Billy Eichner

Billy Eichner is living his dream. An obsessive pop culture junkie and performer from the start, Billy’s parents always encouraged him and while it may not be an overnight success story, he’s soared as a brilliant comic performer and versatile actor. Here he chats with Josh about it all from BILLY ON THE STREET to MUFASA: THE LION KING. SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! Uncommon Goods – Visit UncommonGoods.com/podcast/HappySad for 15% off BetterHelp -- Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BetterHelp.com/HSC ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for 10% off Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes, video versions of the podcast, and more! To watch episodes of Happy Sad Confused, subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Josh's youtube channel here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  I'm grateful Billy on the street by accident in 2004. You know, I created the perfect TikTok show.

• 0:08Josh Horowitz?

  Yes.

• 0:08Speaker 00

  I mean, I know I was doing it. I don't know.

• 0:10Speaker 02

  Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now.

• 0:18Josh Horowitz?

  I'm Josh Horowitz and today on Happy, Sad, Confused, Billy Eichner is here. He's an actor, a singer, a comedian, and sometimes even a meerkat in ginormous films like Mufasa, The Lion King. He's also somehow never been unhappy, sad, confused. This is long overdue, but here he is finally just under the wire in 2024. It's Billy Eichner.

• 0:37Speaker 00

  Hello. I love that you said singer.

• 0:41Josh Horowitz?

  I look, I know you fancy, this is like one of your true passions is singing. So I wasn't going to deny you that.

• 0:47Speaker 00

  Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you.

• 0:50Josh Horowitz?

  Um, I was saying to you before we officially got started, um, I'm so thrilled that you're doing this because, uh, I feel like I've talked to you in carpets, little bits and bobs over the years, but we've never gotten to do the deep dive. So, um, thank you, Barry Jenkins.

• 1:03Speaker 00

  Let's go deep.

• 1:03Josh Horowitz?

  Disney, we're going deep.

• 1:06Josh Horowitz?

  I'll also say, we'll get to this, but I don't want to like, you know, preemptively say we're going to bond on a molecular level, but going into the bio Billy, you're going to discover we have a lot of very similar points.

• 1:21Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. I mean, we kind of look alike. We're even wearing a similarly colored shirt today.

• 1:26Josh Horowitz?

  That's the tip of the iceberg.

• 1:28Speaker 00

  I know we could be related. I'm excited.

• 1:30Josh Horowitz?

  Okay, we'll get to that. Okay. So first of all, as we're wrapping up 2024, and you just told me this is literally the end of your wild press tour for Mufasa. So congrats on that.

• 1:41Josh Horowitz?

  Self-assessment of 2024, I think from what I gather, my copious research, you visited Australia, you spoke at your alma mater, you've got this new ginormous movie. This is pretty good.

• 1:54Speaker 00

  Yeah, it was a good one. I'm I'm very lucky. Wow, you're really following me on all my socials. Um, yeah, no, it was great. It was it was great. I'm very lucky and I'm ending it in high style with you.

• 2:08Josh Horowitz?

  Please. Um, all right, let's dig into the movie first, then we'll circle back around. Um, this is look for someone that like, you know, in the early part of the career was chasing opportunities and trying to get kind of like make it and get the big break. I would imagine when this kind of lands in your lap, when Favreau calls you, that's got to be a discombobulating, great phone call or email or whatever it was.

• 2:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, it was so wildly unexpected, to say the least. That's an understatement. Jon Favreau obviously directed the 2019 Lion King. The first call I got about it out of the blue, completely out of the blue, out of the blue, was from one of my agents at the time, who said, oh, Jon Favreau wants you to play Timon in Disney's live action The Lion King. And they said live action. And I thought, well, okay, number one, that's fucking amazing. Like, what? You know, Timon is an iconic role. Um, I, I, so I couldn't believe it. And but also I was, the live action part of it, I said, well, what does that mean? Like, is it gonna be me?

• 3:18Speaker 00

  And they did tell me Seth Rogen was being for, um, and I love Seth and I already knew him a little bit. But I couldn't understand. I said, is it, are we gonna be in costumes? Like with our faces like sticking out, you know, like a silly meerkat Halloween costume or something like at a school? Didn't understand. And my agents didn't even fully understand it at that point. Um, and they said, no, we think it's still like digital. They're calling it live action. Anyway, then, of course, we found out what that really meant, that I was just doing the voice of Timon. Um, and I was just, I don't know, in a million years, I couldn't have predicted that. I did know, I'd met Jon Favreau a few times over the years. He was

• 4:03Speaker 00

  A big Billy on the Street fan and a real early adopter of it. And I knew that him and his kids watched Billy on the street and loved the show. And and he just offered me the role. I and I'm still so, so grateful. And he really took care of me and Seth in that process. Um, I could go on and on about how much I love John and, you know, and I certainly. It was up to Disney and Barry Jenkins, of course, to invite me and Seth back from Ufasa. But I wouldn't be here without John thinking of me for it. I don't think, I can't imagine anyone else would have thought of me for it.

• 4:41Josh Horowitz?

  Was it always baked in? You said that Seth was kind of part of the, the mix early on. And like, as you well know, probably most people listening to this podcast know, often the nature of these things, you don't necessarily record with your co-stars, but it seems like you guys have made a point of actually being in the same physical space.

• 4:58Speaker 00

  Yeah, definitely. Yeah, John encouraged us to record together as much as possible in the 2019 version. Um, and remember, John's a comedy guy, you know? He directs these big epic spectacles. Now he's doing Star Wars and the Mandalorian, but he did Elf, which I literally just rewatched for the thousandth time last night in my hotel room. And Elf does not get old.

• 5:23Josh Horowitz?

  Yep.

• 5:24Speaker 00

  And I study Elf now because I've seen it. So I study Elf the way people study like a Stanley Kubrick film in film school, you know?

• 5:32Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 5:32Speaker 00

  Because it is a masterclass in comedy and it could have gone so off the rails. Elf, you know, what a crazy idea. And it's a classic and it doesn't get old. And I literally looked to see, especially knowing John now, I didn't know him when Elf came out 20 years ago or whatever that was. Um, I looked to see like how he cut certain scenes and how he cut Will and how he framed Will, you know? Who also likes performance, uh, uh, you know, in that movie, the way I occasionally am known to do. Um, and John just knows how to work with, John, John knows how to work with that and frame it properly and edit it.

