Nathan Lane

This week Ina welcomes the one and only Nathan Lane to her apartment in NYC for a bourbon sour and hilarious conversation. They talk about his critically acclaimed run in Death of a Salesman on Broadway, their shared love of funny dog videos, and Nathan’s experience working with comedy greats like Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Mel Brooks. Beloved hostess Ina Garten welcomes listeners into her New York City apartment for Happy Hour with Ina Garten. Every Wednesday, she sits down with people she’d like to meet from the worlds of culture, food, art, sports, and entertainment for the kinds of conversations you would love to overhear at a great dinner party. Warm, funny, personal, and often unexpected, Happy Hour mixes in-depth conversation with stories, recipes, and, of course, cocktails. Pull up a chair, pour yourself a drink, and join the conversation. SUBSCRIBE ► Subscribe to Happy Hour with Ina Garten for new episodes every Wednesday: https://www.youtube.com/@HappyHourwithIna?sub_confirmation=1 FOLLOW THE SHOW ► Happy Hour on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HappyHourwithIna?sub_confirmation=1 ► Happy Hour on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happyhourwithina ► Happy Hour on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@happyhourwithina ► Happy Hour on Substack: https://happyhourwithinagarten.substack.com/welcome ► Happy Hour on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61589319634655 Host: Ina Garten Executive Producers: Jenna Weiss-Berman, Ali Jaffe Ramis, and Deborah Davis Contributing Producer: Kate Tyler Producer: Jules Natt Video Editor: Tim Fernandez Associate Producer: Mica Pollan Bahn Sound Recording: Joe Plourde Audio Mixing: Matt Tierney Camera Operators: Joe Valenzuela and Kyle Derry Music by Pink Martini Special Thanks to Cinematographer Dion Beebe Happy Hour with Ina is a Vox Media podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

• 0:02Ina Garten?

  I'm Ina Garten, and this is Happy Hour. Today, I'm sitting down with my friend Nathan Lane.

• 0:07Speaker 01

  Hello. Hello, how are you?

• 0:10Ina Garten?

  It wasn't Kama Sutra. It was a different kind of exercise, right? Okay, just checking.

• 0:16Speaker 01

  No, we'd already done the Kama Sutra.

• 0:19Ina Garten?

  Nathan is a beloved Tony and Emmy award-winning actor. You know from The Birdcage, The Producers, Only Murders in the Building, The Gilded Age, and, most recently, Death of a Salesman.

• 0:31Speaker 01

  Hey, it's great to be back.

• 0:43Ina Garten?

  Support for the show comes from Whole Foods Market. When I'm hosting a fall dinner, I always choose recipes that I know my guests will love. The ones that are made with really good cheddar, crisp apples, roasted sweet peppers, fresh herbs, and flaky pastry. When you start with high-quality ingredients, you don't have to do much to make the simplest dishes absolutely delicious. For whatever party you're planning, Whole Foods Market has beautiful ingredients to make your cooking shine. Gather your friends and family around the table and have a wonderful time. For your fall entertaining, shop Whole Foods Market in-store or online.

• 1:23Ina Garten?

  Support for the show comes from Talbotz. You know me, I'm all about big impact without overcomplicating it. And I believe the best things in life are simple, effortless, and classic for a reason. That's why Talbotz is my daily uniform and why I'm wearing it right now. I used to go into my closet and look at everything, and I'd always wear the Talbotz shirt anyway, so I thought, how about get rid of everything else? Why chase trends when I can dress in timeless pieces that feel good and always look right? Discover the pieces you'll reach for again and again. Shop talbotz.com/aina today.

• 2:03Ina Garten?

  Nathan Lane, welcome to Happy Hour.

• 2:05Speaker 01

  Oh, thank you, Ina Garten.

• 2:06Ina Garten?

  So happy to see you.

• 2:07Speaker 01

  Thank you. I'm very happy to see you.

• 2:09Ina Garten?

  I made you a whiskey sour. I think there's-- the first time you came for dinner,

• 2:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:13Ina Garten?

  you came with our mutual friend Susan Truman, and I made you a whiskey sour. And what did you tell me about it?

• 2:19Speaker 01

  Well, it brings back childhood memories. Not drinking whiskey sours as a child, but my mother, who wasn't a drinker, but if you went out to dinner, she would order a whiskey sour on the rocks and sort of nurse it through the evening.

• 2:38Ina Garten?

  And my father did too, so it always reminds me--

• 2:40Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 2:41Ina Garten?

  It's a very 1950s kind of drink, right?

• 2:42Speaker 01

  It is, isn't it?

• 2:43Ina Garten?

  And we always got the cherry, so we got the flavor of the whiskey sour.

• 2:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:47Ina Garten?

  Anyway, cheers.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  Well, cheers.

• 2:49Ina Garten?

  So happy to see you.

• 2:50Speaker 01

  It's great to be here.

• 2:51Ina Garten?

  So how are you holding up? The last time I saw you was backstage.

• 2:58Speaker 01

  Oh, that's good. That'll put hair on your chest. Yikes. It's gonna be a really happy hour.

• 3:08Ina Garten?

  It's always a happy hour with you. I can guarantee it. So the last time I saw you was backstage at Death of a Salesman.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 3:15Ina Garten?

  You were smack in the middle of it. It was stunning. It was just stunning. I just couldn't imagine sitting there watching you, how you get up for that every single night. Like, actually, eight times a week, right?

• 3:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, in the beginning, we were doing a performance.

• 3:29Ina Garten?

  Is it deeply exhausting or is it exciting and exhausting at the same time?

• 3:34Speaker 01

  You know, you gain stamina. And I found out, you know, I still have--

• 3:39Ina Garten?

  It's like exercise, right?

