Mom's Car: Karan Soni

On this week’s episode of Mom’s Car, we welcome actor Karan Soni. Karan, Dax, and Best Friend Aaron Weakley talk through Karan’s first Kristen connection when he was still working out his identity, his dad working for John Deere tractors which are made in India, remembering all gay storylines on TV being shame based, at what age discovering he was funny, a write-in question about possible levels of happiness moving back to one’s hometown, finally accepting that he couldn’t change his family with nagging, and BFAW & Dax's relationship throughout their sobriety journeys. #sponsored by @Allstate. Go to https://bit.ly/momscar to check Allstate first and see how much you could save on car insurance. Follow Mom's Car on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube or listen to Mom's Car ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting https://wondery.com/plus now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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

• 0:01Dax Shepard?

  Hello, you caught me drinking and driving a little Diet Coke. Welcome to Mom's Car. Today, we have one of the sweetest boys in America, Corin Sony. You know him from A Nice Indian Boy, Deadpool, Ghostbusters. He's impossibly funny and has an incredible life story. And I hope you enjoy the ride with Corin Sony. Some people just know they could save hundreds on car insurance by checking Allstate first. Like you know to check your phones in your pocket before leaving the house. Checking first is smart, so check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Savings vary, subject to terms, conditions, and availability. Allstate North America Insurance Co. and affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois.

• 1:02Dax Shepard?

  Corin, I told Erin, I'm like, I might be a little different here in L.A. than it is in Michigan because no one here is employed. Every single person is trying to become an actor.

• 1:10Speaker 01

  I was gonna say. It's actually really triggering me a little bit. I used to work at a restaurant, I never did this, but I'm starting to already be like, oh, God.

• 1:18Dax Shepard?

  An L.A. restaurant?

• 1:20Speaker 01

  You know the Equinox on Sunset?

• 1:22Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 1:22Speaker 01

  There used to be a Mexican restaurant there. And my hardest sell was our steak tacos. You guess the price. The ingredients were just steak and three tacos. In Los Angeles in 2011, 12.

• 1:33Dax Shepard?

  Okay, I'm gonna have to adjust down then. I was gonna say $12.99 for that, $13.99, but I guess I'm gonna go $11.99.

• 1:40Speaker 01

  It's Mexican fine dining, $32.

• 1:43Dax Shepard?

  $32?

• 1:44Speaker 01

  We couldn't sell them.

• 1:46Dax Shepard?

  Of course not, yeah.

• 1:47Speaker 01

  Across the street from Paquita Moss, so it's already not helping.

• 1:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:51Speaker 01

  And the chef would be like, would you go to a steakhouse and pay $32 for a steak? And we're like, yeah. And they're like, it's the same steak, I just cut it up and put it in. Tortillas.

• 1:59Dax Shepard?

  It's all about packaging, isn't it?

• 2:01Speaker 01

  I don't know if it's gonna sell.

• 2:02Dax Shepard?

  Makes a point about packaging.

• 2:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:04Dax Shepard?

  If we do get a food order.

• 2:07Speaker 02

  When we get a food order?

• 2:08Dax Shepard?

  When we get a food order, we picked a great time to deliver food. It's an hour before rush hour and it's raining in L.A., which is always. The worst time to drive a car.

• 2:18Speaker 01

  I think we will get a lot of orders because it's raining.

• 2:20Dax Shepard?

  I would think, yeah, people will want to venture out.

• 2:22Speaker 02

  There you go.

• 2:23Dax Shepard?

  A lot of warm soup, like warming up their cockles.

• 2:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, Michigan, no snowstorms. The drivers get crazy orders.

• 2:31Dax Shepard?

  So, Karen, the reason I wanted to do this was because Aaron's been driving Uber.

• 2:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, he was.

• 2:37Dax Shepard?

  And I'm so jealous because once a week he has an insane story.

• 2:42Speaker 01

  Uber is the new 7-Eleven.

• 2:45Dax Shepard?

  Did he already tell you that's what I?

• 2:46Speaker 02

  I did not say that. I did not say that, too.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  I'm just using the arm cherry brain to put the pieces together.

• 2:51Dax Shepard?

  Yes, I said to Aaron, you have figured out how to work at 7-Eleven, but you don't ever have to reach for any sodas. Just sit and be at 7-Eleven.

• 2:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, and do you enjoy driving, Aaron? I guess that's a big part of it, too, because if you enjoy driving, it just makes it easy.

• 3:03Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, the driving doesn't bother me.

• 3:05Speaker 01

  You're all set.

• 3:06Dax Shepard?

  We drove professionally, Aaron and I, for 14 years.

• 3:09Speaker 02

  Hundreds and hundreds of miles at a time.

• 3:12Speaker 01

  In the same car or separately?

• 3:13Dax Shepard?

  We worked for GM and we would go to, let's say, the New York Auto Show. We'd be in New York for eight days and we would sit in front of the Jacob Javits Center and wait for guests of General Motors to get in our car and we would drive them to their hotel or to a dinner. So we have spent years of our lives sitting in a car on a curb in New York City. I didn't even know this to today. I made a conscious decision to not research you, Karen.

• 3:37Speaker 01

  Yes, please.

• 3:37Dax Shepard?

  So to bring anyone up to speed, I met you because you've done an inordinate amount of projects with Kristen.

• 3:43Speaker 01

  I have, but I've met you, not met you, but we were in the same room once. I was remembering today, audition room.

• 3:49Speaker 02

  For the same part?

• 3:50Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, no.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, no, no. This is also Hollywood a few years ago. So I was auditioning to play a gas station attendant. Dax was not.

• 3:58Dax Shepard?

  Well, let's see what the role was, maybe.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  It was the film Identity Thief.

• 4:02Dax Shepard?

  Oh, bait man.

• 4:03Speaker 01

  And we were doing a chemistry, or he was in the room. It was on Larchmont and you were talking to Terry Crews when I walked into the room.

• 4:11Dax Shepard?

  That tracks. I'm friends with him.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  Yes, and you guys were like really getting along. And then I just remember being like, oh, wow, I'm like in the big leagues. I didn't get it. I don't think you got it.

• 4:20Dax Shepard?

  And I don't even remember reading for it. What I like about your story is it was all positive to you because I could also see. See you getting in there to audition and being like, oh, fuck, there's all these guys and they all know each other. Already. Oh. Oh, my God. Whoa. Oh, my God, our first one.

• 4:35Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 4:35Dax Shepard?

  I gotta do a U-turn.

• 4:36Speaker 02

  Okay, we're going to the best fucking hot chicken in Los Feliz.

• 4:40Speaker 01

  I know exactly where this is.

• 4:41Dax Shepard?

  Oh, you do?

• 4:42Speaker 01

  Yeah. I've lived in this neighborhood for almost 15 years.

• 4:45Dax Shepard?

  Oh, you have?

• 4:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:47Dax Shepard?

  Have you moved around within this neighborhood or same spot?

• 4:49Speaker 01

  Same place.

• 4:49Dax Shepard?

  Really?

• 4:50Speaker 01

  I had a crazy thing where I was 24, I bought my first TV show and I didn't know what to do with the money. I just panicked because I was like, you can't have this much money in a bank account.

• 4:58Dax Shepard?

  Yes, you'll lose it.

• 4:59Speaker 01

  So I just put a down payment on an apartment and I've just lived in that.

• 5:01Dax Shepard?

  Oh, wow. Karen, you haven't driven with me.

• 5:04Speaker 01

  No, I grew up in Delhi, which you visited recently.

• 5:06Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 5:07Speaker 01

  So you've seen the driving there. This doesn't faze me.

• 5:09Dax Shepard?

  How old were you when you left?

• 5:11Speaker 01

  18.

• 5:12Dax Shepard?

  Really?

• 5:12Speaker 01

  I went for college to go to USC.

• 5:14Speaker 02

  In your, in your 30s now?

• 5:16Speaker 01

  I'm 36.

• 5:17Dax Shepard?

  Half your life you've been here.

• 5:18Speaker 01

  I'm at the half point now, yeah, which is really weird.

• 5:21Dax Shepard?

  I hope this doesn't sound xenophobic. I would expect you to have a much thicker accent.

• 5:25Speaker 01

  One, you're gonna hear it as time goes by.

• 5:27Dax Shepard?

  As you get scared as the driving accelerates.

• 5:29Speaker 01

  I forced myself to lose it. Somehow I did because some people can't, but I listened to NPR. They spoke slowly and I would repeat the way they said it, but I can't do any other accent. So this is it. Whatever this is and my original Indian accent.

• 5:44Dax Shepard?

  You couldn't play English?

• 5:45Speaker 01

  No, there's just no way.

• 5:46Dax Shepard?

  Do you think if you tried to do English, you would unravel?

• 5:49Speaker 01

  Everything.

• 5:50Dax Shepard?

  What you?

• 5:50Speaker 01

  Like literally short circuit.

• 5:54Dax Shepard?

  Have you spent a lot of time in New York?

• 5:56Speaker 01

  No, I haven't. I want to. I did one month. I did the New York Film Academy.

• 6:00Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 6:01Speaker 01

  And that was it.

• 6:02Dax Shepard?

  We already have our food? Oh, my God!

• 6:05Speaker 01

  Aaron, is there usually more of a wait? I feel like that was really fast.

• 6:08Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 6:08Speaker 01

  Well, my other question, do you ever eat the food?

• 6:11Dax Shepard?

  Yes, every time.

• 6:15Dax Shepard?

  Every single time. No.

• 6:17Speaker 01

  I guess it's sealed.