• 6:09Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 6:10Speaker 00

  And so he really encouraged. Seth and I to record together and improvise a bit. But the 2019 film was a remake, obviously, so there was only so much room for Seth to make up our own lines and ad lib. And with Mufasa, Barry Jenkins is telling a completely original story. It's it's the prequel, which we've never seen before. We may have heard bits and pieces about it and and other Lion King projects over the years, but we're seeing it in detail for the first time, how Mufasa became a hero and how Scar alternately came a villain. And Barry Jenkins always says, no one's born a villain.

• 6:49Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 6:50Speaker 00

  And no one's really born a hero either. And I think you can really feel Barry's touch in the movie in terms of the complexity and the layers he's added to it, I think. And I really appreciated that. And with Timon and Pumba, he re again, you know, we had learned from the 2019 version, how to do it. We built our foundation there. We we found our version of these characters that kind of nod to the spirit of the iconic original voice actors, Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella. But we, you know, we nod to the spirit of that, but also try to put our own twist on it and bring our own personalities to it. And yeah, so we recorded everything together, which, as you said, is very unusual for these types

• 7:30Speaker 00

  of animated films. And we really improvised a ton, ad libbed a ton, and went off script a lot. And a surprising amount of that ended up in the movie, much to our surprise.

• 7:41Josh Horowitz?

  So we're talking about like, how surprising this whole endeavor has been from the beginning. It kind of like one upset times a thousand. I think the whole world, when we heard that Barry Jenkins was doing this, did you have the same reaction as like, all of us, like, that's insane and awesome. But what is like, what is how, why, what?

• 8:01Speaker 00

  I mean, I was only excited to know that I would get an opportunity to work with Barry Jenkins. It's funny, on another podcast I did yesterday, someone pointed out, you know, Billy, or what you and Seth are two of the very rare white actors to get to work with Barry Jenkins, which I thought was so funny. And I think I did say to Barry at one point, Barry, I hope I get to work with you again after this, even though I realize that is very unlikely. Um, and so the fact that this was a rare opportunity to work with him, he's such such a filmmaker, as we all know. You know, he's widely considered and for good reason to be one of the most skilled filmmakers working today.

• 8:45Speaker 00

  Um, and I never expected I'd get the chance to work with him. So I was so excited at that opportunity. You know, even if it's just to do Timon and Pumba, um, I, I was just, it's an honor to be in his presence. And like I said, Jenkins touch watching this movie.

• 9:02Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 9:02Speaker 00

  You know, in terms of the complexity and the nuance of the backstories and some of the, some of the shots, even in this digital world that is being created, you know, there's real humanity in it. And I think, um, that's so much Barry's influence.

• 9:21Josh Horowitz?

  You had these two films led to a deeply meaningful and lasting relationship with Beyonce? Or do you have you?

• 9:28Speaker 00

  Oh yeah, we're very close.

• 9:29Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 9:30Speaker 00

  Um, I'm spending Hanukkah with Beyonce this year as we always do.

• 9:34Josh Horowitz?

  Sure.

• 9:34Speaker 00

  Um, no, uh, we have met a few times. We meet during the press because we don't record together. I, I record with Seth, but you know, he and I are the only two that record together. I think it's possible. If I'm not mistaken, um, Aaron Pierre, who does the voice of Mufasa in this movie and Kelvin Harrison Jr., who does the voice of Taco, who becomes Scar. I, I think they recorded together a little bit, I think. Um, but other than that, we usually record separately. So, but yeah, I met Beyonce in 2019 at the LA premiere and the UK premiere. And I met, uh, Blue Ivy, who was with Beyonce at the LA premiere of Mufasa.

• 10:14Josh Horowitz?

  So much of this press tour, I would imagine another joy is you get to do it with Seth.

• 10:19Speaker 00

  Absolutely.

• 10:21Josh Horowitz?

  Eat your heart out Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. This is the true dynamic pair of the holiday season. Have you been holding space for each other on this press tour?

• 10:30Speaker 00

  I've been holding space for Seth Rogen since I had two scenes in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. And which was my debut in a in a big mainstream film. Which interestingly Nick Stoller directed. It's all very incestuous.

• 10:45Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 10:46Speaker 00

  That was the first time I worked with Nick. Who ended up, I did Friends from College with Nick, his Netflix series, then we did Rose together and Seth ended up doing On the Street. And then we did The Lion King and Mufasa. So it's all, we've been holding space for each other before holding space was even a thing.

• 11:05Speaker 00

  And no, it makes it so much better, just so much more fun to do press with Seth. You know, to, you know, those press junket days, I'm not complaining. I love it. I just feel happy to be a part of something, to be working. No matter what. I'll gladly do press junkets all day long. But it's way more fun to do it with Seth, you know, and we are, we are, we come as a duo in this movie, so it makes sense.

• 11:32Josh Horowitz?

  Have you caught up though on the, I know you're a big musical fan. Have you caught up on Wicked? Have you spent your time with?

• 11:39Speaker 00

  I saw Wicked opening weekend in the movie theater. Yeah, I loved it. Though strangely, I had, I'm a huge Broadway fan. I've, since I was a kid growing up in New York City, I have never seen Wicked on stage.

• 11:53Josh Horowitz?

  Me neither. It somehow eluded me.

• 11:54Speaker 00

  Which is very odd if you know me. I mean,

• 11:57Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 11:57Speaker 00

  There are musicals that lasted like a week on Broadway, which I saw.

• 12:02Speaker 00

  But, but, but I was so excited. I ran out to see Wicked opening weekend. I loved it. I think John Chu just knocked it so far out of the park. And I thought Cynthia Erivo was remarkable.

• 12:19Speaker 00

  It's such an incredible, I mean, her singing, we all know she's one of the great singers. Live, but her acting, I was blown away by how she gave such a naturalistic performance in this big, colorful, larger-than-life musical. You know, I was really, it was so grounded and so natural. What she did in Ariana was perfect. You know, she was just perfectly cast.

• 12:48Josh Horowitz?

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• 13:29Josh Horowitz?

