Patrick Ball

Patrick Ball nearly gave up on his acting dreams. After a decade in regional theater and working odd jobs, his future seemed uncertain. That is until he landed a job on THE PITT. The rest is history. Here in his podcast debut (!), Patrick talks about landing the job that changed his life, how it was meant for him, and making his Broadway debut in BECKY SHAW. SUPPORT THE SHOW BY SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! Quince -- Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quince.com/HAPPYSAD ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for free shipping and 365-day returns. Limited Time Offer–Get Huel today with my exclusive offer of 15% OFF online with my code happy15 at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://huel.com/happy15.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ New Customers Only. Thank you to Huel for partnering and supporting our show! UPCOMING EVENTS! 5/3 -- Charlie Cox in NY -- ⁠⁠⁠Tickets here⁠⁠⁠ 5/5 -- Stanley Tucci in NY -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tickets here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 5/13 -- Matt & Ross Duffer in LA -- ⁠Tickets here⁠ 5/17 -- Billy Eichner in NY -- ⁠⁠⁠Tickets here⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 01

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• 0:59Speaker 02

  Really, just like, front of mind is just like, don't get fired, don't get fired. Keep your mouth shut, don't say anything stupid, don't give them a reason to fire you. And that, and that fear lives on for about the first six months of this process.

• 1:12Speaker 03

  Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, Sad, Confused begins.

• 1:20Josh Horowitz?

  Hey guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy Sad Confused. Today on the show, it's Patrick Ball. You know him, you love him from the pit, and now making his Broadway debut in Becky Shaw. Thanks, guys, as always, for checking out the podcast, for joining us on YouTube or Spotify, however you're doing it, I appreciate you guys. And remember to hit that subscribe button. Before we get to Patrick today, I want to remind you guys, as always, to check out our Patreon, patreon.com/happysadconfused. We have lots of cool, exciting events coming up, including May 3rd with Charlie Cox making his podcast debut on Happy Sad Confused, talking all things Daredevil. May 5th, Stanley Tucci, of course, talking Devil Wears Prada 2. May 17th, Billy Eichner joining me. All at the 92nd Street Y.

• 2:05Josh Horowitz?

  All this information is in the show notes. Patreon.com/happysadconfused.

• 2:10Josh Horowitz?

  For discount codes to those events and more, check it out. Okay, so main event today. Patrick Ball, this is a very cool conversation because I've been a big fan of Patrick's ever since I saw him on The Pit. I think everybody that's seen The Pit agrees with me there, Langdon, an indelible character. He kills it in this show. It has just completed its second season. And to hear his story, Patrick's story of how he kind of came to be a successful actor. It's not been a short journey. It's been a very circuitous journey. Struggled in New York, struggled in regional theater for many, many years. Student debt. And now here he is. He's on Broadway, an exceptional new show called Becky Shaw, him, Alden Ehrenreich, Madeline Brewer. That's on Broadway through June 14th.

• 2:54Josh Horowitz?

  I highly, highly recommend it. And also just killing it in The Pit. It's an inspirational story, I think, for any struggling actor out there. And just a good dude. We've been talking about doing this podcast for a while, so I'm glad we finally made it happen. So without any further ado, here he is, the one and only Patrick Ball. Patrick, we're doing this officially. You ready for this?

• 3:16Speaker 02

  I'm ready. Let's do it.

• 3:17Josh Horowitz?

  We've been talking about doing this. This, we've kind of, you know, been dancing around each other lately. We've met at a couple of different functions. It's happening.

• 3:25Speaker 02

  It's happening. It's happening.

• 3:26Josh Horowitz?

  You know, I haven't really found many podcasts. Have you podcasted much, Patrick?

• 3:30Speaker 02

  Uh, I'm a big consumer of podcasts. I don't know if, I don't think I've ever been on a podcast though.

• 3:37Josh Horowitz?

  I think you've done some short things. So this is, this is where you let it all hang out.

• 3:41Speaker 02

  Okay, okay, okay. This can be, this can be unedited. This is.

• 3:46Josh Horowitz?

  No edits. We're, we're streaming this live to like the Jumbotron in Times Square. We're just basically going out with this.

• 3:51Speaker 02

  Okay, am I allowed to curse?

• 3:53Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, fuck yeah.

• 3:53Speaker 02

  I'm allowed, okay, okay.

• 3:55Josh Horowitz?

  I did it first, now you can feel.

• 3:56Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 3:58Josh Horowitz?

  I have to say, congratulations first in order. The play is amazing, Becky Shaw. I got a chance to see this on Broadway, your Broadway debut. It's amazing.

• 4:06Speaker 02

  Broadway debut.

• 4:07Josh Horowitz?

  Well, we're going to talk about that. You're also in this little show called The Pit. Have you heard of it?

• 4:12Speaker 02

  Have you watched it?

• 4:14Josh Horowitz?

  No, what's it about?

• 4:16Speaker 02

  It's about, it's about this guy named Langdon.

• 4:19Josh Horowitz?

  For my perspective.

• 4:21Josh Horowitz?

  Then there's a side guy named Robbie who just jumps in occasionally.

• 4:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 4:26Speaker 02

  No, uh, yeah, no, it's been awesome. We've been circling each other for a while now, so really stoked to finally actually sit down and talk.

• 4:33Josh Horowitz?

  I have to, there's a lot to talk about because you have a lot going on. And also I have to say like, you know, I've talked to so many people and all everyone's career trajectory, their story is different. Yours is kind of fascinating. What's happened the last couple of years for you? And I want to dig into all of it. Like at first, before we kind of like give the history, just give me a sense of sort of like how you are absorbing all of this. You know, you're a couple of years in, obviously second season of The Pit, but also this is a huge moment being on Broadway and this was not where your life was three or four years ago. Just like, how are you processing? How are you staying in the moment? Where are you at right now?

• 5:08Speaker 02

  It's great. I mean, it's, it's great to be on stage right now. It's great to be back in a play. This feels familiar. This feels closer to the life that I've been living for the last 15 years than any of the, the, all the newness of The Pit and, and going through all of the, all of the Hollywood sort of machine for the first time has been a huge, uh, it's just been, it's like new, new, new, just sort of drinking from the fire hose over the last year. But being back, back on stage and being back doing a play feels familiar and, and it feels great. And this is my first time doing Broadway. Uh, so this is, this is a dream that I've been, uh, carrying since I was like 16 years old back in North Carolina and

• 5:53Speaker 02

  it's just great to be back with a cast and this, yeah, it's, it's great. It's amazing.

• 5:58Josh Horowitz?

  And I think it is telling that like in the, correct me if I'm wrong, two hiatuses you've had in the first, after the first season and the second season, or I guess after the, yeah. You've spent on stage, like that's what you did. You did Hamlet in LA.

• 6:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:11Josh Horowitz?

  Last time.

• 6:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 6:12Josh Horowitz?

