"Benedict Cumberbatch"

Step into our stretch limousine — it’s Benedict Cumberbatch. Corndogs, Nature vs. Nurture, and [very lightly touching upon] How-To Clean Yourself. It’s a podcast, folks… and it’s called SmartLess, k?

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

• 0:01Sean Hayes?

  This episode of Smartless is sponsored by Google Book. You know, I'm lucky to have a lot of friends and having them over is great, but with hosting comes all the tedious stuff. The planning, keeping track of who's coming, managing schedules, making sure everything actually comes together. That's where Google Book comes in. It's a whole new kind of laptop. It comes with Google AI Pro, so you can create custom tasks with Gemini. For example, you can tell it to track RSVPs and manage your calendar, and it does that for you, even when the laptop's closed. So there's more time to focus on the fun parts of hosting. Basically, Google Book works hard, so you don't have to. Visit googlebook.com. Available in the Gemini app to Google AI Pro users

• 0:44Sean Hayes?

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• 0:54Sean Hayes?

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• 1:34Sean Hayes?

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• 2:10Sean Hayes?

  Sitting in traffic, huh? Watching an old lady with a walker make it further up the road than you have in the last 15 minutes? And of course, your gas tank is in the perfect spot between not a problem to stranded on the highway. Hit your booking point? Book with Southwest and enter airplane mode. Experience award-winning reliability, fly with the best crew in the sky, and never worry about change or cancellation fees. Now tell that old lady to slow down. Kids live around here. Southwest Airlines, enter airplane mode.

• 2:52Sean Hayes?

  Hey Sean, hey, what's up? Hey, it's me. Oh, no, it's you. You just said your name. I know, I'm just talking to you. Just relax about it. Hey, we're about to do another episode of Smart List. Hey, for Tracy, cold open. This is a cold open. Cold open is like, hey, she knows what cold open is. Hey, shut up, I'm talking to her right now. Just give me two seconds, I gotta explain what cold open is. She knows what a cold open is. She's said it a million times. Tracy, cold open is what you say at the beginning of an episode before you start the episode so people know you're starting the episode. I'm exhausted. Me too. Me as well. Don't forget about me. Also me. Welcome to Smart List.

• 3:38Sean Hayes?

  Uh-oh. What was that? Oh, God, that was probably our surprise guest.

• 3:43Jason Bateman?

  Our surprise guest.

• 3:43Sean Hayes?

  He probably just...

• 3:44Jason Bateman?

  Oh, no.

• 3:50Sean Hayes?

  Where are... So, let's see. Everybody is at home base, it seems like. Willie, where are you?

• 3:57Will Arnett?

  I'm in Long Island.

• 3:58Sean Hayes?

  Oh, you're back there. What are you doing back there?

• 4:01Will Arnett?

  Our little R and R? I just made a little quick scoot out here for a night.

• 4:06Sean Hayes?

  What, did you like forget a pair of shoes you really liked out there?

• 4:09Will Arnett?

  No, Jason.

• 4:11Sean Hayes?

  No, but I mean, seriously, isn't it a hassle trying to figure out what you're gonna keep in your second home's closet versus what's back in Los Angeles? Is it mostly winter wear out there on the island?

• 4:24Will Arnett?

  There's a lot of winter wear. And it's chilly out here right now, so it's been really...

• 4:28Sean Hayes?

  I love that.

• 4:29Will Arnett?

  It was beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. No, I came out here with my little guy, uh, yesterday. And just to kind of dig around, we were walking around, went into town, went to the bookstore.

• 4:40Jason Bateman?

  Well, that's nice.

• 4:41Will Arnett?

  Yeah, and cranked up the, the pool, even though it's cold out, which is real fun.

• 4:46Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 4:46Will Arnett?

  And, uh, yeah, and just super nice.

• 4:48Jason Bateman?

  Does he swim yet?

• 4:50Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 4:51Jason Bateman?

  He does?

• 4:51Will Arnett?

  No, yes, he's, he's in the process of learning.

• 4:54Jason Bateman?

  He sinks slowly now, slower.

• 4:56Will Arnett?

  He's, he's five, so he's not, but he's come a long way, like he's, you know, he does that thing where like he can swim underwater. You know, so they, whatever they don't, can't do in terms of strokes, he just can do it underwater.