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• 14:14Josh Horowitz?

  order and 365-day returns. It's now available in Canada and the UK, too. And when Quince asks where you've heard about them, you know what to do. Let them know it was happy, sad, confused. That's the best way to support our show. If I had a dollar for everybody in my life who's benefited from therapy, I would be a very, very rich man. Therapy has certainly helped me, especially when I was a confused teenager. And thankfully, that's not a shameful thing to say anymore, right? It's okay to seek help and need help and talk about it. We're all doing our best. We're just trying to get by, right, guys? Unfortunately, the reality is that getting help is still harder than it should be. That's why I'm thrilled always to have Rula as a sponsor of Happy Say Confuse, because it's very obvious to me that online therapy should be both accessible

• 14:59Josh Horowitz?

  and affordable for everybody. So let's make it easy for anybody who wants help to get help. That's where Rula comes in. Here's the thing, a lot of online therapy platforms don't actually talk about. Most don't take insurance. That means you're either paying out of pocket or signing up for some very expensive monthly subscription. Rula does it all differently. They work with over 120 insurance plans. So the average copay, I can't get over this. It's just 15 bucks a session. So basically, two of your lattes, okay? A pretty good deal, if you ask me. That means you can get real therapy from a licensed professional without breaking the bank. And Rula doesn't just set you up and leave you alone. They give you that therapist and then they're along the way, the whole journey with you to make sure your care is working for you

• 15:43Josh Horowitz?

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• 16:16Josh Horowitz?

  I have to say, I am a little shocked I haven't seen you in like a live-action movie musical or even on stage. Knowing your background, your passion, like, have you come close? You must go up for these things.

• 16:29Speaker 00

  No, um, I'm not, I am, I have, you know, like I said, I grew up in New York City and my parents weren't rich. We were middle-class people growing up in Queens, you know, they were nine to five people, but they loved the theater. You know, and one of the great things about growing up in New York City is that we weren't in Manhattan, but we were a half hour outside of Manhattan. So we had close proximity to so much theater, Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway. Um, you know, just everything, so much culture, obviously. And, and so when I came along and I from a young age showed a very deep and profound interest in the performing arts, really, show business and just all aspects of it.

• 17:12Speaker 00

  So we really bonded over going to see theater. And so for me, when I went to Northwestern, I was a theater major. My whole trajectory was about becoming a theater actor in New York.

• 17:24Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 17:26Speaker 00

  And it's, and strangely, the one thing, I think it's pretty much the one thing that's never happened so far, but I, I, I'm always looking for something. Um, and I, I'm always on the hunt for the right project, play or musical, Broadway or Off-Broadway. Um, I'm dying to do it. I mean, it's crazy to me that I haven't.

• 17:47Josh Horowitz?

  It is cra- legit, it's crazy. So what is, is it just not, literally the, the right fit hasn't happened? Because I'm sure you've had at least conversations, it's just not, it's not lining up.

• 17:56Speaker 00

  The truth, the truth is I've been offered things over the years, um, mostly plays. I'm not sure people are aware that I can sing. It's, it's, you know, I have sung in a few projects, but it wasn't, those projects weren't about singing or about me singing, you know, it wasn't central to what was going on. So unless you've really followed me closely, you may not know that. So I've been offered mainly plays, but yeah, you know. I don't want, I want to feel so, so excited about the play, especially if it's my debut. You know, I wanna, because you have to do that show eight times a week. And I, I have so many friends who do theater and I, and, and I, I've seen so many plays over the years.

• 18:38Speaker 00

  You know what? If that play gets bad reviews, you've still got to show up and give it your all eight times a week. And if it gets great reviews, now there's a big expectation for you to show up eight times a week and do it live. And at the very, hard, and I know it's very hard. You have to live like a monk if you're in a musical to protect your voice. And I'm, I'm willing and able to do all of that, but I want to be really excited about the part. And I want to be really excited about the show. Now, there are some shows that I would love to do revivals, but they've done them already. You know, um, and so you can't do that, you know, so, you know, it, it's hard to find the right thing.

• 19:18Speaker 00

  Uh, but I'm always looking. If anyone has any ideas, I'm serious. You can, I don't know, DM me on Instagram or something.

• 19:26Josh Horowitz?

  Uh, Guys and Dolls movie or Mamma Mia three? Which, which would you rather do at this point?

• 19:31Speaker 00

  Oh, well, either. Um, Guys and Dolls is so great. And I did hear that they're making a new Guys and Dolls movie.

• 19:39Josh Horowitz?

  Rob Marshall is doing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 19:41Speaker 00

  Rob Marshall, who's a friend of mine, actually, um, we're not besties, but he's an acquaintance, a lovely man. Well, you know what, Josh? I'm gonna text Rob Marshall about that now that you mention it.

• 19:50Josh Horowitz?

  I think there are some roles in there. I could see you.

• 19:52Speaker 00

  There are, and I don't even need to be the lead. I don't expect to be the lead, you know, but they can make me one of those gangsters or something. You know, Big Julie, there's a character, Big Julie, who's supposed to be very tall, which I am, at least by Hollywood standards. But yeah, that's a good idea. Look at you doing more for me than my own 50 representatives. I'm just kidding. That's a joke, everyone. That's a.

• 20:17Josh Horowitz?

  I'm joining team Eichner. Well, the reason I mentioned that, by the way, okay, so here are some, some reference points that we share in common. We are, we're very similar, uh, close in age. We're New York City kids. Uh, I mentioned Guys and Dolls because we saw that, I heard you talk about that production, which I saw was very formative for me, growing up.

• 20:33Speaker 00

  Yes. Oh, my God.

• 20:35Josh Horowitz?

  And Faith Prince, like they were amazing, like amazing. Um.

• 20:39Speaker 00

  Yeah. Wait, where did you grow up?

• 20:41Josh Horowitz?

  So I grew up on the mean streets of the Upper West Side. I'm two years older than you. I went to Stuyvesant. I I took a Steven Rosenfield stand up class. Billy.

• 20:52Speaker 00

  Wait a second. So did I.

• 20:53Josh Horowitz?

  I know. This is why I'm telling you this. Why would I mention that? I can't drive.

• 20:57Speaker 00

  How do you even know that, though, Josh? No one knows that.

• 21:01Josh Horowitz?

  You've said it at some point. I can't drive. I never got a driver's license. Billy.

• 21:06Speaker 00

  Oh, my God. Wow, this is crazy. I love that. I mean, you're well, you're really just describing a New Yorker of a certain age.

• 21:17Speaker 00

  Wait, I didn't even. I can't believe you went to Stuyvesant. I I how did I not know this?

• 21:21Josh Horowitz?

  Well, I I will say, I I. No, no, no. I only went to Stuyvesant for a year and I basically skipped school that entire year to go to movies. Worked out and I ended up going to.

• 21:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:34Josh Horowitz?

  I ended up going to Dalton, but you you were smarty pants as as a teenager like me.