• 3:40Speaker 01

  A great deal of stamina, yes. And then once, you know, after the award season, then we were only doing seven a week and not--

• 3:50Ina Garten?

  I like the way you're saying "only seven." It was like a great relief, only seven.

• 3:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was a breeze. And not doing all that press, so it was just doing the play, and that made it a lot easier. And by then, I really hadn't worked up my stamina. So, look, it's always challenging. And we would, myself, Laurie Metcalf, Chris Abbott, and Ben Ahlers, who played the Loman family--

• 4:17Ina Garten?

  Incredible.

• 4:17Speaker 01

  Incredible actors. And we would gather in my dressing room before the show.

• 4:23Ina Garten?

  Every time?

• 4:24Speaker 01

  Every night, before every performance. And for about 15 minutes, we would just sit and talk about the day's events and gossip and laugh and then talk about how much we didn't want to do the play that night. And then they would call half hour and they would go off and--

• 4:43Ina Garten?

  So you had a little bonding moment?

• 4:44Speaker 01

  Oh, very, very much, yeah. I mean, I think that's part of what made the production special, aside from Joe Mantello, our director's work, was that you felt we really did love each other. We felt like a family. And we, certainly with Laurie Metcalf and myself, that's a relationship that goes back 40 years.

• 5:07Ina Garten?

  Is that right? When did you meet her?

• 5:09Speaker 01

  In 1986, we met at the Williamstown Theater Festival--

• 5:12Ina Garten?

  Wow.

• 5:13Speaker 01

  --doing a restoration play, The School for Scandal. And she played Lady Snearwell, and I played Sir Benjamin Backbite. And I just thought, that is a formidable actress.

• 5:28Ina Garten?

  And you were right.

• 5:29Speaker 01

  And I was right.

• 5:30Ina Garten?

  And she said the same thing about you, except the actress part.

• 5:36Speaker 01

  And then, you know, and then we just, you know, Chris and Ben, it just, they started, they immediately started hanging out together, going to Knicks games, and it all, we really did become a family.

• 5:48Ina Garten?

  It's wonderful.

• 5:50Speaker 01

  So it, yes, it's a relief not to have to do it every night, and yet I really miss it. I miss--

• 6:00Ina Garten?

  After all that, you really miss just going--

• 6:02Speaker 01

  I do. I miss the challenge of it, and I miss seeing the effect it had on audiences and people coming back.

• 6:11Ina Garten?

  I have to say, I have a very hard time sitting still. I didn't breathe the whole time. It was so compelling, and it was so-- you just could feel the emotion from the beginning to the end. It was extraordinary, really extraordinary.

• 6:24Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, it felt that way.

• 6:26Ina Garten?

  I have another question. Does anybody know that you don't have a driver's license? You drove that car onto the stage--

• 6:32Speaker 01

  Yes, I did.

• 6:33Ina Garten?

  And I'm like, oh my God, Nathan's driving.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, I had to--

• 6:37Ina Garten?

  Did you have to tell anybody?

• 6:38Speaker 01

  Yes, I had to get a theatrical driver's license for that.

• 6:41Ina Garten?

  Is there such a thing as a theatrical driver's license?

• 6:43Speaker 01

  Oh, sure. You take the written test at Sardi's, and then you go out on the road with Betty Buckley. And she's very strict.

• 6:50Ina Garten?

  Would you have done this play 20 years ago? Or do you feel like you needed to be a certain place in your life and your career to do it?

• 6:56Speaker 01

  I think it was fated that it happened when it happened. And then, no, I don't know. Well, I guess I could have done it 20 years ago. I would have been 50. But I would have felt too young. And then, this was a production that took a long time to come together and almost happened, and then fell apart. And then there was the pandemic. And then there was another production that came in from London, and I thought, oh, well, that's the end. And then to do it at the Winter Garden Theater--

• 7:26Ina Garten?

  It was huge.

• 7:26Speaker 01

  --huge space and sort of turn it into an event, I was very nervous about that--

• 7:33Ina Garten?

  You were, really?

• 7:34Speaker 01

  --about selling all those tickets and--

• 7:36Ina Garten?

  Sold-out standing room. Couldn't get a ticket anywhere.

• 7:40Speaker 01

  It's more than I ever could have hoped for or imagined. I think it was meant to happen when it did, and I never would have guessed that and the way it did. And it was overwhelming, the reaction.

• 7:55Ina Garten?

  The response was stunning.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  And as you talked about, a kind of silence that you only hear in the theater, and I've never heard silence.

• 8:02Ina Garten?

  I literally didn't breathe. I just felt like I didn't move. I didn't breathe. It was total silence.

• 8:07Speaker 01

  And the only other thing you would hear was people crying.

• 8:11Ina Garten?

  Oh, I know. Everybody was.

• 8:13Speaker 01

  It was remarkable and--

• 8:15Ina Garten?

  How gratifying.

• 8:16Speaker 01

  And now--

• 8:17Ina Garten?

  I feel like crying now.

• 8:18Speaker 01

  Now I don't know what to do now. It's sort of like, what happens when you climb to the top of the mountain?

• 8:26Ina Garten?

  What's next?

• 8:27Speaker 01

  I mean, I never thought, I hoped that it would be well-received and we'd do okay. I did not expect it to sell like--

• 8:36Ina Garten?

  You should have asked me. I would have told you that.

• 8:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, you never, I'm in the middle of it. So I could only go by people who were coming back and saying, "It feels so modern and fresh." And like it was written yesterday, and this is-- you know, I've seen them all, and this is definitive. And I, it was overwhelming. And I'm so grateful.

• 9:02Ina Garten?

  Well, you've, I mean, you've gone from comedy to drama, like Iceman Cometh. I mean, what is that, five hours?