  And now you're doing Broadway. Um, and you were at this interesting stage where I'm sure there are more and more exciting potential opportunities coming around. Was it, how much is it strategic? How much of it is like, I want to like kind of, this is on the list to kind of get back to the stage and do this now?

• 6:27Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, I'm, I need to start dreaming some new dreams because all my dreams are coming true. Like, uh, getting to play Hamlet was, you know, top of the bucket list for most of my life and I got to, I was lucky enough to come out of season one and get the opportunity to do it in the middle of Downtown LA at the Mark Taper Forum with one of my favorite directors, Robert O'Hara, who I think created a very cool, uh, subversive adaptation of Hamlet that was really cater fit to LA. Uh, and, and then I got to turn around and come off of season two and make my Broadway debut. And so these are both things that I've been dreaming about doing

• 7:09Speaker 02

  my entire life. And, uh, now I better come up with some new dreams.

• 7:14Josh Horowitz?

  By the end of this, we'll, we'll manifest some other things. Um, okay. So let's go all the way back. Born, raised North Carolina.

• 7:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:23Josh Horowitz?

  Is there this in your family? Are you the weirdo? Like who, any performers? What's, give me a sense of sort of where you come from?

• 7:30Speaker 02

  No, I'm definitely the weirdo. Uh, everybody else in my family has real jobs and makes real contributions to the world. Uh, both my, uh, both my parents are healthcare workers. Mom's a ER nurse, dad's a paramedic. My sister works for the public school system, uh, doing adaptive technology, uh, for kids with autism. Uh, her wife, uh, works at a psychiatric hospital, working, uh, in autism. Uh, brother is in North Carolina, drives a, drives a truck. Both of them have, you know, sort of started families and are living, living that, that real life. And I'm sort of the weird, loud one that is now sort of spinning off into fantasy land.

• 8:14Josh Horowitz?

  Before this last couple of years, were, were you the one they were worried about? Like, I mean, like-

• 8:18Speaker 02

  Oh, for sure. For sure. I mean, every, mom, mom, I, my mom lost some years off her life worrying about me for sure. I was, uh, you know, I was sort of a, a problem child growing up. I got into a lot of trouble growing up and I definitely made their life difficult. And now, you know, I, I sort of moved to New York and said I was going to be an actor and spent a lot of lean years chasing that dream. A lot of years of- Working two, three jobs at a time, uh, living with four roommates, you know, not knowing how I was gonna make rent, eating can of black beans for dinner every night and, you know, it, and mom was worried. She was, you know, as any mother would, she was worried

• 9:03Speaker 02

  that I was going up a path that, that, uh, didn't have any, any off ramp.

• 9:10Josh Horowitz?

  Correct me if I'm wrong, they even, your parents, so you, again, kind of jumping around a bit. So you, you eventually end up, you do regional theater, as I understand, for a while.

• 9:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 9:21Josh Horowitz?

  Kind of traveling the country. I want to hear about that a bit, but you end up at Yale Drama School.

• 9:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:26Josh Horowitz?

  Not Juilliard, as I've said to you three different times at parties. I'm like, you went to Juilliard, right?

• 9:31Josh Horowitz?

  You're like, no, the other one.

• 9:34Speaker 02

  The other one.

• 9:36Josh Horowitz?

  But my point is, I read somewhere that like, they even at some point were like, you need to just drop out. Like, this isn't kind of, this isn't, this isn't fruitful. Or was that, was that not true?

• 9:46Speaker 02

  Or like, where? That's not, that's, that's not exactly how it happened. Um, I happen to be, so I, I spent five years in New York, uh, about half that time I spent on the road doing regional theater.

• 9:58Josh Horowitz?

  Okay.

• 9:59Speaker 02

  And I got to, I got to play some great parts. I got to do All My Sons. I got to do Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I got to, uh, do a handful of new plays, um, and I did a lot of growing up on the road. I learned what it meant to, uh, be a journeyman, sort of yeoman actor, and I learned sort of the grind of that, and I learned the art of what it means to sort of create a character, an arc, a character.

• 10:25Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 10:27Speaker 02

  And it, and after a while, it began to feel like, like the, like there was a plateau that I was sort of stuck on. And I knew that I had this dream of being on Broadway and It sort of kind of became clear to me that like I had been sort of sorted into a different category of work and that if I wanted to work on Broadway, then I needed to sort of back up and come through.

• 10:53Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 10:53Speaker 02

  Sort of the the the system and get more training. And I also, you know, while I was while I was out on the road, I got to work with a number of actors that had come out of Yale. And I was just really astonished at the sort of craft that they had and the sort of toolbox that they came to work with. And I just knew that it like they were working in a way that I just I did not have access to. And it was something that I wanted for myself. And so I backed up. I, you know, yeah, I was a college dropout. And so I learned that Yale did not require an undergraduate degree. You could get in on professional experience. And so.

• 11:29Josh Horowitz?

  And that's one thing you had. You had to you put in your 10,000 hours on the road. I mean, you right?

• 11:34Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah, yeah. And I, you know, I didn't, I didn't have a degree, but I had, I had, I had some, some life experience. And I'm actually really glad that I took that time to get that life experience because then whenever you go to drama school and you're sitting there and you're working on these great plays, you're working on Williams, you're working on Chekhov, you're working on Shakespeare, like you have actually had some lived.

• 12:00Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 12:01Speaker 02

  Experience to draw on, which is, you know, something that one of my, one of my, one of the great acting teachers of our time, Ron Van Leeu, talked about. He had, he had us in class and we had spent a month working on Chekhov. And he, and he just said to all of us, he looked at, he's like, you're all so beautiful. You're all so talented. You just need to go out into the world and get the shit kicked out of you for a while. Like, you just need to get some dirt under your fingernails. And I'm very, very proud of the dirt under these fingernails because I think it's a big part of.

• 12:36Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, well, you can draw it now, right?

• 12:38Speaker 02

  Of what I, what I can draw on. But, but yeah. And then whenever I happened to be in drama school during the pandemic, and they put us on Zoom school for a year.

• 12:50Speaker 02

  Which was very depressing and very unsatisfying for everybody. And so I left and I moved to Alaska. And I was living in a shipping container in Alaska. I was working as a

• 13:03Josh Horowitz?

  So living in a shipping container?

• 13:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:06Josh Horowitz?

  What does that mean?

• 13:07Speaker 02

  Like, uh, turned, they had converted a shipping container into this like little living quarters. And I was living in this camp of about 80 seasonal workers at this fishing camp in Bear Creek, Alaska.

• 13:19Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 13:19Speaker 02

  And I was working as a night security guard at this fishing lodge. And, uh, you know, it's, it's, I'm working as a night security guard in a place with 22 hours of daylight. And I spent the entire, I spent four months sitting on the edge of the resurrection river, uh, at the foot of Exit Glacier in the middle of Alaska. And I thought, I, you know, I thought, uh, at that point with the state of the industry, theater was going through a really hard time at that moment during the pandemic. A lot of people were closing down, uh, and, and I, you know, I was looking at the future and, and not seeing a lot of answers.

