he goes, "No, Bruce Springsteen's the musical guest. We're gonna get to hear two songs from Bruce." So, I was like, "Oh, yeah." Because we're huge fans of Bruce Springsteen. So, so that was really why I did it. And, and I remember going on the, on the Monday night for the, you know, the little pitch in Lauren's office. And everybody pitches these ideas. And then everybody went, "Let's go to a bar." And I was like, "Guys, we have 90 minutes to do by Saturday." Like, "How are you people so calm?" Like, I couldn't.

• 39:20Amy Poehler?

  There's like a, there's like a push, like where people have to like force, force panic almost to get anything creatively done.

• 39:28Speaker 03

  I was fully panicked on Monday.

• 39:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 39:30Speaker 03

  But then Tuesday night was the night everyone, and I stayed up. They were like, "You're welcome to stay as long as you want." I stayed up overnight till like 5:00 in the morning.

• 39:38Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 39:38Speaker 03

  Popping into different rooms and writing with people and, you know. And, and love that part of it. And then, and then from the read-through on Wednesday, it's just, you're just shot out of a cannon.

• 39:48Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, it's done in five minutes.

• 39:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:50Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, and the minute you're done, you're like, "Okay, I got it. Let's do it again." And it's over.

• 39:53Speaker 03

  The rush that you get is incredible.

• 39:55Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually, we were looking up some stuff because I was like, "What did I do with Matt?" And there's a sketch that I do not remember.

• 40:02Speaker 03

  What was it?

• 40:03Amy Poehler?

  And I want to watch it with you.

• 40:04Speaker 03

  There's a better chance I'll remember it because I, because I've done so.

• 40:07Amy Poehler?

  You might remember it, but I have zero memory of it. You played a doctor? I saw it and I was like, "No idea what the joke is." Sorry, I can't, I gotta get my commercials off of YouTube.

• 40:16Speaker 03

  Is this the one where, Parnell, where we're, where we're on it? Where it's everybody's name, Matt Damon? Is that the thing?

• 40:24Amy Poehler?

  Maybe that's it. It sounds like that's it. All I know is, okay, here we go.

• 40:28Speaker 05

  Excuse me, I don't know about you, but are you Matt Damon? Uh, yeah.

• 40:34Speaker 05

  That's amazing. That's, that's really amazing.

• 40:37Amy Poehler?

  Parnell, the Iceman.

• 40:39Speaker 03

  The Iceman.

• 40:41Speaker 05

  Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, yeah, they're Dr. Matt Damon. Yeah, I'm the chief of oncology, Matt Simon.

• 40:46Amy Poehler?

  Okay, so he's a doctor.

• 40:47Speaker 05

  Matt Damon, Matt Damon.

• 40:49Speaker 03

  This is, that's the whole joke.

• 40:50Speaker 05

  You have no idea what it's like for me. And that's not true. Your identity is not about your name, man. It's about who you are, what you do. That's easy for you to say. Matt Damon.

• 41:05Speaker 06

  Oh, my God. Are you Matt Damon?

• 41:07Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 41:10Speaker 06

  This is so weird. My name is Pat Damon.

• 41:13Amy Poehler?

  OK, now we're heightening. We're two minutes in.

• 41:16Speaker 06

  We should always get married. And now we'll do the introduction.

• 41:19Amy Poehler?

  You do remember this.

• 41:20Speaker 05

  Pat Damon, Matt Damon, Matt Damon, Pat Damon.

• 41:23Speaker 06

  So stupid.

• 41:27Amy Poehler?

  Oh, my God, that's so good.

• 41:29Speaker 03

  And it's just, it's totally ridiculous. I haven't seen, that's really funny.

• 41:33Amy Poehler?

  I did not, I mean, it is, I really...

• 41:35Speaker 03

  Well, I remember because I've probably, I think I've hosted the show three times and I've come on and done guest spots, but that means I've probably done less than 20 sketches in my life. So I think I probably remember all of them.

• 41:46Amy Poehler?

  You would think you will, but I, I mean, I...

• 41:50Speaker 03

  It's so, and then at the end, I think someone comes out and is Dr. Julius Irving. I think that's the point.

• 41:54Amy Poehler?

  Oh, yeah. OK, I have a memory.

• 41:57Speaker 03

  I forget how it happens, but it's like, Matt Damon, Matt Damon, Pat Damon, Matt Damon, Pat Damon, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Dr. Julius Irving.

• 42:06Speaker 03

  I don't think it played that well. I thought it was funny.

• 42:08Amy Poehler?

  I know. But it's a good example of like, you know, there are hosts who, like, you know, especially in your first time, you don't really know the power you have, you know, no one really tells you the power that you have where you can be like, I don't want to do that. But there are hosts that are like, I like to pick the funny stuff. And then there are hosts that are like, I want to pick the stuff that I'm in a lot, or that, you know, like, and that's a real ensemble-y sketch. You don't get to do much in that.

• 42:34Speaker 03

  Well, I said, but I always say to Lauren, like, just, I want the best show. Like, I just, you know, this last one, I think we cut five sketches after dress, you know, that I was like, in heavily. And I was like, whatever makes it, you know, also, you've got a younger cast, and it's like, they're trying to like, establish themselves and like, all right, if you've got something for them to do that, you know what I mean? Like, you all have to do this next week, you know?

• 42:57Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, but a lot of people don't really take that in. Like, and I don't even necessarily mean it's a bad thing. They're just like, focusing on other, like, things. Like, you have this ability, you always have, I think, to... Pay attention to like the environment that you're in, what other people need. I mean, I think it's what makes you such a good producer. I think it's what makes you such a good collaborator. Like, that isn't always people's process. They just don't know how to take all that in.