• 9:08Speaker 01

  That's five hours.

• 9:09Ina Garten?

  That's just insane. I don't even know how you prepare for five hours on the stage. And then you go to The Producers?

• 9:16Speaker 01

  Right.

• 9:16Ina Garten?

  And then you go to, I mean, you just-- is it that you choose things that are diametrically opposed to what you've been doing? Or you just, you want to challenge yourself all the time? Or does they just come to you?

• 9:27Speaker 01

  Both. It's, you know, you want a variety of roles and things to tackle. But, you know, that sort of was kind of a fork in the road. I was doing a musical called The Addams Family, which had not been well-received.

• 9:45Ina Garten?

  Really?

• 9:45Speaker 01

  Oh, reviled by the critics. Yes.

• 9:49Ina Garten?

  And we love those critics, right?

• 9:50Speaker 01

  Jackie Hoffman, a wonderful, hilarious character actress who played Grandma in The Addams Family, used to say--

• 9:59Speaker 01

  Jesus, even gay men hate this fucking musical. So, um, so we, so, and yet, the public wanted to see it.

• 10:10Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 10:10Speaker 01

  So, we, we, it ran for, it actually went on and ran for two years.

• 10:15Ina Garten?

  I saw, I remember seeing that, it was great.

• 10:17Speaker 01

  You did?

• 10:18Ina Garten?

  I did.

• 10:18Speaker 01

  Well, you're very kind.

• 10:19Ina Garten?

  It was fun.

• 10:19Speaker 01

  You're very kind, Ina. And, and so, um, in the middle of it, Charles Isherwood in The Times wrote a piece, an assessment piece about myself and my career and up to that point. And it was a very, very flattering piece. And but, and he referred to me in the article as, um, the greatest stage entertainer of the last decade.

• 10:39Ina Garten?

  Entertainer?

• 10:40Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 10:41Ina Garten?

  Did that stick with you?

• 10:42Speaker 01

  And that stuck.

• 10:43Ina Garten?

  Oh, God, that would stick with me, too. I beg your pardon.

• 10:46Speaker 01

  Is that all I am? A stage entertainer?

• 10:49Ina Garten?

  It sounds like burlesque.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  What am I, Al Jolson? I, I, I'm an actor. And, um, and I thought, gee, is that's the perception, is that I'm an entertainer? And I, there's nothing wrong with being an entertainer, and I have been very entertaining over the years.

• 11:06Ina Garten?

  You have, but, but that's not what you do.

• 11:07Speaker 01

  But, uh, so, I thought, I wonder if I could change that. I wonder if I could shift that perception. And I, I, I think I need to challenge myself more, and I need to see if, uh, the audience would go with me on that journey.

• 11:24Ina Garten?

  Had you mostly done comedy up to that point?

• 11:26Speaker 01

  I had done, I thought, I, I thought I had done a wide variety of things in the theater.

• 11:32Ina Garten?

  Including one of my favorites, Mouse Hunt.

• 11:35Speaker 01

  Oh, the, well, sure.

• 11:37Ina Garten?

  It's a special place in my heart for Mouse Hunt.

• 11:39Speaker 01

  Really?

• 11:39Ina Garten?

  I love that movie.

• 11:42Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. So, almost, it borders on a cult film. A lot of people who have seen it, uh, did, you know, who were kids then, saw it and, and loved it, because it's a rather dark film.

• 11:54Ina Garten?

  I didn't see it as a kid.

• 11:55Speaker 01

  It's like a Coen Brothers movie for eight-year-olds. And then...

• 11:58Ina Garten?

  With the mouse.

• 11:59Speaker 01

  You with the mouse, and Chris Walken, and, and Lee Evans, and...

• 12:02Ina Garten?

  So, you were thinking, you were thinking maybe it was time to sort of stretch and do something surprising?

• 12:07Speaker 01

  Yes, yes.

• 12:08Ina Garten?

  And were you worried that people might not come along with you the way...

• 12:11Speaker 01

  Oh, I knew they would. I had had this conversation with Ken Branagh, and we talked about taking on these kinds of parts, and he's certainly taken on a lot of mountains like that. And, and then he finally said to me, this is great. He said, but you can't just sit around and talk about it, Nathan, you have to do it. You have to go out somewhere and, and, you know, play King Lear. And he said, there, people are gonna have their opinions, they'll have a lot to say, but what you will learn from that will be invaluable and life-changing.

• 12:39Ina Garten?

  Isn't that good? So, when you're not, not working, what do you love to do? I can't see you on the golf course somehow. Am I right?

• 12:47Speaker 01

  Can you imagine?

• 12:48Ina Garten?

  Out yachting?

• 12:50Speaker 01

  Can you imagine me on the golf course?

• 12:52Ina Garten?

  No. I'm reminded of Robin Williams, didn't he do that hilarious thing about golf?

• 12:57Speaker 01

  Oh, the invention of golf?

• 12:58Ina Garten?

  Yeah, the, let's take a, a stick and hit a ball with it, and he's, no, no, no, a broken stick. And you hit a ball like, like, like a putting, no, no, no, put it really far away.

• 13:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:11Ina Garten?

  And then you put some trees in the middle.

• 13:14Speaker 01

  Oh, he was so brilliant.

• 13:15Ina Garten?

  I know, so incredible.

• 13:17Speaker 01

  Yeah. Um, you know, I just, I like being out, we're out in the Hamptons, and, and just reading, being with my husband and my dog, and walking the dog. I like going to movies, having great dinners.

• 13:32Ina Garten?

  Not the best. It turns out, the best days are actually the ones, they're just ordinary days, aren't they? Where you're just, you can just follow, you don't have a schedule, you just follow your nose for the day.

• 13:42Speaker 01

  Right.