• 14:01Speaker 02

  And so there, there's, there's a second there where I thought I was going to stay, but I'm really glad I didn't, cause.

• 14:07Josh Horowitz?

  And not to mention, I know you've talked about this recently, like through Yale, you accumulate all this debt. Like this is running a hefty bill for you, needless to say, anybody that's been through undergrad or grad school knows what we're talking about. And you are an intelligent guy. You know what the path is and how hard it is to get, dig out from underneath all that. And, and correct me if I'm wrong, like this also is impacting your, your, your, your just life, like as a human being, your relationships, everything. It must be weighing on you to a tremendous degree.

• 14:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. I mean, for sure. Uh, in, in, it's so funny. I think. I came on a school eighty thousand down.

• 14:48Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 14:48Speaker 02

  And as anybody that, you know, most, I guess, most people at home, whenever they think of actors, they think of movie stars, they think of people in limousines and big houses and everything. But I'll tell you, I spent ten years in a very different class of actors. And I know the vast majority of people that do this for a living do not have the limousine and the big house.

• 15:08Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 15:09Speaker 02

  Uh, they're working job to job. And, uh, you might book a great job. You know, I might be going off and playing Hamlet in L A for, uh, two months and then that job is over. And then, and then you're back to being unemployed and, and that can be a very difficult lifestyle. That can be a very scary lifestyle, uh, and whenever you're, uh, whenever you're living with a sizable amount of debt like that can be really scary, scary thing to know that you're, you're gonna be playing from behind.

• 15:44Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 15:44Speaker 02

  Uh, forever. And, and that can be, that can, that can have a lot of, uh, that can add a lot of stress to every aspect of your life, so.

• 15:52Josh Horowitz?

  Did you also feel like, I mean, the window was closing, like you're, you know, you're not twenty five anymore, but you're, you're like, you're still a young man, but like, you're not just out of school, like you've been at, you've been at it for a while, like, did you put a, like, an end date on like, I can only, I mean, I've been putting so much of my life into this, but at a certain point, I hit thirty five, I hit thirty six, I hit forty, like, it's gonna, I just have to, like, reassess.

• 16:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, and I, and I, and I, I was reassessing and I was, I guess, a year out of graduating from drama school. I was catering events at that same drama school. I was like, I was at Yale catering sort of graduation events.

• 16:33Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 16:33Speaker 02

  And then I, like, had just moved back to New York and, uh, I was working in a coffee shop. I was working at a, a restaurant. I was, I was doing gigs here and there and I was like, man, I can't, I just, like, I'm, this is not cute anymore. You know what I mean? This, this is not cute anymore. And so I was like, I was like, maybe I can learn welding, like weld, I've got some friends that are welders that make a good living doing that. You know, I was applying to fundraising jobs. I actually got. I actually got offered a job doing academic fundraising for High Point University back in North Carolina. And it was like a, it was like a real job. It was like $100,000 a year fundraising job.

• 17:14Speaker 02

  And it would have taken me moving back home and in turning over an entirely different chapter of life. And I was like, you know what? Maybe it's time. Maybe, maybe this is what I need to do. And the next day I got a call from, from Moises Kaufman to come do this play in Miami.

• 17:31Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 17:32Speaker 02

  And I was like, man, just one more. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna do, I'm just gonna do one more and then I'll, and then I'll make the change. And then I went down to Miami and did this play with Moises Kaufman. And I met Alicia, my, my girlfriend. And I was like, okay, well, maybe one more, maybe one more after this.

• 17:52Josh Horowitz?

  Something good came out of that one. Maybe the next one will be better.

• 17:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 17:55Josh Horowitz?

  We'll be right back with more Happy, Sad, Confused.

• 18:02Speaker 00

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• 18:32Speaker 05

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• 19:05Josh Horowitz?

  So prior to the pit, obviously you're working a lot on and off. Some rewarding gigs, but was there anything that like you came close to that felt like it could have been the game changer before the pit came around?

• 19:20Speaker 02

  I think, I think any actor that's been doing this.

• 19:23Josh Horowitz?

  They have those stories, they have a couple.

• 19:26Speaker 02

  I think you develop the ability to forget.

• 19:28Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, is that it? You gotta leave it behind or else you'll go mad.

• 19:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, you know, I spent, I've probably done, I've probably done, I don't know, thousands, thousands of auditions and I've come close to some that, that, you know, and every time you get these auditions that come in and you're like, oh, man, okay, this would absolutely change my life. But it would mean that I'd have to move to Nova Scotia for six months. And so I wouldn't be able to go to my friend's wedding. But that's totally okay. Totally worth it because it's going to change my life forever. And then you, you sort of build out that entire vision for the future and then it doesn't happen. And then you throw it away and you forget about it and you move on to the next thing. And I did that for, you know, 10 years. And so I came close on some big things and, and the thing that was meant for me found me because I ended up not being on a vampire show.

• 20:18Speaker 02

  I ended up being on a, on a show that I really love and believe in and, and it hits very close to my lived experience. So

• 20:26Josh Horowitz?

  Of course.

• 20:28Speaker 02

  What's meant for you will find you.

• 20:29Josh Horowitz?

  Okay. So let's talk about landing this. This is just another of a thousand self tapes at the beginning, as I understand it, right? Like, did you put any extra stock in this, given your parents, given anything, or was it just another, okay, another thing to check off to send in?

• 20:45Speaker 02

  It was, it really, it really was. I think it was one of like five auditions I did that week. You know, I read, I read through the script and, you know, thought it was, thought it was really cool. I didn't entirely understand it because it was very thick in medical jargon, as you know. And so I sort of like, uh, did the research I had to do to basically understand the scene that I was reading because it's not immediately apparent on the page. But then, you know, I threw on a nice shirt, you know, and not wearing any pants from the, you know. Sitting there, sitting there in my apartment. I think I had, I had COVID that week. So I'm like, I'm like sitting there feverish and sweating in my room. I do the self tape. I send it off into the void, never to be heard of again. And then I get a call the next day from my agent saying that

• 21:30Speaker 02

  they really liked the self tape and they want to do a zoom call. And then I did a series of zoom calls and they flew me to LA and it ended up changing my life. But at the beginning, I had absolutely no reason to think this was going to be any different than anything else.

• 21:41Josh Horowitz?

  The old adage is any great actor can act sweating without their pants on a self tape. That's what they always say, right?

• 21:47Speaker 02

  That's your two, Yale School of Drama.

• 21:50Josh Horowitz?

  So they eventually fly you to LA for, it gets serious, obviously, by that point. Do you remember like being in the room and feeling like this could be real? Like, did you have a beat on, on Langdon once you got out there, you think?

• 22:05Speaker 02

  Um, it was really interesting. So for the first two rounds, uh, we did, we did, uh, just there, there were two scenes and they were just like Langdon talking shit. I think there were scenes between like, like me and Garcia.

