Seth Rogen Returns Again

Seth Rogen (The Studio, The Boys, Sausage Party) is an Emmy-nominated writer, actor, and director. Seth returns to the Armchair Expert to discuss Snoop Dogg being the only person that’s ever gotten him too high to function, how he’s a prime target for robbery and embezzlement, and why precision and comedy are hard things to marry. Seth and Dax talk about knowing that he’s drawn in a bad way to the joke he shouldn’t be making, why people want the R-rated version of superheroes on The Boys, and that the dragon he’s actually chasing for his audiences is a feeling of disbelief. Seth explains how he wonders if people are happy or bummed out when he shows up to set now that he’s a producer, how directing The Studio made him feel like a kid, and how the show reflects the critical choice between creating for art or commerce. Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube or listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard/ http://www.wondery.com/links/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard/ 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.

• 0:00Dax Shepard?

  Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert, experts on expert. We have an unconventional expert today, but when you hear him talk, you will know he is an expert.

• 0:10Speaker 01

  Peek behind the curtain, he was gonna be a Monday.

• 0:12Dax Shepard?

  Sure.

• 0:13Speaker 01

  Cause obviously he would be a Monday.

• 0:15Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 0:15Speaker 01

  But then it got really interesting. We got into a lot of filmmaking stuff and it was so cool that it was like, no, you know what?

• 0:24Dax Shepard?

  You were editing.

• 0:25Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 0:25Dax Shepard?

  And you text me, what if we moved Seth to Thursday? And I said, no, you have bad ideas.

• 0:33Speaker 01

  Fuck you.

• 0:33Dax Shepard?

  Shh, you're a piece of shit.

• 0:35Speaker 01

  I hate you.

• 0:36Dax Shepard?

  Don't ever think again. Click. And then I forgot about it and then you did it anyways.

• 0:40Speaker 01

  I just did it.

• 0:41Dax Shepard?

  And now we're here.

• 0:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:43Dax Shepard?

  Seth Rogen is an actor. He's a comedian. He is a filmmaker. He is a martial arts star.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:50Dax Shepard?

  Remember when he was a kid in Canada, he was all about that karate. Superbad, this is the knocked up neighbors pineapple express in a new series that I, it'll be obvious in the episode. Truly, I love this show.

• 1:04Speaker 01

  I'm still dying to see it.

• 1:07Dax Shepard?

  It's so impressive. It's so funny and impressive and the plot is like a freight train.

• 1:13Speaker 01

  Woo.

• 1:14Dax Shepard?

  It's called The Studio and it's on Apple TV, March 26th. So please, I couldn't recommend it enough.

• 1:21Speaker 01

  I lump him in with Chelsea Handler of people in this industry who are extremely generous.

• 1:28Dax Shepard?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:29Speaker 01

  They say yes all the time if you ask a favor.

• 1:33Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:34Speaker 01

  I don't think people really know that about him, but he is.

• 1:36Dax Shepard?

  I think he's just a lover of it. You know, like there's haters.

• 1:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:40Dax Shepard?

  There's jealous people. He's a lover.

• 1:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's a nice guy.

• 1:43Dax Shepard?

  He loves projects. He pops up in things. He just loves the whole world.

• 1:47Speaker 01

  We like Seth.

• 1:48Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. I like when the good guys win.

• 1:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, me too.

• 1:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. Please enjoy Seth Rogen. We get support from Quince.

• 1:56Speaker 01

  Okay, can we talk about the fact that the holidays are already here? It's crazy. I feel like I blinked and now we're in gifting season, which I'm not really mad about because I do love giving gifts. And Quince is making it so easy to find something great for everyone on my list, including myself, because let's be honest, self gifting is a love language.

• 2:15Dax Shepard?

  Quince is seriously the gift that keeps on giving. Their high quality staples are made with premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere, 14 karat gold and Italian leather, full on luxury quality at prices that won't wreck your holiday budget.

• 2:31Speaker 01

  It's the dream. The cashmere sweater is starting at $60, down jackets, wool outerwear, cashmere accessories. You and everyone on your list are staying cozy and looking incredible all season long.

• 2:42Dax Shepard?

  Well, I'm going to tell you this, it just got chilly for the first time this year in California. And I'm so excited and I'm wearing my Quince cashmere right now.

• 2:49Speaker 01

  It's great.

• 2:50Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, and I am going to gift this to some of my friends. I hope they're not listening.

• 2:54Speaker 01

  Quince is also more than clothing. They've got fine jewelry for your significant other, leather bags for your bestie, hotel quality bedding to set up your guest rooms, chef grade cookware. That's an amazing thing they offer here. And it's such a good gift because people don't like buying cookware for themselves, but it's very important. And they also have five star luggage, another good gift that people don't like buying for themselves.

• 3:17Dax Shepard?

  Give the gift of quality this holiday season. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was Armchair Expert. It's the best way to support the show. This episode is brought to you by McDonald's. The Quarter Pounder with Cheese with Medium Fries and a Drink is now $8.

• 3:48Speaker 01

  What?

• 3:49Dax Shepard?

  Okay, I need to talk about something that doesn't get enough respect. The Quarter Pounder with Cheese. This is not a casual burger. This is a crafted burger. We're talking 100% fresh beef cooked right when you order it. No artificial flavors, no fillers, no preservatives. Just beef doing what beef is supposed to do. And here's a detail I love. There's a cowbell sound in the kitchen. When somebody orders a quarter pounder with cheese, a cowbell goes off and the grill master throws a fresh patty down. That's like having your own entrance music at McDonald's. I want a cowbell for everything in life. The onions are hand topped by someone who just knows the right amount. Two slices of cheese laid out in a star pattern. So every single bite gets cheese and two pickles side by side. So you're never in a pickle desert.

• 4:33Dax Shepard?

  Every bite is accounted for. Someone engineered this thing with love. I love a quarter.

• 4:38Speaker 01

  Me too. That's my order. It's a quarter pounder with cheese. I love it. I didn't know they put so much effort that they did a star formation. I should have known because you can taste.

• 4:50Dax Shepard?

  You can taste it. Yeah. The love. Don't tell anyone this, but I'll put two of them back.

• 4:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:55Dax Shepard?

  I'm sitting.

• 4:55Speaker 01

  I'm not surprised.

• 4:57Dax Shepard?

  The quarter pounder with cheese with fries and a drink. Now $8 for a limited time only, only at McDonald's. For a limited time only, prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska, and California and for delivery. Fresh beef not available in Alaska and Hawaii. Offer not valid for delivery.

• 5:31Dax Shepard?

  Something very specific happens.

• 5:32Speaker 01

  Oh, what happened? I already informed him about the robbery.

• 5:36Dax Shepard?

  It's related.

• 5:37Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 5:38Speaker 02

  Was there another robbery? There's been a second robbery and follow up robbery. They missed some shit.

• 5:43Speaker 01

  They forgot a few things.

• 5:45Dax Shepard?

  You know, it's weird. That is the only thing that bothers me. I can accept that the stuff got stolen. It's the notion like, well, are they going to come back?

• 5:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:52Dax Shepard?

  Very easy.

• 5:52Speaker 02

  They had a good time.

• 5:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:55Dax Shepard?

  That's what's driving me a little bonkers.

• 5:56Speaker 01

  And they know we're going to obviously replace the cameras.

• 5:58Dax Shepard?

  We have to.

• 5:59Speaker 02

  It's just a never ending camera replenishment. They open a camera shop to the quarter. So it's the same 12 cameras.

• 6:05Dax Shepard?

  I'd be delighted to buy them off.

• 6:07Speaker 02

  Just broker a deal with them.

• 6:09Dax Shepard?

  Like the mafia, I'm willing to pay them 500 a month to just stay away.

• 6:12Speaker 02

  Pay them camera protection.

• 6:14Dax Shepard?

  But when I have anxiety, I cut my hair compulsively.

• 6:17Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 6:18Dax Shepard?

  And I was like, oh, I have a lot of time. I'm gonna really get in front of the mirror and then I'm gonna start trimming my hair. And I got lost in it. And then I thought, I should just glance up. I'm sure I got 10 minutes left. I was like, four minutes after. I was in a state of flow, I guess.

• 6:34Speaker 01

  You need a rule, maybe no cutting before an interview.

• 6:37Dax Shepard?

  I know, I just, I thought it was gonna be three snips, as I always do.

• 6:40Speaker 01

  Always do.

• 6:42Speaker 02

  It was too good.

• 6:43Dax Shepard?

  What's your thing that you'll most lose sense of time doing? Is it the pottery?

• 6:48Speaker 02

  I would say I'm annoyingly conscious of time all the time. Sometimes when I'm filming, I kind of lose track of time, but I also usually have my eye on the clock because there's an amount of time we have to do shit. But pottery, sometimes, watching reality TV, sometimes I'll watch enough of that that I just kind of zone out.

• 7:02Dax Shepard?

  Here's another thing I fucked up. I was like, I have so much time. I'll cut my hair. I'm also gonna bring a fan down and I'm gonna bring an ashtray for our guest.

• 7:09Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 7:10Speaker 02

  It's okay.

• 7:10Dax Shepard?

  Are you sure?

• 7:11Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 7:12Dax Shepard?

  Okay, we love that you smoked weed.

• 7:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was fun for us.

• 7:15Dax Shepard?

  That was fun for us, but it did lead us astray.

• 7:18Speaker 02

  This room is small, also. I've now done these types of things where I make people really stoned. And then I'll see them months later and be like, I was so fucked up that I apologize and everyone feels bad about it.

• 7:28Dax Shepard?

  Well, that's what happened. You did it. And we were like, that was great. Nothing happened. And then with Khalifa.

• 7:32Speaker 02

  Is that his roach?

• 7:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:33Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. And I was like, hey, feel free to smoke.

• 7:35Speaker 02

  He probably smokes at a different rate than I do.

• 7:38Dax Shepard?

  Exactly. He did five back to back over the course of an hour and a half. And there was a point where I was like, I'm a little lost. And I looked over at Monica and Monica was like this.

• 7:49Dax Shepard?

  And then I looked at Robin, he wasn't even looking at the board. He's just sitting on his chair hanging out. I was like, oh.

• 7:53Speaker 02

  I've hung out with him a few times and every time I'm like, this guy smokes a lot.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's kind of impressive because he was fine.

• 8:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, he's fine. That man doesn't have anxiety.

• 8:03Dax Shepard?

  Who's the Muhammad Ali of it?

• 8:06Speaker 02

  Of smoking weed?

• 8:07Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, like, okay, so you were around him and you're like, oh, boy.

• 8:09Speaker 02

  Snoop Dogg, I mean, there's no debating. I was on Howard Stern once with him and he had him smoked a bunch of weed. And then afterwards, he invited me to like his little trailer, which was like a tiny little room. And we smoked so much weed. And it was one of the first times from just smoking weed I Had to like cancel my entire rest of the day stuff. And I was just like, I can't fucking do anything. And then I just sat in my parked car for like 90 minutes as I slowly regained my faculties. Snoop's the best, though.

• 8:35Dax Shepard?

  There's no point in that for you, though, where you're at all nervous, right? You're just like, okay, here we are.

• 8:40Speaker 02

  No, I was eating weed, though. Some of the most unpleasantly high times I've had in my whole life. And this is a life of doing many drugs. Eating weed is the thing that can tweak me out where I'm just like, oh, I've gone too far.

• 8:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, it can go south on you.

• 8:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, because it's not pleasant. These other drugs have like a pleasant cushion.

• 8:56Speaker 01

  That's the point of them.

• 8:57Speaker 02

  That's the point of them. It'll bolster itself with the pleasant effects of the drugs. But eating weed can just go down and there's no bolstering. It's like you're free falling without a parachute.

• 9:06Dax Shepard?

  It's fun to hear you're afraid of that a little bit.

• 9:08Speaker 02

  A little bit.

• 9:08Dax Shepard?

  Isn't it like comforting?

• 9:09Speaker 01

  We love fears.

• 9:10Speaker 02

  Yes. We love vulnerable boys.

• 9:12Dax Shepard?

  I've said that a few times where I've been so high eating it. I was like, how could this be more powerful than crack and psychedelics? And the duration is very up in the air.

• 9:22Speaker 02

  It's a real bummer. Yeah, I've done way too many shrooms. Even that's not that bad in comparison to way too much. Because there's at least like a catharsis. No catharsis comes from eating too much weed. I should never fucking eat weed again. Shrooms, you're like, I should do this differently. I should do that. This was a rough trip, but got intense for a while. But at least I came out of it with some sort of insight.

• 9:41Dax Shepard?

  You might dissolve your ego and learn some stuff about yourself.

• 9:44Speaker 02

  There's like a sense of accomplishment afterwards. There's no sense of accomplishment that comes with eating way too much weed food. You don't feel proud of yourself at all.

• 9:52Dax Shepard?

  So you'll never do it?

• 9:53Speaker 02

  No, I don't know.

• 9:56Speaker 01

  I do it all the time.

• 9:57Dax Shepard?

  Of course.

• 9:59Speaker 02

  What I do is I drink weed a lot now. There's weed beverages that are fantastic and they have a much more moderate amount.

• 10:06Dax Shepard?

  Like a five milligrams?

• 10:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, like three or five. That I get down with.

• 10:09Dax Shepard?

  My favorite thing, I want to say you were doing Stern where you had smoked a bunch of weed doing Stern. But then you were co-hosting with Hoda?

• 10:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 10:17Dax Shepard?

  And you got hammered too?

• 10:18Speaker 02

  Yes, like I've drunk with them very early in the morning.

• 10:21Speaker 01

  Cause they drink, right?

• 10:22Speaker 02

  Kathy Lee and Hoda, they would drink.

• 10:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:24Speaker 02

  I could not believe it. Like, I thought it was like a shtick. You hear like Frank Sinatra had apple juice in that glass. And it's one of those times where you're like, oh, a glass of wine holds almost a bottle of wine.

• 10:33Speaker 01

  Right, yeah.

• 10:34Speaker 02

  They just give you like a full glass of wine at like eight thirty in the morning.

• 10:39Speaker 01

  Oh my god.

• 10:40Speaker 02

  Pounding it. And I was like, wow, this is legit. They are drunk on television every morning.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  What a hack.

• 10:45Speaker 02

  What a great way to live.

• 10:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:47Speaker 02

  People love it.

• 10:48Dax Shepard?

  I really am envious of that experience. I didn't drink in the morning until I did, and then I had to quit. But there were times throughout the year where you did drink in the morning. Camping, church, St. Patrick's Day, wake up, get out of bed.

• 11:00Speaker 02

  Brunch, sometimes a good brunch. I love brunch.

• 11:05Dax Shepard?

  And it's a special feeling to have the whole day ahead of you.

• 11:08Speaker 02

  Yes, wine tasting. I'm glad I never ruined drinking. As I was having a martini the other night, I was marveling at, I've kept this relatively under control.

• 11:17Speaker 01

  That's how I feel.

• 11:18Speaker 02

  I'll have like two drinks and that's it. I'm not great at moderation, so I'm impressed with myself.

• 11:22Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 11:23Speaker 02

  As I'm doing it, I'm like, look at you, man. Two martinis and calling it a night.

• 11:28Dax Shepard?

  I have that same inflated pride about not having a gambling addiction. Cause I'm like, everything I've ever touched, if I like it, I do it too much. But I can gamble. I did it Saturday. Chris and I were in Vegas for like nine hours. I'm like, let's gamble. Did forty minutes, very normal.

• 11:43Speaker 02

  Gambling's one of the worst. It's an addiction where you're just burning your money, basically.

• 11:46Dax Shepard?

  You're losing your life, literally, not even figuratively.

• 11:49Speaker 02

  At least drug addiction, there's moments where you're like, this is fucking great. I bought heroin.

• 11:52Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, it's an escape. Rob, who's your favorite guest, the chef we love? Roy Choi?

• 11:57Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 11:57Dax Shepard?

  Do you know him?

• 11:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, I met him. I was on, Jon Favreau had like a cooking show many years ago. We were on it together.

• 12:03Dax Shepard?

  Well, he had gambling addiction and he really shared with us. And I'll say the added fucking burn of that addiction, aside from drugs, is there is this notion you can get even. For me, like day three of a crack run, if I thought, oh, I could smoke two rocks and it'll erase what I did.

• 12:19Speaker 02

  Go back in time.

• 12:20Dax Shepard?

  Yes, it has that promise.

• 12:23Speaker 02

  That's worse.

• 12:24Dax Shepard?

  I'm in deep shit. I've lost the house, but I could fix it all with this addiction.

• 12:28Speaker 02

  The right hit will make my brain chemistry. Know how to solve all these problems. Look, I get no pleasure from gambling. I don't gamble.

• 12:35Dax Shepard?

  Not even like sitting at a blackjack table and tapping into the Sinatra thing of it all.

• 12:40Speaker 02

  I'm always afraid I'm gonna get yelled at and I'm not doing the right thing and that I'm gonna get mad at me at the table. That fear overpowers any pleasure I get from it. I'll stand around and watch my friends gamble.

• 12:50Dax Shepard?

  What if you went with a buddy who was kinda good at it and he just was like, you got, you hit a sixty.

• 12:56Speaker 02

  Now, I've done that. I've gone with my friends who are like, I'll be very instructive.

• 13:00Dax Shepard?

  Protect them.