• 13:42Ina Garten?

  We were together one night, we were talking about people that were, had dog psychiatrists. Do you remember that?

• 13:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:48Ina Garten?

  We were wondering, what would you do with a dog psychiatrist?

• 13:51Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, I, we did take to, Mabel, you know, was a French bulldog, and we took her to a, a therapist.

• 13:58Ina Garten?

  And what happened?

• 13:59Speaker 01

  She was, she'd been acting out, and she, you know, the, um, dog walker, she would try to nip at him, and...

• 14:05Ina Garten?

  Whoa.

• 14:06Speaker 01

  And, uh, so, yes, we, we took her to therapy.

• 14:09Ina Garten?

  Did it work?

• 14:10Speaker 01

  Which is ironic, after years of telling it, stay off the couch. Hey, it's great to be back. Ina Garten. She, uh, yeah, and, and, and so, we, we, we had a therapist, and we, we, she would come with us on walks, and we did a whole thing for weeks. And then we got a, a new dog walker, because the old one didn't want to deal with Mabel, who's the sweetest dog in the world. But it, at a certain point, she just, it was maybe about, I want you to leave, and I want you to leave now, and she would try to nip at them.

• 14:45Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 14:45Speaker 01

  So, we, we had this very lovely lady come in, and she was, and she, they seemed to bond a bit, and, and we, she would, we went on walks with her, and, and, um, and then finally, um, she, she took her out alone one day and came back, and she tried to bite her.

• 15:02Ina Garten?

  She wanted you.

• 15:03Speaker 01

  No, not me.

• 15:04Ina Garten?

  No, no, she wanted, she wanted to get rid of the dog walker, and she wanted you.

• 15:07Speaker 01

  Yes, yes. And I finally said to Devlin...

• 15:10Ina Garten?

  Hello, I would, too.

• 15:11Speaker 01

  I give up. It's you, me, and my assistant, Andrea, well, you know, it'll be one of us walking her. I can't deal with this anymore. We had tried everything.

• 15:21Ina Garten?

  So, when did you meet Devlin? How did you meet him? I think you secretly got married about fifteen, ten or fifteen years ago?

• 15:29Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, it wasn't...

• 15:30Ina Garten?

  Am I right?

• 15:30Speaker 01

  Well, it wasn't a secret.

• 15:31Ina Garten?

  Oh.

• 15:32Speaker 01

  It was, um...

• 15:33Ina Garten?

  I wasn't invited.

• 15:35Speaker 01

  I'm sorry. We didn't know each other then.

• 15:38Ina Garten?

  We didn't know each other then.

• 15:38Speaker 01

  I certainly would have. Um, uh, we, oh, dear, he's better at this than I am. He, uh, um, he had come to see me in a Terence McAnally play called Love, Valor, and Compassion, and, um, he was, uh, he had seen me on The Tonight Show with Faith Prince, when I, we performed a couple of numbers from Guys and Dolls. We, we were starring in on Broadway at the time. And then, a few years later, he, he was in New York, um, he was studying to be an actor, and he came to see the play, and he waited outside afterward, and, and stopped me, and said hello, and complimented me.

• 16:23Speaker 01

  But I, I was with a friend, and I said, oh, thank you very much, and I went on my way. But I, I, I had noticed him in the audience, he was sitting like in the...

• 16:33Ina Garten?

  Extremely good-looking.

• 16:34Speaker 01

  In the second row, yes. And, and so, um, and, but I was also seeing someone at the time. And then, several months later, I wasn't seeing somebody, and I was, uh, we were at a, at a bar, and he came up to me and said, hi, I, I don't know if you remember me, and I, I said hello to you after Love, Valor, and Compassion.

• 16:54Ina Garten?

  And you did remember him.

• 16:55Speaker 01

  And I said, oh, sure, I remember you.

• 16:56Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 16:57Speaker 01

  And he said, no, you don't. And I said, sure, you were wearing a tweed vest, and you had a cap.

• 17:02Ina Garten?

  You did?

• 17:03Speaker 01

  And, uh, and you had a, you know, a flannel shirt, and he said, yeah.

• 17:09Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 17:10Speaker 01

  And, and...

• 17:11Ina Garten?

  And the rest is history.

• 17:12Speaker 01

  And thirty years later, we're...

• 17:13Ina Garten?

  It was thirty years, isn't that great?

• 17:14Speaker 01

  Thirty years ago.

• 17:15Ina Garten?

  So, what do you know?

• 17:16Speaker 01

  I mean, many ups and downs. I mean, it wasn't...

• 17:18Ina Garten?

  Any relationship.

• 17:19Speaker 01

  It wasn't a rose garden for thirty years. There were ups and downs.

• 17:23Ina Garten?

  Well, because you're away for large stretches of time.

• 17:25Speaker 01

  Yes, and, and there were breakups and coming back together, and we...

• 17:29Ina Garten?

  I've been there.

• 17:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:30Ina Garten?

  I get it, yeah.

• 17:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, and then we, you know, I would say, I feel like we saved each other's lives.

• 17:38Ina Garten?

  Isn't that the best?

• 17:39Speaker 01

  That we grew up together. And I was old, I'm older than, I'm sixteen years older, and I, um, but I was not, I was not capable of having, I had, I had a lot of relationships, and I fell in love easily, but I was of the, come here, come here, go away, go away, school. And, and, um, and not, not, not a reliable boyfriend.

• 18:05Ina Garten?

  Sustainable.

• 18:06Speaker 01

  Not sustainable. And then, and he was someone who, you know, it was, it, we helped each other, and we, we worked through a lot of things together, and, and reached, um, a really great place in our lives, and, and I, you know, I'm so grateful to have him in my life.

• 18:27Ina Garten?

  Nothing like it.