• 43:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, I guess I always just defaulted to the better the thing is you're making, the better for everybody.

• 43:31Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, very true.

• 43:32Speaker 03

  And I really do think that way about movies, too. I don't always take the best role. You know what I mean? I want to be in a good movie.

• 43:41Amy Poehler?

  You've been in so many good movies. God damn. I mean, that's interesting you say that because like even in Interstellar, that role that you take is a really surprising role to take with.

• 43:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, Chris undersold it to me, actually. Because Chris, I was really happy to get the call from him. And he, I guess, like trying to manage my expectations, said, you know how they say there are no small parts, only small actors? And I said, yeah. And he goes, this is a small part.

• 44:10Speaker 03

  So I was like, OK. But I read it, and I was like, no, this is a terrific part. Like, it's a really great. I mean, it's not, it's not big, but it's a really good part.

• 44:19Amy Poehler?

  Really good part.

• 44:21Speaker 03

  And so, yeah, it's always about if there's something I feel like, you know, worth doing, it doesn't have to be the biggest thing.

• 44:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, I mean, you got into work with so many amazing people. If it's OK, I want to just ask you about a few because some of them we talk about here a lot and some I had the pleasure to either meet or work with, and I like love talking about them.

• 44:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:42Amy Poehler?

  And you've talked about him a lot, but can, can we just talk about Robin for a second? Because I had the experience that, as I'm sure you did, of like feeling like I got to watch him use his gift to make young people feel like they had some kind of future in whatever they were doing. That was basically, he would come, Robin Williams would come and improvise at UCB and like jump in the theater, the improv theater that I was a part of. And he would just show, I mean, people would lose their minds. He would show up and he'd talk to 20, all of us 20-year-olds like we were like smart and funny and like change our lives.

• 45:25Amy Poehler?

  What was it like to work with him when you were so young?

• 45:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, he was like that generous. Like, that was just his, that's just who he was.

• 45:32Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 45:33Speaker 03

  It's just like overflowing with generosity.

• 45:36Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 45:36Speaker 03

  Like, as a creative partner to work with, to do scenes with. And obviously, this was something that we'd written. We'd been holding on to this thing for five years. And how seriously he took it, how prepared he was. Interestingly, he was very, he did a lot of takes. At his...

• 45:55Amy Poehler?

  What, did he feel like he didn't have it? Like, would he want more because he wasn't quite sure if he was having it?

• 45:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, and I remember Terry Gilliam telling me, like, Terry Gilliam gave him, after they did The Fisher King, and Robin's brilliant in that movie. And Terry gave him a report card at the end, and it was, and it had all these different things like creativity, you know, energy, all this stuff, you know, hey, hey, hey, late night phone calls, F. Because Robin would get home and he would call and it would...

• 46:18Amy Poehler?

  He was a ruminator?

• 46:19Speaker 03

  He was a ruminator, and there were things, we went back and did another pickup of a thing, and we shot it 15 times already. And Ben and I knew we had it, Gus knew we had it.

• 46:29Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 46:30Speaker 03

  And he just, and I think that's, might be the comedy background, where it's like, I'm gonna refine this joke.

• 46:37Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, there's always a joke that you're thinking about.

• 46:39Speaker 03

  There's always something more that I can grab in there.

• 46:41Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 46:42Speaker 03

  And he, and he had this, this like, you know, and he was like indefatigable, like, the guy just had so much energy. And so, we went over budget in film. I remember every day at lunch, we would send out to Kodak, they'd come back with more film, because we were burning through a lot of film, really just for him to feel

• 47:02Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 47:02Speaker 03

  like we got it.

• 47:03Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 47:04Speaker 03

  You know, I mean, Ben and I knew, like, I mean, even like the last line of the movie, that was not written. He was just supposed to come out and read a letter, and, and, and it was just supposed, the camera was supposed to sit on him for as long as he wanted, as he thought about this boy's driving out of town, and he's on his way, you know, he's gonna go see about the girl. And, and Robin, we left the camera rolling, and, and we were shooting up at him, and, and I was, I was right next to the camera, because every time he came out, when he, when he, when he opened up the letter, I said it, so that he could hear my voice. And so, Gus and I, the director was...

• 47:43Amy Poehler?

  And you were standing by camera to do it?

• 47:44Speaker 03

  And I'm standing by camera. And he wasn't meant to look at me, but just so he could hear me. And, and he must have done 15... Takes and he'd put the envelope back and he'd put it back in the mailbox and then he'd go in and we'd still be rolling and then he'd come back out. And he did, you know, a few without saying anything and then he just started improvising lines. And on like the ninth line, he opened the door and he looked and he read the letter and he said, "Son of a bitch, he stole my line." And I grabbed Gus. Like, I mean, it's like, you know, when you get a piece of dialogue falls from heaven and, you know, and you just know.

• 48:23Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 48:23Speaker 03

  And, but Robin went back in and he did it five, six more times. He came back. And I remember, Ben wasn't on set that day for some reason, or maybe he couldn't fit up where we were and so he was back. And I just couldn't, couldn't get to him fast enough to tell him, "You're not gonna fucking believe what he said." Listen, and Ben, the second he heard it, like, that's it.

• 48:41Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 48:41Speaker 03

  Like, we knew, like, that's the, but, but Robin must have known because it came out of him. But like, when that line comes out of me, if ever I'm lucky enough to come up with something on the spot that just comes out in the moment and it works, I know it and now I'm, now I'm a dog with a bone, you know what I mean? I'm not gonna go start trying other stuff.