• 22:20Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 22:21Speaker 02

  And Langdon to that point had been described to me as just sort of like the shit talking fun time doctor that you just like hate to love. And then I, I, I went through the first, the first self tape and then I went through a, a zoom call with New York casting. And then on the next call, they wanted to put me on the line with Noah and Scott. And, and I was like, oh, great. And I'm sitting in the park like 30 minutes before the zoom call, trying to like get my cool or whatever. And I'm sitting there with my girlfriend and she was like, it's the same, same material, right? And I was like, yeah, it's the same thing. I'm ready to go. I just need to like stay cool and stay out of my head. And I was like, you know what? I should check though. And I opened the email and I looked through, I looked through the scenes and they had tacked on

• 23:05Speaker 02

  an additional scene and it was the scene of Langdon getting fired for drugs. And up to that point, nobody had mentioned anything about the addiction aspect of this character. And so I spent 20 minutes. I was like downloading that scene as fast as I could, being like, oh my God, oh my God. Like, and I gotta learn this right now. And then I come in and I do it with, with Scott and Noah. And as soon as that addiction aspect came up, that's sort of like when I knew, I was like,

• 23:35Josh Horowitz?

  You key into something.

• 23:37Speaker 02

  This is for me.

• 23:37Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 23:38Speaker 02

  This is, this is meant for me.

• 23:40Josh Horowitz?

  So for those who don't know, I mean, you've talked about this openly. You're in recovery for about four years or so. I mean, was that something you made the creators aware of? Like, did you?

• 23:49Speaker 02

  No, no, I didn't, I didn't, uh, I didn't talk about that at any point during, during the audition process. I think the only thing that I even hinted at was whenever they flew me back for the final round. They flew me to LA to do like a proper sit down with John Wells. And, uh, right, right before we did the big firing scene, uh, John turns to me and he goes, "Okay, well, we're gonna do, we're gonna do the, the third scene now. If you need to, to take a second to get yourself in the zone or whatever." And I just said, "John, I've been preparing for this my entire life. Let's roll."

• 24:30Speaker 02

  Uh, and I think, I think that's, uh, that's the only hint that I, that I gave them that like, that this was something that, that, uh, hit kind of close to home. But no, we didn't, we didn't talk about it.

• 24:44Josh Horowitz?

  You could very well easily, the last couple of years, not have talked openly about that personal aspect to your life. Like, why was it, why, why has it been important for you to kind of share that aspect publicly, you think?

• 24:55Speaker 02

  Well, you know, I think it's something that a lot of people in this country struggle with.

• 25:01Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 25:02Speaker 02

  And I think, I think there's a lot of stigma around addiction. I think there's a lot of stigma around people in recovery. And, uh, you know, I had, I have no intention of presenting myself as a poster child for recovery or an example to follow. Like, I, I, it's certainly an, I'm imperfect about it all the way down the line. But I think it's important to, you know, talk about it in that this isn't something that lives in the shadows or something that can be, uh, something to be ashamed of. You know, this is something that is a shared experience amongst a lot of people in this country. And so I'm, I'm glad to be part of, uh, bringing that into public discourse.

• 25:43Josh Horowitz?

  What do you think the show is getting right that maybe other pop culture depictions of addiction and recovery haven't?

• 25:50Speaker 02

  You know, I think, I think it can become a, a real suffering Olympic thing. It can be, it can become a really sort of, uh, And everybody's story looks different.

• 26:02Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 26:03Speaker 02

  You know, everybody's story looks different, but it's not necessarily the person curled up on the floor or the person slumped over on a bus stop that is struggling with it. It's somebody that you know.

• 26:14Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 26:15Speaker 02

  I almost statistically speaking, I almost assure you that you know somebody that is struggling with addiction. And it may or may not be super visible. And so I think showing that that struggle of somebody that is fairly high functioning. I know that I've got many people in my life that are very high functioning, hold down very serious jobs and are, you know, respected members in their communities that really suffer in silence. And I think that is a story that I don't see depicted a lot and very, very glad to be given that opportunity.

• 26:56Josh Horowitz?

  So for all these reasons, your connection to it, the level of the material, the actors involved, you get the offer, you find out you get it. That must be a moment that you'll always remember. What do you remember about actually finally getting it, landing it?

• 27:11Speaker 02

  It was amazing. I was, I was sitting there with, with my girlfriend in Fort Greene Park, which is my favorite place in the world. And we, like, the process had been sort of dragging on and I had expected to get the call one way or the other on a Friday. And I didn't get the call and they said they were going to take the weekend. And meanwhile, I'm like currently signed up to do this play where I was supposed to be playing Achilles. And I was like, man, if I'm going to play Achilles, I need to hit the gym. I need to put, I need to put on some weight. I need, I need, I need to get big. But if I'm going to be playing this doctor, I need to not be hitting the gym. I need to look like a doctor. And so,

• 27:54Speaker 02

  but like, I'm running out of time here and I need to make a decision. And, you know, we're sitting there in the park and my girlfriend is like listening to me, just like stressed out in every different direction. And she, and she just says to me, she says, "Well, Patrick, I think it's important to, you know, acknowledge all these things that you got to sort out, but I think it's also important to just like, what would be cool about each one of these opportunities? Like, what would be great about them? Because I can get really sort of preoccupied with the problems."

• 28:22Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 28:23Speaker 02

  And as soon as she asked me that question, My phone rings and it's it's the call from the pit and I literally I I literally lost it for a second and it was um it was a really beautiful moment and it was really right on time and then that beautiful moment lasted for about fifteen minutes and then and then I realized that I needed to move to LA in two days and I had to figure out all those problems.

• 28:52Josh Horowitz?

  Practicalities jump in. The dream is realized, wait, I need a plane ticket, I need an apartment, I need.

• 28:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 29:00Josh Horowitz?

  Did you call, I mean, it must have been very emotional also, just like telling family, the financial side of things you talked about, like finally knowing that you're gonna be able to pay this like this albatross that's been on your over your neck for years.

• 29:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, a- and I didn't like the again, the reality of uh the it's just impossible to understand how much your life is gonna change at that moment.

• 29:26Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 29:26Speaker 02

  You know, it's impossible to to really appreciate that. You're just you immediately fall into, okay, what is what is the next right thing? What is the next thing, next problem I gotta solve? And it really wasn't until uh I paid off those student loans in the fall where I sort of saw that number hit zero and I was like, whoa, like, like life, life, because because, you know, I got that call, I had to move to LA to start pre-production in two days. Uh, my girlfriend was in currently in a play in New York. So I spent those two days watching her in her play, had to find a place to live, had to figure out how to get an accountant and, you know, I'm move move to LA, I'm staying in

• 30:11Speaker 02

  this like little tiny studio apartment behind these this family's home in uh uh Elysian Park. Uh, and.