• 13:00Speaker 02

  Then I just feel like a fucking idiot.

• 13:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 13:04Speaker 02

  My friend whispering in my fucking ear what to do. I feel like a child.

• 13:08Dax Shepard?

  He's gambling by proxy.

• 13:10Speaker 02

  It's not fun either being puppeted by your friend at the blackjack table.

• 13:14Speaker 01

  We both have money, so it's kinda like.

• 13:16Dax Shepard?

  Don't leave yourself out of your mouth across the street. Everyone's got money in the room.

• 13:20Speaker 01

  So you can't tell yourself, oh, it's because I need it. There has to be something else sort of happening. Someone's just telling you what to do. It's not like, oh, I have a skill.

• 13:28Dax Shepard?

  Well, that's kinda my struggle. I was just explaining, someone else was on the trip who's a big gambler.

• 13:33Speaker 02

  Called that.

• 13:35Speaker 02

  My comp. It's a sticky title.

• 13:37Dax Shepard?

  It is. It is.

• 13:39Speaker 02

  It did very well.

• 13:40Speaker 01

  You can't say it didn't work.

• 13:41Dax Shepard?

  You could argue it was a powerful book. You can say a lot of things about him, but to say his book was not effective.

• 13:46Speaker 02

  It was sticky.

• 13:48Dax Shepard?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 13:49Speaker 01

  God.

• 13:49Dax Shepard?

  Well, yeah, there's a dude on the trip who really gambles. And I was saying to him, I'm in this nether world where I used to gamble with a thousand dollars in the bank and I would gamble a hundred, which was a tenth of my net worth. And if I won two hundred, I literally went up thirty percent.

• 14:03Speaker 02

  It was real life altering.

• 14:05Dax Shepard?

  It changed my life.

• 14:07Speaker 02

  That weekend. That's bad.

• 14:09Dax Shepard?

  And now, like, I'm not willing to go gamble ten thousand dollars.

• 14:13Speaker 02

  No, exactly. That's crazy. The best time I ever had at casino was Danny McBride got married many years ago in Pop Springs and we all went to casino afterwards. I was with Adam McKay and Chris Henchy, who's a comedy writer.

• 14:25Dax Shepard?

  And the best storyteller alive, probably.

• 14:27Speaker 02

  He's so funny. And they did a thing at the blackjack table that was the funniest thing I've ever seen, where they sat down separately, pretending not to know one another. What McKay kept doing would be he would hand Chris objects and Chris said he was a magician and a sleight of hand. And he would keep pretending to steal things from Adam McKay. And it was only for the benefit of the dealer and like the three other people who happened to be sitting at the table. And McKay would be like, I bet you're not that good. And then he'd be like, then how did I get your shoe? Everyone would be like, that's incredible. And I'd be like, that was lucky. Well, then how did I get your wristwatch? And it went on a very long time. It was actually one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

• 15:05Dax Shepard?

  And it's so pure.

• 15:07Speaker 02

  It was pure for four people and nobody else.

• 15:09Dax Shepard?

  What are you watching? What shows are you obsessed with?

• 15:12Speaker 02

  I've been loving Severance. It's amazing.

• 15:14Dax Shepard?

  Walk me through the experience of watching it.

• 15:16Speaker 02

  Do you watch it?

• 15:17Dax Shepard?

  Yes, obsessed. We've seen the whole thing because like your show, we got screened.

• 15:21Speaker 01

  But I haven't seen the last episodes.

• 15:22Speaker 02

  I mean, I started it when it started. I'm a huge fan of Ben Stiller. So I've known him since I was 16 years old. And a lot of people I worked with when I was first starting had worked on the Ben Stiller Show and Ben was on Freaks and Geeks. And the DP who shot Freaks and Geeks had shot the movie that Ben was the star of. He was someone I just looked up to immensely. And he was a writer and director and he did all the things that I wanted to do and he acted and he was so funny. I've always just been a fan of his. And so when I heard he was directing a new show, I watched it right away. I know Adam Scott for a long time. He's the best and it's incredible. And every time I see Ben, I gush over it because I really think, and it's sort of the complete opposite of what we have tried to do with our show. But precision and comedy are hard things to marry. And I'd say almost like a sterile level of precision.

• 16:04Speaker 02

  Stanley Kubrick did it very well in Doctor Strangelove, but very few people have actually done it effectively since that, I would argue. And there are things that are pretty funny with that style, but I think Severance is a very funny show.

• 16:16Dax Shepard?

  Oh, yeah.

• 16:17Speaker 02

  And the story's amazing. And I love the mystery. I watched Lost, which was a real bummer ultimately because I don't feel like it added up to the experience. And this feels like it's giving me the Lost energy and I have faith that it does add up.

• 16:29Dax Shepard?

  I'm optimistic as well.

• 16:30Speaker 02

  I also loved watching Lost and I do often in my head think, was it worth it? It's a good philosophical question. Is it worth a great journey if the ending sucks?

• 16:40Dax Shepard?

  It's like a new riddle. There is no destination.

• 16:42Speaker 02

  Yes, exactly.

• 16:43Dax Shepard?

  Journey worth taking without a destination.

• 16:45Speaker 02

  And I am glad I did it ultimately because all our friends, we get together, we watch it. It was so fun, but it was a real bummer. We did not love it. Very much. And so I am getting a similar vibe with Severance where it does feel like a mystery. Everyone's trying to unpack, reveal. Everyone's excited to see what comes next. A lot of people I know watch it. So it's nice to talk about it, but the style of it is unbelievable. Most things that are like frame fucked within an inch of its life.

• 17:09Dax Shepard?

  For the camera only.

• 17:10Speaker 02

  So precise. You could tell they're pouring over every millisecond of the show. And usually again, those things suck the comedy out of things and this does not do that at all.

• 17:20Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. Like Wes Anderson can have that kind of meticulous world and comedy.

• 17:24Speaker 02

  He's literally probably the only other person to like really do it like that.

• 17:29Dax Shepard?

  Do you like Righteous Gemstones?

• 17:30Speaker 02

  I've never watched any Righteous Gemstones. I'm waiting for it to end and then I'm gonna watch all of them.

• 17:35Dax Shepard?

  That's fair. So you can plow through.

• 17:38Speaker 02

  It's like a treat. I've left. I actually watched the first episode. I was like, I love this so much that I don't want to have a staggered viewing experience.

• 17:46Speaker 01

  That is similar, actually. It's also shot so beautifully.

• 17:50Dax Shepard?

  You saw the pilot, right?

• 17:51Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 17:52Dax Shepard?

  Danny directed the pilot. This fucking tracking casino style shots with the money.

• 17:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, those guys are great. And those guys are some of the first guys I worked with that really wanted their comedies to look a certain way.

• 18:03Dax Shepard?

  Well, they were film school people.

• 18:04Speaker 02

  Exactly. And Judd, with the people that I was making movies with, were not like that. It was very much performance capture oriented. Since then, everyone's style has evolved. At the time, it was cross coverage. That's it. If it doesn't look great, who cares? All that matters is we're capturing the joke.

• 18:18Dax Shepard?

  In the defense of everyone, that was the first full embracing of improv all the time.

• 18:22Speaker 02

  Yes, exactly.

• 18:23Dax Shepard?

  So you couldn't afford to miss someone's reaction.

• 18:26Speaker 02

  And that's what people liked and it was working and it was very alive. Then I remember seeing Foot Fissway and I made observe report with Jodie Hill. All of a sudden I was like, oh, there's shots in this movie. I was like, whoa, this is fucking crazy. A whole other way to work. And then I watched a lot of reality TV.

• 18:39Speaker 01

  That's your anxiety release.

• 18:40Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 18:41Dax Shepard?

  White Lotus?

• 18:42Speaker 02

  I don't watch White Lotus.

• 18:43Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 18:44Speaker 01

  I could see you on White Lotus.

• 18:45Speaker 02

  Fingers crossed.

• 18:47Speaker 01

  Say it in here.

• 18:48Speaker 02

  Exactly. I watched your wife's show. I thought that was great.

• 18:51Dax Shepard?

  Okay, great. What a kiss, right?

• 18:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, handsy kiss.

• 18:56Dax Shepard?

  I was watching with my Evan, Aaron Weekly, since sixth grade. And we're in Texas on someone's couch. We're staying at someone's house and we decide to watch the show. It had been out for maybe a week or two.

• 19:06Speaker 01

  You were playing it like hard to get.

• 19:08Dax Shepard?

  No, I had been really busy. Something happened and I was actually excited because I was now available to watch it. And we were sitting on our couch, very tiny love seat, and that kiss happened. And I was like, oh my God, that's the best kiss I've ever seen on television. He goes, has she ever kissed you like that? I'm like, no. Aaron goes, I don't know who I want to kiss more, him or her. I'm like, same.

• 19:31Speaker 02

  Powerful moment.

• 19:33Speaker 01

  Can you remove yourself? Leighton and Adam are talking about this too. She's like, when I watch the show, I don't see him. I can't really do that. Every time I watch Kristen, I see her.

• 19:42Dax Shepard?

  Right. So your buddy is making out with.

• 19:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:45Speaker 02

  It depends. I sometimes have a hard time watching people I know in things. Sometimes it takes me a few viewings to desensitize myself. Especially if it's someone I know and they're doing a real character. Sometimes that throws me for a loop.

• 19:58Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 19:58Dax Shepard?

  They're like smoking cigarettes and they've never smoked.

• 20:00Speaker 02

  Things like that, but then I start to love it. I always think of like Jonah in Wolf of Wall Street is like so good and so funny. And I think it maybe took me a minute where I was just like, what is going on here? And then I was just like, oh no, it's one of the funniest performances ever. At times it takes me a minute to wrap my head around. Lauren has acted in things where she's made out with people.

• 20:17Dax Shepard?

  And how do you feel when that happens?

• 20:19Speaker 02

  I get it because I also know what I'm doing it that I don't actually feel like I've kissed the people that I've kissed in movies.

• 20:24Dax Shepard?

  Not one?

• 20:24Speaker 02

  Not for real. No, I for sure have not. I maybe never had one real moment ever on or off screen in any moment ever.

• 20:34Speaker 01

  Because you're in your head, you want it to look a certain way. You have to be aware.

• 20:38Dax Shepard?

  Mine that I'll say in public is I had watched Friday Night Lights.

• 20:42Speaker 01

  Oh no.

• 20:43Dax Shepard?

  I loved Lila Garrity and then all of a sudden on Parenthood, she becomes my love interest. I'm like, I'm going to get to kiss Lila Garrity. I'm going to drop out of character for those moments. Drop back in character. Crosby hat on. You've heard the stories, right, of actors who've really had sex, right? You kind of collect these stories.

• 21:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 21:03Dax Shepard?

  We were very bummed out to find, we had Halle Berry on.

• 21:05Speaker 01

  Dax asked.

• 21:06Speaker 02

  Oh, there's that rumor of her.

• 21:08Dax Shepard?

  And she said, no.

• 21:08Speaker 02

  On the staircase.

• 21:09Dax Shepard?

  Absolutely not.

• 21:10Speaker 02

  Were they on a stair?

• 21:11Dax Shepard?

  They were on the couch.

• 21:12Speaker 02

  Maybe I'm conflating.

• 21:12Speaker 01

  Staircase is something else. You talked about staircase.

• 21:15Dax Shepard?

  That was Thomas Crown Affair.

• 21:16Speaker 02

  Or maybe History of Violence, I'm thinking of.

• 21:18Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 21:19Speaker 02

  Another very convincing sex scene, perhaps on a staircase. I just have a encyclopedic knowledge of staircase fucking.

• 21:25Speaker 01

  The fact check is just gonna be a list of staircase fucking.

• 21:28Dax Shepard?

  One of my funniest moments with my oldest daughter thus far that has happened in the 12 years is I was like, Thomas Crown Affair, I love that movie. That snappy scene with the bowler hat, she's gonna love this. And I showed it to her when she was probably like eight. And we're watching and I'm like, oh, I forgot about this fucking scene on the staircase with Rene Russo and Brosnan, and it's just going on forever. And I'm like, I wonder if she's gonna say anything. And then she just goes, do people really do that? And I go, have sex? And she goes, on the staircase?

• 22:00Speaker 02

  And I go, no, it's actually never happened.

• 22:04Speaker 02

  But in movies, people are constantly. They can't get up to the bedroom. They can't even make it up there.

• 22:09Speaker 01

  You just can't make it up there.

• 22:10Speaker 02

  Too horny for the extra 20 feet.

• 22:13Dax Shepard?

  Oh, I want to add to, there's a couple of things you've said in the previous two interviews that really, really stuck with me.

• 22:19Speaker 02

  That's crazy.

• 22:20Dax Shepard?

  And like, I think about them often.

• 22:21Speaker 02

  I'd never expect anyone to think of anything I ever have said to anyone.

• 22:25Dax Shepard?

  It was really aspirational, like somehow we're talking about business managers or this or that. And you said, like, I don't know if they've stolen from me. I mean, I hope they have.

• 22:36Dax Shepard?

  I hope they have. And I think it's half a joke and actually half insanely aspirational to not be so attached to it.

• 22:44Speaker 02

  No, I still am like that. I'm a prime target for serious robbery and embezzlement. I've decided everything. You send me a docuSight, I will send it back.

• 22:53Dax Shepard?

  I hope they have, because I still have enough.

• 22:55Speaker 02

  No scrutiny.

• 22:56Speaker 01

  I have never read a docuSight in my life, but it is aspirational.

• 23:00Speaker 02

  Well, I guess I've seen over time, and I'm just so not like this. Money is a thing people really hoard and have a lot of pride in. Money itself and I'm so guilty of their money into more money and love how much money their money is making them and how profitable their money's money is. And that is just like not how I think I have no desire for my money to itself be out there working for me.

• 23:22Speaker 01

  It's an employee.

• 23:23Speaker 02

  I don't view my buddy as lazy. I don't think of it like that at all. And I get how people do it. Are you like that?

• 23:30Dax Shepard?

  I am.

• 23:30Speaker 02

  You love your money to make more money. It's a thing people like.

• 23:33Dax Shepard?

  Mine's just a fear.

• 23:35Speaker 02

  What are you afraid of? That you're gonna run out of money?

• 23:37Dax Shepard?

  Yes, yes.

• 23:38Speaker 02

  That's not a fear I have. I'm afraid I'm gonna die with too much money. That is my fear.

• 23:43Speaker 01

  You don't have children.

• 23:44Speaker 02

  I don't have children and I'm afraid I'm gonna die and be like, I'm gonna have a fucking place on the beach. I'm gonna die. I don't wanna die with $10 million in the bank that I could have spent doing fun, alive things.

• 23:55Dax Shepard?

  A jet to Paris on a whim.

• 23:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. I'm gonna look back and be like, I could have been jetting this whole time.

• 24:02Dax Shepard?

  I also have that fear. I'm so nuts about it and I'm such a hoarder and then I'm gonna die and I'm gonna be like, all I see now is a bunch of trips I could have taken to Paris.

• 24:10Speaker 02

  Yes, that's more of the fear that I live off of.

• 24:13Dax Shepard?

  So I was, single mom, money was tight. We were panicked about it. You guys weren't fucking rolling in cash.

• 24:19Speaker 02

  Not at all.

• 24:19Dax Shepard?

  But was there no fear around it in the house?

• 24:22Speaker 02

  I actually remember as a young person being very concerned about the amount of money we had and a lot of my friends had way more money.

• 24:28Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you also went to a school where there was some hats.

• 24:30Speaker 02

  I went to a school that was way across town from where I live. So I essentially was surrounded by much richer people than me. And so it was something that I remember being worried about, but then I just, I mean, at a very young age, I started making pretty good money. And I remember being like 18 and my dad being like, in the last two years, you made more money than I have in my entire life put together, basically. If he lived this long off that amount of money, I'm sure I could live. And I think not having kids, I would imagine people seem to wanna leave their kids' money, I guess, which is, I guess, a good thing to do. And that's complicated in and of itself.

• 25:02Dax Shepard?

  I'll tell you this much. I went into this going like, no, no, you don't give your kids money. It ruins them and they need to be hungry and work and blah blah. I started feeling a little guilty. It's like, if I didn't get shit when I grew up, that'd be fine. All of our family vacations were in a van, eating caramels and we slept in the van. I unfortunately have given them a lifestyle that they're gonna feel like.

• 25:22Speaker 02

  It's too late.

• 25:22Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 25:22Speaker 02

  They're gonna really. Oh, you can't go back from that.

• 25:25Dax Shepard?

  It's gonna jump off a cliff. And I'm like, well, that wasn't very fair to them either.

• 25:28Speaker 02

  No, exactly.

• 25:29Dax Shepard?

  So now what's the ethical thing I do?

• 25:31Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 25:32Dax Shepard?

  Had I raised them like shit pigs like I was raised, then I would be like, cool.

• 25:35Speaker 02

  Yeah. Had you just started like that.

• 25:37Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 25:37Speaker 02

  You had like another little house on this property that was bad.

• 25:41Speaker 01

  Oh, my God, that'd be hilarious.

• 25:43Dax Shepard?

  And we went on vacation. They didn't.

• 25:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, you keep having the bad house.

• 25:48Dax Shepard?

  Well, Jack, and then when they get out of college and they can't go on vacation, I'm like, yeah, that's normal. But now the realization like you might not travel for 13 years.