• 49:00Amy Poehler?

  That is the thing I love about improv, I have to say, is it's like so many ideas are flung around and they're, a lot of them are jewels.

• 49:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 49:08Amy Poehler?

  And they're just thrown for free.

• 49:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 49:10Amy Poehler?

  Like, it's like, here's 10 more.

• 49:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 49:12Amy Poehler?

  And you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, these are, like, let me pick these up. Like, each one could be interesting, but like, when you're with like an incredible improviser, it's like, "I have a million of these."

• 49:21Speaker 03

  Right.

• 49:21Amy Poehler?

  Like, these, these are, these are never gonna go away.

• 49:23Speaker 03

  That's what, see, I, when I wrote, I wrote a movie that not many people saw called Promised Land with John Krasinski. And John and I joke about it because John's like Ben, he's got a supercomputer on board. His, he goes really fast. And I'm much more, I don't know, I got a, I got a Commodore 56 or whatever. So, my processing chip isn't, isn't quite as fast. And so, John would, would, would throw out a line of dialogue, we'd be sitting in the kitchen writing, and he'd throw out a line of dialogue. And my face would do something like this. And John would read that as he hates it.

• 49:59Amy Poehler?

  Uh huh.

• 50:00Speaker 03

  And then he'd give me another one, and then another, and then, and now he's giving me five lines of dialogue, and I'm, and I just go, I'm like, stop.

• 50:07Amy Poehler?

  Right, right.

• 50:08Speaker 03

  I'm still on the first one, John. I think the first one's really good. Now I gotta think about all these other ones, because I think they're really good, too. You know, give me a minute.

• 50:16Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 50:17Speaker 03

  And, and I think, you know, yeah, you're right, they're like jewels that are falling on the ground.

• 50:21Amy Poehler?

  Totally.

• 50:22Speaker 03

  And I'm like somebody who wants to pick up each one and go like,

• 50:24Amy Poehler?

  Yes, yes.

• 50:25Speaker 03

  Let's, we're gonna, we're gonna put this thing together like a Swiss watch.

• 50:28Amy Poehler?

  And that's why I think sometimes it's, it's always like, I mean, it's, it's interesting to watch people be able to be okay with that speed and stillness. It's what like film actors do so well, is they allow things to just stay. And when you're coming up and like, in, from a comedy perspective, like, speed is

• 50:46Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 50:46Amy Poehler?

  where you get your self-esteem, everything. And you just have to sometimes just like, stop. You just have to just stop. With that in mind, what was it like to work with Phil Hoffman, who, like, what an incredible actor?

• 51:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 51:01Amy Poehler?

  What was it like to be, because your character is really, you have to square off with him in this way that is, I mean, he's so intimidating in those scenes.

• 51:10Speaker 03

  He's so good in that movie.

• 51:11Amy Poehler?

  It's so good.

• 51:12Speaker 03

  He's just, I mean, he's good in, he was, he was great in everything.

• 51:15Amy Poehler?

  But holy shit, he's good in that movie.

• 51:16Speaker 03

  Talk about a role where you come in and, I mean, he, that scene, the scene where he comes back where I kill him in Towns of Mr. Ripley, spoiler alert.

• 51:24Amy Poehler?

  Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert, Odyssey, it's a long trip.

• 51:28Speaker 03

  He, he, I loved him because he, you know, we'd rehearse, there was a whole month of rehearsal, and, and we got to know each other, and, and, but I hated him so much that day.

• 51:41Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 51:41Speaker 03

  You know what I mean? And he, but, because that's how he, it's like, he like, built the energy for that scene. It was like, like, like a fucking Marvel superhero coming out of him, and, and sucked me right into it. And we had this day of working where, and we liked each other.

• 51:59Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 52:00Speaker 03

  You know what I mean?

• 52:00Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 52:01Speaker 03

  But that was not, that wasn't in the room.

• 52:03Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 52:04Speaker 03

  And, and I just remember, it's that, I've, I've said, I, I say it all the time because it really is the truth. When, when, when you're working with a great actor, they're great enough for both of you.

• 52:16Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 52:17Speaker 03

  And it's like, it's like, just Just paddle into the wave.

• 52:21Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 52:22Speaker 03

  And stand up. And that's it.

• 52:24Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 52:24Speaker 03

  And you just get transported.

• 52:26Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 52:27Speaker 03

  And that was what he was, I mean, he was just phenomenal. Phenomenal.

• 52:31Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, he's incredible to watch.

• 52:34Speaker 03

  And his theater company was great. I used to go and see them.

• 52:36Amy Poehler?

  Did you ever do anything like, did you do a lot of theater in New York when you were?

• 52:40Speaker 03

  No, no.

• 52:41Amy Poehler?

  You didn't, right?

• 52:42Speaker 03

  I was working already. And the last play I did, in fact, Phil was there. We did, he, I think he was doing Jesus Hopped the A Train, or he was directing it. I can't remember, but we were all over. And then Gwyneth was doing Proof.

• 52:53Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 52:54Speaker 03

  And Casey, Affleck and I were, and Summer, were doing This Is Our Youth. And we were all in the West End in the same summer. And none of us saw each other's plays because we were on the same schedule.

• 53:03Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 53:03Speaker 03

  But we were all, it was like the Ripley reunion kind of, right? And I think Jude was like doing something that summer too. But we were all.

• 53:09Amy Poehler?