• 6:17Speaker 02

  They staple the shit out of it so people cannot do that.

• 6:21Dax Shepard?

  Well, I was asking about New York, Karen, because what I find is in New York, you could be literally on fire. And people just walk by you. Ways we've tried to get attention in New York when we were younger and just everyone knows, they can ignore anything.

• 6:34Speaker 01

  I saw the wildest New York. Last year I was there, you know, those vertical changing tents almost. It's usually for one person. I've only seen it on set. There were two unhoused people having sex.

• 6:44Dax Shepard?

  Oh, in the vertical tent.

• 6:46Speaker 01

  And there was a lot of moaning and people didn't care.

• 6:51Dax Shepard?

  Sure.

• 6:51Speaker 01

  It was so shocking.

• 6:53Dax Shepard?

  Can you see the silhouettes?

• 6:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, because they're small and then it was partially open.

• 6:57Dax Shepard?

  Okay, you got it.

• 6:58Speaker 01

  To breathe, I would guess it was warm. When I first came to go to college, my first weekend, I was like, I want to go to Hollywood Boulevard. I took the bus from USC with a bunch of people. And I remember it was so glamorous, but it's been the same. But my perspective, I was like, this is it. And I put my hands in the hands.

• 7:15Dax Shepard?

  Oh, man's Chinese.

• 7:16Speaker 01

  And now I imagine like how sick that is.

• 7:19Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 7:20Speaker 01

  But I have all these photos of me smiling and my hands in that and like, truly? All this could have been happening. I have no memory of it. It was so glamorous and I was one of those tourists.

• 7:30Dax Shepard?

  And I feel like you would be good to ask, although who knows? Cause I've seen so many dicks in my life of my friends and stuff. And the only thing I think that I would agree is actually quite consistent is hand size does seem to be related.

• 7:42Speaker 01

  Definitely, yeah.

• 7:44Dax Shepard?

  And when I went there as well and put my hands in Eastwood's hands, which are there.

• 7:50Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 7:51Dax Shepard?

  I was like, oh, he's got a ton of sausage.

• 7:55Dax Shepard?

  No wonder he's from Eastwood.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  I don't know him, but the vibe. Yeah, yeah, it feels right.

• 8:00Dax Shepard?

  I was like, oh, this makes so much sense. So when you applied to college at USC from Delhi, were they calling it New Delhi yet?

• 8:09Speaker 01

  Still new.

• 8:10Dax Shepard?

  When did it become New Delhi?

• 8:11Speaker 01

  There's an old Delhi too. Did you go to old Delhi?

• 8:12Dax Shepard?

  To the spice market and stuff? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was the funnest part of the whole trip, really, was on a rickshaw going through there, seeing the men clean each other's ears and stuff.

• 8:21Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, shave outdoors.

• 8:24Dax Shepard?

  Get one of your questions ready, because what I don't know if you know, Karen, is that there will be a portion of this show where people have submitted questions and we'll try to work through and give some kind of perspective.

• 8:33Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 8:33Dax Shepard?

  I'll be right back.

• 8:34Speaker 02

  Yes, there was about 700 submissions.

• 8:38Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 8:39Speaker 02

  I did read through every single one of them.

• 8:41Speaker 01

  Good for you.

• 8:42Speaker 02

  Cause I'm very excited and I'm very humbled by the whole thing. I love that so many people are interested in this. I didn't knock. Am I supposed to? No, no, no. I wonder if X is gonna not listen to the instructions.

• 8:55Dax Shepard?

  I thought better of it. I wanted to, because I'm like, I hope they know it's here and it's not getting cold. But then I took a picture.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  Okay, good, good.

• 9:01Dax Shepard?

  I do need to hear the story quickly before we get to that.

• 9:03Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 9:04Dax Shepard?

  How are you in India and then you know about USC?

• 9:06Speaker 01

  A very good question, because there's, the first Kristen connection is in this story because the show The OC

• 9:13Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 9:13Speaker 01

  was very popular in Delhi when I was there. And I was in the closet in high school, so I had no identity of who I was.

• 9:20Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 9:20Speaker 01

  And that show came out and all the cool kids, I used to get bullied a lot, and all the cool kids loved The OC. And then they were like, you're kind of like the Indian Seth Cohen, which is Adam's character, because I have curly hair and he made nerds cool.

• 9:32Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 9:32Speaker 01

  And so I became obsessed with that show and became obsessed with California. I'd never been to California.

• 9:36Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 9:36Speaker 01

  So my dad works for John Deere.

• 9:38Dax Shepard?

  No!

• 9:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, tractor parts.

• 9:40Dax Shepard?

  Wonderful.

• 9:40Speaker 01

  They're made in India.

• 9:42Dax Shepard?

  Oh.

• 9:42Speaker 01

  Big twist.

• 9:45Speaker 01

  A lot of the tractors made in India and assembled here.

• 9:48Dax Shepard?

  You might have had it then.

• 9:51Dax Shepard?

  I thought they were made in like Iowa or Indiana or something.

• 9:54Speaker 01

  Right.

• 9:54Dax Shepard?

  Maybe it's Indiana. You're like, was that X A on Indiana?

• 9:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, a lot of it is there. And so we grew up worshipping John Deere, because that was my dad's client. And so we visited America, yeah, great company, visited America, but only been to New York, because you kind of land in New York, and then been to Vegas for tractor conventions.

• 10:10Dax Shepard?

  Oh, yeah.

• 10:10Speaker 01

  And then that was it. So California on that show was magical, the kids, the locker rooms.

• 10:15Dax Shepard?

  So is it safe to say you guys were upper-middle class?

• 10:17Speaker 01

  The other thing was, I was an agriculture nepo baby, as in, that was gonna be my job. Very Indian son thing of you run the family business.

• 10:25Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 10:26Speaker 01

  So I didn't even really need to go to college, because I was supposed to just go do this job with him.

• 10:32Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 10:32Speaker 01

  And you learn on the job.

• 10:34Dax Shepard?

  Was he a dealer?

• 10:36Speaker 01

  No, he was an engineer. And then he started a factory. By the time I was graduating college, it had 500 employees.

• 10:42Dax Shepard?

  Oh, my wow.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  And they expanded to caterpillar.

• 10:45Dax Shepard?

  You're rich. I know you know. Anyone to know, but you're rich, 500 of boys.

• 10:49Speaker 01

  Whoa, that's not good. My dad worked like seven days a week and I, as a kid, had laid the first brick at the factory. And everyone in the factory called me little boss.

• 10:57Dax Shepard?

  Uh huh, that's so cute.

• 11:00Speaker 01

  It was this thing where I was like, I didn't even have ambition or dreams because I was like, I'm just gonna do this. Like, I had no interest in it, but I didn't even think that was a thing. And so my dad's dream was always to study in America. And he went to college in India, but he did business with Americans and he loved the American mindset of business and how Americans think. And he was always fascinated with all that. So he was like, I always wanted to do this. You should go do it, get a business degree and maybe you'll bring some knowledge or something back. So I was applying to schools sort of just for the business school.

• 11:28Dax Shepard?

  Were you funny as a kid?

• 11:29Speaker 01

  No, no, no.

• 11:30Dax Shepard?

  You weren't?

• 11:31Speaker 01

  Because I was bullied so badly that I had no personality because any kind of standing up would be punished.

• 11:37Dax Shepard?

  If San Francisco is a 10 as far as like ease of coming out, where's India?

• 11:42Speaker 01

  When I was there, like a one or lower.

• 11:45Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 11:45Speaker 01

  It's illegal still to be married. You don't see any couples or any people in a relationship.

• 11:51Dax Shepard?

  I saw women together in New Delhi on our trip.

• 11:53Speaker 01

  Which is good. I think it's getting much better now.

• 11:56Dax Shepard?

  And I want to say there's even a neighborhood our guide took us to that was like, this is pretty open.

• 12:00Speaker 01

  I remember seeing my first same-sex lesbian couple at USC my first day, like welcome week. And I followed them on campus because I literally was like, who's gonna do the first hate crime?

• 12:08Dax Shepard?

  Oh yeah, you want to witness?

• 12:09Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 12:12Dax Shepard?

  Miss a good show.

• 12:15Speaker 01

  I'm like, where does this end? And they were like, very beautiful and cool and like, they were holding hands and no one cared.

• 12:20Dax Shepard?

  They weren't nervous.

• 12:21Speaker 01

  My mind was just blown by that idea.

• 12:24Dax Shepard?

  Even though you probably were seeing it on TV now from American shows or not really.

• 12:29Speaker 01

  Every other gay storyline.

• 12:30Dax Shepard?

  Which you were on, by the way.

• 12:31Speaker 01

  One episode. But the gay storylines used to be shame-based. So like the OC had a storyline with like the jock's dad was making out with another dad. He was like ostracized in school because he had a gay dad.

• 12:41Dax Shepard?

  It didn't look inviting or safer here.

• 12:42Speaker 01

  It was always sort of like around that kind of stuff. But I became obsessed with California essentially. And then I was applying to a bunch of schools. Then USC gave me the best deal, so I ended up going there.

• 12:51Dax Shepard?

  The second you got here, were you like, I'm never going home. I gotta figure out how to stay here?

• 12:55Speaker 01

  The second I got to USC, I was like, where are the white people? Because. It's in a part of Alabama. Everything was in Spanish. This is not what you saw in Hollywood. You saw Beverly Hills. So I got to USC and I think I was imagining what UCLA is.

• 13:10Dax Shepard?

  Well, that would have shocked you too, because I went there. I think it was 31% Caucasian when I was there.