• 30:22Speaker 02

  And then, you know, and then you're just like, okay, you show up for your first day of pre-production and they're like throwing a bunch of medical jargon at you. They got a bunch of actual ER docs in there. And you're meeting all your castmates for the first time. And really just like front of mind is just like, don't get fired, don't get fired. Keep your mouth shut. Don't say anything stupid. Don't give them a reason to fire you. And that, and that fear lives on for about the first six months of this process.

• 30:48Josh Horowitz?

  Right. Well, that's the thing I was gonna say is like, once you like, okay, you get the part, you get the part you've been like dreaming of for years. You get the security. And then like the neurotic in you, in all of us, I would be this way is like, okay, now how do I keep this going? How do I like maintain the momentum? How do I like make this not a one trick pony?

• 31:10Josh Horowitz?

  Are you relaxed enough to feel like, okay, I have security, I've paid off what I have, I have this, the Broadway show is going great, like things are moving in the right direction. I don't have to have the kind of anxiety that's been part of my life for the last decade. Has that alleviated a bit?

• 31:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, yes and no. Yes and no. Like, I think, you know, this too shall pass. You know, I, you know, and I have, I have been on the ride long enough to know that like, I'm in this moment of incredible abundance and this will pass. But I feel, I feel very lucky to be on this show and to know that like, Langdon's story is going to have a third act. And I feel like I have writers that understand that and have, have been so successful at telling, making television that spans over time like this.

• 32:08Speaker 02

  And, and I'm, I'm in love with this character and I'm in love with this story and I'm in love with this world that we're building. And I like, I would be in love with it if I wasn't in it. Like, I think it's a, it's a show that I really believe in and I'm very excited about, about. Being able to come back to this year after year. But as far as like, uh, you know, do I think necessarily that uh, Broadway is going to call again next year? I don't know. I hope so. Like I, you know, I, I hope I get to do a movie at some point, but none of these things are guaranteed. And, you know, I've been around long enough to know that.

• 32:44Josh Horowitz?

  So before we dive a little bit more into like the character stuff and like the actual narrative of the pit. I'm curious, we didn't talk when you were growing up, like what you were into. Obviously you were a theater kid, but like what were the movies, the actors, the genres, the franchises, like posters on your wall? Give me this little bit of a snapshot of what you were, what you loved as a kid in terms of pop culture and TV and film.

• 33:05Speaker 02

  Uh, let's see, posters on my wall. I had, uh, I had Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan and Frank Sinatra.

• 33:12Josh Horowitz?

  Nice.

• 33:12Speaker 02

  Uh, the hits, the greats. Uh, I, I think the, the movie that made me want to become an actor was One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest. Fell in love with, in love with that movie and in love with Jack Nicholson. Uh, R.P. McMurphy is, I think, you know, one of, one of the

• 33:33Josh Horowitz?

  One of the great characters.

• 33:34Speaker 02

  Greatest characters ever, ever written. Uh, and then I, I remember watching There Will Be Blood. And, and so whenever I was in, whenever I was in high school, from age 16 and into college, from age 16 to age 21, I worked at a movie theater. And it was like, it was not the nice movie theater in town. It was sort of like the, the $4 cinema.

• 34:01Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 34:02Speaker 02

  And I would sweep up popcorn in, in between the different showings and I would sneak into the back of all the different movies. And so for, for five years or so, working at this movie theater, I got to watch literally everything that came out. And I don't know if that's necessarily how, how the dream began, but I very specifically remember sneaking in the back of that, that one summer when There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men came out.

• 34:31Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, that's like 2007 or something, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 34:35Speaker 02

  I probably watched both those movies. Fifteen times.

• 34:39Josh Horowitz?

  You lucked that into a really good summer, like a good year.

• 34:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 34:45Josh Horowitz?

  All right, let's jump back into the pick because like there's so many great relationships like how Langdon kind of interacts with a few of the characters I want to hit like you working with Issa, who's also on Broadway right now, we should say, in just in time, very cool. But I mean, the friction, the tension between Langdon and Santos is so delicious. It really comes to a head this season. I think it was in episode 11. What do you enjoy about kind of mixing it up with her in this season especially?

• 35:13Speaker 02

  It's great and I I hope we get more of it moving forward. I think this relationship between Langdon and Santos is incredibly interesting. These are two characters that have a lot in common that for whatever reason are just like two magnets face the wrong direction and they just sort of rub each other the wrong way right from the very beginning. And I think, you know, I think there's a lot of story left to tell there. I think there's a lot of water in the well and I'm excited to see what comes of that relationship moving forward. And Issa is, you know, one of my best friends on the show. We hang out all the time. She's become great friends with Alicia and we got

• 35:57Speaker 02

  to go see her do her thing in just in time and it was, she was amazing.

• 36:02Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 36:03Speaker 02

  And it's fun. It's fun, you know, like we're both theater kids and there is, there is a different vibe to people that started in the theater of just being able to sort of collaborate and jam and also have, Issa comes from a theater family as well. And she's talked about this about, you know, her dad, John John Breones, is, you know, theater legend and but whenever she was growing up. They had not made it necessarily. They were, they were working actors, but they were not in that place of security yet. And so anybody that has spent a life in the theater like, like I have and like she has and like her family has knows that

• 36:47Speaker 02

  uh, this is, this is yeoman's work. This is journeyman work. This is not, this, this is not all limos and big houses and, and red carpets. This is, this is humble work. And, and, and you feel that when you work with Issa, and I really, really appreciate that.

• 37:08Josh Horowitz?

  Um, is there hope for Langdon and Robbie at this point? A lot of water under the bridge, a lot of tension throughout. I mean, the season ends with Langdon kind of like giving it right back to Robbie, kind of like saying, you're the one that actually needs to help himself, needs some help. Um, must be delicious to work with Noah, but like, I don't know, what do you see? Do you see a future for those two to kind of reconcile?

• 37:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be different. I think, I think uh, at the end of season one, you see this very close friendship, this mentor mentee relationship. I think Langdon spent much, much of his life uh, wanting to be Robbie and wanting to grow up and be exactly like his, his mentor. And I think uh, that relationship got severed at the end of season one. And I think he came back in season two, trying to reclaim that relationship. And, and that, it became very clear that uh, things were never going to be the same. And I think over the course of season two, you see Langdon come to terms with that

• 38:15Speaker 02

  and realize that. And uh, at the, in the finale, you see that confrontation and be like, okay, I accept, we will never be the same. You need help. I hope you get it. Um, and also like, I hope that this relationship can continue to be a positive one and a healthy one, but we're both going to have to change in order for that to be the case, because I'm not going to be the only one holding the bag.

• 38:40Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah. There's so much, I know you've talked a little bit about kind of like maintaining a little bit of a distance with like all the social media, all the fan interactions because this, obviously you know the show has quite the following in terms of whether it's fan theories or takes or whatever. I mean, this year, there's been so much like narrative. I don't know if you, how plugged in you are of like, wait, is Robbie an asshole? Is he like the villain of the pit? Like, have you, have you tracked that one? What's your take on Robbie as, I don't know, good or bad dude on this show?