• 25:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's so hard.

• 25:58Dax Shepard?

  Kind of crazy.

• 25:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, you can't go back.

• 26:00Speaker 01

  I don't know. I still kind of think it's a good idea.

• 26:03Dax Shepard?

  To not give them anything.

• 26:04Speaker 01

  Give them some amount, but not too much.

• 26:08Speaker 02

  Spend it all.

• 26:09Dax Shepard?

  Do you want to go to Paris tonight?

• 26:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. I was in a Beastie Boys video many, many years ago, and one of the things I remember is they were showing me pictures or something. I went on their phones. They had recently gone to Paris and there was all these pictures of them in an incredibly expensive menswear shop, just in like ridiculous matching outfits. And they were like, oh, yeah, every time we go to a foreign country like this, we all go buy funny matching tuxedos and stuff like that.

• 26:34Speaker 01

  Oh, my God, it's great.

• 26:35Speaker 02

  And I was like, that's a good thing to do with your money. You'll never regret buying matching tuxedos with your three friends with top hats and canes and tails.

• 26:42Speaker 01

  I know.

• 26:42Speaker 02

  Going out on the town.

• 26:43Speaker 01

  You'll never regret that.

• 26:44Speaker 02

  If you're rich, that's a thing that is good to spend your money doing.

• 26:47Speaker 01

  I'm struggling with this currently very much.

• 26:50Speaker 02

  How much money your money's money should be making you.

• 26:52Speaker 01

  Mainly that. No, just kids versus feeling very free. I really, really like feeling very.

• 27:02Speaker 02

  Are you a married person?

• 27:03Speaker 01

  I'm not married and I don't have children. And I literally have nothing except that house I'm building for me only.

• 27:10Speaker 02

  That's great.

• 27:11Speaker 01

  I mean, it does feel great, actually, but then I'm like, oh, am I gonna regret it later? Or is it gonna feel empty later? I mean, there's just so much that I struggle with. I like being able to go on vacation and do it up, fly first class, stay in the hotel.

• 27:24Speaker 02

  And not worried if you're fucking your kid up.

• 27:26Speaker 01

  Exactly. I'm also very. Scared of that, too.

• 27:29Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. When I was young, we would do these press tours and I'd be on like a private jet going to do press with a nine year old and I'd just be like, this child is gonna have a hard time coming back to earth from all this.

• 27:39Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 27:41Dax Shepard?

  It's harder than I anticipated, which is, well, I worked my whole life so I could fight first class. They're too young. I gotta be with them. So what the fuck am I gonna do? I'm gonna sit back in the exit row next to the toilet?

• 27:50Speaker 02

  No.

• 27:51Dax Shepard?

  That feels unfair to me.

• 27:52Speaker 02

  It is unfair to you. It's unfair to everybody. No one should have to do that.

• 27:57Dax Shepard?

  I re-listened to the second interview. I want publicly apologize. I was coming really hard at you about kids and then I've since heard other remarks you've made and I certainly was a part of the problem.

• 28:08Speaker 01

  Oh, no, you were pushing.

• 28:09Dax Shepard?

  I never did articulate what I was going for in that.

• 28:12Speaker 02

  I've never felt you needed to apologize for the record.

• 28:15Dax Shepard?

  Well, it was pretty full court press. The real essence of it was, is I was like, you would be such a fun dad for me.

• 28:24Dax Shepard?

  Sometimes you see people and you go like, that would be a very fun dad. He has the spirit to be a dad. Ultimately, I think I was just trying to give you a compliment that you would be such a fun dad.

• 28:33Speaker 02

  Thank you. Being a good parent is nowhere on our list of reasons, whether or not we would or we're not have children. I assume we'd be good parents. I know people who weren't so much fucking stupid or who are good parents.

• 28:44Speaker 01

  Seriously.

• 28:45Speaker 02

  I do think I would be a good parent, but I just don't think I want to be a parent.

• 28:49Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I love it. I heard you say something recently and I was like, yeah, yeah, that's fucking ideal for him and I should have shut up. It was in the press recently. Him basically just saying that, we're having a great fucking time and I don't feel like I've missed out and everything's groovy. Paraphrasing.

• 29:02Speaker 02

  Things are good.

• 29:03Dax Shepard?

  This is a random question, but I think maybe because of our guest that came out today, which was Nikki Glaser, and we went through this whole thing where she had made some jokes about me and I was very, very sensitive.

• 29:12Speaker 02

  Really?

• 29:13Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 29:13Speaker 02

  What did she say?

• 29:14Dax Shepard?

  No, it was great. Everything's great.

• 29:15Speaker 02

  On the show or out in the world?

• 29:17Dax Shepard?

  She was gonna make it in the Golden Globes and I had found out that it was too hard for the Golden Globes. I was like, oh, no. And then during the whole monologue, it was just one of those cameras was on us and I was just waiting to have to fake some positive reaction to being shit on. And then so she didn't tell it there, but then she told on Stern the next morning, but then I purposely didn't want to hear it because I thought I'd made up these fucking jokes that were so mean to me. And I was kind of just devastated. And then I heard the joke. It wasn't bad at all. And I was like, what a waste of my time. Then we had her on. We talked about it. It was so fun. But I think because she was the guest today and I posted and I was just reliving that whole thing. I was curious, are you sensitive? Like, I'm so sensitive.

• 29:52Speaker 02

  Yes, I am sensitive to people making jokes about me for sure.

• 29:56Dax Shepard?

  It's really hard, right?

• 29:57Speaker 02

  Especially if it's comedians I like.

• 29:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:00Speaker 02

  It's happened a few times. Like, when we made the interview, we kind of became open season because we were like the news.

• 30:06Dax Shepard?

  To remind people, North Korea hacked something.

• 30:08Speaker 02

  They hacked something. It almost started a war. Biggest active industrial espionage in history, I believe.

• 30:15Speaker 01

  It's kind of cool you were a part of that.

• 30:17Dax Shepard?

  That's a cool deathbed thing, like, oh, yeah, I fucked up world relations for a minute.

• 30:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, geopolitics.

• 30:22Speaker 01

  Like, I'm powerful.

• 30:24Speaker 02

  Well, that's another good lesson. You can hit the bullseye too effectively at times. There was comedians that I like making jokes about us in the movie. Whenever they would make jokes that the movie sucked, that I just didn't like because that's all I care about. But again, you get over it and it's happened again.

• 30:38Dax Shepard?

  You've been obviously invited to all these rows.

• 30:41Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 30:42Dax Shepard?

  Have you ever gone to one?

• 30:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, nothing of those has ever really insulted me. I have like a pretty thick skin about, because I also make jokes about other people all the time, especially in our movies. We make a lot of jokes about people and I've had people come to me and been like, that wasn't great. Being in a theater full of people, having them laugh hysterically at a joke, making fun of me. Like, I've received direct text messages from people being like, why would you do this? And I'm like, yeah, I get it. I'm sorry. And I've gotten better. I have been in some situations recently where I was going to make jokes about certain people and certain things and had the foresight to ask the people beforehand as to whether or not they felt as though this would be in poor taste.

• 31:22Speaker 02

  And when it was told to me and no one searched, that it would in fact be in poor taste, I was happy to not do the joke. And I know enough about myself now to know that I'm drawn in a bad way to the joke I shouldn't be making sometimes. And I get a kick out of saying the thing that I know I probably shouldn't. And it's not even always the funniest. Sometimes it's very personal. Something is just something I know I shouldn't necessarily be saying. I used to be much more. inclined to do it. And because I think I wanted to show I would do it or I didn't care, or I thought it was just funny that I was treading into these waters that even if the average person didn't think they were taboo, like I knew in my head, I was like, oh, this is fucked up.

• 32:00Dax Shepard?

  It's like you're answering the calling to the commitment to comedy. Like in that moment, you elevate it.

• 32:05Speaker 02

  Yep, I actually thought it was funnier. It's not even always funnier. It's just like a thing that I know I shouldn't be saying. It's a slippery slope.

• 32:11Dax Shepard?

  This is terribly corny, but hurt people, hurt people. There is some reality and we even had fun talking with Nick. It's like, the bottom line is, I'm really sensitive and because I'm really sensitive and insecure, I'm great at seeing other people's sensitivities and insecurities. It's like you almost have to be a little wounded to even know what to do.

• 32:29Speaker 02

  Or sometimes you've just tread into an area where you are fodder for comedy, whether you like it or not. That's what it felt like with the interviewer. This is such a big story. You have to make a joke about it. And I just got that.

• 32:41Dax Shepard?

  People wouldn't be doing their job.

• 32:43Speaker 02

  Exactly. Like you feel as though you were ignoring a big thing that was happening if you didn't do it. And in those moments are the feelings of a few more important than like addressing the elephant that all sees in the room.

• 32:56Speaker 01

  Like Diddy. I mean, it's not going to happen now that those jokes aren't going to pop up at the shows and stuff. You're just like waiting for it.

• 33:01Speaker 02

  I know. And all I'm thinking is, how does Diddy feel?

• 33:05Dax Shepard?

  I'm pretty worried about it.

• 33:06Speaker 02

  All I'm thinking is I'm watching this stuff. This guy has to watch these jokes.

• 33:11Dax Shepard?

  For all of his improprieties, he never really made fun of people. He didn't even earn this.

• 33:15Speaker 01

  He didn't deserve it.

• 33:16Dax Shepard?

  That's not what his bag was. He wasn't out there shitting on other people.

• 33:23Speaker 03

  Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert, if you dare.

• 33:29Dax Shepard?

  We get support from Gusto. So here's the thing about running a small business that nobody romanticizes. It's not the big idea that wears you down. It's the payroll, the tax filings, the wait, do I need workers comp for this stuff? That's the part that quietly eats away your whole afternoon, which is where Gusto comes in. Gusto is online payroll and benefit software built for small businesses. It's all in one, remote friendly and incredibly easy to use so you can pay onboard Support your team from anywhere. They handle automatic tax filing, direct deposits, health benefits, 401k, all of it. And you get unlimited payroll runs for one monthly price. No hidden fees, no surprises. If something tricky comes up,

• 34:12Dax Shepard?

  you've got direct access to certified HR experts who actually know what they're talking about. And they're ranked number one on G2's highest satisfaction products list for 2026, entrusted by over 500,000 small businesses. That's not nothing. Try Gusto today at gusto.com/dax and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com/dax. Again, that's gusto.com/dax. We get support from our sponsor, Lilly. For adults with obesity or with excess weight and weight-related medical problems, it's time to find out about Foundo or for Gleepran. Foundo is a once-daily prescription GLP-1 medicine used with a reduced calorie diet

• 34:57Dax Shepard?

  and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off.

• 35:07Speaker 04

  Foundo should not be used with other GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if Foundo is safe and effective for use in children. Don't take Foundo if you're allergic to it or if you or someone in your family had majorary thyroid cancer or multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Stop and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, or severe stomach pain. Serious side effects may include inflamed pancreas and gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes. If you're nursing, pregnant, plant-to-be, or taking birth control pills and before scheduled procedures with anesthesia. Taking Foundo with an insulin or sulfonylurea may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and may cause kidney problems. Once-daily Foundo is available by prescription only

• 35:49Speaker 04

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• 36:05Dax Shepard?

  This episode is brought to you by ServiceNow. Look, I have my dream job. I get to talk to folks I admire like crazy and ask them virtually any question that I want to. I can't imagine a better way to spend my time. But even dream jobs have some not so dreamy parts, the stuff that gets in the way of the actual work. Now that's where ServiceNow's AI specialists come in. They don't just tell you what you should do about your busy work. They actually do it, start to finish, cases closed, requests handled, no extra work for you. So you and your team can focus on what matters most, which for me is, are they obsessed with male bodies on the same level as I am?

• 36:47Speaker 01

  They never are.

• 36:48Dax Shepard?

  To learn how to put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com. We get support by Peloton. You know that feeling when you're spiraling over a problem and you just can't figure it out? When that happens to me, I need a change of pace and I've found that running is the best way. It takes my brain out of the driver's seat and I come back with a fresh perspective. Running can be freeing and cathartic and Peloton helps you feel all of that. And now that feeling fits wherever you need it with the new Peloton Tread Flex. It's movable and foldable, designed to fit your life. So next time you feel stuck, you can go for a run literally anywhere, whether that's in your office, living room, or even the attic. Plus, they have classes with expert instructors

• 37:32Dax Shepard?

  and programs to meet you at any level and keep you moving. Let yourself run. Explore the new Peloton Tread Flex at onepeloton.com.

• 37:49Dax Shepard?

  Before we get to the studio, I just want to say I love the boys so much and I love Gen V so much.

• 37:55Speaker 02

  Oh, that's so nice.

• 37:56Dax Shepard?

  How much time does that whole thing take up? I want it to go forever.

• 38:01Speaker 02

  I know, it'd be great. They're doing the last season now.

• 38:03Dax Shepard?

  Oh, they are?

• 38:04Speaker 02

  Yes, but they're doing another show. We've slowly become the thing we are making fun of, which is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So we are doing another show that's like a prequel about the formation of VOT and World War II with Soldier Boy and those characters. But it's a funny thing with the boys where me and Evan, it's a very well run show. And the guy Eric Kripke, who runs the show, does such a good job that it makes it that it does not occupy very much of my time or energy. We were very involved in the very beginning of the show. We like cast the show and kind of designed a lot of the uniforms.

• 38:33Dax Shepard?

  I'd imagine you were taking all of your cultural capital and power at the studio to allow that tone to exist and be that bold. And then once that was achieved and rewarded, you could step away.

• 38:43Speaker 02

  Well, it was also Amazon. It was a good moment for us. We found ourselves at a place who was like looking for its identity in some ways. They didn't have like a flagship show and so they kind of didn't know what it was. The people who are running it changed over in the midst of the time we were doing it. So I actually think we kind of just got lucky. No one had any reason to tell us no, basically. They actually really believed in it and our pitch was very clear. People want the R rated version of superheroes.

• 39:10Dax Shepard?

  Maybe the X rated.

• 39:11Speaker 02

  Very much so. In a world that was like so inundated with superheroes, people will get such catharsis to see what this would kind of be like in real life and how gruesome it would be and how gross it would be. And I remember that was the thing we would always say in the pitch is just your whole life. You've seen Superman shoot lasers out of his eyes. You've never once seen how grotesque the effects of that would be on like an actual human's body.

• 39:33Dax Shepard?

  Six thousand degrees.

• 39:35Speaker 02

  Exactly. That was like a thing. We were just like, that is what the show is. They really don't fight us very much on stuff on that show. From a content standpoint, I'm amazed at what they let us get away with.

• 39:44Dax Shepard?

  The reason I love it so much and Chris and I'll say this all the time, mid sequence, we're like, I can't believe it's on television. I mean, half the appeal is I can't believe it's on television.

• 39:54Speaker 02

  Yeah. And that's like our favorite tone. And that's like a thing we've always chased. It's a thing I was actually just talking to my wife about. I actually think there's something about Barry was a defining moment. I could always be personally, but I do think it was a moment where I saw things in a movie where I was like, I didn't think you could show.

• 40:10Dax Shepard?

  Putting cum in her hair.

• 40:11Speaker 02

  I always think of the first thing where you see his nuts and dick stuck in the zipper. It's so funny because you're just like, they don't show that. And the joke is they're not showing it. And it was still one of the funniest scenes ever, even though they aren't showing it. And then they. Show and it was one of those things where you're looking around in the theater at the people around you strangers and you're just like, are we fucking seeing this like this real? Are we actually in a theater where this is happening? We've seen throughout the years when our movies are functioning the best. That is a moment we've been able to elicit from a crowd. And that's like a thing me and Evan are always referencing. It's not like laughter and it's not cheering. It's disbelief that people were allowed to do this thing. And that also somehow it's actually serving the overall story in the movie and the comedy.

• 40:56Speaker 02

  That's like the dragon we're chasing a lot of the time. When the audience is just like, are we fucking seeing this? And yeah, with the boys, based on a comic, and it was one of the first things me and Evan read. We were just like, I can't believe someone even drew this.

• 41:07Dax Shepard?

  Okay, so the comics are is

• 41:10Speaker 02

  The comics are even more hardcore.

• 41:12Dax Shepard?

  Oh, they are.

• 41:12Speaker 02

  I would say if anything, we toned it down, honestly, and made it more comedic. The comics are a little less comedic and are a little just dark and violent and gross. We added a slightly more human, you know, like it's a little over the top with the blood and the popping of the human heads, which I think adds comedy to it.

• 41:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, definitely.

• 41:32Speaker 02

  It's so much fun to work on.

• 41:33Speaker 01

  I have a weird question. Were you attracted to dangerous things when you were young?

• 41:39Dax Shepard?

  Well, he's a karate master.

• 41:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, sort of, I was.

• 41:41Speaker 01

  Well, that's controlled danger. I mean, like, that type of danger.

• 41:46Speaker 02

  I played rugby. I wasn't adverse to danger and adrenaline. As I've gotten older, I'm very adverse to physical danger, injury in any way.

• 41:54Dax Shepard?

  Because of the Todd Phillips thing?

• 41:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, your comedy is dangerous. What you were just describing is the shock and awe and disbelief of, oh, my God, we're gonna do this is bringing people along on a dangerous ride comedically, which always is the funniest, really.