  Oh. Do you ever get a, I'm sure you get offered all the time. Do you ever want to do something on Broadway?

• 53:14Speaker 03

  I've thought a lot about it. It's the schedule that, that.

• 53:17Amy Poehler?

  Brutal.

• 53:17Speaker 03

  Until, until my, my youngest is a freshman. And once she's out of the nest, I would definitely do it.

• 53:25Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 53:25Speaker 03

  It's just, it's just not a great schedule for parenting.

• 53:28Amy Poehler?

  It's crazy schedule. And I, all the, all the SNL ladies are on Broadway this summer. Like, they're all, Dratch is in Rocky Horror, Anna's in Shmeagadune, Amaya's doing O Mary right now. I'm like watching them all do it. And I, we've had a bunch of Broadway actors on here. I just, I, having the hardest part of your day be the end of your day, every day, sometimes twice a day, is brutal.

• 53:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 53:50Amy Poehler?

  So hard.

• 53:51Speaker 03

  And I remember even, this is 20 something years ago, doing that play. And I love that play, and I love Kenny Longigan. But this elation coming offstage, when things went, when, when it was like, oh, my God, that was.

• 54:04Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 54:04Speaker 03

  Something. And then that would last like five minutes. And then I'd go, I have to do this twice tomorrow. And I remember thinking, why didn't someone just film that? You guys are making this so unnecessarily difficult.

• 54:19Amy Poehler?

  We could be in the can, we could be done. We could be in Toronto, we could show it in Toronto.

• 54:22Speaker 03

  We should be at the festival. What is happening?

• 54:26Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 54:26Speaker 03

  But yeah, I mean, you know, Cheeto is doing proof right now.

• 54:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, that's right.

• 54:30Speaker 03

  I just saw that, and he's fantastic, but...

• 54:32Amy Poehler?

  How fun were those Ocean's movies, by the way? Speaking of Cheeto, that looks like, I mean, what a boondoggle.

• 54:38Speaker 03

  Not fun for Steven Soderbergh.

• 54:40Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, he was the one that had to make them.

• 54:42Speaker 03

  He actually had to.

• 54:43Amy Poehler?

  And you guys were like having cappuccino, and he was like, can we roll? I mean, god, they looked so fun. They looked so fun.

• 54:49Speaker 03

  They were really fun, and it was just a wonderful group

• 54:52Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 54:52Speaker 03

  of people. And the group, you know, it's like as the movies went along, you know, then suddenly, you know, people were married, people had babies, you know, we were loaning diapers to each other, you know what I mean? It was just a nice kind of run of life for us.

• 55:06Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, you mentioned Clooney. We have a fun thing with, I don't know if you remember us and Clooney and you, because, what a Hollywood thing, I just said. We have a fun thing, me, you, and Clooney. I know, but when we poked fun at him at the Golden Globes, he's got a great, as do you, great sense of humor about himself.

• 55:25Amy Poehler?

  Do you know this, that he made stationery?

• 55:28Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 55:28Amy Poehler?

  Okay, so...

• 55:30Speaker 03

  Not the first time he's done this, by the way.

• 55:31Amy Poehler?

  And by the way, and I've said this to his face, I'm not talking behind his back, I don't like pranks. I don't fuck with pranks.

• 55:36Speaker 03

  I'm not a prank guy either.

• 55:37Amy Poehler?

  I don't like it. I don't, it makes me stressed.

• 55:40Speaker 03

  He loves them enough for all of us, though.

• 55:42Amy Poehler?

  He does.

• 55:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 55:43Amy Poehler?

  He loves them, and I'm like, don't do your weird pranks on me, and he's like, oh, okay. And anyway, Tina and I hosted the Golden Globes. We made a joke that now that you were in TV, you were basically a garbage person, because you were there for just TV, and you weren't in the movie section anymore, and you, of course, laughed and played along with it. George Clooney made stationary pretending he was you and sent us like a strongly worded letter saying that would really hurt our feelings.

• 56:10Speaker 03

  Really, it really hurt my feelings.

• 56:11Amy Poehler?

  Now, did he tell you he was gonna do it? Okay, got it.

• 56:13Speaker 03

  No, the, no, the way I found out, and by the way, the only, the only reason I found out was because you guys sent me some like fruit basket or something.

• 56:20Amy Poehler?

  We did.

• 56:21Speaker 03

  And I was like, I was so bewildered.

• 56:23Amy Poehler?

  We were like, we think this is a prank.

• 56:26Speaker 03

  That's right, yeah.

• 56:26Amy Poehler?

  We were covering our bases.

• 56:28Speaker 03

  Just in case it's not, it's a real fruit basket. But, and then I called one, I think I called Tina, I was like, what the fuck? Because she lived right down the street from me at that time. We were, I was on the Upper West Side. And, and then we, you know, we put it together pretty quickly.

• 56:42Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, it was Clooney's doings. But, but, but, yeah, I guess Soderbergh is the one that has to make, it was such a well crafted movie, movies.

• 56:51Speaker 03

  That's him. I mean, I've done, I think, 10 movies with Steven. Yeah, I, I, I will do the phone book with Steven Soderbergh. I absolutely love working with him and.

• 57:00Amy Poehler?

  What do you love about working with him?

• 57:02Speaker 03

  Well, he's just, he's, he's, it's like he sees The Matrix.

• 57:08Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 57:09Speaker 03

  Like, really, I mean, by the time, so when we did Behind the Candelabra in 2012.

• 57:15Amy Poehler?

  So good.