• 39:12Speaker 02

  I don't, I, I think this show does a great job of pushing back on the good or bad dude.

• 39:20Josh Horowitz?

  Right, right.

• 39:20Speaker 02

  Binary. Like, I think, I think everybody is flawed and I think everybody is equally flawed and equally redeemable. I think Robbie is a character that carries a lot of responsibility. He carries a lot of responsibility for a lot of people. And I think that, that is true to life. And I think anybody that does this work for real knows that you have to put your own needs aside frequently in order to attend to the needs of others. And I think that Langdon has been very privileged to, in a, in a weird way, has been very privileged to not be in the pit for the last 10 months.

• 39:56Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 39:56Speaker 02

  And to get the help that he needs and to be able to sit down and face what he is going through. And I think that is a luxury that Robbie has not been afforded. And, and there is work that he needs to do for sure. But he has to continue to show up every single day in the pit and jump on the grenade and respond to trauma after trauma after trauma and have an entire staff that he is responsible for their training and education and, and sort of maintaining morale amongst that staff and attending to the needs of both his staff and his patients. And that leaves a very, very little room for him to face what he needs.

• 40:41Speaker 02

  And, and yeah, and I think that's very true to life. I think that's very true to life. And I think that is a, that is a sacrifice that, that, uh, that people make that do this, that do this work. And I think that's why you see the burnout rate among healthcare professionals as high as it is. I think that's why you see the addiction rate, uh, in healthcare professionals as high as it, as it is and the suicide rate. These are, this is, this is a population that, that, uh, suffers at a, at a disproportionate level to the general population. I think it is because, um, it's a very difficult line of work and it doesn't leave a lot of room for self-care sometimes.

• 41:21Speaker 02

  More Happy Say Confused coming up.

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• 42:30Josh Horowitz?

  Where are you at in terms of delivering actual medical care today? If I have like a spinal adjustment à la second season of The Pit, could you align me? Get me back in shape? Uh, no, but I know who to call. I know, I know, I know a guy. I know a guy.

• 42:50Josh Horowitz?

  Do people mistake you for, I mean, people are smart enough, hopefully, to know that you're not a practicing ER doctor. But do people expect you to have medical knowledge?

• 43:00Speaker 02

  Uh, well, I play the screw up of the show and so.

• 43:03Josh Horowitz?

  But you're very competent for a screw up.

• 43:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, I don't think, I don't think I would be the people that, nobody would ask me, nobody would ask me. They might ask Noah, they're not gonna ask me.

• 43:14Josh Horowitz?

  Where are you, the people want the night shift spin off. Are you pro night shift?

• 43:19Speaker 02

  Oh, man, um, I love the night shift. I, I think, I think so many great characters on the night shift and uh, very excited that Ellis is going to be getting in the action more next year. Uh, Aisha's great friend, love her, Ken Kirby, uh, great friend, Sean Hattie, obviously iconic. Uh, I think, I think, yeah, I, I think the world that Scott and John have created here is just like, it's like a whole cinematic universe and I think there are a lot of stories to tell.

• 43:54Josh Horowitz?

  Langdon at home, a sitcom maybe about what's going on.

• 43:57Speaker 02

  Why not?

• 43:58Josh Horowitz?

  Right?

• 43:58Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 44:01Josh Horowitz?

  Langdon really needs a laugh track at home. That's what I think. We need to meet the wife, meet the kid.

• 44:06Speaker 02

  Like a, like a, like a nice multi cam sitcom.

• 44:09Josh Horowitz?

  Classic 90s, like, yeah, family matters, but with Langdon.

• 44:13Speaker 02

  Uh, I, I hope it would be a sitcom. I hope it would be a sitcom.

• 44:20Josh Horowitz?

  Have they, I mean, how much are you creating in terms of backstory and what's going on outside of the lines versus what they've told you? Do you know what I mean? Like.

• 44:30Speaker 02

  You gotta, you gotta stay, you gotta stay loose, you gotta stay loose. Um.

• 44:35Josh Horowitz?

  Cause you don't want to come up with a narrative and then be like, oh, actually, no, this.

• 44:39Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 44:39Josh Horowitz?

  Contradicts your story.

• 44:40Speaker 02

  Because, uh, you know, as Noah, uh, uh, said to me in season one, they're writing as they go.

• 44:47Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 44:47Speaker 02

  And like this is, this is not the Dead Sea Scrolls. This, this is an organically developing story. And so if I, if I get too specific about writing myself a backstory in the. And I play that backstory and then we get a year down the line and they're like, oh, wait, actually none of that is true.

• 45:07Speaker 02

  That can be a problem. So you you keep it, you keep it flexible. But yeah, no, I had I had conversations with with Scott about what that 10 months away looked like. And yeah, I think I I think it was hard. I think it was hard and. You know, I hope we get to learn more about it. I hope we get to learn more about the family at home and. My wife Abby and two kids and I think I think the. Growing up as as the child of two healthcare workers, that that was my vantage point like in season one. In in season one, when Langdon gets on the on the phone and calls home and wants to.

• 45:51Speaker 02

  Talk to his kid because he's just they've just had this. Traumatic event of the drowning, the little girl that drowned in the pool and everybody in the in in the pit is sort of shook up by it. He calls home to sort of get himself together and it was whenever we were filming that it was a. Really profound moment to realize like, oh, I was the kid. I was the kid on the other end of the phone.

• 46:20Speaker 02

  And so I think my lived experience is knowing very well, sort of like. How the work that is done at the pit. Has residual effects or how it carries into the other aspects of someone's life. And I hope we get to learn more about that.

• 46:38Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, I want to get give folks a little bit of a tease for those that are in the New York area coming. Do the best you can to see Becky Shaw because this is a really, really great play. We'll tease it a little bit. Oh, my God, chance to see it. It's a great, small ensemble. I think I was there like when you and Alden met for the first time at a random party like you were like.

• 46:56Speaker 02

  At the, yes, at the Golden Gloves party.

• 46:59Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, yeah, I'm like, oh, you guys have met before, right? No, we're being for the first time right now.

• 47:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:03Josh Horowitz?

  I'm witnessing history. Here it is. You guys are both exceptional in this, as is Madeline Brewer, Linda Emond, the whole cast.

• 47:13Josh Horowitz?

  Let's tease them a little bit of like the show. I was unfamiliar with this work.

• 47:19Josh Horowitz?

  Kind of a dysfunctional fucked up family.

• 47:21Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 47:22Josh Horowitz?

  You're kind of ostensibly the good guy, nice guy, wants to help people out.

• 47:28Speaker 02

  Ostensibly, ostensibly.

• 47:30Josh Horowitz?

  That word is doing a lot here.

• 47:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:34Josh Horowitz?

  Kind of reminded me a little bit of like Neil LaBute back in the day, like those.

• 47:37Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 47:38Josh Horowitz?

  People being cruel to each other.

• 47:40Speaker 02

  It's from the, it's from that era of, of dramaturgy.