• 21:38Speaker 00

  Well, I was smart. I was smart, but your parents were rich. That's the difference. If you went to Dalton, I was from Barstool's Queens. Okay, working class community. You're an Upper West Sider. Let's tell everyone the truth.

• 21:52Josh Horowitz?

  We were doing all right. That's that's fair. That's fair. So.

• 21:55Speaker 00

  We would have been. No, but Josh, we would have been friends. We would have been friends if we had known each other.

• 22:00Josh Horowitz?

  We totally would have. So it sounds like and and again, reading up on you and hearing you talk about it. Um, your parents sound like they were. They were amazing and really like fostered this love of the arts. And it was like just part of your lives, even though that wasn't their vocation. It sounds like it was just part of your lifestyle growing up. Do you do you is is do you account for a lot of what you ended up? Being by what they exposed you to back then?

• 22:26Speaker 00

  Absolutely. My parents are the reason that anything good happened for me in show business. And I'm working on a project, which I have never officially announced because I've been what I've been working on it for so many years that I don't know. Um, it's finally coming out next year for Audible. Um, and and it's really, we'll talk. About that another time, I guess. I don't want to get into trouble by saying things I'm not supposed to. But it's it's really, the whole project is I've been writing it on and off for the past five years or so. And it's finally going to come out in 2025, and I'm so excited about it. It's I've never done anything like it. It's very personal. And it's about my childhood and growing up in New York and Josh, you're gonna love it. It's gonna speak to you.

• 23:10Speaker 00

  I'm a target audience right here. Um, but um, but it's really a love letter to my parents and um, and how encouraging and supportive they were. You know, it was pretty obvious I was most likely gay from a young age. And they just didn't care. I had very liberal parents. They had both. They were both native New Yorkers themselves. Um, and I just really lucked out and uh, beyond lucky, especially for, you know, we're talking about the eighties and nineties here. I I wasn't, I wasn't fully conscious at the time, but you know, I'm sure my parents were. Uh, the what I'm talking about is the fact that these were the peak years of the AIDS epidemic in New York.

• 23:51Speaker 00

  But I was never uh, taught to be fearful of being gay or any type of shame at all. I had no shame in that. And and when it came to the performing arts and to show business, um, they just saw how much I cared about it. You know, and they took me to, you know, in sixth grade, they took me to see Madonna's Blonde Ambition Tour. You know, and I sat in between them while, you know, I was a big sweaty gay Jewish kid like voguing in my seat, you know? And I was 13 years old and there's like, all her dancers are gay and they're making out on stage. And you know, she's masturbating on stage. None of this was a problem for my parents. In fact, they loved Madonna, right?

• 24:34Speaker 00

  I begged them when Barbra Streisand first started touring again, she hadn't toured in 27 years. And I was only like 14. She finally toured again and she came to Madison Square Garden and I begged. I said, I pleaded with my dad. I was, I have to see this and um, because we didn't have a lot of money and those tickets were, you know, Barbara. She she charges a pretty penny to see her live. And I begged and I pleaded and and they took me and they and they loved it too. You know, we were we we would blast Barbra Streisand and our little apartment and Bette Midler and show tunes and Sondheim and Madonna and everything. And I mean, I'm going on and on because I could go on and on.

• 25:14Speaker 00

  Um, and I was just so lucky and they I was always in the school musical. And then I said, I wanted to go to Northwestern and be a theater major. And that's a very expensive school. And when I got in and I was surprised to get in, but when I got in, my dad looked at me and said, if you want to go, we'll make it happen. You know, and that's just how they were.

• 25:37Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 25:38Speaker 00

  And, uh, yeah, I'm not gonna start, not gonna burst into tears.

• 25:42Josh Horowitz?

  No, no. Yeah, well, yeah, I don't want to prompt that, but I just, context for the audience. I know they they they didn't see all of this, but they really like they they made this happen. It sounds like in every conceivable way. So I'm sure they're.

• 25:56Speaker 00

  Yes, yes, they did. My mom died when I was at Northwestern when I was 20. And then I had an older dad. Uh, you know, he had me in his mid 40s, which in the 70s was unusual. That was very late to have a child now it wouldn't be. And so, you know, my dad died, uh, in 2011, a month before we sold Billy on the Street as a TV show. And so in 2011, 2011 started with me broke, no health insurance. I'm planning to pitch Billy on the Street as a TV show with Funny or Die, the company. Um, and my dad died that March. Then we pitched the show a month later, sold it. We're shooting that summer and it was on TV at the end of the year.

• 26:39Speaker 00

  Uh, but he was, you know, he was 80 years old, um, at that point. But yeah, it was a strange timing.

• 26:45Josh Horowitz?

  So, I mean, look, we could have hours of conversation about the Billy on the Street phenomenon. And it was, it's a long story of how it kind of like gestated and then kind of was a slow burn and then exploded. But I guess just like looking back at it, like what was Apex Billy on the Street for you? Where you felt like, oh, my God, that we have got, we have gone nuclear in a way that I never thought even possible.

• 27:10Speaker 00

  You know, it was such a slow burn, you know, Billy on the street. The first video I made was for my live show, my live sketch comedy show that I wrote. Was in with my friend Robin Lor Taylor, who's an actor and other friends of ours from Northwestern. Pitching in behind the scenes. And it was, you know, that's where I developed that character. It was on stage and at small stages in New York. And then we, I said to my friend Jamie, who was directing the show, it might be funny if I went outside and kind of stopped people on the street and made them deal with this character I was doing who, you know, above everything else going on in the world, had a desperate need to talk about pop culture. And discuss it with, with people and, and opinionate about it in all kinds of ways. And we,

• 27:55Speaker 00

  we would put that video together. We shot it on a cheap Radio Shack camera because it was the cheapest one that we could get. That's why the microphone has a wire. Because it was cheaper than the wireless mics, which we couldn't afford. And I just kept the, the mic with the wire. Throughout the years because it became part of the, the show, I thought. Um, and so, you know, and we, we would show it on a screen. This was 2004, a year or two before YouTube even. Came along and, and many, many years before TikTok came along and. You know, you're asking me, what's the apex of Billy on the street? It was such a slow burn. We never, Billy on the street never had a big opening weekend. You know, it just kind of kept rolling along. And what's crazy is that.