• 57:16Speaker 03

  He, but the, Steven would, I'd get to work, we'd, we'd shoot a scene. I'd go home at like 5 o'clock because Steven operates the camera, is the editor, is the cinematographer and the director. And I'd go home and the kids were little and, you know, we'd bathe them, we'd, we'd give them dinner, read them a story, put them to sleep. I'd come downstairs by like 8, 7:30 or 8 o'clock. And on my iPad, there was a new delivery. And I'd open it up and it was the scene we shot that day, fully scored as it was going to appear in the movie when it came out nine months later.

• 57:56Amy Poehler?

  Holy shit.

• 57:57Speaker 03

  Yeah. So for Michael and me.

• 57:58Amy Poehler?

  Oh, wow.

• 57:59Speaker 03

  To, to, you know, you're, you're, you're playing this relationship, which is this kind of dysfunctional relationship, a kind of descent into like drugs and it, you know, and it unfolds over time. And so to, to, to calibrate the performance is difficult.

• 58:13Speaker 03

  But not when you can watch.

• 58:16Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 58:16Speaker 03

  Well, here's the next, yeah. Here's the scene that's gonna happen after this, and here's the scene that just happened before this. I know, and then Stephen's like, alright, I'm starting on Michael's face. And you know exactly where you are at all times.

• 58:28Amy Poehler?

  Oh god, that feels really comforting.

• 58:29Speaker 03

  It's unbelievable. It's like, and I always say like, the only excuse an actor has, and it's a legitimate excuse, if you suck in a movie, is, I didn't know what movie I was in.

• 58:38Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 58:39Speaker 03

  That's a totally fair, like, if the director just couldn't communicate the tone, and, you know, couldn't, it's very easy to be in the wrong movie. Like, here's another Soderbergh story, like, I did this movie with him, The Informant.

• 58:52Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm. Great movie.

• 58:53Speaker 03

  And, yeah, I love that one. And, and we shot a scene where my character had to apologize to the entire town. Basically, he stood up in court. And we had the, we had the, um, the transcript of what he said, and those were my lines. And so, we're in Illinois, uh, I think it was Springfield, Illinois, in the courthouse he was actually in. And the entire cast is there, because they're all sitting in the gallery. And they're the people that I need to apologize to. And so, I stand up, and I start this apology. And I get, I get legitimately choked up. I don't mean to, I'm trying not to. And, and I get through it.

• 59:36Speaker 03

  And Stephen's, he's kinda shooting a wide shot on the other side. And I hear cut. And he walks over, and I'm sitting at the defense table, and he kinda, he comes up and he goes, "No."

• 59:50Speaker 03

  And I'm like, "No?" So fuck you, no. I go, "That shit just happened, man, that was real." Like, what, he goes, he goes, "Yeah, yeah, no, no, you're in the wrong movie." And I went, "Oh, okay, get me in the right movie." And he sits there, and he thinks for a second, and he goes, Do it like an awards acceptance speech.

• 1:00:06Amy Poehler?

  Oh, incredible direction.

• 1:00:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, because it was like, yeah, this guy, this was this guy's movie. It wasn't, I'm, I'm admitting, it was, everyone's here for me.

• 1:00:16Amy Poehler?

  Yes, that's right.

• 1:00:17Speaker 03

  This is incredible. This is like, wow.

• 1:00:20Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:21Speaker 03

  Right, and I think that's what I said, like, wow.

• 1:00:23Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:24Speaker 03

  And it's like.

• 1:00:25Amy Poehler?

  So interesting.

• 1:00:26Speaker 03

  Now, both scenes in a vacuum.

• 1:00:28Amy Poehler?

  Also, like, you know, it's, it makes sense that, like, I had a real emotion, like, I really felt something, isn't that what I'm supposed to be doing here?

• 1:00:34Speaker 03

  This connected to the part of me, this is, that's how this is supposed to go.

• 1:00:37Amy Poehler?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:00:38Speaker 03

  But not if you're in the wrong movie.

• 1:00:39Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm, okay, and so Christopher Nolan, The Odyssey, we're talking about it, you're back with him again, you've made three films with him.

• 1:00:48Amy Poehler?

  So, we do this thing where we, we talk to somebody before our guest comes in and talk well behind their back, and I talked, I got to talk to Christopher. And, um, I was a little intimidated, to be honest, he's very intimidating.

• 1:01:01Amy Poehler?

  Wore a suit, drank tea, and is so good at directing.

• 1:01:11Amy Poehler?

  And just such a formidable artist, and like, really such a, like, the director of this decade in, in so many ways, and you know this because you've worked with him so many times. But he's asking a lot of you, and you just said earlier, like, that's the part that you're realizing, oh, I'm not going to complain about this, I'm actually gonna, I'm gonna decide that this is gonna be the most, like, fulfilling, incredible experience. But it is still a physical experience, like, it still means that you have to get in probably the best shape of your life.

• 1:01:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:01:43Amy Poehler?

  And as a person of similar age, it's, like, it's, it's one thing running and punching and, and born in your 30s, it's way different to be getting jacked in your 50s, it's really hard.

• 1:01:56Speaker 03

  It was a, it's just a complete, complete lifestyle change.

• 1:02:01Amy Poehler?

  Right, so everything goes away.

• 1:02:03Speaker 03

  There's no planning it, like, any other time I tried to do something like that, it was always like, well, I'll time my workouts and my thing, and this was like, no.

• 1:02:10Amy Poehler?

  No.

• 1:02:11Speaker 03

  Just everything.

• 1:02:13Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:13Speaker 03

  Just put your feet on, put your foot on the gas.