• 13:15Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 13:16Dax Shepard?

  And it was 39% Asian. So you would have also been like, where are the white people? Here, baby, too.

• 13:22Speaker 01

  Great, yeah. So we had similar experiences.

• 13:26Speaker 01

  That was the first time.

• 13:26Dax Shepard?

  But I was a white person, so I was like, oh, yeah, bring it. There's all Asian girls. We didn't have these in Michigan. Oh, you were so excited. Oh, absolutely. Truly, it was an education. Where we grew up, we just were ignorant. If there was an Asian person in our school, they were Chinese. You didn't know about any other, you didn't say Asian.

• 13:44Speaker 01

  By the way, in India, same. We don't know the difference between like Japanese, Vietnamese, any of this. We just say China. Put it in one category.

• 13:50Dax Shepard?

  That's comforting. Our terribleness.

• 13:53Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, no.

• 13:54Dax Shepard?

  But I got there, I was like, oh, I see. I could guess high probability that someone's Korean or Vietnamese. Within a semester there, I was like, oh, yeah, I get the whole thing. And it's exciting.

• 14:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, but yeah, when I got to USC, that was, and my parents came to drop me. And the other thing was, there was a car, I distinctly remember, that had bullet holes inside. And my mom just started crying.

• 14:13Dax Shepard?

  But people don't know, USC is downtown Los Angeles.

• 14:16Speaker 01

  It's very nice now. I don't know if you've been recently. It's night and day different. It's like very gentrified, but it was still a little like rough.

• 14:24Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, and you weren't like, okay, I gotta stay here.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  No, but I remember I did fall in love with it. But at that point, I became obsessed with the idea that there was a ticking clock of four years. And I had to make the most of it and then go back home and then hide this part of myself again.

• 14:36Dax Shepard?

  You were Cinderella.

• 14:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 14:38Dax Shepard?

  And then the clock was gonna strike in four years.

• 14:41Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly. And you know, I came up with a student visa. So it's like, there is a literal clock where it's like, you can't stay in the country. I just remember being like, every day felt like I've lost another day.

• 14:50Dax Shepard?

  Oh, like you were panicked, you were running out of time for four years? Oh, that's weird. Yeah, almost like you had been given a diagnosis, you were gonna die. I did not make the most of that day. So you discovered you were funny at what age?

• 15:03Speaker 01

  Well, the first time I got last was because I did a play in high school, actually. But I didn't realize it was a comedy, so I played everything. Thing real. And I didn't put it together and people were laughing and I just remember being like, are they laughing at me? Like, I didn't understand.

• 15:16Dax Shepard?

  Right, at me or with me?

• 15:17Speaker 01

  And then when I was at USC, I ended up doing UCB, which was a big thing.

• 15:21Dax Shepard?

  That feels like a very out of left field if you've not thought of yourself as funny while you would enroll.

• 15:26Speaker 01

  Because by my sophomore year, essentially, my dad didn't have this job anymore. He had to sell his business.

• 15:31Dax Shepard?

  Oh, no.

• 15:31Speaker 01

  They moved to Augusta, Georgia.

• 15:33Dax Shepard?

  Oh, they did?

• 15:34Speaker 01

  I'm just throwing you on.

• 15:34Dax Shepard?

  That's right. Wow.

• 15:36Speaker 01

  That's John Deere country, too. And so he runs this John Deere warehouse in Augusta now. And he took over that 500-person factory. Now it has 1,600 employees.

• 15:46Dax Shepard?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 15:47Speaker 01

  It's a huge operation.

• 15:47Dax Shepard?

  And that's the home of the Masters?

• 15:49Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 15:50Dax Shepard?

  Uh-huh.

• 15:50Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, yes. He's big into golf now.

• 15:53Dax Shepard?

  I was just watching Full Swing. I can't stand golf, but I love that reality show, Full Swing.

• 15:57Speaker 01

  Is that like the drive to survive?

• 15:58Dax Shepard?

  It's exactly. Same company, box to box.

• 16:00Speaker 01

  But it's not making you want to play the sport?

• 16:02Dax Shepard?

  Not at all, but it makes me want to walk around Augusta because it's impossibly beautiful. How green and perfect it is. It's like Disneyland. I want to see it. So maybe I can stay with your dad.

• 16:12Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, they have plenty of room. My mom loves to host.

• 16:15Dax Shepard?

  Uh-huh. Do they love Georgia?

• 16:17Speaker 01

  They really love it now, but it was a big shock. Because, I mean, for me moving, but like, they moved in their 50s. And they left Delhi, which you've been to, which is multicultural. Every kind of food, every kind of culture, everything is happening to go there. Yeah, it's just a smaller world a little bit, but they really love it now because all their friends are doctors.

• 16:38Dax Shepard?

  Uh-huh.

• 16:39Speaker 01

  We were never friends or doctors in India because it's so different because every Indian American seems to be a doctor, but like, in India.

• 16:45Dax Shepard?

  They're the same percentage as here.

• 16:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's like, we were thinking, like, that's just my doctor. Like, you don't think of it as like the Indian doctors.

• 16:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 16:52Speaker 01

  But here, they're the only non-doctors in the community. Everyone's a doctor. And it's like their health has gone better and they're in this doctor world.

• 16:58Dax Shepard?

  Is there a big Indian community there?

• 17:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, even back then, when they moved in 2009, I was like, where are you guys going? I've never heard of this place. It's two hours from Atlanta, and Atlanta is a big medical community, I guess. And so a lot of those doctors leave and create a private practice. My parents bought their first house in Georgia for $250,000.

• 17:15Dax Shepard?

  And it was 6,000 scorpions?

• 17:16Speaker 01

  Six bedrooms.

• 17:17Dax Shepard?

  Yes, exactly.

• 17:18Speaker 01

  But forget the bedrooms. There was a bowling alley.

• 17:22Dax Shepard?

  For 250 grand.

• 17:24Speaker 01

  It didn't work.

• 17:25Dax Shepard?

  And meanwhile, you come and buy a fucking million dollar apartment that's 1,200 square feet.

• 17:29Speaker 01

  It's like crazy, but you know, it's those old Georgia homes that are like huge mansions.

• 17:34Dax Shepard?

  Steeped in a kind of a plantation-y vibe.

• 17:36Speaker 01

  Yes, the vibe is strong. But now Augusta's changed a lot because it's not just golf, the NSA computer is there. You know, the thing that was created after 9/11 that scans our texts and emails and stuff?

• 17:48Dax Shepard?

  Right, okay.

• 17:48Speaker 01

  The government thing that was like basically to help catch terrorists and stuff.

• 17:52Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 17:52Speaker 01

  The big supercomputer that's doing all that is in Augusta randomly.

• 17:56Dax Shepard?

  Oh, really?

• 17:57Speaker 01

  They moved it there.

• 17:57Dax Shepard?

  So they're a nuke site.

• 18:02Dax Shepard?

  The good news to them is they're definitely one of the first that'll be bombed.

• 18:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 18:09Dax Shepard?

  Tell them I said that.

• 18:10Speaker 01

  Okay, great. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 18:11Dax Shepard?

  I've been trying to figure out, because we're watching the show Paradise, and there's a nuclear holocaust.

• 18:17Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 18:17Dax Shepard?

  And they blow up Atlanta in the show.

• 18:20Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 18:20Dax Shepard?

  And I'm like, well, clearly they would blow LA up, but we built a house in Nashville. I'm like, I think they would blow up a bunch of cities before they got to Nashville, I'd like to think. But your parents, they're done.

• 18:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, okay.

• 18:31Dax Shepard?

  They got that computer there.

• 18:33Speaker 01

  Okay, perfect. And here I was worried about them aging.

• 18:35Speaker 02

  Computer's the first thing to go.

• 18:38Dax Shepard?

  Get that offline ASAP.

• 18:39Speaker 01

  Get that computer off.

• 18:40Dax Shepard?

  Okay, you want to hit us with one of the questions?

• 18:42Speaker 02

  Okay, so I named this one Small Town. She said, "Would love for you to discuss any angle of the challenges faced by moving back home to your small-ass hometown."

• 18:53Dax Shepard?

  Oh.

• 18:54Speaker 02

  "I just did it, and it's so weird because nothing changes, but people get older. It's just a very unique, odd experience coming back as an adult. I know you don't live in your hometown, but just would love to hear your thoughts on that and what maybe it would be like for you and BFAW to do that."

• 19:14Speaker 01

  To me, my instinct is it would make me regress. I wouldn't actually not be happy there, even with money or whatever you're saying, all this other stuff.

• 19:21Dax Shepard?

  Where I experience that the most is when I'm with my family, my core family. I was just with them in San Francisco, and I have to play the role I had my whole childhood, which is like I'm a middle child. I'm trying to keep the peace. I'm stressed out about who's getting upset at who and I gotta make a joke. And yeah, I think moving back to the town. Also, I had to leave our town in eighth grade because so many dudes wanted to kick my ass. When we got out of junior high, had I gone to Milford High where Aaron went, there was like 20 guys that were waiting to knock me out in the first. I was like terrified to go to that high school. Not because I was some nerd that was getting picked on, but I had dated these older girls and they fucking hated it. And I had a punk rock hairdo and they hated that.

• 20:03Dax Shepard?

  So I imagine if I went back now and I was loaded and had a gangster house, they'd want to kick my ass 10 times as bad as they wanted to.

• 20:10Speaker 01

  Because they haven't left.

• 20:12Speaker 02

  We thought about doing a reunion years ago. We became best friends in seventh grade. Years ago would have been our 30 year seventh grade reunion. So we spoke about it over the phone. He had his sister look into it even about like, we could go to our old school, rent it.