• 42:08Speaker 02

  It is all in service of the audience. As a fan of movies, I've felt these moments where I'm like, oh, they're fucking going for, yeah.

• 42:15Dax Shepard?

  Your novelty meter goes up like, oh, I'm gonna actually see something new and original.

• 42:19Speaker 02

  Exactly. Did you watch The Substance? I love that movie.

• 42:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:21Speaker 02

  It was so good. And that was one of those times, honestly, recently where I was like, holy fucking shit. I know Carly a little bit and I think she's a genius. Her first film, Revenge, is very, very good. I don't know if you've seen it.

• 42:31Dax Shepard?

  Haven't seen it.

• 42:31Speaker 02

  Recommended. It's another 10 out of 10 movie, but They already showed me it's willing to go as far as anything. I never thought it would go this far. I loved it.

• 42:40Dax Shepard?

  It's almost more rewarding. I think the older you get because it gets harder to do that to you. So yeah, I was sitting in the substance going like, here we go, man. I'm 18 again.

• 42:47Speaker 02

  I feel like I was watching like Dead Alive or an old Sam Raimi movie or something like that. We were just like, oh my God. Yeah, those were movies we loved. Dead Alive, which is one of Peter Jackson's first movies is this grotesque kind of horror zombie movie that is so gross. And me and Evan would watch it and just be like, oh my God, this is what we're looking for.

• 43:01Dax Shepard?

  Too much.

• 43:03Speaker 02

  This is the stuff right here. And Evil Dead and Army of Darkness and those movies. They're so gross and funny.

• 43:08Speaker 01

  It's amazing. The two of you have been able to continue together.

• 43:11Dax Shepard?

  And Evan's had kids.

• 43:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:13Dax Shepard?

  They have done.

• 43:14Speaker 01

  Really amazing.

• 43:15Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. Okay. So before you came in, it was told to me that you were hopeful I would watch all 10 episodes of the studio.

• 43:22Speaker 02

  It's always helpful.

• 43:24Dax Shepard?

  And I go, man, I love them, but this is a tall order.

• 43:27Speaker 02

  That's five hours.

• 43:28Dax Shepard?

  I normally have to watch someone's movie or I watch an episode or two.

• 43:32Speaker 01

  Oh, they're half hours.

• 43:34Speaker 02

  They're half hours.

• 43:35Dax Shepard?

  But like, man, I gotta watch the whole series. So of course I go into it with a little like, oh, fingers crossed from the bottom of my heart. And sincerely, I have probably told 40 people already.

• 43:46Speaker 02

  That's so nice.

• 43:47Dax Shepard?

  How much I fucking love it. I watched two by myself and then I said to Kristen, you've got to go watch these two and catch up because we're going now for the next five nights. We're doing this show. And then so she too is obsessed. I just plowed through it and I loved it. And I'm so glad I had all 10 to be honest, but I don't know what part of your dick to start sucking first. I want to tease the tip a little bit, but the shaft is calling my name.

• 44:15Dax Shepard?

  Holy fuck. I think the first thing I want to say is this cinematic accomplishment. I did not see it coming and it's so fucking impressive. Let's go premise first, just because I want to get to the one or so bad, but hit me with the premise of the studio.

• 44:28Speaker 02

  It exists in a world where there's just kind of one other studio in Hollywood. There's like Universal and Netflix and Columbia, and then there's Continental Studios, which in our world was founded a hundred years ago. And it's in our Hollywood as we know it, except there's one other fictional studio and every other movie exists and there's the movies that this studio has. Basically. And in the pilot, my character who's worked at the studio for decades and has always wanted to run the studio and who loves films more than anything finds himself to be the head of the studio. And it's really based on our dealings with studios. We've been producing a very long time and writing a long time. And honestly, this one sentence that was said to us by an executive many years ago was the kernel of the whole ideas. We were getting notes on something and he goes, you know, I got into this job because I love movies and now it's my job to ruin them. And we were like,

• 45:13Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 45:14Speaker 02

  And that's honestly something we've seen a lot. We've befriended a lot of executives over the year. We've worked with great executives.

• 45:21Dax Shepard?

  Catherine O'Hara seems a little archetype of Amy Pascal a little bit.

• 45:24Speaker 02

  Inspired by her role in our lives, especially as like a mentor and someone who taught us a lot.

• 45:29Dax Shepard?

  I adore her.

• 45:29Speaker 02

  Oh, she's the best. She walked the whole show. She was very nervous about it, but she loved it.

• 45:33Speaker 01

  Wait, Amy?

• 45:34Dax Shepard?

  Amy Ben Scale used to run Columbia Sony.

• 45:37Speaker 02

  And was sort of unceremoniously ousted.

• 45:39Dax Shepard?

  And unfairly.

• 45:40Speaker 02

  Yes, sort of in the wake of the interview. I would be lying if I was.

• 45:43Dax Shepard?

  Her emails came out.

• 45:44Speaker 02

  Partially responsible for it all happening, which adds a layer to it all.

• 45:49Speaker 01

  Wow, okay.

• 45:50Speaker 02

  But since then, she's become a very successful producer and it's a much better job, but it's a hard transition, which is something we deal with in the show.

• 45:57Dax Shepard?

  And can we talk for one second? Because for years, the president of the studio was a threatening figure for me. It was who I would have to really bowl over and impress in a pitch to get them to buy it. And then to get it greenlit was its own fiasco and so hard. And so I just had this weird relationship. And then over the years, I've been able to step back. I imagine we feel the same way, which is might be the worst job in all of Hollywood.

• 46:21Speaker 02

  Exactly. Anything you do could get you fired. So it's a constant dance of how much responsibility or ownership do I take over any given thing? Because you want to be associated with successes and not associated with failures, but you don't know which one is going to be which. There's countless movies that everyone wrote off as bombs that become huge hits and vice versa, things that everyone's betting on as a huge hit that becomes a bomb. And also art and commerce are obviously big themes in Hollywood and in our lives, I would imagine. And they are truly the inflection point of those things and they really are the people who. Every day are faced with the choice of do I support creativity or do I mitigate risk and bet on commerce?

• 47:03Dax Shepard?

  These two actors I don't even want, no one agrees are good, but they're gonna secure me X amount.

• 47:08Speaker 01

  They have 50 million followers.

• 47:10Speaker 02

  Exactly. Or you make the dumber version of the movie and the smarter version. And it's a very fear and panic based job. Cause you could actually lose your job at any moment. I've known people that run movie studios for like six months.

• 47:20Dax Shepard?

  Eighteen months.

• 47:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, they're gone.

• 47:22Dax Shepard?

  They're never even there to see their movies come out.

• 47:24Speaker 02

  No, or they don't do anything. That's actually a strategy a lot of people take is to do nothing. So you can't be blamed for it. A lot of people's strategies are to come in and to try to not make movies.

• 47:33Dax Shepard?

  It's just an all fear run job. I started getting really empathetic and sympathetic. These people I used to kind of hate or was scared of. Now I'm like, oh my God.

• 47:42Speaker 02

  It's like hard to fully villainize them once you get to know them. So it was during the pandemic, I rewatched the Larry Sanders show, which was one of my favorite shows ever when I was young. And I was just like, it'd be fun to do something kind of like this. What's my version of this type of character who's constantly at odds with what he wants to do and what his job is making him do? He wants to make art. He wishes he was Robert Evans in Robert Evans's time.

• 48:05Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 48:06Speaker 02

  No one is anymore, but a lot of studio heads are like that still currently.

• 48:10Speaker 01

  It's sad, really.

• 48:12Dax Shepard?

  It's a bummer of a job.

• 48:13Speaker 02

  It's really sad, but it's funny. It's like inherently was very comedic to us. We would constantly just see these people, these situations where we're just like, thank God this is them because it's so fucked up. And a lot of it is also, they just want famous people to like them. And they just want directors to like them and they want writers to like them.

• 48:32Dax Shepard?

  And the writers and directors and actors just want something such a transactional relationship.

• 48:38Speaker 02

  At best, they like you because you're giving them things. And at worst, they don't because you're not, or they just think you're a fucking idiot. And a lot of them just want to be like, if there's that group of people at the party talking, that's the filmmakers, they just want to be invited into that group.

• 48:53Dax Shepard?

  Well, the show starts with Seth's character, Matt. You're visiting set for the first time and Pete Berg's directing. I don't even think I've put it, other than I've been directing a movie and the president's Stop by and I'm just panicked. I don't want him there because I'm afraid I'm gonna do a bad job in front of him. I really underestimated how rough it is for the studio.

• 49:12Speaker 02

  They often don't want you there and I think that is palpable to them as well and they just want to be there.

• 49:18Dax Shepard?

  And they've killed themselves for 30 years to get this job and then they show up at their movie that they're financing and no one wants them there.

• 49:24Speaker 02

  It's really sad.

• 49:25Dax Shepard?

  But you make yourself the joke of the whole movie, which is fantastic. Back to the sensitivity thing and who you can make fun of. I think it's very fair because you're the one who's probably most embarrassing in all these situations.

• 49:36Speaker 02

  Oh, for sure. And it really is tapping into my own fears. I am a producer now. I produce more things than I act in or write. I am often in the position where I'm like, am I making these things worse or better? Are people happy when I show up or are they bummed out when I show up?

• 49:51Dax Shepard?

  It's hard to know.

• 49:51Speaker 02

  It is hard to know and a lot of the stuff that I wanted to write about and put into the show was my own feelings of insecurity. Just as someone who at times we are the people who decide which movies are getting made and which ones aren't. And we're betting on people and not other people and we're casting people and not other people. And it really is that fear that I'm ultimately mitigating risk as opposed to nurturing.

• 50:14Speaker 01

  It's weird to be on one side of the line and transition to the other side, identity wise.

• 50:20Speaker 02

  That conflict is really something about like the character that I thought was very funny and interesting. I've put so much more work into this than anything I've done in a very long time.

• 50:28Dax Shepard?

  It seems so.

• 50:28Speaker 02

  Yeah. And so I really knew I wanted to be a character that I thought I could perform in a funny way, but also

• 50:34Dax Shepard?

  You're very

• 50:34Speaker 02

  Really spoke to my own

• 50:36Speaker 01

  Your struggle, you can say it, my struggle.

• 50:39Speaker 02

  But coming soon.

• 50:41Dax Shepard?

  Look for the German translation.

• 50:43Speaker 02

  But yeah, so all those things were really the reason that we made the show.

• 50:47Dax Shepard?

  So you get this job, but you make this Faustian deal right out of the gates with the chairman, Bryan Cranston. He basically says like, I will give you this fucking job if and only if you get on board with making this exciting new franchise Kool-Aid.

• 51:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:02Speaker 02

  And he's like, oh my

• 51:03Dax Shepard?

  Fucking god, a fucking movie on Kool-Aid.

• 51:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:06Dax Shepard?

  Which isn't even that nuts.

• 51:08Speaker 02

  It's not crazy at all.

• 51:09Dax Shepard?

  It's like just enough to be something.

• 51:11Speaker 02

  It's like one degree stupider. Probably would make a great movie. The more I watch the show. Well, what's funny is in the show, we come up with like a plot for the Kool-Aid movie. And we really put a lot of thought into it. It's funny, I watched The Bear and I really like it. And that was something I would say a lot as we were making the show is like as seriously as they take cooking is as seriously as we have to take filmmaking. We can't pretend that something would happen that wouldn't. And we can't present the audience with an idea that we are telling them people would be excited about. But in the back of your head, you know, they wouldn't make that fucking movie. Or that cast wouldn't be exciting. Or you wouldn't be nervous talking to this person. Has to feel real also.

• 51:45Dax Shepard?

  Okay, so that's the premise. Ike Baranholz is one rung under Seth's character.

• 51:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:51Dax Shepard?

  And fucking, we just couldn't love Ike more. Catherine Hahn is the head of marketing.

• 51:57Speaker 02

  These are all our favorite people. She's so funny.

• 52:00Dax Shepard?

  What a monster she is. She's so fucking.

• 52:02Speaker 02

  Oh, my God, I never really worked with her. I did like a live reading with her once a few years ago, and I just always been a fan of hers. It's funny because in the script originally, that character was sort of like the straight person, the smartest in the room, the most buttoned up. And then she came in was like, no. But also was like, that's not who the heads of publicity are. They know everyone, they're kind of in on influencer culture. They're so online, want to be the hippest in every single thing.

• 52:29Dax Shepard?

  These archetypes are pretty consistent through all the studios.

• 52:32Speaker 02

  Oh, yes, for sure. Building up to the show, we interviewed almost every person who runs a studio in Hollywood, almost every person who runs marketing for a studio in Hollywood, people who used to run studios. One of actually the resounding feelings from the marketing people was that they view themselves as more creative than the executives. They're like, we actually make stuff. They do. We actually create things. We're making commercials, content, we're thinking of posters, we're thinking of little ads. These guys are just sitting in rooms fucking giving notes and shit like that. I'm sitting in front of an editing machine.

• 53:04Dax Shepard?

  They're the arbiters of good ideas and we are the creators of good ideas.

• 53:07Speaker 02

  And so that was like a really funny dynamic. They have extreme ownership, they're incredibly confident, a lot of them, which is also like the dichotomy. A lot of the executives are sort of like me, they're kind of like Neve Shih Jewish people who are feigning confidence at best. But the marketing people come from sales. They have like a whole different energy.

• 53:24Dax Shepard?

  To defend them for a minute, because that other job. So terrible. They have nothing to do with what gets made.

• 53:29Speaker 02

  They actually are on the green light committee at some of the studios.

• 53:32Dax Shepard?

  That's true, but most often they are handed a movie. Their task was make everyone in America.

• 53:37Speaker 02

  Well, they could have directly been overruled is what happens a lot. Often they will have said, we should not make this movie.

• 53:43Dax Shepard?

  We can't sell this.

• 53:44Speaker 02

  We cannot sell it. And then they're like, uh, guess what? We did anyway. And if it fails, you're the one who's gonna get fired.

• 53:50Dax Shepard?

  They gotta polish a lot of turds.

• 53:51Speaker 02

  Yes, for sure. That was just a very funny dynamic to add into the show. And Catherine O'Hara is on the show.

• 53:58Dax Shepard?

  Catherine O'Hara, Canadian.

• 53:59Speaker 02

  Fellow Canadian, a legend, icon.

• 54:01Speaker 01

  Icon, literally.

• 54:03Dax Shepard?

  She's just so fucking perfect and everything. Okay. The episode that I have to imagine you feel proud of, so I can't stop talking about is episode two. It's called the Wonder.

• 54:11Speaker 02

  That was a tough one.

• 54:12Dax Shepard?

  I don't wanna give too much away, but I also wanna whet people's appetite. Cause it's an incredible accomplishment. The episode's called the Wonder. It starts with you and Ike driving to visit Seth. We already know people do not want you to visit Seth. And the stakes couldn't be higher because Sarah Pauli is directing a movie and they're getting a shot at magic hour, which means you have this tiny window of 40 minutes of good light. And then the shot's gonna be the camera and it's gonna do a wonder. We're never gonna cut. It has to be perfect. And you guys decide to visit in that moment.

• 54:40Speaker 01

  Tell people what a wonder is.

• 54:41Speaker 02

  It's a continuous shot, like the most famous one probably is like the one in Goodfellas, where they start outside the Copacabana and they go through the kitchen and they weave their way through and they drop the table and the comedian starts.

• 54:52Speaker 01

  There's no cuts.

• 54:52Speaker 02

  No cuts, one long uninterrupted.

• 54:54Dax Shepard?

  And everything has to be done perfectly.

• 54:56Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 54:56Dax Shepard?

  You can't fuck up once. There's no coverage for it. It's a full commitment. The very famous one in Hit and Run.

• 55:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 55:04Dax Shepard?

  Probably the second most famous one. But by the way, when you commit to one and it works, the fucking exhilaration.

• 55:10Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 55:11Dax Shepard?

  Beats anything you can do on a set.

• 55:12Speaker 01

  Cause it's a team sport. Everyone has to hit everything perfectly.

• 55:16Dax Shepard?

  A lot of moving parts. They're very hard. And then the show is so menace. So also they're acknowledging what masturbation a wonder is.

• 55:23Speaker 02

  How no one notices how it's just for the filmmakers to get off of their own technique.

• 55:27Dax Shepard?

  Yes. I've even heard stories about people having the existing record on the monitor that they're trying to beat.

• 55:34Speaker 02

  That's funny.

• 55:34Dax Shepard?

  Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, so what's fucking impossible is the episode is also a wonder. In real life, the episode itself is a wonder about a wonder. And then all the things that are being laid out in the episode are just so fucking satisfyingly woven.

• 55:52Speaker 01

  The whole episode is a wonder?

• 55:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, in the whole show, every scene is a wonder on the whole show. There's a few episodes where it's maybe only four or five shots throughout the whole thing.

• 56:01Speaker 01

  For thirty minutes.

• 56:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 56:03Speaker 01

  That is really impressive.

• 56:05Dax Shepard?

  But also, not only are they choreographing their own wonder, which is the episode, but there's also a real life wonder happening in the show.

• 56:12Speaker 01

  Jesus Christ.

• 56:14Dax Shepard?

  It is so mind scrambling. It's an insane accomplishment.

• 56:19Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 56:19Dax Shepard?

  Because it's not just the wonder, it's the layers of payoff.

• 56:24Speaker 01

  Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Holy shit, did you direct it?