• 1:02:16Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:16Speaker 03

  And that's it, and that's the only way to do it.

• 1:02:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:19Speaker 03

  And eat a little less.

• 1:02:21Amy Poehler?

  But no, like, no gluten?

• 1:02:24Speaker 03

  No, no gluten, which changed my life.

• 1:02:26Amy Poehler?

  Are you still no gluten?

• 1:02:27Speaker 03

  Still no gluten.

• 1:02:28Amy Poehler?

  You don't have any desire for it anymore?

• 1:02:30Speaker 03

  Because of the, because of the, because of what it does to me.

• 1:02:34Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:34Speaker 03

  Like, I didn't realize the level to which, I didn't know.

• 1:02:37Amy Poehler?

  Well, it's funny you say that, because I feel like our generation, like, a lot of food allergies and stuff, or whatever, or sensitivities, we didn't really have that. Like, we didn't talk about that.

• 1:02:48Speaker 03

  We didn't talk about it, and I didn't realize the level to which it was affecting me and affecting my, like, it's completely changed my life these last couple of years of not, of not eating it, and so that's made it, like, it's a bummer.

• 1:02:59Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:59Speaker 03

  Like, I'm a big fan of bread, but, and beer.

• 1:03:03Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:04Speaker 03

  You know what I mean? Like, I, so, you know, pasta and pizza and all that stuff, but, but.

• 1:03:08Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:09Speaker 03

  How I feel is just.

• 1:03:10Amy Poehler?

  So much better.

• 1:03:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:03:12Amy Poehler?

  Incredible, okay, and then, uh, sleep, what's your sleep situation? Do you, do you sleep?

• 1:03:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, we.

• 1:03:21Amy Poehler?

  Do you love to sleep?

• 1:03:21Speaker 03

  I do.

• 1:03:22Amy Poehler?

  You've got teenagers in the house.

• 1:03:23Speaker 03

  But, you know, like, once you had kids, did you ever sleep well again?

• 1:03:27Amy Poehler?

  No.

• 1:03:28Speaker 03

  Like, all the, like.

• 1:03:29Amy Poehler?

  It wasn't until they got older, like, it was this huge stretch where I didn't sleep for, I felt like, for like, 10 years.

• 1:03:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, I feel like I've been a lighter sleeper, but on this, on this movie, there was, we, like, me and the PAs, we had this kind of joke called the Odyssey 5. If you could get five hours, like, you were thrilled.

• 1:03:48Amy Poehler?

  That's tough.

• 1:03:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:03:49Amy Poehler?

  That's not a lot of sleep.

• 1:03:50Speaker 03

  It's not a lot of sleep.

• 1:03:51Amy Poehler?

  No.

• 1:03:52Speaker 03

  But it was enough.

• 1:03:53Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, it was enough, I get it, I just.

• 1:03:55Speaker 03

  But I did realize that five is the cutoff, because there were some four nights, there were some no nights, I had two nights where I did not sleep.

• 1:04:02Amy Poehler?

  Because you were working?

• 1:04:03Speaker 03

  No, because I got home and I was overly tired.

• 1:04:06Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:04:07Speaker 03

  And then just did that thing where I'm just sitting there and I missed the window. And now I'm panicking because...

• 1:04:12Amy Poehler?

  And you're like, tomorrow I literally have to lift a rock through the mud.

• 1:04:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:04:17Amy Poehler?

  Like every day.

• 1:04:18Speaker 03

  I have to do sprints tomorrow.

• 1:04:20Amy Poehler?

  Hardest day! It seems like so hard.

• 1:04:23Speaker 03

  It was hard. It was hard for everybody, though.

• 1:04:25Amy Poehler?

  Yes, of course.

• 1:04:26Speaker 03

  That's what made it wonderful.

• 1:04:28Amy Poehler?

  It's funny you talk about other departments because Chris's question for you, he had a question for you, which was basically like, why haven't you directed? He said, and I quote, "You would be an amazing director. You'd probably be better than me."

• 1:04:48Speaker 03

  He lies in interviews. That's his...

• 1:04:51Amy Poehler?

  That's what he said.

• 1:04:52Speaker 03

  That's a lovely thing to say. That's not true, but it's a very lovely thing to say. I almost directed a couple of things. I almost directed that movie, Promise Land, in 2012. But I ran long on another movie and I would have had to come down home, put my bags down and leave again.

• 1:05:10Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:10Speaker 03

  And so I bowed out and then called Gus Van Sant, who then stepped in and directed it. So as a producer, I made the movie better.

• 1:05:21Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 1:05:24Speaker 03

  And then another movie that John Krasinski and I commissioned Kenny to write, Manchester by the Sea, and I was going to direct it. And then as the script, as it started to come in, I was like, Kenny, you gotta do it. And I was going to play the part. And we were about to start shooting, but we were behind. We couldn't get the production office open. We were like five weeks out. And I called Kenny and I was like, I'm putting you in a position to fail here. Like, let's take a breath. And I didn't have anything for two years. Or I'm sorry, I had worked for two years and Kenny was ready to go. And I was like, all right, the only person I'm giving this role to is Casey because we'd all done the play together in London and we're all friends. And I'm like, this is the best role that I've seen in a long time. And...

• 1:06:10Speaker 03

  But we were able to get it financed with Casey.

• 1:06:13Amy Poehler?

  And he stole that Oscar from you.

• 1:06:15Speaker 03

  He took my Oscar.

• 1:06:16Amy Poehler?

  That's how he returned the favor, he took your fucking Oscar.