• 20:29Dax Shepard?

  We're gonna rent Muir Junior High and have a reunion.

• 20:32Speaker 02

  What it boiled down to after a couple of days of talking about it was, you're gonna get killed.

• 20:38Speaker 01

  Like, oh, that's so bad. Oh, my God.

• 20:44Speaker 02

  Like, now people are really gonna hate you because you have money and you really will fuck.

• 20:49Dax Shepard?

  And if they're mad I was dating eighth graders, now I'm married to Kristen now.

• 20:54Speaker 02

  It started off, first of all, Dex goes, well, Kristen for sure is not coming. I will not let her near that. Then I was like, well, what am I doing even going?

• 21:04Dax Shepard?

  I know.

• 21:05Speaker 02

  Then we thought, what a terrible idea.

• 21:06Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 21:07Speaker 01

  Wait, Aaron, did being his best friend ever result in these guys coming after you?

• 21:11Speaker 02

  It was the strangest thing.

• 21:13Speaker 01

  They didn't make the connection.

• 21:14Dax Shepard?

  Everyone loved Aaron.

• 21:15Speaker 02

  The connection was made, I think.

• 21:17Dax Shepard?

  He's much more lovable than I am.

• 21:21Speaker 02

  I loved Dex so much and people hated him.

• 21:25Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 21:25Speaker 02

  And, um, people hated him.

• 21:28Dax Shepard?

  With a passion.

• 21:28Speaker 02

  But I think a lot of them backed off because they saw how much I loved him.

• 21:32Speaker 01

  Oh, that's sweet. That even the bullies could see through the love. That's when you know it's wrong.

• 21:37Dax Shepard?

  There were arguably a couple of kids that were tougher than Aaron and I in junior high. Really made me one, those kids.

• 21:45Dax Shepard?

  But I think the fact that certainly if you were gonna fight one of us, you were fighting both of us.

• 21:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:48Speaker 01

  Aye.

• 21:49Dax Shepard?

  So as long as we were together, I felt so safe. And then our other best friend was, say this with his permission, he was called Fat Jack and he himself would introduce himself as Fat Jack. But he was very large and impossibly strong. He set the bench press record in high school in eighth grade. And he fought men. Numerous times we saw him fight adult men when he was 14. So if we were with Jack as well, we were like, oh, we can act however we want. Yes, even around adults. We would be around adults and we'd just think, oh, no problem. Jack's here, he'll handle all.

• 22:19Speaker 02

  Right, he can do anything.

• 22:21Dax Shepard?

  When you think of moving back to Delhi, what do you?

• 22:24Speaker 01

  I started therapy three years ago. It's life changing, but prior to that, I used to have crazy anxiety. My other anxiety was I became an American citizen, so I have an American passport. But I used to, when I leave the country, I hold on to the passport. Like I check it obsessively because I have this feeling like I'll get stuck or something.

• 22:39Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 22:39Speaker 01

  It's like this unrealistic anxiety, whatever. But I used to have this very stinky feeling on the plane, like I'll get stuck there. But I will say, all these things come back when I go home for Thanksgiving or whatever to Augusta, where old issues, like I'm such an annoying person around my parents and stuff. And then finally with therapy, I was like, oh, this is just old stuff that's coming back and you can stop it. There's a thread, I don't have to pull on this thread and I'm so much more pleasant to be around now.

• 23:06Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 23:07Speaker 01

  Cause I've just dealt with some of that stuff.

• 23:08Dax Shepard?

  What was the pattern you would get into when you're around it? Would you be bratty?

• 23:12Speaker 01

  My parents, I'm recently always stressed about their health. In India, exercise and stuff wasn't a big thing when I was there. You know, as they're getting older, they're not taking care of themselves as much. And I go straight to this place of like, you don't love me. Because you know what you need to do, you're not doing it. And then I see them eating something and they're just enjoying life. I'm like judgy and then I become like, I'm gonna eat the salad, no dressing. Like, I'm.

• 23:36Dax Shepard?

  You're putting on a show.

• 23:37Speaker 01

  And I'm like, this is how we live in California and I'm like, I don't even wanna eat this.

• 23:39Dax Shepard?

  What, are you eating with your shirt off?

• 23:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:41Dax Shepard?

  And the result is this.

• 23:44Speaker 01

  And then with my sister, there's so much history, but like there was this deep thing that I had not worked out before therapy, which is that because she's straight, I had always had this feeling that she had it easier because she didn't have to deal with this stuff. And then I would have this expectation on her, like, what have you done with it being easier? It's all my own stuff. I actually didn't even see who she was as a person, like, she's thirty-three now. And I had just missed all of it because I was so judgmental. And I think being away from them in L.A. made it worse because I was, like, independent, doing my own thing here. Then you go back there and it's like, all of it is back. And I was just like, okay, I'm not gonna pull on the thread, three years ago. And it was hard. And there were moments where I did break. I was so much more pleasant to be around, and then they were so much more pleasant, and it just is better. And there'll be moments, like, when I went back, I saw them eating some stuff, and I'm like, this is not good.

• 24:28Speaker 01

  But ultimately, I'm just gonna go home.

• 24:31Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. When my dad got diagnosed with cancer, I would go home. And, mind you, he had gout also, and heart disease also. So he couldn't get out of bed the last three months he was alive, basically. We know what food you should and shouldn't eat if you have gout.

• 24:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:44Dax Shepard?

  And I would run out to go get a prescription, or whatever errand I'd run. And I'd come back and he'd be in the middle of telling, get that plate out of here! And he would have eaten a cheeseburger while I was gone. And I remember going like, Dad, I'm fucking flying home, and then you're sneaking a cheeseburger? After he died, I was like, that was such a waste of time. Yeah, bro, you're in bed with fucking gout, you're dying. He should have eaten a thousand cheeseburgers, and I should have just shut up. And however, someone wants to handle their terrible situation.

• 25:13Speaker 01

  The thing that's so interesting, what is, because in L.A. I was making only friends, I had no family. Picking the people that you enjoy, the family is gonna kind of stay who they are.

• 25:22Dax Shepard?

  That's right.

• 25:23Speaker 01

  You kind of just have to accept that I'm not gonna change them by my nagging.

• 25:26Dax Shepard?

  No. They're not gonna change you. That you know.

• 25:29Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 25:30Dax Shepard?

  And then you have to go like, and obviously, I won't.

• 25:32Speaker 01

  To meet them where they are, yeah.

• 25:34Dax Shepard?

  It's hard to accept that.

• 25:35Speaker 01

  It's very hard.

• 25:36Dax Shepard?

  We didn't have any advice.

• 25:37Speaker 02

  I think they didn't want advice.

• 25:41Dax Shepard?

  Stay tuned for more Mom's Car. Some people just know they could save hundreds on car insurance by checking Allstate first. You know, it reminds me of all those times when checking first really pays off. Like that time I didn't check the weather before planning a backyard barbecue. Rookie mistake. Or how about when you're about to head out on a road trip and you know to check your tire pressure first? It's those little check first moments that save us from bigger headaches later. I mean, think about it. You always check if you have your wallet before sitting down at a restaurant, right? Or make sure you've got your keys before closing the front door? These are just smart moves we all make. Checking first is smart, so check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate.

• 26:24Dax Shepard?

  Savings vary, subject to terms, conditions, and availability. Allstate North American Insurance Co. and affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. Hey, parents, it's that time of year again, back to school madness. But before you start hyperventilating into a paper bag, let me tell you about a little lifesaver called Uber Eats. Right now, they're offering up to 40% off back to school essentials. You heard that right, 40%. We're talking notebooks, colored pencils, calculators, glue sticks, all that stuff your kids need to become the next Einstein. Or at least past the sixth grade. But wait, there's more. Uber Eats has your lunchbox game covered, too. Get discounts on string cheese, juice boxes, fresh fruit, Lunchables, all the fuel your little geniuses need to power through the day.

• 27:09Dax Shepard?

  And hey, if some of those snacks accidentally fall into your mouth, I won't tell anyone. The best part? It's all just a tap away on the Uber Eats app. No more running around like a headless chicken trying to get everything done. So make your life easier and order now on Uber Eats. Remember, get up to 40% off back to school essentials. Offer ends 9/16. Terms apply. See app for details.

• 27:35Dax Shepard?

  I would like to tell you one story about Aaron and I. Yes, please. We were living together in Dearborn, Michigan. And Aaron bought a motorcycle for 500 bucks or something.

• 27:45Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 27:46Dax Shepard?

  It was a Suzuki GS650, is that what it was?

• 27:49Speaker 02

  GS650, wow, drive champ.

• 27:52Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I think so.

• 27:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:54Dax Shepard?

  So he got this motorcycle, it's not a nice motorcycle, and it doesn't have the big enough engine. And we decide one afternoon, sitting in our apartment, we both had wanted to go to Austin, Texas. We heard it was really great, we had never been. And we were like, let's ride that new motorcycle of yours down to Austin. We had two milk crates that we bungee corded to the back. And each person got a milk crate worth of storage. And we got on this motorcycle, and by the time we got to Indiana, which is only like maybe 100 miles.

• 28:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's really close.

• 28:26Dax Shepard?

  We were both already so miserable, but we were not gonna admit it.

• 28:32Speaker 02

  Admit it to each other.

• 28:33Dax Shepard?

  And then the craziest thing, which is there's nothing worse than being a passenger on a motorcycle. But this was so grueling and uncomfortable that you didn't want to be driving because there was too much wind. And the rule was you had to drive until you needed gas, which worked out to about 100 miles a tank. If you were driving the motorcycle, you just couldn't wait to get to the gas station and get on back. And Aaron later admitted to me he was crying.