• 5:10Jason Bateman?

  Get, hey, hey dad?

• 5:11Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 5:12Jason Bateman?

  That means he can't swim. You know, swimming is trying to keep yourself buoyant and above.

• 5:17Will Arnett?

  I know, I know, I know.

• 5:19Sean Hayes?

  I can't really swim either. Did you guys?

• 5:22Will Arnett?

  Is that true?

• 5:23Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I was petrified.

• 5:24Will Arnett?

  Are you, are you, are you a, are you a weak swimmer?

• 5:26Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I can't, I don't know how to do it. I run out of breath in like 10 seconds.

• 5:29Jason Bateman?

  No, truly.

• 5:30Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I don't, I can't, I don't have the, I don't have the lung support to swim.

• 5:33Will Arnett?

  That's not true.

• 5:34Jason Bateman?

  Well, you don't need lung support to swim, again, if you swim, you don't need, you don't need to hold your breath if you can actually swim.

• 5:41Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, but the actual aerobic kind of movements that make your heart pump faster than you have to breathe faster. I just fail really quickly at it.

• 5:50Will Arnett?

  Uh huh. Okay.

• 5:51Sean Hayes?

  Do you know what I mean?

• 5:52Will Arnett?

  I mean, hang on, hang on.

• 5:52Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, go ahead, please, do this one, Will.

• 5:55Will Arnett?

  I just want to take this one apart a little bit.

• 5:57Sean Hayes?

  I can't be the only person.

• 5:59Will Arnett?

  That can't swim? No, you're not, but, but do you?

• 6:03Jason Bateman?

  You get too tired to keep yourself, um, from drowning.

• 6:06Sean Hayes?

  That's what it is.

• 6:08Will Arnett?

  Well, i- is that because you're panicking and so you're catching, you're short of breath?

• 6:12Sean Hayes?

  No, I think maybe I just do too much too quickly. I don't realize how to, I don't know how to swim, so I paddle really fast.

• 6:20Will Arnett?

  Did you ever?

• 6:20Sean Hayes?

  Then I use up all my energy really quickly.

• 6:22Jason Bateman?

  He's in an immediate panic.

• 6:23Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I do.

• 6:24Will Arnett?

  I wish people could see the motions that, uh, Shawnee's doing. Shawnee, do you, did you ever take swim lessons? Clearly not.

• 6:31Jason Bateman?

  He's moving both hands at the same time, listener, instead of, you know. Most of us rotate, right hand, left hand, right arm, left arm.

• 6:39Sean Hayes?

  I only know a doggy.

• 6:40Will Arnett?

  But Sean, you can, you exercise and you don't run out of breath.

• 6:43Sean Hayes?

  I know, I don't understand it.

• 6:45Will Arnett?

  So it's not like you don't.

• 6:46Jason Bateman?

  What about like walking up a bunch of steps? Like if you walk up too many stairs, you don't just like collapse and roll down the stairs, right?

• 6:53Sean Hayes?

  No, no, no, I don't. I don't know what it is about the swimming or the pool.

• 6:57Jason Bateman?

  Just go slower up the stairs so that you can make it.

• 6:59Will Arnett?

  Are you swimming? Like, have you got a?

• 7:01Sean Hayes?

  Like, I don't float.

• 7:03Jason Bateman?

  Right, well, none of us do.

• 7:04Will Arnett?

  That's surprising. Do you, I mean, have you got like a corn dog in your hand? What's going on?

• 7:13Will Arnett?

  By the way, I love a corn dog. It should be noted.

• 7:15Sean Hayes?

  In the pool.

• 7:16Will Arnett?

  I fucking love a corn dog.

• 7:18Jason Bateman?

  I do too, and I feel like they've kind of gone by the way of like the bungee jumping and things like that.

• 7:25Will Arnett?

  Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't know if I'd put them in the same category as bungee jumping.

• 7:31Jason Bateman?

  I want to know where all the stretch limousines and the corn dogs have gone.

• 7:35Will Arnett?

  But you get some, you get a corn dog, you get a corn dog and you dip it in some just yellow French's mustard.

• 7:41Jason Bateman?