• 28:38Speaker 00

  TikTok, which wasn't even around really when we were doing the TV series. It has exploded in popularity on TikTok. And I barely even do it anymore. Once in a while we'll bring it back for a special video, but. I, I literally, Josh, just this morning, someone tagged me in a video on Instagram. And there is a young girl in a high school in Queens, in East Rockaway, Queens. I'm forgetting her name. I think it's Liza. And it says, move over Billy Eichner. We did Liza on the street and she's running around doing Billy on the street in the hallways of her high school. In East Rockaway, Queens, asking people holiday trivia and like yelling at them and giving out dollars the way I do on the show and.

• 29:19Speaker 00

  I watched this. I sent this to my friends. I said, can you believe this? This girl wasn't alive when, I mean, when even maybe during the TV show, I'm sure she doesn't even know it was a TV show. It's just from TikTok. And so Billy on the street, I don't know if there is an apex. It just keeps rolling along. Um, I do think when we had Michelle Obama on the show, we did a segment with Michelle Obama and Big Bird together. And Elena, who, if you know Billy on the street is a, a person I ran into on the street, this hilarious older lady who we keep bringing back on the show. And Michelle Obama was the first lady of the United States, the sitting first lady at this point. This was 2014.

• 29:58Speaker 00

  And we went down to DC and shot this really funny surreal segment. And I thought to myself, as we were waiting for Michelle, Mrs. Obama to arrive on set that day, because we shot, she couldn't be out on the street. Because the Secret Service wouldn't allow it. So we, we shot inside a supermarket in DC. It's on YouTube, you can see it. But, um, I was just standing in the supermarket, very, very nervous, waiting for her to arrive. And I thought, how has this happened? What has happened? You know? But that's happened with Billy on, even but when I saw the video of running around her high school today.

• 30:37Speaker 00

  I started this thing 20 years ago, and now there's a 13 year old girl still running around because she saw it on TikTok. So I don't know. It, I'm very grateful and, and it took on a life of its own that was completely unexpected. And I don't know, it, it, it's just one of those things. I don't know.

• 30:56Josh Horowitz?

  As you, and as you know, guys, being like a student and lover of pop culture and the history of pop culture. Like you're on that continuum. It's like from like Steve Allen to Letterman on the street and Conan and you.

• 31:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:09Josh Horowitz?

  And, and, and, and this will continue and it will reiterate. And whether it's like, I mean, I'm sure you resonates with you. I see like, some of these things are not great, but I see a ton of people like doing the, you know, like, tell me how big your apartment is or how did you get to be so, I mean, that's,

• 31:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:24Josh Horowitz?

  Billy on the streets influence. There is a real drip down effect.

• 31:27Speaker 00

  And, and you're totally right about the continuum because, and you're speaking one of the apexes of my, of Billy on the street and just my life and career in general is that I got to do Letterman.

• 31:38Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 31:38Speaker 00

  You know, I got to do Letterman as a guest twice right before he retired and a word came down through the grapevine that Letterman loved Billy on the street and this blew me away. But also, I grew up, again, my parents let me watch everything, you know, they let me watch things that only adults were watching, you know, I was able to watch quirky things and sophisticated things and all kinds of things. And one of those things was Letterman when he was on at 12:30. And I would watch Johnny Carson with my dad. And then at some point during Carson, my dad would go to bed, you know, and I'm a child at this point. And then I would go to my room where I had a little TV and I would watch Letterman when

• 32:22Speaker 00

  he came on at 12:30. And then I'd wake up and go to like, fourth grade the next day. And of course, Letterman really created Man on the Street as we know it. I mean, that very particular new created, it was really Jack Parr and the original Tonight Show. And of course, there was Candid Camera. But, but you're right. So that I absorbed all of that like a sponge. And then years later, kind of, you know, created my own version of it, you know, but all of that was in my blood. And then he becomes a fan and he he ends up doing Billy on the street like, and when he did it with me, his producers at the time said, Billy Letterman hasn't left the studio in 20 years.

• 33:04Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, by the time you were doing this, that he had, you know, he'd settle into that at Sullivan Theater and was happy.

• 33:09Speaker 00

  Exactly. Yeah. But, but, but when I discovered him as a child, he did on the street stuff all the time. So you're totally right about the continuum. And yes, I see all over TikTok, you know, kids are running around New York and their high schools and also other cities, you know, with microphones. I don't, well, I don't want to take responsibility for that because I know it annoys the shit out of people. So.

• 33:30Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, you're responsible, basically. Yeah, you're responsible for the Hawk Tua girl. Sorry, Billy. Basically, that's all, that's on you.

• 33:37Speaker 00

  Oh, the Hawk Tua girl. Yes.

• 33:41Josh Horowitz?

  Um, I'm curious, like, that, that character, which was a character, for those that don't need to know, very heightened, like, specific. The character you created.

• 33:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:50Josh Horowitz?

  You must have pondered other things to do and whether that character could fit into other scenarios. Like, have you pondered a scripted story with that Billy on the street character? Would it sustain like a full on evening talk show, hour long talk show? I mean, you've got to at least consider these things, I would imagine.

• 34:09Speaker 00

  I considered that sort of thing very briefly because there was interest in those things. But I don't want to, I don't think it would work creatively as well. Billy on the street is, and apologize for talking about it in the third person, but it really is a character, you know? So Billy on the street, the natural habitat for that character is New York City. It's the streets of New York City interacting with other New Yorkers. And to put it in a more scripted, controlled environment to bring him inside, I just don't think would work as well. And also, I don't want to lean into just the one character for the rest of my life. And, and I, but I also creatively don't think it would work.

• 34:54Speaker 00

  And, um, yeah, so, yeah, there were moments when I, of course, had to give it some thought because the show had taken off. But I, I knew better than to try to milk it in that way. You know, I, and part of the reason I stopped doing the TV show when I did after five seasons is number one, everyone was online anyway. So I figured, you know, why don't I free up my schedule? I can keep doing it, you know, when I want to, and it will also free me up to do other things. Because the TV show was so time consuming. And also, I wanted to, you know, I didn't want to exhaust it.

• 35:33Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 35:34Speaker 00

  You know, um, and, you know, I want to, I want to, I don't want to like overdo it. So just to do it occasionally, have it pop up, I think is the right way to do it.

• 35:43Josh Horowitz?

  I agree, not to compare you to a hand puppet, but it's like the way I think of Triumph, who is amazing. And like every, every time Triumph pops up every two years, I'm like, this is gold, but do I need an hour with Triumph every night? Not necessarily. I probably hate Triumph.