• 28:58Speaker 02

  You're like, oh no, has it already been 100 miles?

• 29:02Dax Shepard?

  We got all the way to St. Louis. We had gone 600 miles on this motorcycle, but we had like 1300 or 1400 miles to go. And we got to all the way to fucking St. Louis, and I think I broke. We were at a gas station, it was my turn to drive, and I go, I don't think I can do it. Thank God.

• 29:22Dax Shepard?

  We were so, and I'm like, how long have you hated it? And he's like, since Indiana. I'm like, me too.

• 29:28Speaker 02

  I was considering suicide to get out of it.

• 29:31Speaker 01

  Oh my gosh.

• 29:32Dax Shepard?

  It was just torture. But what's crazy is once we decided we were no longer going to Austin, we're like, oh, cool. We can get off the highway. We can stop going 80 and we'll take a country roads back.

• 29:42Speaker 02

  New attitude, baby.

• 29:43Dax Shepard?

  All of a sudden, it was great. And we were just like cruising down country roads and we found a big field and we found someone to buy us beer. We weren't 21. So we got a case of beer and we're sitting in this field and we're drinking. We have nothing. We're just gonna sleep in the grass. And I swear to God, out of nowhere, there's an enormous fireball, like the biggest fireball you've ever seen. And we're like, oh, my God, what's that? And we realized we're only like 300 yards away from a drag strip. A jet dragster is on the line hitting the afterburns.

• 30:21Dax Shepard?

  So then we took our beers and we went over to the fence and we were watching drag racing. Oh, and it was the greatest night ever.

• 30:26Speaker 01

  Wait, so Aaron, I don't know as much about yours. So you moved out to California also from Michigan? Where did you move when you left?

• 30:33Speaker 02

  Well, we came out here together when we were 18 and just lived out of a car.

• 30:38Speaker 01

  Were you already going to UCLA? Or did you know that?

• 30:41Dax Shepard?

  No, I was never gonna go to college. I had no intention of being an actor. I wanted to do stand up is all I thought, but I was certainly not gonna try it in Detroit. And I had read On The Road by Kerouac and I was just obsessed with that. And we took road trips on every break we had when we were in high school. So once, well, I graduated, Aaron didn't. Which was its own moral conundrum. Like, are we allowed to leave this summer? Do we wait for another semester?

• 31:10Dax Shepard?

  Aaron was also going to a high school that you could smoke cigarettes in the classroom. It was that type of a high school.

• 31:16Dax Shepard?

  We decided he wasn't missing out on a ton of education. So we left and we lived in the car for like four months. And when we came out here and we met a ton of people in Santa Barbara and we spent a bunch of time there and a bunch of time in Atasc there and all these little California towns, made friends. We're in Utah for a while, worked a little bit doing the car show thing occasionally. And then we came back home and then I was there for another year. A half, right before I turned 20, I was like, I gotta leave Detroit. I'm just gonna be drunk. It was a good trap. We were so happy. There was four of us that lived together. We all had so much fun. We only had to work like fucking a week a month to make rent.

• 31:56Speaker 01

  Well, it was easy to drink.

• 31:58Speaker 02

  I gotta go. And I was like, what's the problem?

• 32:02Dax Shepard?

  You mean paradise? I just had this inkling. I'm like, oh, I'm gonna blink and I'm gonna be 28 and wake up in this apartment. And I gotta get out of here.

• 32:11Speaker 02

  And at the same time, I was like, I hope I blink and I'm 28.

• 32:16Speaker 01

  You're like, that sounds amazing.

• 32:18Speaker 02

  And I've done nothing.

• 32:21Speaker 01

  Was it hard then to leave and come back here?

• 32:23Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I went to Santa Barbara the first year because we had met people there. But of course, they had all either graduated or left UCSB. I really didn't know anybody there. I was so fucking lonely. And then I finally did do stand up one night while living in Santa Barbara, but visiting LA. And then I was like, what am I doing? I came all the way here, but I'm not. So then I moved to LA on my 21st birthday, went to community college, and then ultimately transferred to UCLA. But Aaron during that whole time went to work with his dad, which we had worked for in high school.

• 32:50Speaker 02

  Roofing.

• 32:51Speaker 01

  In Michigan.

• 32:52Dax Shepard?

  Yes, which is a very brutal job.

• 32:54Speaker 01

  I was gonna say.

• 32:55Dax Shepard?

  Yes, about as brutal as it gets.

• 32:57Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 32:57Dax Shepard?

  And then Aaron, how long did you do that?

• 32:59Speaker 02

  Oh, God.

• 33:00Dax Shepard?

  10 years?

• 33:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, quite a while. Right up my alley. I loved it.

• 33:03Dax Shepard?

  Until he bought, inherited, how would you describe it?

• 33:07Speaker 02

  Oh, the bar?

• 33:07Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 33:08Speaker 02

  Both. Bought into it with a few dollars.

• 33:10Dax Shepard?

  His family owned this Irish bar right next to Tiger Stadium his whole childhood. And then they were all done running it, basically. And Aaron's like, I wanna run it. The fact that that experience didn't kill you is almost not possible.

• 33:23Speaker 01

  Especially after 10 years of the other job.

• 33:25Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. But like in the thick of it, in Detroit, running a bar that was mostly bikers were visiting and punk rock dudes.

• 33:32Speaker 01

  So you saw some stuff.

• 33:34Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 33:34Speaker 01

  Yeah. So Uber or his car driving is nothing to you. Stuff is like, you've seen it all.

• 33:40Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, it's a two compared to three in the morning at the Lager House.

• 33:44Speaker 02

  Well, Dax knows I threw it up at some point at his doorstep in Santa Monica without warning.

• 33:49Dax Shepard?

  There's a knock at my door.

• 33:51Speaker 01

  Oh my god.

• 33:51Dax Shepard?

  And I open it up and Aaron looks like he was just pulled up from the bottom of the Detroit River. He looks like he's dead. He looks like a zombie.

• 33:58Speaker 01

  This is during the bar job.

• 34:00Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 34:00Speaker 01

  Because was it?

• 34:01Speaker 02

  I don't even know how I figured out how to get myself a plane ticket at that point. I was just like, I'm dead tonight if I don't leave, so I fucking left.

• 34:09Dax Shepard?

  Cause St. Patty's Day would come and he would do a ton of business. He'd have thousands of dollars of cash all of a sudden and he liked to smoke crack, so it was on.

• 34:19Speaker 01

  I see, I see, I see, I see.

• 34:20Speaker 02

  Just days of debt going on.

• 34:23Dax Shepard?

  I had quit drinking at this point and every St. Patty's Day, I'm like, you know, we'll see if Weekly makes it through. I mean, I know he'll be off the map for four days. He'll have zero dollars at the end of it.

• 34:36Speaker 02

  People working for me didn't know where I was.

• 34:40Speaker 02

  I just trusted them. Everything was running.

• 34:43Dax Shepard?

  That was the birth of one of my favorite Weeklyisms, which is he shows up and he's like, I think I was gonna die if I didn't get on a plane. So he's coming off of like a four day run of smoking crack in people's apartments in Detroit. I'm always trying to figure out like, is this it? Is he joining me in sobriety or is he just trying to get off the pipe for a minute? Which was the case as it turned out.

• 35:04Speaker 01

  Oh no.

• 35:05Dax Shepard?

  So we're like, yeah, come on in. Great, you're here. And then we went out to a bar in Koreatown. I think it was karaoke. He orders a drink. I'm like, okay, he's definitely drinking. Who cares? And he gets a little drunk and he comes out of the bathroom and he comes up to me and he goes, "Dad, fucking Terrence Posner's in the bathroom." And I go, "Terrence Posner?" He goes, "Yes, Terrence Posner's in the bathroom." And I go, "What are you talking about?" He goes, "The fucking boy wizard."

• 35:39Speaker 02

  The guy from the movie.

• 35:41Dax Shepard?

  And I go, "Harry Potter?" He goes, "Yes, yes."

• 35:45Speaker 01

  Oh, Daniel Radcliffe?

• 35:46Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, and it wasn't.

• 35:49Dax Shepard?

  The first it was Terrence Posner's in the bathroom. Then I figure out he's talking about Harry Potter. So I'm looking for Daniel Radcliffe as a guy in glasses. The movie was out at the time.

• 36:02Speaker 01

  The face was everywhere.

• 36:03Dax Shepard?

  This poor dude, I trapped him in the urinal and I go, "Hey, Terrence Posner."

• 36:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, oh my god. And when you're saying that, like, am I supposed to know who that is? I don't know.

• 36:17Dax Shepard?

  What's more or less offensive? If someone thinks you're Harry Potter or Terrence Posner? Because if they think you're Terrence Posner, you're like, "Oh, he's a dude this guy worked with." But if you think you're handsome and you get compared to a little boy, that might be a little more hurtful.

• 36:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's true. Was that when you came out to LA on your own and you guys were separated? Was that hard because you were obviously so close? Or were you sort of like, "I just need to get out and it's gonna be fine"?

• 36:43Dax Shepard?

  I think I just always accepted what it is because I'm an addict. I just was like, "Yeah, he's not gonna stop until..." There's no phone call I'm gonna make. And also, some level of, who am I to say how Aaron's life's supposed to be? I wanted him to go into show business. I wanted him to come be funny with me. That's what we were in junior high. But he didn't have those dreams or aspirations. He was visiting one time and I forced him to go to... This is back when I was like, reading Backstage West and just going to anything. I didn't have an agent. They were casting an MTV dating show. Or maybe it wasn't even that good of a network, it might have been not.