  Yes, that's the best ever.

• 7:43Will Arnett?

  Forget it.

• 7:44Sean Hayes?

  I know.

• 7:44Jason Bateman?

  What about some of the little cheese, little cheese dip?

• 7:47Will Arnett?

  Oh, yeah, I'll take a cheese dip.

• 7:50Jason Bateman?

  Little tub of cheese.

• 7:51Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I'll do that.

• 7:52Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, hot dog on a stick was a, was a big, was a big spot out here with the, with the funny multicolored hats. Um, you guys, did you have any of those?

• 8:00Will Arnett?

  Never heard of it.

• 8:01Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, we had a bunch of those like in the valley. There were some out at the beach. Sean, I'm surprised you're, you're not a, a hot dog on a stick guy.

• 8:08Sean Hayes?

  I don't, I'm, who says I'm not? I, I try it. I'll try it.

• 8:11Jason Bateman?

  No, no, no, but I mean, that was like, that was a famous, that was a great spot.

• 8:15Will Arnett?

  What about it? What about a, I had this discussion with somebody. What about a pig in a blanket?

• 8:19Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, I do enjoy those.

• 8:21Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, put in a puff pastry, anything with a puff pastry.

• 8:23Jason Bateman?

  I have not seen Scotty in a long time.

• 8:25Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, he's just around.

• 8:33Sean Hayes?

  He's all tidied up on the couch.

• 8:35Jason Bateman?

  Oh, sorry. No, that's a bear and a comforter. Sorry. I've confused the two.

• 8:39Sean Hayes?

  Cub, yeah.

• 8:40Jason Bateman?

  Cub and a comforter.

• 8:42Will Arnett?

  Oh, my.

• 8:43Sean Hayes?

  It's a cub, cub for tur.

• 8:46Jason Bateman?

  Scotty's gonna kick my ass when he sees me next.

• 8:50Sean Hayes?

  That's really funny.

• 8:52Jason Bateman?

  Well, listen, that's a great cue for a guest.

• 8:54Sean Hayes?

  What if he just panned over and he's on the couch?

• 8:57Jason Bateman?

  Just in like a Snuggie.

• 8:59Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 9:00Will Arnett?

  What if you just walked up to Scotty, just sort of squirting French's mustard on him?

• 9:07Jason Bateman?

  And taking big bites or licks.

• 9:10Will Arnett?

  Here goes. Here goes.

• 9:13Jason Bateman?

  Um, guys, we got a real live one today, all right? This guest is a man with talent, looks, smarts.

• 9:22Sean Hayes?

  Uh-oh.

• 9:22Jason Bateman?

  He's got many nominations, plenty of wins, box office, sock, critical respect. He's got massive dramatic range, razor sharp comedic skills, and a British accent. That's the triple crown. But most importantly, he's got a wife, he's got three sons, and one of the best names in the Screen Actors Guild Directory. Friends, say hello to Benedict Cumberbatch.

• 9:46Will Arnett?

  No kidding.

• 9:47Jason Bateman?

  Come on out.

• 9:48Sean Hayes?

  I was gonna guess. I was gonna guess it.

• 9:50Jason Bateman?

  He's got two middle names, too. Two middle names.

• 9:52Sean Hayes?

  What are they? What are they?

• 9:54Speaker 03

  As if it wasn't enough, Benedict Timothy Carlton.

• 9:56Jason Bateman?

  Timothy Carlton. It gets better.

• 9:59Speaker 03

  I use them on off days. No, that's Dad's name. It's just, it's a thing of just trying to squeeze the whole family into one small child's head.

• 10:05Jason Bateman?

  Benedict Timothy Car- what is it again?

• 10:08Sean Hayes?

  Carlton.

• 10:09Speaker 03

  Carlton.

• 10:09Jason Bateman?

  Carlton Cumberbatch.

• 10:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:11Jason Bateman?

  Fabulous. How are you? So nice to meet you.

• 10:14Sean Hayes?

  Drink him in, you guys.

• 10:15Speaker 03

  I'm good. I mean, I'm already, I mean, I'm, I can't, I can't, I've got a rictus grin on my face. I can hardly speak, not only because of that absurdly nice introduction, but it's a, it's a real privilege to listen to the top of the show as your surprise guest. And I was panicking, thinking, oh, Christ, if I laugh, if I laugh, will they hear me laugh? Would you, are you completely moved by me at the beginning or not?