• 1:06:17Speaker 03

  I like to say I gave it to him.

• 1:06:21Speaker 03

  I'm sure he wouldn't mind that, right?

• 1:06:22Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, not at all.

• 1:06:23Speaker 03

  After ripping his heart open in that performance.

• 1:06:26Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, it allowed you to have it.

• 1:06:27Speaker 03

  Allowed you.

• 1:06:28Amy Poehler?

  Okay, lightning round as we end. You have four girls. You've talked so much about how great it is. Do you know the fact, the research shows that the more daughters you have, the longer you live? Did you know that?

• 1:06:41Speaker 03

  I believe it. I've never heard that before.

• 1:06:43Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, there's a research that says you get a year or something added to your life with each daughter.

• 1:06:49Speaker 03

  That's great.

• 1:06:50Amy Poehler?

  And mothers lose a year for each child they have, so, congrats.

• 1:06:52Speaker 03

  Oh, really?

• 1:06:53Amy Poehler?

  Yes, of course.

• 1:06:54Speaker 03

  Boy or girl?

• 1:06:55Amy Poehler?

  The dads get, yes, doesn't matter. The dads get all the years.

• 1:06:58Speaker 03

  Right, right.

• 1:06:59Amy Poehler?

  And the mothers wither away, like, crumbs.

• 1:07:03Speaker 03

  That sounds totally fair.

• 1:07:05Amy Poehler?

  No, but having all these women in your life, in your house, and all, like, what's the biggest joy? Speaking about joy, what's the biggest joy about watching them get older and grow up and become real people in the world?

• 1:07:18Speaker 03

  Oh, wow. I mean, they're just incredible. I mean, they're all, they're so different. And so different from one another.

• 1:07:28Amy Poehler?

  Are they launching into the world now in different ways?

• 1:07:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, my, you know, I've got one about to turn 28, one who just turned 20, and then we still have two in the nest, 17, almost 18, and 15.

• 1:07:42Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:43Speaker 03

  They're just amazing. They're my favorite people.

• 1:07:46Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:47Speaker 03

  You know? And I feel very lucky that, you know, I grew up with just a brother, and it was just a side of the human experience that I just didn't have access to. And I got that in, you know, that next chapter of my life, and it's just been beautiful.

• 1:08:03Amy Poehler?

  Okay, and your comfort watch. What are you, like, what, you know, I was thinking about, I was like, wow, when Matt's changing the channels and watching movies, there must be a lot of times where you're like, I was in that, I work with that person, you know, like, I almost got that part. There's a lot of movies that you've been in, and a lot of movies that you know a lot about, or that you've produced, or that, so, what is a comfort watch? One that you can watch where you can check out and be like, if it's on, I'm watching it?

• 1:08:29Speaker 03

  Usually Will Ferrell's movies, you know, like, in our house.

• 1:08:34Speaker 03

  You kind of can't go wrong with him. Like, we've watched, you know, Step Brothers and Talladega Nights, you know, again and again and again.

• 1:08:45Speaker 03

  Blades of Glory, too.

• 1:08:46Amy Poehler?

  Oh, my god.

• 1:08:47Speaker 03

  You know, and Will Speck is a great friend of ours.

• 1:08:49Amy Poehler?

  Yes, that's right. Will's great.

• 1:08:50Speaker 03

  That is one of the, that's definitely in the pantheon.

• 1:08:53Amy Poehler?

  Oh, my god, that movie, how fun and dumb that movie is.

• 1:08:56Speaker 03

  It's so genius.

• 1:08:57Amy Poehler?

  Okay, and Water, how do we fix it?

• 1:09:00Speaker 03

  Oh, my god.

• 1:09:01Amy Poehler?

  And this is a speed round.

• 1:09:05Amy Poehler?

  But, I mean, I've been reading the work you're doing. It's incredible. What should we be doing? What can we do?

• 1:09:10Speaker 03

  You could go check out water.org, and you can donate directly. Or, there's this new, we have Get Blue, which we launched this summer, which is if you see anything that says Get Blue on it, if it's, or if, you know, there's hoodies and t-shirts at The Gap, that say Get Blue, there are, you can go to Starbucks and get a Blue Matcha or a coconut refresher, and proceeds from that will go to water.org and to the work we're doing. And we've reached 92 million people so far, you know, which is really something, because we do it through microfinance, through these small microloans. And had we stayed with drilling wells, it would have taken us 600 years to get to where we are right now. So, it's scaling, it's a sustainable solution, and there's a lot more to be done.

• 1:09:55Amy Poehler?

  It's amazing. Talk about the odyssey, man.

• 1:09:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's a big one.

• 1:09:59Amy Poehler?

  600 years is too long. Okay, so, last question I ask everybody. Anything you're watching right now that's making you laugh? Video, a scene from a show?

• 1:10:09Speaker 03

  I literally, last night.

• 1:10:11Amy Poehler?

  Okay, great.

• 1:10:12Speaker 03

  So, my kids are watching this thing called Love Island.

• 1:10:16Amy Poehler?

  Oh, yeah. The teens are obsessed.

• 1:10:20Speaker 03

  I couldn't do it.

• 1:10:21Amy Poehler?

  I can't do it. I get too much embarrassment.

• 1:10:23Speaker 03

  Yeah, I couldn't. But, but before, and then we literally sat down, we had some friends visiting, then they have a teenage daughter, and they're staying with us. And so, the kids at dinner were like, we're gonna watch this thing. So we sat down and it didn't come on till nine. And so we're flicking and there's something called Temptation Island.