• 18:28Speaker 01

  And he's made my life better.

• 18:30Ina Garten?

  I think when you start out, sometimes you're looking for the qualities that you wish you had.

• 18:33Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 18:34Ina Garten?

  And then, as you grow up, you either find those, you either become more alike, or you find those qualities annoying, or both. I don't know which.

• 18:43Speaker 01

  Then there's that book where they, they, it's like you're attracted to, in, in the, in the person, the, the, the good points and the bad points from your parents.

• 18:52Ina Garten?

  Oh, God.

• 18:53Speaker 01

  And you're trying to solve them.

• 18:54Ina Garten?

  Oh, God.

• 18:55Speaker 01

  You know that book?

• 18:56Ina Garten?

  Yeah, no, I don't know that book.

• 18:57Speaker 01

  Finding, I think it's called Finding the Love You Want?

• 18:59Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 19:00Speaker 01

  Well, after a breakup that we had, we, I, I thought it couldn't, it, there was a point where maybe it wasn't going to resolve. And then, I found, I was in a bookstore, and I...

• 19:12Ina Garten?

  Isn't that amazing that that would come into your life at that moment?

• 19:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I found this book, Finding the Love You Want, and it was about, and it's, when I was reading this stuff, I thought, well, this sounds right, this sounds like what we're, and, and I, I gave him the book, and I said, read this. And then, um, I said, we should do these exercises, which was the last thing I wanted to do. But we did these exercises, and...

• 19:37Ina Garten?

  It wasn't Kama Sutra, it was a different kind of exercise, right? Okay, just checking.

• 19:42Speaker 01

  No, we'd already done the Kama Sutra. This was about, this was about emotions, and, and, um, and, and, and communicating, and, and, uh, and I, you know, that, that was a real key to us...

• 19:56Ina Garten?

  Isn't that great?

• 19:56Speaker 01

  Coming back together, and, and, and then, at a certain point, when, when gay marriage became legal, we, um, because neither one of us were like, oh, we gotta get married someday, and, and, and we just felt like, that would be a nice thing to do.

• 20:11Ina Garten?

  And did, did anything change when you got married? Or just, it's just nice to know that they're always gonna be there?

• 20:16Speaker 01

  You know, he calls me, you know, he's away for a week now, and he calls and says, hello, husband. And I say, hello, husband. And it's nice to be able to call him my husband.

• 20:27Ina Garten?

  Yeah, that's wonderful.

• 20:41Ina Garten?

  This is advertiser content from Whole Foods Market. It's always nice when you're serving drinks to have a little something to eat with it. And one of my favorites is Chipotle and Rosemary Roasted Nuts. I particularly like, this time of year, the fall flavors of Rosemary, the sweet maple syrup. Okay, first I'm gonna start with a little oil from 365 Whole Foods Market. Just gonna pour it on the pan. There's no point in making something if it sticks to the pan. Now I'm just gonna pour all kinds of nuts on. Three cups of roasted unsalted cashews, two cups of whole walnut halves, two cups of whole pecan halves, and a half a cup of whole almonds. Okay, now I'm gonna flavor them. I need two tablespoons of oil, third of a cup of orange juice, maple syrup to make them sweet, brown sugar, quarter of a cup.

• 21:26Ina Garten?

  Okay, next is Chipotle powder. If you have old Chipotle powder in your pantry, toss it out and get a fresh one from Whole Foods Market. I need two tablespoons of fresh rosemary and two teaspoons of kosher salt. Just toss them all together. Make sure it's really well mixed. Into the oven, 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, and they're gonna smell so good. Whole Foods is so great because I can get everything I need. It's really fresh. There's nothing in it that I don't wanna serve to my family and friends. Look how good those look. Kind of caramelized. Now I'm gonna add two tablespoons of minced rosemary. So you get the cooked rosemary on it, but also that fresh rosemary hit. Two teaspoons of salt.

• 22:09Ina Garten?

  I may have to try one, make sure it's okay. Very hot. So good. Just layers of delicious flavor. Your friends and your family will love them. And orders are ready. Shop Whole Foods Market in-store or online.

• 22:31Ina Garten?

  So you make everybody laugh.

• 22:33Speaker 01

  Do I?

• 22:34Ina Garten?

  What makes you laugh?

• 22:35Speaker 01

  What makes me laugh?

• 22:35Ina Garten?

  Yeah. Why do I think the dogs?

• 22:38Speaker 01

  Oh, the dogs are hilarious. Dogs are hilarious. Yeah, I'm always looking at dog videos. I...

• 22:44Ina Garten?

  Aren't they amazing? We see a dog making an espresso.

• 22:47Speaker 01

  Oh, yes, all of that. I love all of that.

• 22:49Ina Garten?

  I'm a sucker for that. And I don't even have a dog.

• 22:51Speaker 01

  I love that, or... Yes, or, um, you know what I'm a sucker for? This is, this is slightly embarrassing. But if they have like a baby in a video, and the baby, and they have an adult talking for the baby, and babies talk like adults. Yeah, I think that's hilarious. I really love that. And then comedians, I love comedians.

• 23:13Ina Garten?

  We have to talk about Mel Brooks, because I love talking about him. I just adore him. Because he used to come...

• 23:19Speaker 01

  Turned 100.

• 23:19Ina Garten?

  He just turned 100 to Mel Brooks.

• 23:22Speaker 01

  To Mel Brooks.

• 23:23Ina Garten?

  At 100. And he's amazing. He used, when you were doing The Producers with him, he used to come to dinner all the time. Not because of our company, I'm sure, because he really missed a home-cooked dinner.

• 23:32Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 23:32Ina Garten?

  So Stroh used to bring him for dinner.

• 23:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, I was there with him once, when he was there, yeah.