• 10:35Jason Bateman?

  If Bennett and Rob were on the stick, they'd have your mic down before We introduce you and instead we're hearing you dropping shit. Bennett, Rob, god damn it.

• 10:46Speaker 03

  No, there was a sound like my body dropping with shock at being your surprise guest. And that was that I am in my house with my wife and the aforementioned three kids. So that was probably the wind catching a door. Let's hope it's not a Tampa tantrum because I know that might.

• 11:00Will Arnett?

  Or an intruder.

• 11:02Speaker 03

  They are.

• 11:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, guys, I gotta go.

• 11:06Will Arnett?

  Don't get murdered on the show.

• 11:09Jason Bateman?

  No, it'd be great.

• 11:10Speaker 03

  That would be a first. Ratings.

• 11:12Jason Bateman?

  The boys are how old?

• 11:13Speaker 03

  Six, eight and 10.

• 11:14Jason Bateman?

  Six, eight and 10. Well planned.

• 11:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:18Jason Bateman?

  Jesus, was that on purpose?

• 11:20Speaker 03

  Kind of.

• 11:20Jason Bateman?

  Let's do two years apart?

• 11:22Speaker 03

  Kind of, yes. We just want, we did want to get on with it, yeah. And Sophie's a trooper. She's amazing.

• 11:28Jason Bateman?

  Good thinking. I didn't, for some reason, you know, because I'm, people know I'm super bright. I missed it. I wanted three and I just didn't plan it well. And there's a five year gap between the two and then we just got, we just aged out. Couldn't have a third, you know?

• 11:46Will Arnett?

  Great story.

• 11:48Speaker 03

  That's a.

• 11:51Will Arnett?

  By the way, or you could do what I did, just have the gap anyway. And then just, you know?

• 11:56Jason Bateman?

  Oh, and just reload. Sorry, hang on. Is there a better way to say that? Is there a better way to say that?

• 12:01Will Arnett?

  So to speak.

• 12:02Jason Bateman?

  Still rolling.

• 12:03Will Arnett?

  Unload?

• 12:05Jason Bateman?

  Let's reset.

• 12:06Sean Hayes?

  What?

• 12:08Jason Bateman?

  Oh, Jesus.

• 12:09Sean Hayes?

  Benedict, is that something, the three, the three kids, is it something that, is like, did you guys agree to a number? Or was it just like, well, we're living life and this is what happened?

• 12:18Speaker 03

  Sophie comes from three and no, I'm an only child. So I panicked when our second was on the way. And what do you do? Do you divide yourself? How do you love as much both things without necessarily having more time to do that? And.

• 12:32Speaker 03

  You know, there are the odd moments when you're on a kind of solo date with them, with one of them and you kind of go, God, am I really cheating you out of a lot of this? But then you see them, when they're not trying to kill each other, getting on as friends and think, no, I've given you the gift of a lifetime that'll outlast me. You have three, you have two people in your life that'll always be there.

• 12:49Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 12:49Speaker 03

  Do you want it or not at times? But you know, it's, it's amazing. So I swung around to the idea pretty quickly and I love it. I love it. They're like a kind of tribe of cubs rolling around.

• 13:00Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, you sort of like, you started to go there a bit on like, I thought about that when I had my second kid, I was like, well, wait, am I going to be able to love this one as much as I loved the first one? And you're like-

• 13:10Speaker 03

  Are you an only child?

• 13:11Jason Bateman?

  Uh, no, I, I have a sister.

• 13:13Will Arnett?

  He just acts like one.

• 13:14Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 13:16Sean Hayes?

  What are you saying?

• 13:18Jason Bateman?

  But no, like when I had, when, when we had Maple, wait, we already had Franny and then five years later we have Maple. And I was so crazy about Franny and then here comes Maple, right? A stranger comes in the house, brand new baby. And you're just like, well, I, I can't wait to get to know you. I hope I love you as much as the first one. And like, what, you, it's a tall order.

• 13:38Will Arnett?

  Kind of turned out, did it?

• 13:40Jason Bateman?