• 1:10:41Amy Poehler?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:10:42Speaker 03

  And so, and so I, we look at the little thing and I'm like, you guys want to give this a shot for an hour? Before Love Island comes on? And I mean, it was, it did not disappoint.

• 1:10:54Amy Poehler?

  Am I wrong that Temptation Island is if you make out or have sex, you're out?

• 1:10:59Speaker 03

  No, I, from what I could understand.

• 1:11:02Amy Poehler?

  Okay, that's, wait, that's called Too Hot to Something.

• 1:11:04Speaker 03

  I watched, I watched episode one of season two last night. And it was, they introduced these four couples.

• 1:11:11Amy Poehler?

  Four unmarried couples.

• 1:11:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, four unmarried couples.

• 1:11:14Amy Poehler?

  Travel to a tropical island to have their fidelity tested. Wait, so they bring in people?

• 1:11:21Speaker 03

  They bring in hot singles?

• 1:11:26Speaker 03

  It was so funny.

• 1:11:28Amy Poehler?

  Amazing.

• 1:11:28Speaker 03

  So they, they bring in the, you know, the hot singles and all the guys come in and like rip their shirts off? And they're like, you made a mistake bringing her here, bro.

• 1:11:38Amy Poehler?

  I gotta watch.

• 1:11:40Speaker 03

  I don't know how long it'll last. I, we, we did make it through an episode. But it was, it was really funny.

• 1:11:45Amy Poehler?

  Oh, that's great.

• 1:11:47Speaker 03

  My friend, she was, she was, she's visiting with her daughter and we were howling. But, um, but it's these four couples and you're like, and, you know, and the kids are like trying to, they're taking bets on which couples are gonna make it. And I'm like, you know, guys, I doubt if they all just were faithful to each other. There wouldn't be much of a show, so I have a feeling.

• 1:12:06Amy Poehler?

  I would be like, someone's gonna buckle.

• 1:12:08Speaker 03

  We're gonna see some cracks in the veneer.

• 1:12:09Amy Poehler?

  Also, the acting exercise of having to come in and be so confident.

• 1:12:13Speaker 03

  It's unbelievable.

• 1:12:14Amy Poehler?

  Like, I'm breaking you guys up.

• 1:12:15Speaker 03

  I know, I know, it's unbelievable. The women and the men, they're just, you've never seen more confident people. Couples get all, you know, they do these in-depth interviews and then, you know, where, where they're, where it's just like, you know, he's had a problem with fidelity in the past.

• 1:12:29Amy Poehler?

  But this time it's gonna be fun.

• 1:12:31Speaker 03

  This time, he's gonna prove it by going to Temptation Island. And like, you see these guys, like, they get split up into separate, so the four guys who are in the couples, they get split up from their partner and they go into a house with, you know, 10 gorgeous women.

• 1:12:46Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, some honeypots over there.

• 1:12:47Speaker 03

  And like, you see them, these guys start to crack within 30 seconds. They're like, "Well, I mean, I didn't know it was gonna be like this."

• 1:12:55Amy Poehler?

  I mean, what is a man supposed to do?

• 1:12:58Speaker 03

  Exactly, and it's also the, they're, they're like, they're all in their 20s. And they're all like, you know, you know, "I mean, this, I mean, she really means a lot to me. We've been together for 15 months." It's like, I mean, after six months, I mean, I had my laps and I was unfaithful to her, but since then, I've been, and you're just like, this is a fucking disaster. I don't know if I'll hang in there. I made it through one episode, we had some laughs.

• 1:13:23Amy Poehler?

  I love that the kid, your kids are like, "I don't know, they seem pretty in love." And you're like, "I've been feeling someone's gonna fall."

• 1:13:29Speaker 03

  Just from a writing perspective, I can tell you, we're gonna need some, a little more conflict.

• 1:13:34Amy Poehler?

  I would be so sad too for that casting, and they're like, "Good news is you got Temptation Island. Oh my God, exciting. Bad news is you're not coming in to tempt any of the people." Why not? You just thought it would be better if you were the lady that worked at the island. Well, Matt, thank you so much for coming and doing this, it was such a blast.

• 1:13:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, I had a ball.

• 1:13:56Amy Poehler?

  And congrats on this incredible movie and all the work you do, and thanks so much for being here.

• 1:14:02Speaker 03

  I appreciate it, thanks guys.

• 1:14:03Amy Poehler?

  Well, thank you so much, Matt Damon, hometown hero of mine, Boston boy, done good. Thank you for coming and what a pleasure to talk to you, and your work is incredible, so congrats on that and keep doing it. And for this polar plunge, you know, Matt talked very briefly about something that he created, a global nonprofit at water.org, but what it really is, is an incredible organization founded by himself and Gary White, and they provide microloans to, you know...

• 1:14:39Amy Poehler?

  Make sure that there's clean water and proper sanitation all over the world. So it's pretty awesome. I mean, sometimes on these plunges, I talk about, oh, I don't know a song I'm listening to, or I could use this plunge to goof around about The Martian. But no, I want to just remind you to go donate time, energy, or money to water.org and go see The Odyssey. I mean, The Odyssey doesn't need me to pump it. Everyone in the world is going to go see it. Okay, thanks for listening for Good Hang. Okay, bye.

• 1:15:16Amy 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 McMullen, and Aleia Zaneras. For Paperkite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell, and Jenna Weiss-Berman. Original music by Amy Miles.

• 1:15:43Speaker 07

  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.

• 1:16:10Speaker 04

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