• 37:18Speaker 02

  I think it's WB.

• 37:20Dax Shepard?

  It was something. I make Aaron go with me, it's in Hollywood. And you're behind a big sheet of paper illuminated so that they can see your silhouette. And they're asking you questions. I did it and then I'm like, "Aaron, you should do it, you're here." And then Aaron just walked through the piece of paper in the middle.

• 37:41Speaker 01

  Let me guess, they did not love that?

• 37:43Dax Shepard?

  They didn't. They didn't love either of us.

• 37:46Speaker 01

  Did you want Aaron to be a stand-up? Like, what part of entertainment where you're like, he would kill?

• 37:50Dax Shepard?

  I wasn't sure, because I didn't even know what I was doing. I came to do a stand-up, and then I went to a grounding show, and I was like, "Oh, this feels way more like what I could do." You're not by yourself, it's not as scary. I do characters already. Just he and I had like 10 characters we did all growing up. And so, that was a much more appealing, less scary avenue. But yeah, I just didn't say really anything. And then when I was home, we always hung out, and Aaron always figured out how to like manage his addiction while I was there, very thoughtfully. But I would be aware of like, "I know this is hard."

• 38:22Speaker 01

  You're saying it though in such a chill way. That seems really hard to do, because it seems like you obviously love him very much.

• 38:27Dax Shepard?

  Oh, I love that.

• 38:28Speaker 01

  But there's a chance he wouldn't have gotten sober, right? That's scary.

• 38:31Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I guess because I was one, I just know how it works.

• 38:34Speaker 01

  There's nothing you can say.

• 38:36Dax Shepard?

  No, one of the things I look back on where I feel bad about, he lived in a barn for a while, in Michigan. And we were partying in this barn.

• 38:45Speaker 01

  Make a mental note of that.

• 38:46Dax Shepard?

  It was actually a trailer inside of a barn, which is kind of even better. It was a single-wide trailer inside of a barn.

• 38:53Speaker 01

  You had two roofs over your head.

• 38:54Dax Shepard?

  Very weird. He's impervious to rainfall. We're there, we're partying, we're riding four-wheelers, it's a blast. He goes into town to get some more beer, and then eventually we get a call, and he got a DUI. And he's calling from jail. This is how selfish an addict is. I'm panicked. He's gonna quit drinking. That's all I can think about. I don't care that he gets fucked up his license. He calls, and he's like, "Yeah, I'm at jail." And I was like, "Okay, are they gonna let you out, or do we need to come get you?" Whenever we're talking logistics, and then there's a beat, and I go, "Are you gonna quit drinking?"

• 39:32Dax Shepard?

  He goes, "Fuck no." And I was like, "Oh, great." I don't really care about any of this. Just the most stressful part was that he might quit because he got this DUI. So knowing that's where my head was at about someone I love more than anybody, I just was like, "Yeah, you're gonna do it until you're just so fucking miserable, you don't want to do it."

• 39:50Speaker 01

  And when you saw him sober before you, what was you thinking?

• 39:53Dax Shepard?

  Tough question. Pussy.

• 39:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, did you judge that at all?

• 39:58Speaker 02

  No, I thought the exact opposite. People do think that. When I got sober, I was like, oh god, this is real. I was like, yeah, everyone's like, fucking.

• 40:07Speaker 01

  It triggers.

• 40:08Speaker 02

  Fuckface. Like, I'm just so bad.

• 40:11Dax Shepard?

  They feel betrayed, yeah.

• 40:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, betrayed, everything.

• 40:14Dax Shepard?

  I think they immediately think you think you're better than them.

• 40:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 40:18Dax Shepard?

  Like, when someone leaves your pod to get sober, you're like, oh, they think we're shit.

• 40:21Speaker 02

  But I saw that from a lot of people. When Dex got sober, I never felt that once.

• 40:27Speaker 01

  You didn't?

• 40:28Speaker 02

  No.

• 40:28Dax Shepard?

  I felt happy for him.

• 40:30Speaker 02

  Yeah. The whole time, I never felt that.

• 40:35Dax Shepard?

  No, yeah, and I never, ever detected anything but support.

• 40:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, I picked his brain once in a while, but not too often.

• 40:43Dax Shepard?

  Not enough to get too interested.

• 40:46Speaker 01

  Does it make it feel attainable or easier that you know someone who used to drink like you and they were able to stop? Or you don't even compare yourself?

• 40:53Speaker 02

  Oh, god.

• 40:54Dax Shepard?

  You probably didn't think about it much. Like, when you're in it, you're so distracted by it. You have, like, immediate goals all the time. This is the beauty of being an addict.

• 41:03Speaker 01

  And then you're just kind of doing it with them anyways.

• 41:05Dax Shepard?

  Yes, and the thing I miss about being an addict is it kind of right sizes your problems. It's like, you care about all this other stuff on some level. But you have such a more immediate goal at all times, which is maintain how fucked up I am or figure out how to get fucked up or deal with the fucking shitstorm I just caused long enough to then get back to drinking or whatever the thing is. So you're not spending a lot of time with existential concerns or shit years away. You're living in the moment, which is like, let's sober up. That's the goal.

• 41:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, that was the goal for the last 10 years, probably. I couldn't stand to be sober for five minutes because I couldn't deal with reality and what maybe these questions might come to. I was like, oh my god, gotta get sober.

• 41:47Dax Shepard?

  Or just the two, all the wreckage that's piling up.

• 41:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's true.

• 41:50Dax Shepard?

  Over decades, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'll say, I was always still shocked because I would go back to Detroit and I'd be there and then everyone's drinking, of course, I want everyone to drink. I hated when people wouldn't drink around me. I was like, hmm, Aaron's gotta be doing coke. He's too straight to have had 30. 13 drinks and everyone else is getting sloppy and Aaron's still a good hang. Aaron was never a bad hang, even when he was fucked up. But he was never admitting he was doing coke to me. Maybe because he knew I loved coke. And then when he finally got sober, he's like, oh, yeah, I was doing coke every single day for 10 years. And I'm like, oh my god. Then I'm thinking how stressful it was all the times he was with me, like, I gotta go to the bathroom. How many, is he noticing how many times I've been to the bathroom? The only thing I ever noticed was just like, Aaron's much sharper than everyone else that's been drinking.

• 42:36Dax Shepard?

  Something smells.

• 42:37Speaker 01

  But that's still really impressive because you would have picked up on anything, but you didn't.

• 42:40Dax Shepard?

  Which I think means he was probably suffering not going in.

• 42:43Speaker 01

  Of like, there's a window here.

• 42:44Speaker 02

  Totally. The longer you do coke, the better you get at sneaking it. Like in the Patreon when he's doing it inside the AA meeting. But yeah, like I could just be laughing, everyone's laughing, I could turn around and just go.

• 42:58Speaker 02

  Because that's how easy I could do it.

• 43:01Speaker 01

  I've never, never done it. Never done cocaine.

• 43:04Dax Shepard?

  But I'll tell you, we had a little bit of a weird moment before he got sober, which was, Aaron went into the hospital because he had a mass in his lungs, which turned out to be an infection. But when he called me, he had like coughed so hard driving his truck, he passed out and then.

• 43:21Speaker 02

  Hit a wall in the truck.

• 43:23Dax Shepard?

  Out of nowhere stopped drinking and then was in the hospital. That's the first full-fledged cry I have had since I was 11.

• 43:30Speaker 02

  Oh my god.

• 43:32Speaker 01

  Not the timing.

• 43:35Speaker 01

  I'm gonna cry because you got a job.

• 43:38Speaker 02

  Oh shit, are we there?

• 43:39Dax Shepard?

  Oh my god, we're damn near there.

• 43:42Speaker 01

  Right on the other side of the light.

• 43:44Dax Shepard?

  So I really had a big, maybe all the years of ignoring like Aaron's health probably going downhill when I see him. I mean, what was happening is I would visit and Aaron, who always looked younger than me, looked much older than me. That was always trippy, like, wow, it's so weird, Aaron looks older than me. But I went home to see him in the hospital for a few days and I just hung with him in the hospital. And it was so wonderful. Okay, what place?

• 44:07Speaker 01

  Oh, it's right here, uh, ahead.

• 44:08Dax Shepard?

  Oh, you know, god, we brought the.

• 44:12Speaker 01

  You see that neon sign? That's nature.

• 44:14Dax Shepard?

  Oh my god.

• 44:15Speaker 02

  You're gonna have to be an ambassador.

• 44:17Speaker 01

  I don't have kids, so yeah.

• 44:20Speaker 02

  I almost forgot this is an episode or something. All right. Let's go get some food.

• 44:27Dax Shepard?

  So the doctor was saying like, we don't know if he has lung cancer, which would make total sense. He smoked three packs a day. They were like, we're waiting for the HIV test to come back. I'm starting to think like, oh my God, yeah, like, wow, fuck, Aaron only made it to forty-five, or I guess forty-four. His dad died really young. My dad died really young. And I was just like, oh, God, this is all just repeating. And it's just so sad. He made it through that, and he got on a crazy regimen of antibiotics, and the mass started shrinking, and then ultimately he was released. And then he decided he was gonna quit drinking, and I was so excited. And then I happened to be back in Michigan. We were doing a live tour. We planned it so we would have like three weeks in Michigan on the lake. And then Aaron came out for most of it. He wasn't drinking.

• 45:12Dax Shepard?