  I love to-

• 13:43Jason Bateman?

  No, but then-

• 13:44Speaker 03

  She'll be, she'll be talking about it in therapy. No, I-

• 13:46Jason Bateman?

  I think a lot of parents probably go through that, right? Whether you're aware of it or not.

• 13:51Speaker 03

  It's a very, I think it's a very natural reaction because the first time you have a child, it is, oh, your entire, all of it changes. The orbit of the world, the way you see your parents, your place in that whole thing is just utterly realized at a very real moment. And, and that is it, is what I'm trying to say. You think, oh, this is it. This is what life's about. And you go, oh no, but it's until the next one. Then it has to be the same. And it is. But it's weird. It's, it's the same as women forgetting most of the time, but you know, that physiologically forget apparently the birth pain about what women go through to give birth.

• 14:25Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I can't imagine.

• 14:26Speaker 03

  Otherwise, why would your human body even want to be able to be impregnated? You know, it's just the whole thing.

• 14:31Jason Bateman?

  Or wear heels.

• 14:32Speaker 03

  Focus is on this. It heals and-

• 14:34Will Arnett?

  Sure.

• 14:35Speaker 03

  We're just, you know.

• 14:37Jason Bateman?

  Go ahead, Will.

• 14:38Will Arnett?

  No, I'm not expanding on that.

• 14:41Speaker 03

  You don't want to touch that what?

• 14:42Will Arnett?

  No, I don't want to touch any of it. But, uh, but it is funny. And what's amazing too is, uh, is how different, and God, I'm like the quidrillionth person to bring this up, but I also have three boys, Benedict, and how entirely different they are from each other.

• 15:00Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 15:00Will Arnett?

  Even my boys who are less than two years apart are so vastly different personality wise.

• 15:06Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 15:07Will Arnett?

  And had virtually the same experience growing up, you know?

• 15:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 15:10Jason Bateman?

  And I've said this before, what are you, what's your take on this Benedict? How much do you think is nature? How much do you think is nurture? Right? Because these three boys of yours. It's all nature, right? I mean, you can nurture, I think. Here we go, answering the question for the guest again, which I love to do. I think it's like five or 10% you can move your kid, good or bad. Otherwise, you just, you get what you get. If they're gonna be fantastic, they're fantastic. If they're gonna be a challenge, they're gonna be a challenge. You can have the best parents in the world and it's just, you get what you get. What do you think?

• 15:41Speaker 03

  Well, um, I, I don't know. I think you're right about, they arrive with something that's beyond our understanding, really.

• 15:52Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 15:52Speaker 03

  There is this thing which, if you're really open to it, especially those first sort of five, seven years, and you present the world as a thing that's open and full of wonder and a safe place and full of magic, as we very much know, sometimes in reality it isn't. But if you give them that space just to be themselves, you do see these extraordinary creatures just become something of their own accord. But I think it does need a lot of nurture and love. However, you know, you're right, within that, they do things which are certainly to do with nature, because how can a child give you love in a time of need as an adult? Which I've experienced in my family and, and it's partly to do with the film we're gonna talk about at some point, but you know, it, it feels like it is, they are capable,

• 16:35Speaker 03

  in the words of Max Porter in the novel, of giving something back that isn't, uh,

• 16:41Jason Bateman?

  Learned.

• 16:41Speaker 03

  It's not asked for, it's not caused by anything, other than them having an empathy or a link or an understanding of what love is.

• 16:47Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, that human instinct become preloaded with it.

• 16:49Speaker 03

  You're innately born with. And, yeah, and I think, without getting too wishy washy about it, if I haven't already. That is nature, that is something that's sort of sent from somewhere else.

• 16:59Jason Bateman?

  You start crying in the first fifteen minutes, we're gonna have a problem.

• 17:02Will Arnett?

  Jason, real quick, empathy is, um, I'm gonna have to explain this to him.

• 17:08Jason Bateman?

  No, I think it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's a mind blower.

• 17:12Speaker 03

  It is a mind blower, it is a mind blower.

• 17:14Jason Bateman?

  I'd have twelve kids if I could.

• 17:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, I, I think they are here to teach us, really. So like you say, I think it is, I don't know about percentiles, but it's mostly nature. They are innately, innately, not innately, and very much actively wonderful gifts.