• 23:37Ina Garten?

  And, and, um, and he used, when he was at home, he used to go see Carl Reiner.

• 23:42Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 23:43Ina Garten?

  And have dinner with Carl, and they'd watch a movie. And Mel always used to say, and Carl would fall asleep. But you went once, didn't you?

• 23:48Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 23:49Ina Garten?

  What was that like, to see these two guys?

• 23:51Speaker 01

  It was unbelievable. Um, we, Devlin and I were in LA, and we had dinner with Mel. And he said to me, and yeah, I knew he visited Carl like every night.

• 24:01Ina Garten?

  Every night?

• 24:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, they had...

• 24:02Ina Garten?

  His chef would make dinner.

• 24:03Speaker 01

  Had little tray tables, and they'd watch TV.

• 24:06Ina Garten?

  They'd eat dinner and watch, oh, that's amazing, yeah.

• 24:09Speaker 01

  So, he said, "Carl wants to show you the movie Random Harvest." This is his old movie with, um, now I'm not gonna, Greer Garten. Greer Garten, and was it maybe Ronald Coleman? Anyway, it's a movie that centers a lot around amnesia. So Ronald Coleman hits his head, and he forgets everything for a long time. And, um, he said, "Carl wants, loves this movie." We both love this movie. "And he wants to show it to you because he loves watching people's reaction the first time they see it." And I thought, oh, that's a lot of pressure. Yeah.

• 24:49Speaker 01

  So, we go over to see Carl, and, um, Carl is in this huge bar calounger, and he's got the biggest TV I have ever seen. And, I mean, enormous. I mean, the size of that painting there.

• 25:05Ina Garten?

  Oh, my God.

• 25:06Speaker 01

  And, and, and the picture is so clear, like you can see the wig lace on some of the actors, on whatever, the wig they're wearing. Anyhow, um, uh, uh, he would, Carl sat in the bar calounger, and with the remote control, and then he would, you know, one point he accidentally hit the fast forward, and he, Mel would say, "Carl, go back, go back, go back three reels. Go back to when he was in the wheelchair. Go back. No, no, no, that's too far back." So, and then every once in a while, Carl would just turn to me and say, "I bet you didn't see that coming."

• 25:42Ina Garten?

  You've never seen the movie.

• 25:44Speaker 01

  And then, at the end, they were both crying, and say, "Ah, every time, I cry every time I say I'm not gonna, but I do." And it was like, this is the perfect way to watch a movie, with the 2,000-year-old man and his partner. They were so adorable together. They were such, he, Carl was like the older, an older brother to him. And, and they, they so loved each other.

• 26:12Ina Garten?

  So loved each other.

• 26:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was a beautiful thing.

• 26:14Ina Garten?

  And for years, for a long time, Mel used, after Carl was gone, he'd go over and have dinner and a movie.

• 26:19Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 26:19Ina Garten?

  And the chef would make him dinner by himself.

• 26:21Speaker 01

  Well, yeah. No, he did that.

• 26:23Ina Garten?

  So incredibly sweet.

• 26:24Speaker 01

  And incredibly moving.

• 26:26Ina Garten?

  So Only Murders in the Building. This is like the coffee shop where every great actor in the world just shows up and has a good time. Tell me what it's like to be in a room with Marty Short, you, and Steve Martin. I mean, how do you like, how do you keep a straight face and do what you're supposed to do?

• 26:45Speaker 01

  Well, they're, you know, delightful. I've known them a long time. I've known Marty in particular a long time, and Steve, you know, look, it's because of Steve I was in The Birdcage.

• 26:59Ina Garten?

  Seriously? Why?

• 27:00Speaker 01

  Originally, Mike Nichols was gonna direct Steve Martin and Robin Williams in The Birdcage. Steve then had a scheduling conflict with a movie he was doing called Sergeant Bilko.

• 27:11Ina Garten?

  Best thing that ever happened, wow.

• 27:12Speaker 01

  He couldn't do it. Robin decided, he thought the other part would be more challenging.

• 27:17Ina Garten?

  Oh, so he took that part?

• 27:18Speaker 01

  And he, because he thought, oh, and I just did drag in Mrs. Doubtfire, and I wanted, I don't wanna do drag again, and so he moved to the other part, and that, so the part of Albert opened up.

• 27:30Ina Garten?

  I think that's everybody's favorite movie.

• 27:31Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 27:32Ina Garten?

  It's just amazing.

• 27:33Speaker 01

  Well, it's now, there's a lot of, it's the 30th anniversary, so I've been going to a lot of screenings and talking about it.

• 27:40Ina Garten?

  What's it like to see it 30 years later?

• 27:43Speaker 01

  I haven't seen it in a long, I don't go to the screening myself, but, um, I, you know, I saw a little of it. It is, it's, it just brings back a lot of happy memories, and...

• 27:54Ina Garten?

  And Christine, my friend Christine Baranski was in it.

• 27:56Speaker 01

  Yes, she was.

• 27:57Ina Garten?

  You've worked with her several times, right?

• 27:58Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 27:59Ina Garten?

  Isn't she the best? She's in Gilded Age with you.

• 28:02Speaker 01

  The Gilded Age. Well, I'm in The Gilded Age with her. It's her show. But, uh, yeah, no, um, yeah, you know, it was just one of the greatest experiences, and, um, so, and Steve and Marty, it's the similar thing. You just, it all, it all starts at the top, and they, they make everybody feel so welcome, and it's, it's, it's fun, and, uh, and they, they just wanna, they just wanna do good work.

• 28:31Ina Garten?

  And everybody, everybody signed up because they wanted to have fun, like Meryl Streep.

• 28:34Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 28:35Ina Garten?

  She was like, "How about me?"

• 28:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:37Ina Garten?