• 35:58Speaker 00

  Exactly. Look, you, you have to, you know, I'm grateful Billy on the street by accident in 2004, you know, I created the perfect TikTok show. I mean, I know I was doing it. I don't know. I know. But, but you know, Billy on the street works very effectively on platforms like that as short, you know, short little bursts of energy and joy that people can scroll through and see, and hopefully get a laugh out of throughout the day. And I, I love that. You know, there are fans who post clips from the show on TikTok. I wasn't even on TikTok. Someone said to me, Billy, do you know how popular Billy on the street is on TikTok? And I said, what the hell are you talking about? I'm not on TikTok. They're like, yeah, you're, you don't have your own page,

• 36:42Speaker 00

  but other people are posting them and they have millions of views. And someone said, like, my agent at the time said, you know, we can shut all those pages down and you can, you know, because that's your work. And I said, why the hell would I do that? Like, who cares? I'm glad people are, are watching and I'm glad people want to see it. I already got paid for it. We made it the first time. Like, you know, and I did start my own page just because I thought, well, I have access to all this content that people want to see, but I don't even monetize it. You know, I'm just happy it's, it's out there.

• 37:12Josh Horowitz?

  You're, you're living off those sweet fuse and true TV residuals.

• 37:16Speaker 00

  Yeah. Yeah. You'd be surprised, Josh.

• 37:22Josh Horowitz?

  I'm happy for you. If that's the case. Good.

• 37:30Speaker 03

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• 37:53Speaker 03

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• 38:29Speaker 04

  I'm Ann Foster and I have never watched the show Spartacus, Blood and Sand.

• 38:33Speaker 05

  And I'm Gina Berry and I've watched this show numerous times.

• 38:37Speaker 04

  On our new podcast, Nefertv, we discuss TV shows and movies set in ancient history. This season, we are discussing Spartacus, Blood and Sand.

• 38:46Speaker 05

  Follow Nefertv, that's N-E-F-E-R TV, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 38:57Josh Horowitz?

  I do want to talk a bit about Bros, which was such a passion project and, you know, must hold a lot of space in your heart a couple of years removed. Do you, I, I hope you still, you take away all the good of it because those that saw it loved it. And it's a very funny, sweet, a great film. And, but I know, like, I don't know, was there a period of almost like mourning, like, oh God, the box office, the, it just wasn't, we were so close and it just didn't, it didn't go where I wanted it to go? Or, or is it all good? Or give me a sense of your perspective on Bros right now.

• 39:32Speaker 00

  I above all remain so proud of that movie because I just love the movie. You know, and, and it's really hard to make a good movie. And, you know, it's hard to make a good comedy especially, you know, we made an R rated. Comedy about middle aged gay men who are sexually active. It was honest, it was unapologetic. You know, I wanted my character to say things in that movie to be outspoken and confident. You know, to not be a kind of a gay man, which we often see in pop culture, especially in, you know, when a gay man does pop up in a more mainstream style comedy, they're often not written with

• 40:15Speaker 00

  um that much complexity or dimension. You know, we're, we're, we're just joke machines and I've been a joke machine. You know, and I wanted to, and by the way, it's fun to be a joke machine when the jokes are funny and I'm happy to do that too. But it was such a great opportunity to, to go beyond that. Um, and we did it in the ma- through the major studio system, you know, the same studio that made Wicked and that makes Fast and the Furious. And that, you know, makes Jurassic World, you know, they made Broz. Um, and you know, uh, I've stayed in touch with all the folks from Universal Studios who made it. They reached out to me, you know, someone from like the marketing department reached out to me a few months ago even and texted me and

• 40:57Speaker 00

  we're not like, we don't socialize or anything like that. And he said, you know, I just caught Broz on, it's on cable and he, you know, he's a gay man and, and he said, it's such a good movie. He was like, you made such a good movie. Um, I, he was like, I'm just proud that I was a part of it. That's pretty amazing, you know, for a studio that, you know, obviously like we didn't get the big opening weekend that we, we know wanted. Um, but what remains is the movie. You know, and I'm so proud of it. It, it, it is one of the great creative accomplishments of my life and I think it will always be. And I have been, you know, it is one of those movies, I think more people,

• 41:36Speaker 00

  you, you don't get the streaming numbers, but I would imagine just from anecdotal evidence, it's one of those movies people ended up watching at home. Um, when it became available and I have gotten, I could sit here, Josh, and I could read you, I won't, but I could read you, I don't know, hundreds of messages I got privately on. Instagram or or from mostly gay men, not only gay men, but mostly gay men and gay men of a certain age, who really understood why that movie was so rare.

• 42:08Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 42:08Speaker 00

  You know, and really appreciated what my character and Luke's character, you know, the issues that they were unpacking in that movie and they they have reached out to me, not publicly, not for clout or clicks or Instagram comments, you know, not jumping on any sort of bandwagon, but just reaching out to me in a private message that only that person and I will see to tell me in a very heartfelt, sometimes very specific way, how much that movie meant to them and how many times they've watched it, you know, and if I was able to give those men, and again, it's not just men, but you know, that movie is very much about a middle aged gay man

• 42:50Speaker 00

  unpacking, you know, the things that he grew up with in order to find his, you know, in order to be in love, to be vulnerable, to be insecure and um, it's complicated and and the fact that it spoke to those men and they reached out to me and continue to that it moves me so much every time. Um, and I'm just, I'm really proud of that. Not many gay men in my position in Hollywood have gotten the chance to make that sort of movie. Um, and I, it was a privilege. It was very challenging. Don't get me wrong.

• 43:23Josh Horowitz?

  That's a lot of, a lot of weight were on your, was on your shoulders. So I can imagine.

• 43:27Speaker 00

  It was an enormous amount of weight on my shoulders, of course, but, but, you know, uh, what, like I said, what is ultimately, what ultimately you are left with is the movie.

• 43:37Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 43:37Speaker 00

  You know, and, and for people who haven't seen it, it is streaming and I recommend it. Uh, and I'm very proud of the work that I did and that the work we all did.

• 43:48Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah. Talk to me a little bit about going forward, acting wise, the opportunities you're getting, the opportunities maybe you're not getting that you want to get. Uh, we, we just had briefly, you're, you're going to be in Ethan Coen, Trisha Cook's new film. Um, Honey Don't, I believe is the title. That's a hell of an opportunity. That's exciting.