  But what I didn't know is Aaron was still doing cocaine. That was a version of Sober I got one time as well. Drinking's the problem.

• 45:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can handle this one.

• 45:20Dax Shepard?

  Then enters a little bit tricky of a zone, which is this happened to me before. It's like, people wanna quit, then they come to me to quit, and then they relapse. And I don't care. I'm not gonna be judgmental. Ultimately, I find out he's been drinking again. And then another, I guess, eight months goes by, or something like that.

• 45:38Speaker 02

  About six months.

• 45:39Dax Shepard?

  Okay, six more months of drinking.

• 45:41Speaker 02

  Those six months were fucking horrendous. It makes me wanna cry thinking about those six months.

• 45:48Dax Shepard?

  This is an important part of the story. First of all, Aaron is always very quick at texting me back, no matter if he's fucked up or not. And also, he was growing weed at the time, and he wanted to buy the house next door to his house to grow weed in that house as well. It was a very cheap house. And so I said, I'll buy it for you, and you can pay me nominal rent. So we go through this whole process. I buy this house. We close on it. And I call him to say we're closed. And then he doesn't call me back, and I text him, and I text him, and I text him. And like, five days goes by. And I'm like, something is wrong. He wanted this house. He's got the house. And he's not even gonna pick up the phone to talk about that he has the house and where the keys and stuff.

• 46:30Dax Shepard?

  So he finally calls me. He's like, oh, Dad, sorry, didn't call you, man. I had the worst flu.

• 46:38Speaker 01

  Sorry.

• 46:42Dax Shepard?

  And I literally go, you've gotta be kidding me that you think I don't know what's going on. Who are you talking to, your mom?

• 46:51Speaker 01

  Oh my god.

• 46:52Dax Shepard?

  And then he just kinda dropped that facade. And I had never ever said to him, I think you should get sober. But I said,

• 46:59Speaker 01

  Well, so you said it then.

• 47:00Dax Shepard?

  I said, hey, I think you're gonna die and I love you. And if you want, I found a treatment center in the Caribbean. I could send you right now. And when I said that, I would have really put the odds of him saying yes at like 8%.

• 47:15Speaker 01

  Really?

• 47:16Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. And then he just goes, yeah, I think it's time to do that. And I was like, oh my god, thank god. Like, I've wanted this to happen for at that point 16 years. And then the most dangerous part of the whole story. Tell him then, he agrees and then he doesn't have a passport. And he knows he's going to treatment, which is the worst scenario for an addict.

• 47:41Speaker 01

  Dax has gone like straight to business. He's like, I took the photo, I'm done. I don't want to talk to anyone.

• 47:45Dax Shepard?

  I'm getting good at this.

• 47:46Speaker 01

  I need to get back to the car.

• 47:47Speaker 02

  And we've made $8.46.

• 47:51Dax Shepard?

  Then we gotta split three ways.

• 47:53Speaker 02

  Right.

• 47:54Dax Shepard?

  So then it was like, try to rush and get a passport before Aaron dies. Cause he knows he's going to treatment and I know he's going berserk.

• 48:02Speaker 02

  For the first time in my life, I meant it, I'm done. I knew I was dying at that point.

• 48:07Dax Shepard?

  You hadn't left your room in four days.

• 48:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, I hadn't. When he was calling and shit, I was in my room with a pistol, a shit ton of coke, bottles upon bottles of whiskey. And I just didn't leave my room. I mean, friends were coming over and banging on my door. And I was just telling them to please leave. So I meant it at that moment. It was really Dax saying that. I was like, he loves me so much. It's insane.

• 48:30Speaker 01

  All this stuff is so delicate, cause what if you hadn't said that? Cause you hadn't for years.

• 48:35Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. And it is a pretty hard, fast rule that is right. You know, I tell people who have loved ones who are struggling, all you can really do is line up consequences. You can say like, you can't live at my house and use like this. You can't drive my car. You can have all these boundaries, but you cannot talk. Hooked someone into getting sober. And I've seen 22 years AA, people that are forced to come there for some reason, they don't stay. Like, you just gotta wanna do it. So it's very hard to figure out when you're gonna say that to somebody. But I definitely thought if he hasn't left his room for five days, this might be the time.

• 49:07Speaker 01

  The thing that's really triggering me with this story is that I hate when the universe or whatever is making it hard for someone who's ready. So this passport thing would have driven me.

• 49:15Dax Shepard?

  Oh, I was terrified.

• 49:17Speaker 01

  Come on, why are you punishing this person who is at some version of a rock bottom? Like, just let them.

• 49:22Dax Shepard?

  And how long does this window last where he's willing to? Does he have one fun night and that buys him another?

• 49:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:28Speaker 02

  So I was ready, but then knowing I had to do this and I had those days before I had to leave, I couldn't possibly start sobering up to be in reality, cuz I couldn't handle it. So I just kept going and I went real hard. And I went, so everyone I knew with coke, I fucking hit them up. You know, get you back kinda thing and I loaded up on everything. Three or four days?

• 49:53Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 49:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 49:53Speaker 01

  And you probably knew that was happening.

• 49:54Dax Shepard?

  Oh, I knew for sure what was happening. And I was just like, we gotta get this passport yesterday, right? And then at this point, can he show up to a flight being awake for three days? When he landed in Antigua, I had been calling him. I don't even know if he got on the flight, but somehow I finally get a hold of him. He's landed in Antigua, or maybe he called me.

• 50:15Speaker 02

  I was in a different world.

• 50:16Dax Shepard?

  He was, and his voice was gone. And he goes, "Dad, white people aren't allowed to drive here, I don't think." And I'm like, oh my God, this means, A, he's being driven by a black guy who he starts saying, "White people are not allowed to drive." He's like, "I don't know if they're kidnapping me." And I'm like, oh my God, thank God, he's in the car of the treatment center. He fucking made it somehow to this car. And then the next time I talked to him was like four days into detox and he was like completely back to. And I was like, whoa, buddy, you should have heard yourself those last minutes.

• 50:53Speaker 01

  And it worked, this place worked.

• 50:55Speaker 02

  It took, man, that was over five years ago, yeah.

• 50:58Dax Shepard?

  There was a lot of encouraging things like it. At one point, he called and said they've recommended I stay longer. And I'd like to. And I was like, yes, stay for a year. I'll sell anything to keep you at that place.

• 51:13Speaker 01

  How long did it take?

• 51:14Speaker 02

  Couple of months. I went November 19th is when I left. So I was there Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year.

• 51:22Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I was afraid he was gonna say like, well, I gotta come home for Christmas. I got kids. And I was gonna be like, you're not gonna have kids if you don't get sober.

• 51:30Speaker 02

  They've convinced me that it's probably good to stay. That's why they were like, you're gonna have to figure out if you can stay.

• 51:37Speaker 01

  Five years is not that long ago.

• 51:39Dax Shepard?

  It's not that long ago, and it's an eternity to be sober.

• 51:42Speaker 01

  Right, of course, of course.

• 51:44Dax Shepard?

  It's so unimaginable. Like, if I would have said to you, hey, you're gonna be sober for five years back then, you'd be like, that's not even possible.

• 51:53Speaker 01

  How has your friendship changed since that time?

• 51:55Dax Shepard?

  It's kind of like we just time traveled back to seventh grade. Like, the second he was sober, it was like all the things that I had reclaimed being sober. Being super enthusiastic to be alive on earth. I have fun stuff now. This was the person I wanted to have fun stuff with.

• 52:13Speaker 02

  It's seventh grade, but with money.

• 52:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:17Dax Shepard?

  And weirdly, there's like a way I can enjoy all this through having Aaron present that I can't otherwise. Like, we went to the Miami Grand Prix, and I had like a speaking engagement in Orlando. And we stayed at the Four Seasons, and we went to Disney World with a guide. And the whole time, we were just like, oh my God, I can't believe we're here. I would be there with Kristen and not have that same feeling. Yeah, I'm just like so thrilled that we can eat as much food as we want at the nice restaurant. It's weirdly made me be able to enjoy the whole thing so much more since Aaron's been back. Throughout the year, we get to do like 10 things together.

• 52:56Speaker 02

  It's the best.

• 52:57Dax Shepard?

  The best. The best, baby.

• 53:03Dax Shepard?

  And Aaron said, back in business.

• 53:05Speaker 01

  Back in business.

• 53:06Dax Shepard?

  Do you have a best friend from childhood?

• 53:07Speaker 01

  I don't, no.

• 53:08Dax Shepard?

  You don't?

• 53:09Speaker 01

  Because I was not myself because of the thing. So I don't think I came out of my shell, honestly, till I turned 30. Because Hollywood kind of fucked me up also.

• 53:16Dax Shepard?

  In what version?

• 53:17Speaker 01

  Because just as I was coming out, I was like, I can't have two strikes against me. I can't be brown and have this. And I had like an early audition where someone was like, don't use your hands as much. It was a callback or something and they were like, they really like you. Just one note, don't move your hands so much.

• 53:31Dax Shepard?

  And you interpreted that as D.L.S. gay?

• 53:33Speaker 01

  Yes, I think they were definitely trying to say that too.

• 53:36Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 53:38Speaker 01

  They were like, the last hands.

• 53:42Speaker 01

  And I was like, uh huh. So that really messed it up also because then I just went right back in in a certain way. Where I was just like, I can't date properly. You know, you go on jobs, you're meeting new people, you always hide parts of yourself. At 30, I think I just finally just let it all come.

• 53:56Dax Shepard?

  You're like, it's just too much.

• 53:57Speaker 01

  It's too much.