  Right?

• 28:37Speaker 01

  No, absolutely. Yeah, and I mean, they just did a whole season in London.

• 28:42Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 28:42Speaker 01

  Which, you know, and every major British actor shows up in it, and they had a great time. Yeah, they're just, you know, they're, they're so smart, and they're so funny, and they're like Carl and Mel. You know, Marty and Steve put this thing together, this act they have together, and working together as a team. It's a, it's, you know, it's a great friendship, and then it's just such a great collaboration. You know, when I agreed to do it, I thought, oh, it'll be a blast. And then, and I only had about, there were six weeks beforehand, and they said, "Your, your character has a deaf son, and you're gonna have scenes in American Sign Language, and you're gonna have..."

• 29:22Ina Garten?

  You had to learn sign language?

• 29:23Speaker 01

  So I had to learn, not, you know, it would take months to learn the whole American Sign Language, but just the scenes, you know, that we, I had with my son. So I had a coach, you know, and I had to work with, and they were, they were so great with me and very patient, and this wonderful deaf actor, James Caverly, who played my son, who was just phenomenal in the role, and so moving, and, um, it was, and it was a real, um, it was a real challenge, and, and the character wound up being a lot darker than I imagined he would be. And, um, but I was so gratifying, you know, to, to do all that, and then, and that's, and I finally won an Emmy for that, for that role.

• 30:08Ina Garten?

  Finally? You mean, you'd never won an Emmy before?

• 30:09Speaker 01

  No, after, it was like...

• 30:10Ina Garten?

  How's that possible?

• 30:10Speaker 01

  I'd been nominated seven times.

• 30:12Ina Garten?

  Oh, my God.

• 30:12Speaker 01

  And that was, I finally won for that. So I always think fondly on Only Murders in the Building because of that.

• 30:22Ina Garten?

  So you have a documentary about your life coming up?

• 30:25Speaker 01

  Yes. Well, in America, you either get a podcast or a documentary. I went with a documentary.

• 30:32Ina Garten?

  Good choice.

• 30:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're still in the middle of doing it.

• 30:37Ina Garten?

  Are you one of the executive producers? They're not doing it about you.

• 30:40Speaker 01

  I don't know. Yes, they are doing it.

• 30:41Ina Garten?

  I know they're doing it about you, but they're not doing it on their own about you.

• 30:44Speaker 01

  Oh, no, no. Oh, I'm involved, yes. No, I can say, oh, you can't leave that in. Yes, I was one of the agreements.

• 30:52Ina Garten?

  I dated that guy, but forget about it.

• 30:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're not gonna talk about those years.

• 30:58Speaker 01

  But, yeah. No, the filmmaker, Matthew Mealy, he's done documentaries on Patty Chayefsky, Alan Kulak, Bob Mackie, now the late Bob Mackie. He's just done one that will be on HBO Max about Vincent Price, Bernie Taupin, you know? So, he's, you know...

• 31:20Ina Garten?

  Is it fun? Is it fun doing it? Or is it scary?

• 31:23Speaker 01

  You know what it's... Really, what's interesting is, and I'm sort of grateful for this, it was, it's, you know, he felt like, he said, I said, "Why me? No, nobody cares. Nobody wants to hear this." And he said, "If you don't do it," he said, "all of these stories about the theater will be lost. You're like the last vestige of those people who know the history in a way that a lot of people don't." And ultimately, it's, the documentary becomes about finally getting to do Death of a Salesman, my journey as an actor, and all culminating in that production.

• 32:03Speaker 01

  And so, and recording that, and it's, it'll be a great record of that production.

• 32:11Ina Garten?

  Well, that's fabulous.

• 32:11Speaker 01

  Which is very important.

• 32:12Ina Garten?

  When I was thinking about doing, if somebody was trying to get me to do a memoir, I was like, "Nobody would want to read that." I mean, nobody's, it's just not that interesting.

• 32:20Speaker 01

  Everybody wanted to read it.

• 32:21Ina Garten?

  And I, and somebody said to me, "If you don't do it, somebody else will." And that's scary. So, it's your record, which is wonderful. And then what I found was, I always thought I sort of did this, and then I did that, and they weren't related, and then something else. And by doing the memoir, I found that they were actually all connected. And that's what you're doing for your career, connecting the dots.

• 32:44Speaker 01

  It's, I love it.

• 32:45Ina Garten?

  Oh, thank you.

• 32:46Speaker 01

  And I, you know, I'm still trying to write mine.

• 32:48Ina Garten?

  You are? Are you really?

• 32:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I'm only up to 1990. But...

• 32:54Ina Garten?

  Well, you've got time.

• 32:55Speaker 01

  I still have to, well, they have to give me time. But, yeah, I know, I'm now in a race with the documentary. Because then they turned to me at the book...

• 33:03Ina Garten?

  Actually, it should come out at the same time, shouldn't it?

• 33:05Speaker 01

  Yes, that's what they were, that's what they're hoping. I'm doing my best. But, yeah, it's, I heard they wanted to make a movie of your memoir.

• 33:16Ina Garten?

  Somebody wanted to make a movie. But, you know, when you give somebody the authority to make the movie, they start making up stories.

• 33:24Speaker 01

  Right.

• 33:24Ina Garten?

  You lose control of it completely.

• 33:26Speaker 01

  Dramatic license.

• 33:27Ina Garten?

  Dramatic license, that's it. Yeah, they get the final cut. So I was like, "No."

• 33:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I, look, I didn't, it wasn't like I was, gee, I hope someone does a documentary about me, because every day, someone's got a documentary coming out.

• 33:43Ina Garten?

  But not about you.

• 33:45Speaker 01

  Well, yeah.

• 33:45Ina Garten?