• 44:07Speaker 00

  Yes, Honey Don't. That is exciting, yes, yeah, I have a small. Um, but I was very happy to be a part of it. Um, and I'm, uh, I got to work with Margaret Qualley and with Ethan and Trisha, and that was super fun. Um, I haven't seen the movie yet. I just ran into Aubrey Plaza a few days ago. She's in the movie as well. Um, if you didn't mention that, and she said that her and Margaret had just seen the movie, that Ethan had screened it for them, and she was really happy with it. So I can't wait to see it. And again, I'm just a small part of it, but in that cast, happy to be a small part of it and to work with a Coen brother, um, and Trisha, you know, it doesn't get better than that.

• 44:46Josh Horowitz?

  So what, what are you looking for? Is it a specific kind of a, a role at this point, or chasing filmmakers you admire, or, you know, what's the hustle right now?

• 44:55Speaker 00

  It's a little of all of those things, you know, I am, I am, I think, you know, it feels like I'm entering, I know actors always say this, but it really does. Part of it is age, part of it is just that I've been doing this now a long time, you know, I'm not the new kid on the block. You know, um, anymore, um, and I like that. Um, I'm starting to look a little older, uh, and I like that. You know, um, I wanna evolve, you know, I wanna change and I wanna branch out and, yeah, you know, one of the happiest times of my life was being a theater major at Northwestern, right? And, and in a way, I, I feel that that was,

• 45:36Speaker 00

  uh, uh, I don't know, how do, how do I put it? Um, I just felt like me there because you got to, you know, every day in acting class and then the plays we did of that sometimes the teachers directed or sometimes other students directed, you just got to do such a wide variety of roles, you know, you, and you got to do the classics, you got to do more contemporary things. We did Chekhov, we did Shakespeare, we did scenes from Angels in America, you know, uh, current playwrights, well playwrights who were current, you know, in the late nineties, you know, who are all still around, you know, Richard Greenberg and Nikki Silver and, you know, um, actually, one of those writers is Paul Rudnick,

• 46:17Speaker 00

  um, a great gay screenwriter and, and playwright who I am now writing a movie with for Amazon.

• 46:22Josh Horowitz?

  Amazing.

• 46:24Speaker 00

  Be in if and when they make it. But yeah, we just started the writing process. It's a Christmas movie that Paul and I came up with. I'm a Jewish person who's obsessed with Christmas because it was withheld from me as a child, as is Paul. And so we're writing a Christmas movie for Amazon. That will be like a big ensemble, family type of movie, my version of a Christmas movie. So, you know, it's not your typical Christmas movie, but it is a holiday film. So there's that. So in terms of acting, yeah, I'm always looking to branch out and almost get back to who I was, you know, before Billy on the street. And, you know, Billy on the street, it's a blessing.

• 47:05Speaker 00

  It's nothing but a blessing, but I'm a creative person. I'm an artist. I'm an actor. You wanna, you wanna branch out, you know, you don't wanna be stuck in one lane. And so, yeah, I'm looking to just, you know, try other things, play other roles. And yes, of course, work with great filmmakers, work with actors that I love and that I admire. You know, I think that's always the goal. And I'm writing too. And, you know, there's the movie at Amazon and there's my Audible project and other things I'm writing in my spare time. I've been working on a Paul Lind biopic off and on for years, which I was working on. And then Bros came along. I'm not very good at multitasking writing jobs.

• 47:50Speaker 00

  You know, some people are, you know, like people I've worked with, Judd Apatow, Ryan Murphy, they can work on like a hundred projects at once. I don't know how they do it. I, my brain, just as a writer, doesn't work like that. I have to focus on one or two things at once. But, so, yeah, all these things are, you know, things I'm working on at any given moment.

• 48:11Josh Horowitz?

  We're gonna wrap up with this. I know we're running out of time, but I wanna give you the Happy Sad Confused profoundly random questionnaire because it's not a happy sad confused appearance unless we do it, man. Here we go. Dogs or cats, Billy?

• 48:23Speaker 00

  Dogs.

• 48:25Josh Horowitz?

  Good. Okay.

• 48:26Speaker 00

  I'm allergic to cats, even though I had a cat when I was a kid and then got allergic to cats over the years, which I've heard happens. Anyway, my cat, yeah, you can look it up. Okay, maybe they didn't teach you that adult and should have stayed at Stuyvesant, Josh, okay? But no, no, no, I had a cat as a kid who I named Jovi because I was obsessed with Jon Bon Jovi.

• 48:48Josh Horowitz?

  Makes sense. That tracks. What do you, what do you collect, if anything?

• 48:54Speaker 00

  What do I collect?

• 48:55Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 48:57Speaker 00

  Um, I'm not a collector in that way.

• 49:00Josh Horowitz?

  Okay.

• 49:00Speaker 00

  I mean, I love music and books and plays, but I don't, I don't collect that. I don't think of myself as a collector.

• 49:07Josh Horowitz?

  Okay. What's the wallpaper on your phone?

• 49:12Speaker 00

  Nothing. It's just whatever it comes with, like, you know what I mean?

• 49:17Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, you're just, okay, okay, that's fine.

• 49:19Speaker 00

  Well, I don't have children, you know, I, when I see people who have kids every time, you know, they're, they have their kids on the phone. That I would have. I don't have a pet.

• 49:28Josh Horowitz?

  Okay.

• 49:28Speaker 00

  You know, what's it gonna be? My IMDb page?

• 49:33Josh Horowitz?

  Who's, who's the last actor you were mistaken for? Does it ever happen?

• 49:38Speaker 00

  Oh, John Krasinski.

• 49:41Speaker 00

  Because we kind of vaguely look alike. I know Sexiest Man Alive, by the way.

• 49:46Josh Horowitz?

  You should take it. Yeah.

• 49:48Speaker 00

  I feel like I look like, like learning disabled brother or something. You know what I mean? He's a handsome man, but, um, but that happens sometimes. I'll always hear people say, oh, I, I thought you were John Krasinski. Or I saw John Krasinski in something and for a second I thought it was you. And I'm like, you thought I was, like, what's that guy? Jack Ryan? Like, that who you're confusing me with?

• 50:10Josh Horowitz?

  But, uh, what's the worst note a director has ever given you?

• 50:15Speaker 00

  The worst note, um, it's not so much a worse note. The thing that I have found shocking, even when working with very acclaimed directors and producers over the years is the lack of notes. You know, I'm always going up to, to the director and saying, you know, please, am I doing okay? Like, give me a note. I know it can be better.