• 53:58Dax Shepard?

  How quickly into UCB did you go like, oh fuck, I've got a knack for this?

• 54:02Speaker 01

  I went for business to USC. And then when I didn't have this job to go back to and my dad, they had applied for the green card and I was gonna maybe get a green card with them because I was under 21. I was like, oh, I can stay here. And I'd been at USC enough that there was a bunch of child actors there.

• 54:15Dax Shepard?

  Anyones I know?

• 54:16Speaker 01

  No.

• 54:16Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 54:19Speaker 01

  They were like the third, fourth friend on a Nickelodeon show. And then they were like, I'm 18, I'm gonna go to college. And then there was like a few other kids who were from the Simi Valley area, always had had an agent. And they were like in a McDonald's commercial, I made $50,000 into me at age 19. And I'm like, that's all you'd ever need to make in life?

• 54:33Dax Shepard?

  Yes, of course.

• 54:34Speaker 01

  So I just was like, if this is a job that can exist. And then I had done some theater and stuff in high school and I thought it was a hobby. But then when I came to USC and I didn't do it, I missed it a lot. And I was like, I think it's more than a hobby. So I just started doing UCB and all this other stuff.

• 54:46Dax Shepard?

  But did you know somebody or did you go to a show? That's like a niche thing to know about.

• 54:50Speaker 01

  UCB I got because I got my first agent. And that I did because a child actor told me in 2009 to go to Samuel French Bookshop in Studio City, which I don't think exists anymore, buy the agency handbook, which is the physical book that had 150 addresses of every LA agent. Get a clear envelope, because you get the manila envelope, they'll throw it out in the mailroom because they know it's a headshot. And get the clear. That way they can see your face because there's nothing on the resume.

• 55:13Dax Shepard?

  And then they feel bad.

• 55:14Speaker 01

  Well, they're just hoping that someone sees the face and goes, huh, that face. I'm interested. Otherwise, they just throw it out without even opening.

• 55:20Dax Shepard?

  That's a hat.

• 55:21Speaker 01

  It's a hat, child actor. So got them an envelope. I was interning at a film production coming over summer, so I send it out 150 places. Got three calls. First one, this man called me to Studio City. I was 19 years old, like pre-Uber, all this stuff. I like rented a car to go to this meeting, very excited. I walked in the room and he said, you're never gonna make it, just off the.

• 55:41Dax Shepard?

  Geez. I'm Mike Gibson, you're never gonna make it.

• 55:47Speaker 01

  I don't even.

• 55:48Dax Shepard?

  Is it Karen? Karen, you're not gonna make it.

• 55:51Speaker 01

  Honestly, he sounded a lot like Dex.

• 55:55Dax Shepard?

  And then he high-fived Carrie Cruz. Said his meeting's adjourned.

• 55:59Speaker 01

  He just saw my face and he was like, you're never gonna make it. To give him understanding, he was like, this poor kid, like, let me just end this now while he's young. And I just was so in shock and I just got back in the car and like cried. And then, of course, everyone, my school friends were like, you had a meeting? Because I obviously was bragging, you know, so mature. And then I'm like, yeah, we're like, you know, I'm gonna see what's gonna happen. He had just completely aversed, started meeting in five minutes. And then I met this husband and wife. And then they were like, please do a monologue. And I was like, whoa. This compared to that guy who didn't even see anything. So I did this monologue. They were like, amazing. They were like, go outside in the waiting room while we discuss. And I wanted it so badly. Later on, I learned it's a psychological trick to keep someone waiting in another room or something. It makes you start feeling like, what are they talking about in that room? Like, what's happening?

• 56:43Speaker 01

  Go back in the room, so desperate for them to like say yes, and they go like, we wanna do this, here's the start paperwork. First page was like special skills, second page, bank account number, routing number.

• 56:54Dax Shepard?

  Oh no, there's so many mean people.

• 56:57Speaker 01

  This was really mean, actually. This to me is the meanest one. Because I'm 19 years old. What are you doing? I didn't know that that was shady because, but the child actor told me never pay anyone. Like, no one told me in school or anything.

• 57:08Dax Shepard?

  You at least knew that.

• 57:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was like, something is a little off, but I was like, they're so nice. Let me go back in and I'm just gonna ask why they need this information. So I go back and ask, and I distinctly remember the wife was the more manipulative one. She was like, oh, sweetie, you're so smart. You're asking such good questions. And then she's like, here's the thing, like, we're gonna work so hard for you. You're gonna book all the time, so it won't matter. But like, one month, if you don't book something, we're gonna transfer whatever it was, three hundred dollars to our account for all the time we spend. And I was like, uh huh. And I just remember getting this horrible feeling, like, something is really bad. And I hate confrontation, so I slowly was like, kind of walking out of the room. And then she was like, fill it out, and I'm like, I don't know my routing number. So I was like, I need to call the bank. And she said, call them from here. In my memory, her head is like twisting.

• 57:52Speaker 01

  And then I was like, no, no, no.

• 57:53Dax Shepard?

  Her horns are poking out of her hair, covering her head.

• 57:56Speaker 01

  She's like, use my phone. And so I get in the car and I start driving to just leave. I just ran away from there. And she starts hammer calling me, and I let it go to voicemail. And she left me like fifteen, sixteen voicemails. Started with, hey, sweetie, we're really worried. Like, where are you? We can't find you. To the last one. They're taking you to court. You know, yelling, being like, I've called every producer, every casting director. When I was nineteen, I was like, she might have. Like, maybe I burned every bridge.

• 58:22Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, mind you, she doesn't know it's single producer, we know now.

• 58:26Speaker 01

  And so that was the second one. And then the third one was this guy who was legitimate in Woodland Hills, maybe it was, in a strip mall. And he was like, I wanna sign you for commercials. And he told me to go to UCB. Because it was a big thing at the time to like, learn improv. You can improvise in commercial auditions. But he was like, do you wanna know why I'm signing you? And I was like, uh, yeah, sure. And Slumdog Millionaire had just come out that summer. And he was like, I love Slumdog Millionaire. And there was just a pause, and I was like, does he think I'm in it? What am I supposed to say to this?

• 58:55Dax Shepard?

  Tell, what's it say?

• 58:56Speaker 01

  And then, yeah. And I was just was like, yeah, I was.

• 59:01Speaker 01

  But I was like, maybe I need to pretend like I'm in it? I don't know. And then that was it. We just never talked about it.

• 59:05Dax Shepard?

  Never came up again.

• 59:06Speaker 01

  Never came up again.

• 59:07Dax Shepard?

  He was on to the next movie.

• 59:08Speaker 01

  Yeah. So then, my junior year, I started auditioning, and then he would send me like, one a week.

• 59:13Dax Shepard?

  And were you booking commercials?

• 59:14Speaker 01

  No. I ended up getting them later, but I didn't in the beginning at all. It was horrible.

• 59:19Dax Shepard?

  They're demoralizing.

• 59:20Speaker 01

  The first thing that I was able to kinda quit and be like, I don't wanna go out for this anymore. And I just remember feeling like, such relief that I didn't have to.

• 59:27Dax Shepard?

  Well, I wanna say out loud on the record, I think you're one of the funniest people I've seen on screen forever. I'm not kidding. You're the best part of that movie Kristen did in England. I love you and Deadpool. Every time I see you pop up, I'm like, oh my god, I can't wait to see you. You have such a weird and unique. Angle that is so delightful.

• 59:50Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 59:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you're so good. It's crazy to think that you didn't even think about doing comedy until.

• 59:58Speaker 01

  But that Kristen thing was such a special thing because I don't know if you ever had this experience, but when you're working with something and you're like, I'm not the famous person in this movie. There's many famous people. And I'm like, we don't have that many scenes, but I wonder if we'll hang out. And you just don't know because you're just like, you know, the person has the power. And if they're interested and they're living in a different hotel, I was in a different place. You know, all that's totally fine. But I was like, I knew Ben going in before, so I was like, I'll have that friend there and then who knows? And then Clara, the director. But then I remember distinctly a core memory of sitting in my apartment I had in Kensington. And I just got an unknown number and it was like, hey, it's Kay Bell, wanna get dinner?

• 1:00:32Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:34Speaker 01

  You were like, it happened.

• 1:00:36Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:00:37Speaker 01

  Those little things like I appreciated more after COVID. This job sometimes are just like, this is such a bizarre. It's like high school awareness again.

• 1:00:44Dax Shepard?

  Every job you start.

• 1:00:45Speaker 01

  The cool kid has texted me, I'm gonna go to the dinner with them or whatever. And you're like, I'm thirty something years old. Like, what is happening?

• 1:00:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. I'm gonna say, Karen, thank you so much for joining us on our inaugural voyage. I'll be out of focus, but that's okay. And then you'll be out of focus, but some of you will be there.

• 1:01:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much for having me. This was so fun.

• 1:01:04Dax Shepard?

  I want you to come on every trip.

• 1:01:05Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:01:06Dax Shepard?

  It's very fun.

• 1:01:07Speaker 01

  I think it should be a screen on this ride. How will we ever find the restaurant?

• 1:01:14Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, we're fucking lost without you.

• 1:01:16Speaker 01

  The full circle will be, I'll be walking the streets and you'll run me over. With a different guest, with a different guest. And that'll be how my journey will end. Because it does not feel safe. I'm just gonna put it out there. If you're watching and you're feeling like it's not safe, it's not.

• 1:01:32Dax Shepard?

  Oh, what's great too is as you're about to get hit, it won't be the headlights that blinds you. It'll be this light inside of my windshield. Oh my God.