  I think people will definitely be watching this.

• 33:47Speaker 01

  Well, we'll see. We'll find out.

• 33:49Ina Garten?

  So, before you got famous, what was the first time somebody that you realized people knew who you were? Did something happen where somebody came up to you and...

• 33:59Speaker 01

  You know, it was a very gradual thing. And, you know, because I had been in the theater in New York, and every once in a while, someone might say, "Oh, I saw your play," or something. Very nice. And I remember standing, waiting for a friend outside a restaurant once, and a woman came up to me and said, "What are you, standing around waiting to be recognized?" You know, New York.

• 34:23Ina Garten?

  New Yorkers are really hostile.

• 34:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, very hostile.

• 34:27Ina Garten?

  I went at once with a big hat and sunglasses and a big coat, so nobody would talk to me in East Hampton. And a woman walked up and she said, "I bet you think people don't recognize you." And I was like, "Oh, shit."

• 34:40Speaker 01

  Yeah. You know, it's a strange, it's something I had to come to terms with.

• 34:46Ina Garten?

  Yeah, I don't get it.

• 34:47Speaker 01

  And make sense of, because I never felt...

• 34:50Ina Garten?

  I get it for you, but not for me.

• 34:51Speaker 01

  I did not. And, you know, there have been times when, you know, I'd been dealing with something or, oh, God, dealing with my mother, who was, she was not well at the time, and trying to transport her in a wheelchair, and then, and people going, "Hey, hey, would you sign my hat?"

• 35:11Ina Garten?

  Just not in court.

• 35:12Speaker 01

  And I, you know, I'm sorry, this isn't a good time. It's that thing in, you know, King of Comedy, where Jerry Lewis is walking down the street, and a woman says, she's on a payphone, remember those?

• 35:24Ina Garten?

  I remember those.

• 35:25Speaker 01

  She's on a payphone, and she says, "Hey, hey, hey, talk to my husband, he's your biggest fan." He says, "I'm sorry, I don't have time." And she says, "You should only get cancer."

• 35:34Ina Garten?

  Oh, my God.

• 35:35Speaker 01

  Yeah. It can turn like that.

• 35:38Ina Garten?

  I actually had surgeries one time about 20 years ago, and I woke up, and there was a nurse standing over me with a cookbook and a pen. And I was like, "Oh."

• 35:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:48Ina Garten?

  This is scary. I was literally in the recovery room.

• 35:52Speaker 01

  Well, Paul Newman, there was the famous Paul Newman story, he's had a urinal. And the guy next to him turned to him and said, "Can I have your autograph?"

• 36:01Speaker 01

  He said, "Well, my hands are full at the moment." But that's when he, when he decided, "You know what? I'm not gonna do this anymore." And what he did was, he would say to people, "I'm not gonna sign anything, but I will give you a minute of my time. You can ask me anything you want." And, because that's an opening Pandora's box.

• 36:23Ina Garten?

  What is a minute?

• 36:23Speaker 01

  I'd rather just sign and run.

• 36:27Speaker 01

  There's a story about, I don't know what the, who the actress was, there was a woman in the supermarket, and this actress was, she had taken a cart, and she was moving along, and there was a woman following her. And she finally turned to her and said, "Do you want my autograph?" And she said, "No, you took my shopping cart."

• 36:48Ina Garten?

  You never know.

• 36:49Speaker 01

  It's something, as I said, you have to adjust to and make peace with, and then, and now, I can enjoy it and appreciate that.

• 37:04Ina Garten?

  And you can always get a reservation at a restaurant.

• 37:06Speaker 01

  Well, that's really, that's really why I wanted to become famous, is for those reservations. No, but you do sort of go, you know what? 98% of the time, people just want to tell you they love what you've done, or it's made them laugh or cry or, you know...

• 37:25Ina Garten?

  And that's nice.

• 37:26Speaker 01

  And that is, you know, a lot of people don't get that.

• 37:29Ina Garten?

  Yeah. Nathan, I just, I love being with you.

• 37:32Speaker 01

  Well, I love being with you.

• 37:33Ina Garten?

  Can we just continue this?

• 37:35Speaker 01

  Well, sure.

• 37:36Ina Garten?

  Well, just move the party out to East Hampton, and I'll see you there. To the bathroom. Anywhere.

• 37:40Speaker 01

  Every week, a different room. Oh, you're very, I'm so honored you would have me on.

• 37:46Ina Garten?

  And to your mother's whiskey savors.

• 37:47Speaker 01

  Cheers. Here's to Nora Lane.

• 37:50Ina Garten?

  Cheers.

• 37:50Speaker 01

  Thank you. Love you too.

• 37:55Ina Garten?

  Happy Hour is hosted by me, Ina Garten. Our executive producers are Jenna Weiss-Berman, Ali Jaffe Ramis, and Deborah Davis. Kate Tyler is a contributing producer, and Jules Knatt, a producer. Mika Pollan-Bon is our associate producer. Tim Fernandez is the video editor, with sound recording by Joe Plord. Our camera operators for this episode are Joe Valenzuela and Kyle Derry. Music for the show is by Pink Martini. Special thanks to cinematographer Dion Beebe. Happy Hour with Ina is a Vox Media podcast.

• 38:35Ina Garten?

  Support for the show comes from Whole Foods Market. When I host parties in the fall, I like to cook with ingredients that have lots of flavor and texture. I'll have something creamy, something crisp, something savory, and something sweet. It keeps you coming back for one more bite. And when you begin with high-quality, fresh ingredients, you don't have to do much to make them shine. From pomegranates and pears to thoughtfully curated cheeses from around the globe, Whole Foods Market has beautiful seasonal ingredients that you'll love serving. For your next fall gathering, shop Whole Foods Market in-store or online.