• 56:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, we directed the whole show. We wrote the show knowing it would be wonders. It wasn't like a thing we just decided when we showed up. And for that episode especially, we had to really block basically the entire episode and the days leading up to it, but not with the actors. So like me and Evan, who I direct with and the writers, we only had access to this house for like two days before we started shooting in it. And so as they were in the house, we just would walk through it and really try to block it. What we would do is we could only actually shoot for around an hour a day because of the light. So we could only shoot between five and six P M. Basically. So everyone would show up in the morning and we would rehearse whatever that day's chunk was. And they were eight or nine minute chunks. There's very little trickery in that episode.

• 57:12Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, it seemed like you had three cuts.

• 57:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. There's like three or four cuts total in the whole thing.

• 57:17Dax Shepard?

  What you can't tell, they're stitched beautifully. Chris and I, we were even arguing. I'm like, probably there was a hood mount on the car that was somehow easily detached.

• 57:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's exactly what it was.

• 57:26Dax Shepard?

  Oh, thank God, I just won one argument.

• 57:28Speaker 02

  Visual effects to erase rigging. That's like a trick we would do.

• 57:31Dax Shepard?

  That's what Chris said, well, it'd be on the hood.

• 57:32Speaker 02

  There's a lot of sleight of hand involved.

• 57:35Dax Shepard?

  This is a cinephile's fucking whack off session. Like, we were geeking out.

• 57:38Speaker 02

  It was so fun for us. It was just like the opposite of how we were always brought up making movies. It was always about two cameras. We'll figure it out editorially later. We were like, what if we do the exact opposite? And we are painting ourselves into this corner that we cannot paint ourselves out of.

• 57:54Dax Shepard?

  Because there's 15 actors in that episode that all have lines. If one person forgets their line.

• 58:00Speaker 01

  It's so scary.

• 58:01Dax Shepard?

  Nine minutes into a take, it's back to the car.

• 58:04Speaker 02

  Oh, the Golden Globes one was the hardest because of the amount of people. That has a lot of long shots in it, but there's also 400 extras in every single scene.

• 58:14Dax Shepard?

  So my question about that episode is, did you guys piggyback on when the show was actually?

• 58:18Speaker 02

  No, we created our own Golden Globe. That's another episode we shot at four days because we couldn't have that room for very long. And we had to load in and load out in the same week, but no, we threw the Golden Globe.

• 58:28Dax Shepard?

  No, it's a full Golden Globe. So that shows has to be functioning as a real Golden Globe show in the background.

• 58:35Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. We had to cast so many people and the choreography of it was unbelievably complicated. But it's funny because as we were doing it, we're like, I don't even know if the average person will be able to articulate what is happening here. The energy of it, I think, is what we were excited about.

• 58:49Dax Shepard?

  Well, okay. So another achievement of the show is you have fucking plot. A lot of comedies really don't have plot. They don't have an engine. And these fucking episodes, every one of them are so stressful. The tension is thriving throughout the whole show and that's because of the wonders.

• 59:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's because you're never cutting. And I think it's also because it never settles into a rhythm of cutting back and forth between two people. We're always like, the tone should be stress and panic.

• 59:15Dax Shepard?

  It is.

• 59:15Speaker 02

  And there's only A stories in the episode, which I think was also conducive to that type of storytelling is we're never cutting between. You set up my story and I'm doing this thing and you set up my story and he's doing this thing. The stories are all singular and so that also helps with the singular camera and the singular style of being in the room with the characters. From like a writing standpoint, you know, it's funny. I did these table reads. It's actually where I met Catherine Hawn for the Netflix is a Joke Festival a few years ago. We did a live reading of Seinfeld scripts.

• 59:43Dax Shepard?

  Oh, I remember this.

• 59:44Speaker 02

  I was Jerry and Aziz Azari was George and Jack Black was Kramer and Catherine Hawn was Elaine. And I feel like in reading them, it was like the Rosetta Stone or. Something like that. It's all the structure.

• 59:58Speaker 01

  Math.

• 59:59Speaker 02

  And it's not even the jokes. It's the order of the scenes and the raising of the stakes. That to me is what I would want to do with a show. It's a true situational comedy.

• 1:00:08Dax Shepard?

  And then also the score, you have this like chaotic jazz and that's fucking nervy you up.

• 1:00:13Speaker 02

  No, it's like never rhythmic. That's what we'd always tell the composer. We're just like, never have it settle into a rhythm. Whenever it feels rhythmic, it would get boring. Always make it a little off and uneasy. It really is stressful.

• 1:00:25Dax Shepard?

  So driving home the night of the episode, the oneer, did you get a burst of elation?

• 1:00:31Speaker 02

  I was pretty happy. You could also watch it the next day.

• 1:00:34Dax Shepard?

  You don't have to wait for an editor to assemble it.

• 1:00:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. I was honestly really nervous about how we were shooting the show and I would talk to my wife Lauren a lot about it. And I talked to Evan a lot about it. The first few weeks, especially, I was just like, are we fucking up? Are we making mistake? Are we so up our own fucking asses with this that we're just sacrificing comedy? That was my real fear. I was like, are we making it less funny in service of this style? And I kept being like, no, I really think we thought of this because it would be additive to the tone and the comedy. And then I saw it cut together and I was like, thank fucking God. And I was so excited about it, so happy by it. And yeah, when we finished the oneer episode, I was really happy. And Sarah Polley is someone I've known a very long time. I was in a movie she directed 15 years ago or something like that.

• 1:01:17Speaker 02

  And she's such a funny person and such a funny actor. Go was one of mine and Evan's favorite movies. Was inspirational to us.

• 1:01:24Dax Shepard?

  It's wild and frenetic and.

• 1:01:26Speaker 02

  Exactly. I think pineapple express is very inspired by goat and dawn of the dead. I was just always a huge fan of hers and then I worked with her and I'm just like, she's one of the funniest fucking people I've ever been around.

• 1:01:36Dax Shepard?

  But again, you have a non actor in this kind of high stakes situation where she's gonna have to hit all of her beats really well.

• 1:01:42Speaker 02

  She like nailed it. She couldn't have been funnier. Yeah, that was the thing with the show. We have a lot of non actors on this show, filmmakers, writers, directors. That was another fear I had where it's like, we're taking these non actors and essentially asking them to do like the hardest.

• 1:01:56Speaker 02

  Now you gotta be a part of this seven minute scene.

• 1:01:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, a play.

• 1:01:59Speaker 02

  You literally say one word wrong, we have to start over.

• 1:02:03Dax Shepard?

  And we have a 50 minute reset.

• 1:02:05Speaker 02

  Sometimes, yeah. Really, we gotta get back in the car.

• 1:02:07Speaker 01

  No, this is so stressful.

• 1:02:08Speaker 02

  Back up the block.

• 1:02:09Dax Shepard?

  You're breaking shit all the time.

• 1:02:11Speaker 02

  I'm falling, there's thugs in the show.

• 1:02:13Speaker 01

  Oh my god.

• 1:02:14Speaker 02

  So what you were saying, it did become like a real team effort. And those are also my least favorite moments on sets often is just you're sitting on an apple box. The crew guys are on their phone because it's just, okay, now it's this shot. Now it's this shot. One out of 200 people feel like they're working and that's kind of the person who's on camera. Then I've been in some movies, I got to be in a Steven Spielberg movie and he had these very elaborate shots sometimes where it was like, oh no, it's all gonna play in this one shot. And I would just see how the whole crew would come together and be so psyched about it.

• 1:02:43Dax Shepard?

  You're right, people rarely all do their job at the same time.

• 1:02:46Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 1:02:47Speaker 01

  It's why people like doing theater because it's everyone coming together.

• 1:02:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, and this, even if you had two lines in the scene, it was so fun. You didn't feel like you were just window dressing or just waiting for your part. You were a part of a huge scene and that was another reason that it was partially procedurally alluring to us.

• 1:03:03Dax Shepard?

  Yes, so I think there's a lot of ways you can be a good director.

• 1:03:07Speaker 02

  I really, I think I've grown a better understanding of what is needed to accomplish these things and how much time it'll actually take and how much preparation it will actually take. And so we're very prepared and it would get very discouraging at times, the shooting style, where we would joke often that until sometimes like the seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th take of these long sequences, it's just not even fucking close. And we would be looking at each other being like, is this the one that like we can't do? And sometimes it's just the camera has to like latch on to the car and the fucking magnet keeps fritzing out. We're relying on technology to do what we want that isn't as reliable as you would hope it is sometimes. And sometimes it's just an actor keeps like missing the thing or tripping over the thing.

• 1:03:52Speaker 01

  Flop sweat.

• 1:03:52Dax Shepard?

  Can you imagine if you fucked up your line twice?

• 1:03:54Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:03:54Speaker 02

  I feel comfortable saying this because he's my dear friend, but David Krevelitz is in a few episodes of the show. And there's a very complicated sequence of me entering the Golden Globes. It literally starts in the limo and then I walk the whole red carpet and then I walk through the lobby.

• 1:04:07Dax Shepard?

  He's got a joke, he's got to hit you with it.

• 1:04:08Speaker 02

  Exactly, and then I walk through the ballroom. I'm interacting with a bunch of people throughout it, Adam Scottson and Ike and O'Hara. All these people at the last moment is me and Crumholtz and it's like a three line exchange. And there's 500 extras, cars, limos, all this shit.

• 1:04:25Dax Shepard?

  And he's just got nine minutes sitting in a chair waiting to fuck up and fly.

• 1:04:29Speaker 01

  But he's probably the one who's so.

• 1:04:30Speaker 02

  Exactly. More and more nervous. He sees the machine like coming towards him. He's like.

• 1:04:35Dax Shepard?

  He might be holding his side somewhere. Yes. You like see a train rolling down the tracks.

• 1:04:40Speaker 02

  And I will say, God bless him because I would tell the actors, look, if you genuinely think you've thought of something that is better than what we've written or additive, and it comes to you in the moment, I want you to do it because I don't want it to be too rigid and I want it to feel alive, but just know if it's not good, it's fucked up everything.

• 1:04:59Dax Shepard?

  Workshop it in the makeup trailer.

• 1:05:01Speaker 02

  I'm trusting you to gauge in your own head whether or not you think I will think it's good enough.

• 1:05:07Speaker 01

  Oh my God.

• 1:05:08Speaker 02

  To warrant this risk you're taking. And Dave several times was just improvising stuff. And even he would do it. We would cut and he would just look at my face and be like, I should have said that.

• 1:05:19Dax Shepard?

  She is one of my favorites and he's spectacular in your show.

• 1:05:22Speaker 02

  He's so good on the show. He's one of the best. And then he nailed it. I think some of our moments are some of the best moments of the show. And we would put him in it more after that because it is so alive and you do feel like I don't quite know what he's gonna do. And at its worst, the show in the earlier takes, that was always to me, the scary zone is we would start to get it, but it would just feel sort of rigid because everyone was too focused on hitting the mark and the timing.

• 1:05:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, robot.

• 1:05:45Speaker 02

  The camera was in the wrong place. And that's why it's good to have agents of chaos like Dave in there.

• 1:05:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:50Speaker 02

  In some ways just can't say the lines the same way twice. And Han was like that too. She would just say other stuff and you could see there's like a moment where everyone was like, oh no, is this gonna cause a major problem?

• 1:06:02Dax Shepard?

  But then that becomes its own fun thing for you to play with, right?

• 1:06:06Speaker 02

  Very much so.

• 1:06:06Dax Shepard?

  You're scared the whole time. Your character's always scared.

• 1:06:09Speaker 02

  Actually stressed out. Actually like quite on edge that we're not gonna get it.

• 1:06:14Speaker 01

  There's something so kids in a playground about it.

• 1:06:17Speaker 02

  That's what was also fun about it. It's like, it is how kids film things. You just point the camera at who's talking and you walk around and that's it. And so there is that energy. It did feel a lot like that.

• 1:06:27Dax Shepard?

  It's a cool way to keep yourself interested every year or 30. It's like you gotta do something to wake yourself up.

• 1:06:34Speaker 02

  No, definitely.

• 1:06:35Dax Shepard?

  I'm afraid of the next show you do.

• 1:06:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. Underwater. What are we gonna do?

• 1:06:39Dax Shepard?

  You know what I heard is impossible. It's underwater.

• 1:06:41Speaker 02

  It's all in space.

• 1:06:45Speaker 03

  Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert if you dare.

• 1:06:51Dax Shepard?

  We get support from No Bull. The holidays can get hectic. You finally hit a post summer routine and suddenly you're on hosting duty every week.

• 1:07:01Speaker 01

  That's when you really need to ground yourself.

• 1:07:03Dax Shepard?

  Exactly. And that's why I keep my training routine through the holidays. It's the whole No Bull idea. There's a no bullshit training brand built around consistency, honesty, and just putting in the work. It's not about adding more pressure to an already packed schedule. It's about having the gear and the habits to move through the season your way. My personal favorite, all three of the shoes are fantastic. The Outwork, the Outwork Flex, and the Drive 2. I like the Drive 2 because it's a hybrid. And I lift, of course, but I also like to do what's called box jumps.

• 1:07:34Speaker 01

  Ah.

• 1:07:34Dax Shepard?

  Right? I do a lot of jumping onto a little platform and I want a little more flexibility. And boy, do they deliver.

• 1:07:40Speaker 01

  And if you're a cardio person and you're running and you also need to be lifting.

• 1:07:45Dax Shepard?

  And the style is banging. I don't know what to say. Beautiful style, very breathable, very, very comfortable, lots of support. They were built for lifting.

• 1:07:52Speaker 01

  They also make a great holiday gift. You know, I love gifting, a purposeful one that actually supports someone's goals and routines. And it's not a gift that just ends up in the back of the closet.

• 1:08:02Dax Shepard?

  Stay stronger than the season. Head to nobullproject.com all holiday season to shop new deals every week.

• 1:08:16Speaker 02

  Me and Heaven, we kept saying as we were doing it, we're like, this is one of the most creatively invigorating things we'd done since we made Superbad.

• 1:08:22Dax Shepard?

  Wow. How long did it take you from start to finish writing it and then shooting it and finishing it?

• 1:08:26Speaker 02

  I was shooting The Fableman's when I first thought of it. So that was two and a half years ago or something like that. And then it maybe took six months for us to start writing it. And then I think it took like a year of writing because we wrote the whole show, basically. And then we shot the whole show. So not that long, actually, on the grand scale of things.

• 1:08:43Dax Shepard?

  No, with how intricate it is and how well done it is, any amount of time would not have shocked me.

• 1:08:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:08:49Dax Shepard?

  Okay. I hope you're able to do this. So. The fucking appearances are one after another, like Martin Scorsese's in it, Steve Buscemi, Ron Howard's in it, Charlize Theron's in it, Zac Efron's in it, Olivia Wilde's in it, Ice Cube's in it. It never stops. And when I'm watching that, I'm so happy for you because to me that is this crazy reflection of what you've built. You can call Martin Scorsese and he'll show up and do your thing.

• 1:09:14Speaker 02

  Call his manager.

• 1:09:17Speaker 01

  Ultimately, he has to say yes.

• 1:09:19Speaker 02

  I've never met Martin Scorsese before.

• 1:09:20Dax Shepard?

  There's a lot of accomplishments on display. There's the technical accomplishment. There's the writing. There's the life story of you and Evan, but also there's

• 1:09:27Speaker 01

  The goodwill.

• 1:09:28Dax Shepard?

  Yes, what you've built goodwill wise. Really, it's all there.

• 1:09:31Speaker 02

  Part of my whole thesis in general is to try to over deliver. I don't take any success for granted. When we made this, the end and all these things, we were just like, give people more than they're expecting. Don't tell them it's Hollywood and then have a few people and try to sell that as Hollywood. So that was something for us that was very important is we were like, if it's going to be about Hollywood, you have to believe that these are the people a studio head would be excited by, intimidated by, wanting to impress, wanting to befriend the actual people who are in movies and we're not trying to tell you, yeah, this guy's in a movie.

• 1:10:05Dax Shepard?

  This is the Tom Cruise of this show.

• 1:10:06Speaker 02

  Exactly. We really didn't want to do that. And Larry Sanders, again, was a thing that was hugely inspirational for that because as a kid, I remember Sean Penn's on it and Jim Carrey's on it and Tom Petty's on it and Elvis Costello's on it and all these great comedians or actors are on it. And I was like, that's part of the fun of it. They got them and it feels real as a result.

• 1:10:27Dax Shepard?

  There's so many that Kristen said to me mid-episode, do you ever start feeling offended you're not in something?

• 1:10:35Speaker 02

  The whole time we're just like, I just hope this is easier this second season.

• 1:10:38Speaker 01

  She's also an acting robot. She would have killed those waters.

• 1:10:41Dax Shepard?

  She's built for a water.

• 1:10:42Speaker 02

  Also, we didn't want to only do people that we know and that we work with and they're kind of like associated with us. And it was kind of a mix of people that we didn't even know that well.

• 1:10:49Dax Shepard?

  Do you have a relationship with Scorsese?

• 1:10:52Speaker 02

  I met him once for two seconds before this. It was a cold call. We really tried to make the roles good. Honestly, that was like a big part of it was even if you had one joke. We wanted it to be like a great moment and to not feel like you're just kind of there. And they're not just like extras in the scene. Everyone has to have a moment that they can really sink their teeth into, but it was really hard. And we spent a ton of time rewriting the scripts for people. They want it to be good. And once they commit to it, they're like, okay, what if I do this? It was always very welcome.