• 50:38Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 50:39Speaker 00

  You know, I, I want notes. And what has surprised me time and time again, and I've heard other actors say this too. You know, if anything, when you're, I, I guess dreaming of being on a movie set or a TV set, you just assume all the director is gonna just like pummel you with notes. Now, I'm sure there are directors who do, but I've worked with a lot of people at this point and it's mainly me asking for feedback. Honestly, and, and surprised that I have to.

• 51:05Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 51:05Speaker 00

  You know, there sometimes they're more concerned about where the camera is, you know, than the performance. Or maybe they think I'm doing okay, but I mean, I could always be better, or you could always try something different, you know?

• 51:18Josh Horowitz?

  And a little tiny bit of validation here and there also can't hurt.

• 51:22Speaker 00

  Well, that well, what usually happens is they'll be like, oh, you're great. You're great. Yeah, it's great. And you're like, um, okay, but I know it's not great every time like, and even if it's great, like, tell me, give me something like, tell me to try it a different way, just so you have options in the edit room, you know?

• 51:41Josh Horowitz?

  Uh, and then in the spirit of happy second fuse, an actor who always makes you happy. You see them on screen. You're in a good mood.

• 51:47Speaker 00

  Mm hmm. Um.

• 51:52Speaker 00

  Lisa Kudrow.

• 51:54Josh Horowitz?

  I like it. Remember the opposite of sex?

• 51:56Speaker 00

  Well, the comeback is my favorite performance.

• 51:57Josh Horowitz?

  People need to watch that movie. Remember that movie, The Opposite of Sex?

• 52:01Speaker 00

  Yes, I saw it in the theater because of course I did.

• 52:04Josh Horowitz?

  It's a good movie.

• 52:05Speaker 00

  Yeah, it is a good movie with Christina Ricci.

• 52:08Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, people forget that one. I haven't thought about that movie probably in 20 years. Um, movie that makes you sad.

• 52:13Speaker 00

  Every day, Josh. I haven't stopped thinking about The Opposite of Sex. Yes.

• 52:17Josh Horowitz?

  Uh, the movie that makes you sad is?

• 52:24Speaker 00

  Uh, it's the most cliched.

• 52:26Josh Horowitz?

  It's okay.

• 52:27Speaker 00

  One is coming to mind. I mean, Terms of Endearment, but I mean, give me some credit. Both my parents are dead, so obviously, I mean, you know, that Deborah Winger in Terms of Endearment, what an unbelievable performance. And it's such a good movie. And, and you know, sometimes I'll say that's, I'll, I'll talk about those types of movies that you and I grew up with.

• 52:47Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 52:47Speaker 00

  You know, Terms of Endearment and broadcast news and, um, movies just about families, very human movies, but they weren't walking on eggshells. You know, um, and they do not exist anymore. They do not make them. And I'll, I'll mention movies like this. To me, it's a cliche to mention Terms of Endearment, but for a certain age, won't even know what I'm talking about. And that type of movie has disappeared. And those were the types of movies that made me love movies.

• 53:14Josh Horowitz?

  Same.

• 53:15Speaker 00

  And they don't make them. And that, that, that breaks my heart a little bit. So if you haven't seen Terms of Endearment, watch it. Great double feature with bros, by the way.

• 53:26Josh Horowitz?

  Though James L. Brooks did direct a new movie. It's in the can. We have the new James L. Brooks coming, so.

• 53:31Speaker 00

  We do. I heard about that. Yeah.

• 53:33Josh Horowitz?

  Okay. And finally, food that makes you confused. What food do you not get?

• 53:37Speaker 00

  Food?

• 53:38Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 53:40Speaker 00

  I'm not really like thrown off my game by food.

• 53:44Josh Horowitz?

  Oh.

• 53:44Speaker 00

  Ever. I mean, of food?

• 53:46Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 53:46Speaker 00

  I'm not that confused.

• 53:48Josh Horowitz?

  Well, I'm not, you don't have to like go conniption fit, but like you're, you're like, I don't get it. Why do people eat that? That doesn't seem, I don't get it.

• 53:55Speaker 00

  You know what's interesting? I, I love raw fish, but I, I don't love a raw, like steak.

• 54:04Speaker 00

  You know, but I'm not confused by it. It's just not my thing. No.

• 54:10Josh Horowitz?

  Fair enough. Okay. We'll accept it.

• 54:12Speaker 00

  All right.

• 54:13Josh Horowitz?

  This has been a lovely chat, Billy. Thank you for connecting with me today. You lived up to everything I, I hoped and dreamed. A fellow New York City kid from the wrong side of the tracks, though, unlike me and my blue blood upbringing, apparently.

• 54:26Speaker 00

  I know. Look at you up there in your Nora Ephron dream world. Yeah.

• 54:31Josh Horowitz?

  I will say.

• 54:32Speaker 00

  Central Park Reservoir, listening to Dreams by The Cranberries with your Zabar shopping bag in one hand.

• 54:39Josh Horowitz?

  I will say You've Got Mail did very, really speak to me. That is like my.

• 54:43Speaker 00

  Can I? Yes. You know, I went to see You've Got Mail. This is, we'll end on this note.

• 54:47Josh Horowitz?

  Okay.

• 54:48Speaker 00

  A movie I absolutely love, by the way. We, we literally show it in bros. I'm watching You've Got Mail.

• 54:53Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 54:53Speaker 00

  Um, I went to see You've Got Mail on opening weekend at the Lincoln Square Cinemas on the Upper West Side. And then in the movie, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan go to a movie in that theater, I believe.

• 55:07Josh Horowitz?

  Right, right.

• 55:08Speaker 00

  And the entire audience burst up into applause.

• 55:13Josh Horowitz?

  Billy, I don't know if it's like a sense memory. I feel like I had that same, because that was my, that was my theater, the Lincoln Square Theater. I probably, we, we have been circling each other. It's finally happened, Billy. We've connected. I really, this was great.

• 55:26Speaker 00

  All right. All right. Well, I'm glad it finally happened and thank you for having me.

• 55:30Josh Horowitz?

  Of course. Anytime. Good luck with the movie. Enjoy the break, the holiday break. You're a Christmas guy. Enjoy it. Revel in it. And hopefully I'll see you in person one of these days. Thanks, man.

• 55:39Speaker 00

  Happy Hanukkah.

• 55:42Josh Horowitz?

  Thanks, buddy.

• 55:44Speaker 02

  And so ends another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't prepared to do this by Josh.

• 56:03Speaker 06

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• 56:41Speaker 06

  So, check it out. Listen to Rebel Girls wherever you get your podcasts. And find us on youtube.com/rebelgirls. And whatever you do, stay rebel.