• 47:43Josh Horowitz?

  Right, right. Cause it's set in what year?

• 47:46Speaker 02

  Set in like. Uh, 2009.

• 47:48Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 47:50Josh Horowitz?

  Did you know this work prior to it coming to you? Give me a sense of like what you fell in love with about this part of this play when you got it.

• 47:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, I wa- I wasn't familiar, familiar with it before. Uh, I got a call from my agent and, and he was like, hey, there's this play that's sort of come along. It's Becky Shaw by Gina G. Infredo. It had an off Broadway run back in 2009 that was a real moment. Like it really, it really had a moment and it, you know, sort of was maybe a casualty of the financial collapse and so it never made it to Broadway. But it was a real moment when it came out with, it was a, a finalist for the Pulitzer. It's, it's like a really smart bit of writing. Give it a look. Let me know what you think. And so, uh, I spent a week, uh, a week with it, reading through it.

• 48:38Speaker 02

  And I was immediately struck with how smart this play is. And, you know, there's a real, there's a, a real conversation around sort of

• 48:52Speaker 02

  the various ways of power play, like the covert power play versus the overt power play. There's a real conversation around codependency in various forms of attachment of like, of, uh, there, there's a conversation around the role that money and transaction.

• 49:11Josh Horowitz?

  Yep.

• 49:12Speaker 02

  Plays in, in relationship and, and all of that was just like really juicy. And, and one thing that did not really occur to me from, from reading the play was just how funny it was.

• 49:27Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, yeah.

• 49:28Speaker 02

  And then we, then we got, got working on it. And in rehearsal, I think first week of rehearsal, I like, I like said, I said to Lauren, I was like, man, I think, I think this play more than any play I've ever worked on, I think the audience is going to tell us what this play is. And then we got in, we got into previews and an audience told us what this play was and we had to learn because all of a sudden, you've got this audience that is, that is adding the laugh, the laughs and the shape and the rhythm of this play in a way that is impossible to predict. But it's just

• 50:07Speaker 02

  an unbelievably built play by Gina and just like the tension and release and the balance of like the deep sort of like probing thematic psychology of the play and sort of like the taut comedy and the rhythm of the play is just like truly a masterclass by Gina.

• 50:25Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, I mean, Alden was saying to me even that it's like from show to show, it's like you can feel the audience like on the side of a different character.

• 50:33Speaker 02

  For sure, for sure. Like there are, there are nights where the audience is very team Max, there are nights when everybody is very team Becky, there's nights when there's team Andrew. We also like, this is, this being a dark comedy, there are some nights where it's one part dark and four parts comedy. There are some nights when it's four parts dark and one part comedy. And, and that's the great thing about doing live theater like this is it's like you, it depends on what night you came. You know, it is a night to night experience and that is really, really exciting.

• 51:10Josh Horowitz?

  Do you like to know the random celebrity you may or may not know that's coming that comes backstage? Have you, I'm sure you've had a couple of moments already where it's boggled your mind like, oh my God, this person just saw me do my thing.

• 51:22Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah. And I think that is, that is a product of getting to work with a really great castmates. Like Alden has a bunch of very fancy friends, you know, Lauren Patton and Linda Eadman are theater legends. Linda has worked with literally

• 51:42Speaker 02

  Every legendary actor you could name. Uh, and so, yeah, we've had some, some pretty jaw dropping.

• 51:48Josh Horowitz?

  Is there one that kind of sticks out like this is a moment I'm, I mean, for, for people, I mean, you just met Paul Bettany, you crossed paths with Paul.

• 51:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:55Josh Horowitz?

  For like, I mean, you're getting this a lot the last year or two where it's like these actors you grew up with are like, I'm obsessed with your show. I'm obsessed with you. Like that's, it's gotta feel nice.

• 52:04Speaker 02

  Uh, Ellen Burstyn came through the other day.

• 52:08Josh Horowitz?

  Doesn't get much more.

• 52:08Speaker 02

  Which was, uh, pretty iconic.

• 52:10Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 52:12Speaker 02

  Uh, I'm trying to think. I had a, one of the guys from Elevator Repair Service came through.

• 52:18Josh Horowitz?

  Okay.

• 52:19Speaker 02

  Uh, great downtown, downtown theater legend. Uh, yeah, we've, we've had, we've had a lot of people cycle through.

• 52:27Josh Horowitz?

  Um, all right. So big picture, looking forward, you're gonna be busy because I think you go like straight from this production back into season three.

• 52:34Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah.

• 52:35Josh Horowitz?

  Like literally like next day essentially.

• 52:37Speaker 02

  I think it'll probably be the next day.

• 52:39Josh Horowitz?

  Okay. So you don't have much time to do more, but you'll have other breaks. Um, anything we want to manifest for, for you? You kind of, you checked off Broadway. I'm sure you'll be back. But we gotta pad out the, we gotta get some films on there. We gotta get some new kind of experiences. Who do you, who's on your shortlist filmmaker, actor kind of experience? What are you chasing?

• 53:02Speaker 02

  Oh, man. Uh, I got to meet, I, you know, got to meet the sentimental value team at that, at that, that party, which was really iconic. I love to work with every single one of them. Uh, would love to work with Ruben Oslyn and Paul Thomas Anderson and Ryan Coogler and, uh, Chloe Zhao. I got to, I got, my life is insane because I actually got to meet a lot of these people over the last year.

• 53:28Josh Horowitz?

  Well, and they know you and they appreciate you. It's not just like you're meeting them as a fan. They're, they're fans of you, which is crazy.

• 53:33Speaker 02

  Uh, well, I still identify very much as one of their fans, but, but yeah, no, it's, it's, it's been crazy. Um, uh, it, so yeah, I mean, I guess that's the, that's the only dream to knock off the bucket list at this point is doing a, doing a movie.

• 53:48Josh Horowitz?

  Are you a singer? Musicals or those, East is obviously a, like, that's, that's her. That's what she was born to do. Do you have that?

• 53:56Speaker 02

  I can sing Johnny Cash.

• 53:57Josh Horowitz?

  Okay. That's pretty good.

• 53:59Speaker 02

  Nope. That, that's about it. I can sing a country song.

• 54:02Josh Horowitz?

  All right, we're gonna end here. The profoundly random questionnaire for you, Patrick. You ready for this? Dogs or cats?

• 54:10Speaker 02

  Oh, man. Um, okay, so I've spent my whole life identifying as a dog person.

• 54:14Josh Horowitz?

  Yes.

• 54:15Speaker 02

  Uh, and also as a dog myself. Um, but I've had to accept that my lifestyle does not lend itself to being a dog owner. And so now I am the proud live-in uncle to a cat. A little tuxedo cat named Otis.

• 54:35Josh Horowitz?

  Uh, you only have uncle privileges, though. You're not a dad.

• 54:38Speaker 02

  So, uh, Alicia, my girlfriend's best friend, Emma, uh, lives with us in LA. And Otis is her cat.