• 1:11:25Dax Shepard?

  Everyone that came had some leverage.

• 1:11:26Speaker 02

  Everyone has leverage. You want them to think it's funny. And that's the other thing is we're always just like, we want you to be excited about this. Like, we don't want you to feel like you're doing us a favor. We want you to feel like you're getting to do a thing that you think is cool. It was by far one of the biggest challenges of the show was to get all these people and to schedule it and to not let them down, honestly.

• 1:11:46Dax Shepard?

  Did you find it hard to direct these huge people where you're like, oh, fuck, I gotta tell?

• 1:11:51Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:11:52Speaker 01

  I have to tell Martin Scorsese what to do.

• 1:11:54Speaker 02

  It was different. Talking to the actors is the thing I struggle with most as a director. And it's also because I'm an actor in the scenes and some actors just don't like to be directed by the other actors. Me and Olivia Wilde, we're talking about it. Me and Evan would kind of do like a good cop, bad cops thing. I would be in the scenes and be like, great, perfect. And then I'd go to Evan to be like, tell him to slow down. She's not hitting her mark. She's not saying this properly. And she actually was the only one that clued into it, but it's really hard.

• 1:12:17Dax Shepard?

  I had to do a thing with Michael Pagnino and I didn't figure this out until like two weeks into shooting because we're in every single scene together and I'm directing it. And about two weeks in, it occurred to me, he doesn't hear me give myself a note. All he hears is me say something to him. So like two weeks in, I go, I need you to know, after these takes, I go like, that was too slow. I gotta speed it up. I give myself notes and then I come to you, I just want you to know, I don't think I'm doing it perfectly. I'm berating myself and then I go on to you.

• 1:12:42Speaker 02

  I would have a hard time doing it alone. Having a partner makes it much easier, I think, in a lot of ways.

• 1:12:47Dax Shepard?

  Cause they gotta be a little suspicious, like how the fuck's he know what happened? He's inside the scene with me.

• 1:12:51Speaker 02

  A thing that would happen is the people I was in the scenes with could tell when I just was dropped out. Cause I was also very aware where the camera was and what it was capturing at all times. So there'd be times I would just see like, oh, the camera guy, he just missed it. You started talking too soon.

• 1:13:04Dax Shepard?

  So that's easy to call cut on, but I think the thing that would be hard, how on earth did you manage when someone did a shitty delivery of a line, minute one of a Five minute one or did you go like, oh, I'll just go through to the end or will I just be brave right now and say cut?

• 1:13:18Speaker 02

  It depends what take it was because also you got to navigate just not bumming people out.

• 1:13:22Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:22Speaker 02

  And that's like me and Evan talked a lot about and that's the thing we actually learned a lot of improvisational comedy is it's a fine line between directing improv and just shutting people down. Sometimes we would let people go on these runs for 10 minutes where we're just like, this isn't good to me in the fucking movie, but like they seem to really think it's funny. We'll get 10 other good things out of them today because we didn't tell them this sucked basically. And so that was math that would happen in our heads. Sometimes it was a hard reset. I would stop early because I would just know like, oh, once this happens, it's going into a new zone. But that was something we were constantly navigating.

• 1:13:54Dax Shepard?

  Well, this is the most I've ever talked about a show when someone was promoting a show, but I have still a couple more questions.

• 1:13:59Speaker 02

  Great.

• 1:14:00Dax Shepard?

  One is the other thing that I became hyper aware of is your own aesthetic, or at least what I think is your aesthetic is really on fire. Every single house we go to is an architectural masterpiece.

• 1:14:12Speaker 01

  I complimented Seth's outfit when he got here. It's very nice. Are those Bottega shoes?

• 1:14:17Speaker 02

  They are.

• 1:14:17Speaker 01

  Yes, yes. Very nice.

• 1:14:20Dax Shepard?

  A little style boy.

• 1:14:21Speaker 01

  You can do that when you don't have kids. You can spend all your money on clothes.

• 1:14:25Dax Shepard?

  Couches and clothes.

• 1:14:26Speaker 02

  It's a thing I'm like sort of making fun of myself with. I like all that stuff.

• 1:14:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:31Dax Shepard?

  And then of course for me, I got hyper focused on all the cars. So every episode Matt Remick is driving a different 60s.

• 1:14:40Speaker 02

  A different old car.

• 1:14:41Dax Shepard?

  There's an MG, then there's an old Merc, then he's in a 53 vet. You don't have a car thing though, do you?

• 1:14:47Speaker 02

  I do like old cars. I don't have like a collection of old cars.

• 1:14:50Dax Shepard?

  Do you have any old cars?

• 1:14:51Speaker 02

  I have a Carmen Ghia.

• 1:14:52Dax Shepard?

  That's perfect for you.

• 1:14:53Speaker 02

  Yes. Yeah. I have a Studebaker Lark, not the one in the show, but I have one like that one that we drive in the one or.

• 1:14:59Dax Shepard?

  Have you ever eyed an Avante?

• 1:15:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, those are amazing. I like those.

• 1:15:02Dax Shepard?

  Oh, I'll add to the complexity. He's driving these old fucking 70 year old cars that are all stick shift up, even in the one or episode. Getting in the driveway for real. I'm starting to think he's got his hands full. He's directing this thing. I'm just driving that car.

• 1:15:14Speaker 02

  Driving so fast in that episode. Ike was so scared the whole time we were doing it.

• 1:15:20Dax Shepard?

  And you have the look on your face when you drive. I started clogging it. You almost like lick your lips as you're navigating.

• 1:15:24Speaker 02

  There's a giant fucking camera.

• 1:15:27Dax Shepard?

  You're an irreplaceable car. If you fuck it up, you're down for the day.

• 1:15:30Speaker 02

  It's what we made this is the end. Honestly, we were designing the house for the movie to be set in. And at first the joke was like, it's a douchey, over the top, overly stylish house. And by the end I was just like, oh no, I just made my dream house.

• 1:15:43Dax Shepard?

  You're like Nancy Meyers in this way.

• 1:15:44Speaker 02

  It worked in both ways, though. To the average viewer, it was a douchey, over the top house. And to me, it was my dream house. And so that philosophy carried through. Me and Evan joked about a lot. A lot of my memories in Hollywood are being in beautiful places with beautifully dressed people screaming at each other about the stupidest shit ever. And that was like an energy we wanted to capture is it's glamorous and it's institutional. And it's been here for decades and great architects have built these homes that people live in. And they're these beautiful homes. And then you're in there just like screaming at each other about like, how much of the guy's balls you can show in the movie? Amy Pascal, this like gorgeous architectural house and the studios are very beautiful.

• 1:16:26Dax Shepard?

  Is this real?

• 1:16:27Speaker 02

  No, we built that completely.

• 1:16:28Dax Shepard?

  Okay. I got really angry because we're watching it and you seem to be on Warner Brothers for lots of this.

• 1:16:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:16:34Dax Shepard?

  Show. And there's a Frank Lloyd Wright building.

• 1:16:37Speaker 02

  In the show, the ideas that Frank Lloyd Wright designed the main offices.

• 1:16:40Dax Shepard?

  In the Mayan period.

• 1:16:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. It's like Mayan revival.

• 1:16:43Dax Shepard?

  So I was like, I fucking worked on that lot for two years and I missed.

• 1:16:48Speaker 02

  There's a Frank Lloyd Wright building.

• 1:16:50Dax Shepard?

  I was angry. I was beating myself up for having missed that. So that's entirely fabricated.

• 1:16:55Speaker 02

  Entirely fake.

• 1:16:56Dax Shepard?

  Thank God. Cause I could see where it was positioned and I was like.

• 1:16:59Speaker 02

  It's where the Warner Brothers is. Yeah, for sure.

• 1:17:01Dax Shepard?

  Buy into it's like, oh yeah, I could see that at some.

• 1:17:03Speaker 02

  It was part of the idea of making it seem like old and monumental. A lot of these studios are gorgeous. The Paramount offices are beautiful. The Columbia offices are these like art deco marvels. So much artistic thought went into the building. And then inside they're making the dumbest decisions of all time. They're so bucking against any creative freedom as they're standing in these like cathedrals of cinema that people were given free rein to make beautiful. But I'm just a huge architecture fan and I love Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in LA especially. And they are all this Mayan revival, but there's a great documentary about Frank Lloyd Wright. And it talks about how all of his buildings in Los Angeles. Angeles are essentially uninhabitable because he had suffered like a terrible family tragedy before he came to LA and they are all very tomb like.

• 1:17:44Dax Shepard?

  This one right down the street, the Black Dolly House.

• 1:17:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:17:47Dax Shepard?

  Constantly being run.

• 1:17:48Speaker 02

  They have like a sarcophagus-esque vibe to them and to us, that was a funny work environment for a lot of reasons. Cause it feels very old and it feels like we're trying to uphold this days that have gone by institution. We're like encased in this tomb, basically.

• 1:18:03Dax Shepard?

  A big cement blob.

• 1:18:04Speaker 02

  But it's also kind of beautiful and all the houses in the show are John Lautner houses. Who is a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. A lot of his houses are in movies and lethal weapon two, the Garcia house is a John Lautner house. So yeah, we also like this idea that it was an architect whose work is in film. And a lot of the music in the show is from other movies.

• 1:18:21Dax Shepard?

  Chinatown.

• 1:18:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, we use the Chinatown score. We use the long goodbye music.

• 1:18:25Dax Shepard?

  I also started adding up your budget as I was watching it. He got a nice.

• 1:18:29Speaker 02

  It was pretty good.

• 1:18:33Speaker 02

  Keep buying those iPhones.

• 1:18:38Speaker 01

  I always ask this when we have people on who are in parade of partnerships where one person's more of the.

• 1:18:43Speaker 02

  How were the face?

• 1:18:44Speaker 01

  Same with Ike and Dave. Has there ever been tension there? He doesn't give a fuck.

• 1:18:48Dax Shepard?

  It occurred to me on this interview, Monica, I was like, it's time the next time.

• 1:18:52Speaker 01

  We need to have that. Yeah.

• 1:18:54Dax Shepard?

  Would he be up for that?

• 1:18:55Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 1:18:55Dax Shepard?

  I was like, is this starting to feel immoral for us to not include?

• 1:18:59Speaker 02

  Whenever I'm on Howard Stern, he's also fascinated with Evan and he's always like, what is his deal? The fact that Evan has no desire to be in front of the camera, I think is an instrumental part of our dynamic and that he is not jealous. If anything, he's like, I'm so glad I don't have to do all the stuff that I have to do as the performer in the things.

• 1:19:20Speaker 01

  Cause sometimes that gets tricky. We had also Phineas with Billy, obviously. I was like, how are you guys doing it in a way that, but some people just don't care.

• 1:19:28Dax Shepard?

  But it's also reflective of us personally.

• 1:19:30Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, of course I care. Of course I find it interesting because it's not that easy for us. It's a little more complicated, I think.

• 1:19:38Speaker 02

  I know so many partnerships that have broken up over the years and more than haven't actually.

• 1:19:42Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:19:43Speaker 02

  I know a lot of teams that have split up.

• 1:19:46Dax Shepard?

  We had a. Therapists actually say to us, we are producing a show.

• 1:19:50Speaker 01

  Things are getting real hairy for a second there.

• 1:19:52Dax Shepard?

  And she looked at us and she said, you guys are in the Beatles. Look what you guys get to do and what you make. Don't break up.

• 1:19:59Speaker 02

  Don't fuck it up.

• 1:20:02Dax Shepard?

  It's really great. Thank you for saying that out loud. Yes, that's.

• 1:20:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's true. But when you're in it, you can feel like I'm not getting this recognition. I'm not getting this. I could see for Evan or Dave or for Phineas, like no one knows what I'm doing. Maybe they don't.

• 1:20:15Dax Shepard?

  It's interesting because Phineas doesn't have that. Some people have it. He knows damn well what he's doing.

• 1:20:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, Evan too. He doesn't care at all. He does get a lot of credit for a lot of stuff.

• 1:20:23Dax Shepard?

  I'm sure he's got a really nice house.

• 1:20:25Speaker 02

  Great. Yeah.

• 1:20:26Dax Shepard?

  He'll probably leave his kids some money.

• 1:20:28Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 1:20:28Speaker 01

  Well, Phineas said something really interesting. He said, actually, I get attention, but it matters that Billy gives me the recognition. If she wasn't doing it, then yeah, I'd have a problem with it. If within the partnership, there wasn't that acknowledgement.

• 1:20:43Speaker 02

  Definitely. I feel very fortunate about it and it's not lost on us. We recognize it. We are like, isn't it great that we still like each other? And we still work together well and his life is very different than mine in many ways. And we've found ways to navigate that, you know, he has kids and I, I act sometimes. We both have things that pull us away from just writing and directing together, but we've never really had any issue. I feel very lucky about it. It's very fortunate.

• 1:21:09Dax Shepard?

  Okay, last question. In the show, you're acknowledging the real context of our industry, which is like, movies are harder and harder to get to make money. It's just gotten more stressful. They make less movies, less of them work. The whole thing's terrifying.

• 1:21:23Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:21:24Dax Shepard?

  You perfectly pivoted into TV. And I wonder, do you consciously do that or did it just accidentally happen? When I look at a lot of your peers, you somehow went perfectly into doing virtually what you were doing to movies and TV.

• 1:21:37Speaker 02

  It was sort of conscious. I think what's good is we are also able to keep making movies just in a different way than we did before.

• 1:21:44Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, but like making a $30 million comedy that's going to make $120,000, that's just off the table.

• 1:21:48Speaker 02

  Ninja Turtles to us is a movie that we can write. That's like a high school comedy that is really fun and we love it. But in order to make that movie now, it has to be. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yeah. And it's a lot of ideas that we would put into any movie, but it's just like, oh.

• 1:22:03Dax Shepard?

  Or Barbie for me. That's a comedy. That's a straight up comedy.

• 1:22:05Speaker 02

  I think we've always been realistic as to what the market wants and can bear. We may knocked up in Superbad, but very quickly we were like, we gotta add machine guns and car chases to this shit. Or it's gonna start to feel the same. And after that, we're like, oh, we gotta add like demons and monsters and meta celebrity in order for this to feel new and relevant. I don't know if we've ever spent that much time lamenting the trends and instead have tried to really see what is working and work through that. So with television, that for sure was like a conscious thing. We're like, oh, now you can do shit in television. That used to be the stuff we did in movies. It's different, but it's kind of the same.

• 1:22:45Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. Now, on the other side of all of it, and as much as I lamented the disappearance of all that and I suffered, I've made movies that didn't work in this fucking era. I also recognize I am so glad The Boys isn't a movie.

• 1:22:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:22:57Dax Shepard?

  So on the other side of it, have you found making TV is just as fun or even more?

• 1:23:02Speaker 02

  I mean, we had so much fun with this show. I've always been able to really wrap my head around writing movies. And I think writing TV and movies are very different. As is evidenced by the fact that there are brilliant TV writers who write terrible movies and brilliant movie writers who make terrible TV shows. They are not the same skill set. And I actually did always find I struggled to be a meaningful contributor on a lot of our TV shows. Because I think the thing that I had a hard time wrapping my head around was this seven hour movie idea. And then with the studio, one of the big revelations for me was like, no, it is not a serialized show. It's very episodic. Oh, I can actually really wrap my head around one 30 minute movie, basically. Something with a beginning, middle and a setup and a payoff.

• 1:23:45Speaker 02

  That's the thing that is exciting about television is you can sort of create your own type of narrative and they're just much more open to risk. I mean, in the eighties, maybe this would have been a movie in the seventies, but this was conceived of for TV, knowing this is not at all the type of thing that they would make into a movie. But this is exactly the kind of thing that they would make into a well budgeted TV show. But we still have movie ideas. We are working. On movies and we would like to keep making movies, but we just try to be realistic. I saw one of them days with Kiki Palmer and SZA. Yeah. And it was fucking hilarious and it did well. R rated comedy. I saw it in the full theater and I was like, it works. It can still work. I just thought Judd give an interview where he was saying like, if The Hangover came out today, it would fucking annihilate. I think it's a trend.

• 1:24:28Speaker 02

  I do think it ebbs and flows. There are moments where all seems lost.

• 1:24:32Speaker 01

  And then Barbie comes out.

• 1:24:33Speaker 02

  And then a movie comes out where you're like, oh no, like people are into this stuff.

• 1:24:36Dax Shepard?

  But also I'm watching Fall Guy and I'm like, this movie is flawless. It's got everything you would ever want. This thing should make half a billion dollars.

• 1:24:46Speaker 02

  It's just too expensive. That's the thing you have to be smart about also. And that's the thing we've always tried to really consider is you have to be realistic about what your movie costs, what you're asking of people. You know, if I was making was essentially a romantic comedy, I would not spend 80, 90, 100 million dollars on it. I'd spend like 20, 30 million dollars on it. That's always been part of our philosophy, but we're never as existential about it. I feel like as some people get, cause I think I've personally seen these trends ebb and flow just throughout the time I've been here, you know, and like Sandler makes movies that are on Netflix, but they're great and people love them. And if I was out to dinner with Aziz and we just were talking about comedy and the waitress was there and she's like, who's the best comedian alive right now? Adam Sandler, without skipping a second.

• 1:25:29Dax Shepard?

  She said it or you?

• 1:25:31Speaker 02

  She said it. She said it. We were like, we don't get an obligatory nod.

• 1:25:34Dax Shepard?

  Right in front of you.

• 1:25:35Speaker 02

  Those things give me hope. People still like these things. People always will want a comedy movie. Just the system has crumbled a little bit. When I was younger, you could write a funny movie. They would buy it and then cast it. That doesn't happen very much anymore. Now they want you to have everyone attached, but actors don't want to get attached. Kind of rightfully so, because you're exposing yourself and if you attach yourself to a thing and no one buys it, then you could feel as though that's a knock on your career.

• 1:26:03Speaker 01

  You don't have any capital.

• 1:26:05Speaker 02

  Exactly. But also that shouldn't be the system. The studio should just buy a script if they like it. And trust me, once that movie exists and is going to be made, you will be. Be able to cast it. Actors who are great, who know it's a real thing, who aren't exposing themselves and their name. Instead of studios doing what they should do, which is buy and develop films and then decide which ones to make and then cast them and hire directors and make them. That system has gone away a little bit. And I think that's out of just pure terror and risk mitigation and panic and all the stuff that is in the show. And it's people thinking that that will give them a more sure bet, but it's also negating the entire system that's in place of like executives

• 1:26:50Speaker 02

  developing ideas that are hopefully good and working with talent that is hopefully good.

• 1:26:54Dax Shepard?

  Well, I love it, man. I'm so glad that I got to see all that.

• 1:26:58Speaker 02

  That's so nice. I really appreciate it.

• 1:26:59Dax Shepard?

  It comes out on March 26th on Apple Plus and it's spectacular. And this is number three and I can't wait for number four.

• 1:27:09Speaker 02

  We'll get Evan in here.

• 1:27:09Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. We have space.

• 1:27:12Speaker 02

  You do.

• 1:27:15Dax Shepard?

  Tell him there's a seat waiting for him. All right. Well, thanks for coming in.

• 1:27:17Speaker 02

  Thanks for having me. That was great.

• 1:27:22Dax Shepard?

  Hi there. This is Hermium Hermium. If you like that, you're gonna love the fact check. Miss Monica.

• 1:27:30Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:27:34Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:27:36Speaker 01

  Oh, my God. You're excited because you're getting a boat today.

• 1:27:41Dax Shepard?

  Not today, but.

• 1:27:42Speaker 01

  Oh, you're getting a boat.

• 1:27:43Dax Shepard?

  By the time this is out.

• 1:27:45Speaker 01

  It's Christmas for this little boy and he's so excited.

• 1:27:49Dax Shepard?

  I'm gonna have my first pontoon boat.

• 1:27:51Speaker 01

  You're very excited.

• 1:27:53Dax Shepard?

  It's gorgeous. I can't, Monica, the leaps that have been made in the pontoon world.

• 1:28:00Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:28:00Dax Shepard?

  I could bore you for hours.

• 1:28:01Speaker 01

  Then see Sim.

• 1:28:03Dax Shepard?

  Why?

• 1:28:04Speaker 01

  Because by the time you got your boat, it's the best. It's much better. Don't look at me like that.

• 1:28:11Dax Shepard?

  Oh, I got you. I thought you were saying by the time I get it, like I receive it tomorrow, but yes. By the time I got in the market for, yes, there was a huge leap forward. Let me hit you with some of the feature.

• 1:28:23Speaker 01

  Okay, let's hear it.

• 1:28:24Dax Shepard?

  Pontoon, I grew up on a pontoon boat. Dave Barton, my sweet stepdad, he had himself a pontoon boat, two steel pontoons on the bottom.

• 1:28:31Speaker 01

  What is a pontoon?

• 1:28:33Dax Shepard?

  A pontoon's a big steel.

• 1:28:36Speaker 01

  Rod.

• 1:28:37Dax Shepard?

  What would I say pontoon? I mean, I don't know what other word to use. If you could picture a kayak.

• 1:28:42Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:28:43Dax Shepard?

  But completely sealed and it's stainless steel.

• 1:28:45Speaker 01

  Oh, okay.

• 1:28:45Dax Shepard?

  Or aluminum and it's you have two in the water and then there's a flat deck. So it doesn't have like a hull. It's not made out of fiberglass like a normal boat. It's just got these two pontoons and then a big flat deck on top. They're ideal for maximum passengers.

• 1:28:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:29:00Dax Shepard?

  But what I got is called a tri-tune, Monica. They've added a third pontoon in the middle of the boat. It's very buoyant and then it has these little runners on the side that actually lift it out of the water at speed. So less drag.

• 1:29:12Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:29:13Dax Shepard?

  Barton's pontoon, which this was standard, you generally have like a 50 horsepower Johnson outboard motor.

• 1:29:19Speaker 01

  Lovely.

• 1:29:20Dax Shepard?

  And you'd go, it could maybe go 13 miles an hour.

• 1:29:23Speaker 01

  Oh, that sounds great. I thought you just said 50.

• 1:29:25Dax Shepard?

  With a tailwind. That's Barton's boat. But now we're up to tri-tune with the elevation. Mine has a 400 horsepower V10 on the back. So eight times the amount of motor that Barton's.

• 1:29:38Speaker 01

  So how fast is it gonna go?

• 1:29:39Dax Shepard?

  I think it'll go about 55 miles an hour.

• 1:29:42Speaker 01

  I thought you just said his went 50 miles.

• 1:29:44Dax Shepard?

  15, 13.

• 1:29:46Speaker 01

  That's why I got 15, not 50. It sounded like 50.

• 1:29:50Dax Shepard?

  Full ski rig on it. So I can pull skiers, tubers. Everything you used to want a speedboat for is available on this with 13 passengers.

• 1:30:02Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:30:03Dax Shepard?

  Oh, money. The sound system is off the charts. We're gonna be dancing on this motherfucker.

• 1:30:09Speaker 01

  That's really fun.

• 1:30:10Dax Shepard?

  Oh.

• 1:30:11Speaker 01

  Boat culture is um.

• 1:30:13Dax Shepard?

  I'm new to it.

• 1:30:14Speaker 01

  You're not new to it.

• 1:30:15Dax Shepard?

  Well, I'm not new to it, but as an owner.

• 1:30:17Speaker 01

  Sure, sure.

• 1:30:18Dax Shepard?

  Shout out Ken Kennedy. He's my, he's my brains. I'm like, I'm getting a pontoon. He's like, well, you need, these are the two brands. Then he found one. He's like, this one's pretty perfect. You gotta get the easy top. I'm gonna add one more thing that'll bore everyone to tears. The pain of owning a boat. Anyone who owns one will know.

• 1:30:34Speaker 01

  Talk about the negative.

• 1:30:36Dax Shepard?

  I'm gonna. The worst part of owning a boat is that when you're done driving it, you have to take the cover and put it back over so that the cabin's completely covered. And there's all these snaps and it never fits right. And it's, it's like a fucking 15 minute ordeal every time you get off the boat.

• 1:30:52Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:30:52Dax Shepard?

  So then you get lazy and you go, I'm going back out in a couple hours. I'm not gonna put the cover on. And then you don't put the cover on. And then the interior of the boat just gets destroyed and you're slowly destroying this boat.

• 1:31:01Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:31:02Dax Shepard?

  It's the big problem with owning a boat. Mine has an easy cover. Monica, it's a remote control. So when we're driving, I have two diff- three options. Bimini, I can have the front of the boat in shade. The back fully exposed to sun, if that's your jam.

• 1:31:19Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:31:19Dax Shepard?

  The back fully shaded and the front open to sun bathing. Or full open, so total shade.

• 1:31:26Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:31:26Dax Shepard?

  And then when I get back, I hit a button, the whole fucking top drops down and seals the whole top as if I put the cover on and snapped it with a button.

• 1:31:35Speaker 01

  That's really privileged.

• 1:31:38Dax Shepard?

  It's so privileged.

• 1:31:40Speaker 01

  That is.

• 1:31:40Dax Shepard?

  And it didn't exist.

• 1:31:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:31:42Dax Shepard?

  Five years ago.

• 1:31:44Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:31:44Dax Shepard?

  I waited just long enough to get into this pontoon game.

• 1:31:47Speaker 01

  I think one of the best things in life is to have experts in your life. I mean, this is, I guess, what we've accumulated over the past seven years.

• 1:31:56Dax Shepard?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:31:56Speaker 01

  It's part of the joy is you, you get experts in your life in different areas. So you always have some, I mean, you don't like asking for help, but I love asking for help and I like asking the smartest, best, most knowledgeable person for help.

• 1:32:11Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:11Speaker 01

  So it's just accumulating a mass of people who are the best.

• 1:32:15Dax Shepard?

  Saves you a lot of time.

• 1:32:16Speaker 01

  So much. In fact, last night I reached out to someone, an expert, a medical expert.

• 1:32:24Dax Shepard?

  Oh.

• 1:32:27Speaker 01

  That we met here.

• 1:32:28Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:32:28Speaker 01

  In this job for help with an important question.

• 1:32:32Dax Shepard?

  Perimenopause question?

• 1:32:34Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:32:34Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:32:35Speaker 01

  But I am gonna, I am gonna text Mary Claire. I, something did come up that I was like, ooh, I need to ask her about that.

• 1:32:41Dax Shepard?

  How receptive were this, were they?

• 1:32:43Speaker 01

  Extremely.

• 1:32:44Dax Shepard?

  Ah.

• 1:32:45Speaker 01

  Nicest. Okay, I guess I'll say it. I wonder if I should say it.

• 1:32:48Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:49Speaker 01

  I think I can. So I was listening to, um, nobody's listening, right? Elizabeth and Andy. Elizabeth was telling a story about her taking her son to urgent care. The doctor comes in and the description of the doctor is very unsettling.

• 1:33:05Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:33:06Speaker 01

  Extremely.

• 1:33:07Dax Shepard?

  Beard, eye patch and a hook?

• 1:33:09Speaker 01

  I think would be better.

• 1:33:10Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:33:11Speaker 01

  I mean, I've been watching a lot of the pit and ER.

• 1:33:14Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, and ER.

• 1:33:14Speaker 01

  So I'm, I'm in this, I'm like, I know what's going on.

• 1:33:17Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 1:33:18Speaker 01

  He has a drug problem.

• 1:33:19Dax Shepard?

  Okay, sure.

• 1:33:20Speaker 01

  I really do think so.

• 1:33:21Dax Shepard?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:33:22Speaker 01

  He was like over his scrubs, wearing this like puffy vest. It was all stained.

• 1:33:27Dax Shepard?

  Oh, fuck.

• 1:33:27Speaker 01

  And then he was wearing a, his mask was stained.

• 1:33:30Dax Shepard?

  Oh, Jesus.

• 1:33:31Speaker 01

  And then he was like incoherent.

• 1:33:34Dax Shepard?

  Okay, CTE.

• 1:33:35Speaker 01

  Probably, yeah. So, anyway, she is telling this story and I was like, oh my god. And so I texted her and I said, Elizabeth, you need to report him.

• 1:33:47Dax Shepard?

  Oh, report him.

• 1:33:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was like, I really, I just think, because she obviously has the ability to say like, I'm gonna get my kid out of here and I'm gonna take him to another doctor. But a lot of people there don't.

• 1:33:59Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:59Speaker 01

  And they're just gonna have to take this doctor at face value. And so I texted Elizabeth, I said, I really, not to scare you, but I think you need to report this. I'm watching ER and like, it's bad.

• 1:34:09Dax Shepard?

  And Pitt.

• 1:34:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, and also the pit.

• 1:34:11Dax Shepard?

  And Chicago Hope.

• 1:34:12Speaker 01

  Oh my god, something so exciting happened. I thought I was done with the pit. Like, I thought it was over. And it's not.

• 1:34:17Dax Shepard?

  It's ongoing?

• 1:34:18Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:34:19Dax Shepard?

  Oh my gosh.

• 1:34:20Speaker 01

  So then I got to watch another episode.

• 1:34:22Dax Shepard?

  Oh, congratulations.

• 1:34:23Speaker 01

  Thank you, I was so excited. Anyway, so I DM'd a old guest of ours.

• 1:34:31Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:32Speaker 01

  And said, what do I do if, yeah, is there a way to report? He helped me, he gave me some resources.

• 1:34:39Dax Shepard?

  Oh, good.

• 1:34:39Speaker 01

  So I sent them to Elizabeth.

• 1:34:41Dax Shepard?

  We'll see, TBD.

• 1:34:42Speaker 01

  Speaking of ER.

• 1:34:44Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you were. Continue. When you're the one speaking of it, you could just continue speaking of it.

• 1:34:52Speaker 01

  I wasn't speaking of it, it came up so naturally.

• 1:34:55Dax Shepard?

  Literally, but what if I said, speaking of pontoon boats. Okay, so speaking of ER.

• 1:34:59Speaker 01

  Guess who was on? I posted about this.

• 1:35:01Dax Shepard?

  Oh, Dr. Adam. Dr. Adam.

• 1:35:06Speaker 01

  Dr. Adam Scott.

• 1:35:07Dax Shepard?

  Dr. Adam Scott.

• 1:35:08Speaker 01

  He, uh, he was a little patient in there. He was only in like, the very beginning of the episode.

• 1:35:13Dax Shepard?

  Was he great, of course?

• 1:35:14Speaker 01

  Of course he's great. But he's so young and I was staring and I was like, is, is that Adam? He had a neck brace on and he was being brought in. So it was kinda hard to tell.

• 1:35:23Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:24Speaker 01

  And so I had to wait till the credits to double check and it was him.

• 1:35:27Dax Shepard?

  And then he needed a freeze frame and a photo and a post.

• 1:35:29Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 1:35:30Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, naturally.

• 1:35:31Speaker 01

  He's a friend of the pod.

• 1:35:32Dax Shepard?

  Gotta promote his episode of ER.

• 1:35:34Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then the episode before that, another friend of the pod, Bradley Whitford. Status episode of the, eh, top three. Saddest episodes of ER total.

• 1:35:45Dax Shepard?

  Um, okay. And ding ding ding. Bradley Whitford was on an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine that they were watching yesterday. That show is way, way funnier than I had guessed it was. It's quite, quite, quite funny. It's a very good show.

• 1:36:02Speaker 01

  Mike Schur, he doesn't fuck up.

• 1:36:04Dax Shepard?

  No.

• 1:36:05Speaker 01

  Speaking of Mike Schur.

• 1:36:08Dax Shepard?

  Speaking of ER.

• 1:36:10Speaker 01

  Speaking of Mike Schur, I was watching ER last night.

• 1:36:13Speaker 05

  Have you guys seen the show Adolescence that's on Netflix?

• 1:36:15Dax Shepard?

  Oh, so it keeps getting recommended to me. Have you watched it?

• 1:36:21Speaker 05

  I've seen half of it. It's all oneers also.

• 1:36:23Dax Shepard?

  Oh.

• 1:36:24Speaker 05

  One hour oneers.

• 1:36:26Speaker 01

  And isn't it like really intense?

• 1:36:27Speaker 05

  It's about a boy that, like thirteen year old boy that stabs a little girl. And it's his dad like dealing with it.

• 1:36:36Speaker 01

  Yes, I've heard. I, there's all these articles that say it's flawless.

• 1:36:40Dax Shepard?

  Okay, I'm gonna do it. Maybe when I'm driving the bus home, I'll plow through the whole season.

• 1:36:45Speaker 01

  A little intense to watch while you're driving.

• 1:36:47Speaker 05

  Four episodes only.

• 1:36:49Dax Shepard?

  Oh, it's only four episodes?

• 1:36:50Speaker 05

  Hour long.

• 1:36:51Dax Shepard?

  Okay, so that'll get me, um, two hundred and eighty miles.

• 1:36:55Speaker 01

  Why don't you just watch it tonight?

• 1:36:56Dax Shepard?

  Cause I'm waking, I have to get in the car at five AM tomorrow to go to the airport. So I'm not gonna watch anything tonight.

• 1:37:02Speaker 01

  Why don't you just try?

• 1:37:03Dax Shepard?

  Okay, I'll watch it tonight.

• 1:37:04Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:37:07Speaker 03

  Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert if you dare.

• 1:37:19Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:37:20Speaker 01

  Okay, let's get serious.

• 1:37:22Dax Shepard?

  Let's get serious.

• 1:37:22Speaker 01

  Seth Rogen.

• 1:37:24Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, he's so serious.

• 1:37:26Speaker 01

  I love Seth Rogen.

• 1:37:28Dax Shepard?

  Me too.

• 1:37:28Speaker 01

  Okay, now, does History of Islands have staircase sex? Yes. Top ten movies that have stair sex.

• 1:37:37Dax Shepard?

  Oh, okay, great.

• 1:37:38Speaker 01

  Now, I think it's worth us revisiting. You did bring up that you'd rather have sex on a unicycle than on the stairs.

• 1:37:46Dax Shepard?

  Absolutely. And not only would I rather, it's a personal goal now. Once I thought of it.

• 1:37:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:37:52Dax Shepard?

  I would love that.

• 1:37:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:37:54Dax Shepard?

  Talk about a high wire act.

• 1:37:58Dax Shepard?