• 54:46Josh Horowitz?

  Got it.

• 54:47Speaker 02

  And I am the proud live-in uncle that, uh, that gets all the benefits of having a cute adorable cat and absolutely none of the responsibilities.

• 54:56Josh Horowitz?

  The dream. What do you collect, if anything?

• 54:59Speaker 02

  What do I collect? Um, I'm, I, well, I have an incredible collection of these friendship bracelets now. Uh, I'm not exactly sure. Oh, so Langdon wears a friendship bracelet, wears a dad bracelet in season one. And the fandom, the Pitt fandom, has really caught on to that. And I guess, starting during Hamlet, people started bringing me these friendship bracelets to the stage door. And now that has really, uh, caught fire. And so now every night, after Becky Shaw, I come out to the stage door and I have literally thousands of these friendship bracelets. And so I have quite, quite, quite a collection.

• 55:39Josh Horowitz?

  More friendship bracelets or Crocs at this point in your collection?

• 55:43Speaker 02

  I, I have Croc gibbets are, are the other, other big collection, uh, that I have. But I think, uh, I, I literally have probably a thousand of these things.

• 55:52Josh Horowitz?

  Favorite video game of all time?

• 55:55Speaker 02

  Witcher.

• 55:56Josh Horowitz?

  Oh.

• 55:57Speaker 02

  Witcher 2.

• 55:58Josh Horowitz?

  Witcher 2, okay, nice. Uh, the Dakota Johnson memorial question. She asked me this. I ask everybody, would you rather have a mouthful of bees or one bee in your butt?

• 56:07Speaker 02

  A mouthful of bees or one bee in my?

• 56:12Speaker 02

  Wow dang no no correct answer there um I'm gonna take it in the butt yeah thank you for that um I'm just gonna let that lie everybody take that in for a second what's the wallpaper on your phone uh oh it is a moonbow uh I me and Elisa and her friend Emma uh whenever we wrapped season two we took a trip out to Death Valley together and we sort of sat out we went camping and we made a little campfire and we sat out there and sort of just like recapped on the journey that had just been concluded and we looked up and there was like a

• 56:57Speaker 02

  perfect full moon with a perfect sort of moonbow around and I took a picture of it and that's the background on my phone

• 57:05Josh Horowitz?

  who's the last actor you were mistaken for

• 57:10Speaker 02

  uh

• 57:11Josh Horowitz?

  ever happen

• 57:12Speaker 02

  all all in Iron Reich so because sometimes we come out to the uh we come out to the stage door and there are people that want to get autographs so that they can sell them and they show up with like their big boards to get autographs but they haven't seen the show and they honestly do not care who I am um and so I will walk out there and they'll try to get me to sign pictures of Han Solo and I say no that's that's the other guy that's the other guy

• 57:42Josh Horowitz?

  it's a collector's item to have it signed by you though uh what's the worst noted director has ever given you

• 57:48Speaker 02

  the worst note um

• 57:53Speaker 02

  pass pass no comment

• 57:57Josh Horowitz?

  it's too too close to the bone just too

• 58:00Speaker 02

  uh well I don't I don't

• 58:02Josh Horowitz?

  You don't have to name them.

• 58:03Speaker 02

  I don't know. I think it's an actor's job to figure out how to translate any note.

• 58:09Josh Horowitz?

  Okay.

• 58:09Speaker 02

  Like a director has their eye on the bigger picture and they might speak a different language of you. Like they might say, okay, don't move so much, stand, stock still and turn your head a little bit to the right. And that's because they have a composition that they're looking after and they have an edit that they're looking after. And it's my job as an actor to figure out how to take that direction and activate it into something that is truthful and playable.

• 58:35Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, that's the job to translate their technical note into something that feels human and.

• 58:41Speaker 02

  Exactly. But you want them focused on that big picture. You want them focused on that composition. And it is my job to take that and translate into something that allows me to do what I need to do.

• 58:54Josh Horowitz?

  Finally, in the spirit of happy second fuse, an actor who always makes you happy. You see them on screen, you're in a better mood immediately.

• 59:01Speaker 02

  Keanu Reeves.

• 59:02Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah. What's your Keanu? What's his Matrix, Point Break, all these?

• 59:06Speaker 02

  I, okay, we, I mean, we can circle back to one of your earlier questions.

• 59:10Josh Horowitz?

  All posters on the wall was.

• 59:12Speaker 02

  Posters on the wall. The Matrix, I don't know if I had the poster on the wall, but that was another watershed moment for me. That I think that is one of the great movies of all time, and I don't think it gets enough credit.

• 59:23Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah. They're gonna make another Matrix, Patrick. How about your film debut in a Matrix movie?

• 59:29Speaker 02

  Done. Done. I'll do it for free.

• 59:31Josh Horowitz?

  That wasn't an offer. I can't, I don't, I'm not entitled to do that, but if I could, I would offer to.

• 59:35Speaker 02

  Please, tell your friends.

• 59:38Josh Horowitz?

  Hashtag Patrick Ball Matrix movie. When? A movie that makes you sad?

• 59:45Speaker 02

  A movie that made me sad, drive my car.

• 59:49Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, that's great. Yeah. And finally, a food that makes you confused.

• 59:53Speaker 02

  A food that makes me confused.

• 59:57Speaker 02

  Mochi.

• 59:58Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, yeah.

• 59:59Speaker 02

  What is it?

• 1:00:00Josh Horowitz?

  I can't give you the definition. It's soft and gooey and yeah.

• 1:00:04Speaker 02

  What is it? Is it ice cream? Is it a bean?

• 1:00:07Josh Horowitz?

  Somewhere in between?

• 1:00:08Speaker 02

  I've been told that it is a bean, but I, it does not seem like any other bean I've ever seen in my.

• 1:00:17Josh Horowitz?

  We'll leave it there. Okay. Not that folks need reminding, but the pit, it's got a few fans. But if you haven't checked it out and know what you're doing with your life, check it out on HBO Max. But also truly, I think through what mid-June, we have Becky Shaw on Broadway, something like that? Okay. Get your tickets now. A great performance, a great ensemble, a great play. I loved it. Very funny, very dark, very much up my alley. Patrick, you've been podcasted. We did it. How do you feel?

• 1:00:43Speaker 02

  We did it. I'm so happy. I'm so confused.

• 1:00:47Josh Horowitz?

  Not sad, though.

• 1:00:47Speaker 02

  Not sad, though.

• 1:00:48Josh Horowitz?

  Good.

• 1:00:49Speaker 02

  All around great experience. Will do again.

• 1:00:51Josh Horowitz?

  Five stars.

• 1:00:51Speaker 02

  Five stars.

• 1:00:52Josh Horowitz?

  On Yelp, you'll rate it?

• 1:00:56Josh Horowitz?

  Thanks, buddy. Appreciate you.

• 1:00:57Speaker 02

  Thanks, man.

• 1:00:59Speaker 03

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

• 1:01:17Speaker 06

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