  I mean, the stakes would be so high. If everyone reached orgasm in that dynamic, I bet it would be explosive. Cause you'd be scared you were gonna fall and get a concussion.

• 1:38:07Speaker 01

  Which, okay, I just feel like you wouldn't be able to fully let yourself go.

• 1:38:11Dax Shepard?

  That's the challenge.

• 1:38:12Speaker 01

  Okay, yeah. History of violence. Close enough to touch.

• 1:38:16Dax Shepard?

  Never heard of it.

• 1:38:17Speaker 01

  A woman in the mirror. Ex deal.

• 1:38:19Dax Shepard?

  These.

• 1:38:20Speaker 01

  I know, I'm, I am worried.

• 1:38:21Dax Shepard?

  Some of these pornography.

• 1:38:22Speaker 01

  I'm worried about that, but I don't know.

• 1:38:24Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:38:24Speaker 01

  Spanish fly.

• 1:38:26Dax Shepard?

  Okay, let's talk about Spanish fly.

• 1:38:27Speaker 01

  Okay, teach us about Spanish fly, cause I didn't know what it was.

• 1:38:29Dax Shepard?

  You didn't know what Spanish fly was.

• 1:38:31Speaker 01

  And you taught me.

• 1:38:31Dax Shepard?

  And Spanish fly, and again, there's gotta be very, very clear about this. This was not, this is a urban legend.

• 1:38:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's not real.

• 1:38:38Dax Shepard?

  All growing up, I knew about Spanish fly. And it wasn't a drug that would knock women out so you could rape them. Let's just be very clear. It's, it was, it was not, um.

• 1:38:47Speaker 01

  It's not roofie.

• 1:38:48Dax Shepard?

  This was a magic pill you would give girls that would make them super horny.

• 1:38:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:53Dax Shepard?

  And they would find you irresistible.

• 1:38:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:57Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, so still a hack.

• 1:38:58Speaker 01

  Thing.

• 1:38:59Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:59Speaker 01

  Like a love spell.

• 1:39:00Dax Shepard?

  And probably still some deception, but anyways, that's a, yeah, that's a urban legend that there's a pill. And then the other one that I was always told growing up, most of my brother told me this, is that actors, to prevent getting erections, took saltpeter. And I don't know if saltpeter's real and it really does prevent you from getting an erection. Rob, will you do a perfunctory search of saltpeter?

• 1:39:21Speaker 05

  T gallium nitrate, component of gunpowder, um.

• 1:39:28Speaker 01

  Gunpowder.

• 1:39:29Speaker 05

  It's been used to prevent blowing up hard cheeses.

• 1:39:32Dax Shepard?

  Prevented from what? Blowing up hard cheeses?

• 1:39:34Speaker 05

  Blowing up hard cheeses.

• 1:39:36Dax Shepard?

  It makes hard cheese soft.

• 1:39:38Speaker 05

  Let me.

• 1:39:39Dax Shepard?

  Erections.

• 1:39:39Speaker 05

  Search erections.

• 1:39:41Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, so do saltpeter's erections.

• 1:39:43Speaker 05

  The belief that saltpeter can suppress erections is a myth. There's no scientific evidence.

• 1:39:48Dax Shepard?

  So good, I said it was the equivalent, the equivalent is saltpeter.

• 1:39:51Speaker 01

  This is like Marilyn Manson's ribs.

• 1:39:54Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:54Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:39:55Dax Shepard?

  But we, this is worth noting that we were doing an episode of Armchair Anonymous yesterday.

• 1:40:01Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 1:40:01Dax Shepard?

  And it had occurred to me that I had had sex in a stairwell.

• 1:40:05Speaker 01

  Exactly. And last time we fought, we fought about this because you thought it was crazy that I said, I think I would rather, I would definitely rather have sex on the stairs than a unicycle. And then you thought that was crazy.

• 1:40:20Dax Shepard?

  I don't think you would. Well, hold on, I don't think you would because you have to imagine how painful it is to have three thin points of contact on your body. So your own weight on these three very hard, tiny points of contact than someone else's weight and thrusting on you. It would be insanely painful.

• 1:40:40Speaker 01

  I would expect the guy to kind of prop themselves up also on the stairs. So they're not slant, they're not like whole body weight is on mine. I think you'd be surprised at how good I am at lying on the stairs.

• 1:40:54Dax Shepard?

  I would be quite surprised because I don't know how you get around the fact that you have these three points of contact. Better, huge improvement. But anyway, someone said, well, I bet a lot of people have had sex in stairwells. And then I realized, oh, I had done that.

• 1:41:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:41:10Dax Shepard?

  What a blessing. One of the real blessings of my life.

• 1:41:13Speaker 01

  No, don't say that. No, don't say that. You have children.

• 1:41:18Dax Shepard?

  One of, not the blessing of my life.

• 1:41:21Speaker 01

  One of how many?

• 1:41:23Dax Shepard?

  I've had hundreds of blessings in my life and this is one of them.

• 1:41:27Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:41:28Dax Shepard?

  I was gambling in Las Vegas at the Luxor Casino in my twenties. And I met a very attractive woman from Australia.

• 1:41:38Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 1:41:40Dax Shepard?

  Yes. And after a couple hours of flirting and drinking at the blackjack table, we excused ourselves per her.

• 1:41:51Speaker 01

  Request.

• 1:41:51Dax Shepard?

  Her request.

• 1:41:52Speaker 01

  Spanish fly.

• 1:41:53Dax Shepard?

  Led me.

• 1:41:54Speaker 01

  Did you?

• 1:41:54Dax Shepard?

  No.

• 1:41:55Speaker 01

  Are you sure?

• 1:41:56Dax Shepard?

  Salt Peter. Led me to the staircase at the Luxor, the stairwell, which is a very weird staircase because it's diagonal, diagonal alley.

• 1:42:07Speaker 01

  Diagon alley.

• 1:42:08Dax Shepard?

  Diagon alley.

• 1:42:08Speaker 01

  A pyramid shape.

• 1:42:09Dax Shepard?

  Yes. So the staircase is going up like an M.C. Escher.

• 1:42:12Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:42:13Dax Shepard?

  Situation. But again, that was not on the stairs. That was like more leaning over one of the railings.

• 1:42:18Speaker 01

  Sure. Listen, um, what if you had taken Salt Peter and she had taken Spanish fly?

• 1:42:24Dax Shepard?

  That's a match made in hell.

• 1:42:25Speaker 01

  Bad match.

• 1:42:26Dax Shepard?

  That's the worst. That was me on cope, to be fully honest with you. Yeah. Everyone's horny and then I can't.

• 1:42:33Speaker 01

  Why?

• 1:42:34Dax Shepard?

  Perform.

• 1:42:34Speaker 01

  That's so weird that then you loved that drug. Cause you loved having sex.

• 1:42:38Dax Shepard?

  I told you, that's when, I mean, there were numerous times where I had to acknowledge what a problem it had become.

• 1:42:45Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 1:42:45Dax Shepard?

  But yes, there was a moment where I was at a bar and I decided, I told the dude like, oh, get the guy and let's get an eight ball. And I, and there was a girl there that liked me.

• 1:42:54Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:42:55Dax Shepard?

  And I was like, this is something, you're, you would rather do that drug than have sex with this attractive person. And I, previous to that would have thought there was nothing I would want to do more than have sex with an attractive person.

• 1:43:07Speaker 01

  And you'd rather poop in the bed.

• 1:43:09Dax Shepard?

  Say what?

• 1:43:12Dax Shepard?

  You're just, you're like grabbing, you're grabbing from everywhere.

• 1:43:16Speaker 01

  Speaking of ER.

• 1:43:19Dax Shepard?

  So.

• 1:43:19Speaker 01

  No, you did poop in the bed once.

• 1:43:21Dax Shepard?

  That's not, that's not relevant to this conversation.

• 1:43:24Speaker 01

  You were on coke.

• 1:43:24Dax Shepard?

  Yes, an excessive amount.

• 1:43:26Speaker 01

  So that's my point.

• 1:43:27Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:43:28Speaker 01

  Anywho, I'm glad for you that you had sex in the stairwell.

• 1:43:31Dax Shepard?

  Me too, me too. One of the blessings.

• 1:43:33Speaker 01

  But.

• 1:43:35Dax Shepard?

  There's blessings all around if you keep your eyes open.

• 1:43:37Speaker 01

  I guess that's right.

• 1:43:39Dax Shepard?

  If she remembers me and she's hearing this, thank you so much. What a great memory. No?

• 1:43:44Speaker 01

  No, yeah, I just, I just had like a very prudish judgment.

• 1:43:50Dax Shepard?

  Oh, cool. What was it about just sex?

• 1:43:52Speaker 01

  No, it was just like, I don't think she's okay.

• 1:43:56Dax Shepard?

  Oh my God, Monica.

• 1:43:57Speaker 01

  I know, I'm sorry, you ass and I wanted to be honest. I just.

• 1:44:02Dax Shepard?

  Blood shaming.

• 1:44:02Speaker 01

  No, I know, that's why.

• 1:44:04Dax Shepard?

  Well, I'm glad you're owning it.

• 1:44:05Speaker 01

  I said it was a prudish judgment.

• 1:44:08Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:08Speaker 01

  Um, and it's, it's not necessarily true, but.

• 1:44:12Dax Shepard?

  You can imagine.

• 1:44:12Speaker 01

  What if you would kill her? Like.

• 1:44:14Dax Shepard?

  What? What, I was a nice boy.

• 1:44:17Speaker 01

  You know.

• 1:44:18Dax Shepard?

  Right. I don't think murderers, like, that's not how it works with murderers. They're not like, you know what? I'm gonna go gambling. If I meet someone who wants to fuck in the stairwell, I might murder them. I don't think that's how it works.

• 1:44:30Speaker 01

  No, that's not how it works. They're there knowing they're gonna be charming and Ted Bundy.

• 1:44:36Dax Shepard?

  I don't even think murderers are gambling and having fun and getting drunk.

• 1:44:39Speaker 01

  No, they are to, to, to lure.

• 1:44:41Dax Shepard?

  They're in their grandma's underpants.

• 1:44:43Speaker 01

  No, not Ted Bundy.

• 1:44:44Dax Shepard?

  Brad Pitt said in Seven.

• 1:44:45Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:44:47Speaker 01

  Not Ted Bundy, he was hot and out and about.

• 1:44:50Dax Shepard?

  He was in a cast hanging out by cars, acting like he couldn't get his crutches or something.

• 1:44:55Speaker 01

  Whatever, he was still playing it, he was still luring.

• 1:44:57Dax Shepard?

  He was playing a victim and luring people.

• 1:45:01Speaker 01

  You don't think anyone's been lured, please, that's what roofing, that's what a lot of roofing is at bars.

• 1:45:10Dax Shepard?

  Okay, we're talking about, no, we're talking, we're talking about killers.

• 1:45:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:45:14Dax Shepard?

  And we're talking about roofing.

• 1:45:16Speaker 01

  Well, rapists.

• 1:45:17Dax Shepard?

  And we're talking about me playing blackjack in Vegas.

• 1:45:19Speaker 01

  No, I'm saying, okay, I'm saying that just because you're having fun in a bar and you're fun.

• 1:45:26Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:26Speaker 01

  Doesn't mean you're safe.

• 1:45:28Dax Shepard?

  Well, I was though.

• 1:45:29Speaker 01

  I know, I'm not talking about you anymore, okay?

• 1:45:31Dax Shepard?

  Okay, okay.

• 1:45:32Speaker 01

  I'm not talking about you.

• 1:45:33Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:45:33Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:45:34Dax Shepard?

  You're just saying, there could be someone drinking at the blackjack table who's a killer.

• 1:45:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, or a rapist.

• 1:45:39Dax Shepard?

  And then they're using that method to meet people.

• 1:45:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:45:44Dax Shepard?

  That they'll kill.

• 1:45:45Speaker 01

  Or rape.

• 1:45:45Dax Shepard?

  Right, and they'll be on all the Vegas cameras with a ton of documentation.

• 1:45:51Speaker 01

  You're gonna get in so much trouble for this.

• 1:45:52Dax Shepard?

  A lot of documentation that they were talking to their victim. It'd be a really dumb serial killer to, to get their victims in a Vegas casino because it's so filmed.

• 1:46:02Speaker 01

  Okay, well, I just.

• 1:46:04Dax Shepard?

  You want to be out in the woods in a parking lot with a cast on and some.

• 1:46:07Speaker 01

  No, a lot of, no, they draw, they, they act like they're gonna hook up with someone and then they rape them or kill them. This is common.

• 1:46:17Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:46:18Speaker 01

  So my point is, I just don't know if she's still with us.

• 1:46:20Dax Shepard?

  I think she is, she was really a cool, smart.

• 1:46:23Speaker 01

  I'm sure she was.

• 1:46:23Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I'll have fun, but you can imagine how neatly it filed into my whole thing about Anglos, right? Because the only other really time that that had happened in such an aggressive manner was when I was in 10th grade, the aforementioned snowboard trip story.

• 1:46:37Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:46:38Dax Shepard?

  With my friend from Manchester.

• 1:46:39Speaker 01

  Right, that was in a stairwell too?

• 1:46:41Dax Shepard?

  No, but it was an English gal and now I had an Australian gal and I was like, something's going on with these gals. They're very assertive.

• 1:46:48Speaker 01

  Right, right, right.

• 1:46:49Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, it funneled nicely into my stereotype.

• 1:46:52Speaker 01

  Right, okay, um, oh my God, the next movie is Impulse.

• 1:46:58Speaker 01

  The Thomas Crown Affair.

• 1:46:59Dax Shepard?

  Oh, there we go. That's my favorite.

• 1:47:00Speaker 01

  Serve the people, misty the room.

• 1:47:03Dax Shepard?

  Okay, so I have heard of three of those ten movies.

• 1:47:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, me too. Um, okay, existing record for a oner. Several movies have filmed, have been filmed to appear as if they are shot in one continuous uninterrupted take, including 1917, Birdman, Children of Men, Silent House. Okay, now, hold on, I'm gonna pull up another article here.

• 1:47:28Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:47:29Speaker 01

  Goodfellas.

• 1:47:30Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:31Speaker 01

  That's three minutes.

• 1:47:32Dax Shepard?

  Feels so much longer.

• 1:47:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, it was early, it was early days of oners. Creed, four minutes. Um, Atonement, five and a half minutes. Children of Men, six minutes. 1917, eight minutes.

• 1:47:51Speaker 01

  Extraction, 12 minutes.

• 1:47:53Dax Shepard?

  Hmm.

• 1:47:53Speaker 01

  Birdman, 15 minutes.

• 1:47:55Dax Shepard?

  Now we're talking.

• 1:47:56Speaker 01

  Gravity, 17 minutes.

• 1:47:59Dax Shepard?

  Ooh, we're climbing.

• 1:48:00Speaker 01

  Boiling Point, 92 minutes.

• 1:48:04Dax Shepard?

  Was Boiling Point a John Woo movie?

• 1:48:06Speaker 05

  Nope, uh, it's Steven Graham from, uh, Adolescence, isn't it?

• 1:48:11Speaker 01

  No!

• 1:48:12Speaker 05

  He's the lead in it.

• 1:48:13Speaker 01

  That's so sad.

• 1:48:15Speaker 05

  But a London restaurant.

• 1:48:16Dax Shepard?

  Oh, my God, I'm cutting that. You said I'm cutting that.

• 1:48:19Speaker 01

  Too scared I'm cutting it.

• 1:48:21Dax Shepard?

  It's too much.

• 1:48:22Speaker 01

  Um, Russian Ark, 96 minutes.

• 1:48:26Dax Shepard?

  Wow, they're so rewarding when you are directing one and everything goes right.

• 1:48:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:48:31Dax Shepard?

  Nothing really feels like that. Stunt, like, when a stunt goes right, that's a really... The hardest I've ever celebrated

• 1:48:39Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 1:48:40Dax Shepard?

  was in Chips, when my friend drove a Humvee through a motorhome and drove it right through the center of it and broke it in half and made it through the other side at full speed as explosions were going off. I was on the Sixth Street Bridge and I screamed with elation like you can't imagine.

• 1:48:59Speaker 01

  That's really fun.

• 1:48:59Dax Shepard?

  Oh, highlight of, another blessing of my life.

• 1:49:02Speaker 05

  There's a lot of stunt people in your movie.

• 1:49:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:49:05Dax Shepard?

  In Chips?

• 1:49:06Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:49:07Dax Shepard?

  Oh, yeah, the whole fucking movie.

• 1:49:08Speaker 05

  There's like a hundred people.

• 1:49:09Dax Shepard?

  Stunts.

• 1:49:10Speaker 01

  So many stunts.

• 1:49:11Dax Shepard?

  I'm listed as a stunt performer for Michael Pena.

• 1:49:15Speaker 01

  That's, you did Brownface?

• 1:49:20Dax Shepard?

  I did all the driving in his getaway car scene.

• 1:49:23Speaker 01

  That's appropriation.

• 1:49:24Dax Shepard?

  I didn't do brown face. I just went to a tanning.

• 1:49:27Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:49:28Dax Shepard?

  Spray tanning and went too far.

• 1:49:33Speaker 01

  Okay, that's it for Seth. We love Seth.

• 1:49:35Dax Shepard?

  Oh, God, we love him. I can't wait for number four.

• 1:49:37Speaker 01

  Me too. Bye.

• 1:49:38Dax Shepard?

  Bye. Love you.