• 17:30Jason Bateman?

  Let's go, let's go back there with you Benedict.

• 17:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:33Jason Bateman?

  Your childhood. So you say you were an only child and you were born to two actors, yes, mom and dad?

• 17:41Speaker 03

  Mom and dad, Wanda Vantham and Timothy Colton.

• 17:44Jason Bateman?

  That's amazing, right?

• 17:45Sean Hayes?

  It's so, it's so common on our show too, when we have somebody as prolific as you, that it seems like they always come from an artist's family.

• 17:55Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, but rarely, rarely two actors though, right? Usually they're sculptors or poets or something like that. But, um, so then, uh, I'm sure the answer would be no to the question of was there pressure to become an actor? Uh, it was probably just something that you were just naturally interested in because you saw your two first heroes doing that?

• 18:16Speaker 03

  A little, and also I was, if anything, pressured the other way, like, don't do what we're doing. It's a stupid way to spend a life. Look how peripatetic and useless we are at other things and how family life is a chaotic jumble of loose end commitments that have to be abandoned at the last minute because dad's got an advert audition. I mean, it was just, you know, they, they did really, really well in their careers. Mum especially commercially, dad brilliantly as well in the theatre. He did a lot at the Royal Court in the early days of Kitchen Sync Drama there. But the point is, you know, they, they wanted me to have the opportunities that they didn't, or that they didn't have in their life as my parents. Um, and they afforded me an education where I could have gone on to be a lawyer or something of that.

• 18:58Speaker 03

  That was the only other thing I flirted with, which is why I say that I did for a while.

• 19:02Will Arnett?

  Sean flirted with a lawyer in the parking lot last night.

• 19:07Sean Hayes?

  And then I got taken to court for it.

• 19:10Jason Bateman?

  But what do you mean, they wanted, but Benedict, they wanted you have access to opportunity to something more predictable in your life, career wise?

• 19:22Speaker 03

  I think it's something more stable, definitely. And, but the bug had bit really, and it was very much to do with watching them in their prime doing, doing what they did. And I remember my dad in a cast of Noises Off, this amazing Michael Frame play that's about, it's a farce within a farce. It's this amazingly kaleidoscopic, brilliant examination of a British tradition of comedy, which obviously you guys know called farce. My mum was doing the real thing, but, and even the real farces that were very double entendre heavy, very misogynistic and homophobic at times as well, to the point I said, "Mum, you really can't do another play where you walk into a room where your husband is having his pants pulled down by his male

• 20:04Speaker 03

  P A and it looks like fellatio, whereas in fact he's just trying to give him a quick change and his transistors, "I can't, I can't be your son and call myself proud if you keep doing this."

• 20:15Speaker 03

  But I do remember perversely to that embarrassment, sort of sitting in the wings and watching her go through and just be mum and sort of chatting to me and saying hello to the S M and then just kind of opening the door in this light and heat and noise of what was happening in front of those flats hitting her and her just transforming, just in the blink of an eye. And I thought, "What is that? What just happened to my mum? Where did she go?" And yeah, I kind of got a taste for that. And as an only child, I think you're kind of already locked in a bit to quite a solitary, imaginary universe.

• 20:47Jason Bateman?

  When was it that you understood what they were kind of talking about when it comes to the the career that you can't really count on? Like, how young were you? And do you remember that moment of going, "Yeah, but I get it's unpredictable, but I still want to go for it and try it?"

• 21:08Speaker 03

  Numerous occasions, I'm too old to really remember, but.

• 21:12Jason Bateman?

  Still today.

• 21:13Speaker 03

  Still today, exactly.

• 21:14Jason Bateman?

  Right, for all of them.

• 21:15Speaker 03

  I think, I think a bit, yeah. Am I really doing this? Yeah, I'm doing that. You know, there were, there were moments when I thought, okay, sage advice from ones who know, but I'm gonna do it differently. I think I've got a different way into this.

• 21:28Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 21:28Speaker 03

  And I don't know that it will be different. And in fact, really, all I wanted was what they have, which is a career and respect from their peers and, and having a good time doing a job they love. You know, that's what a great way to live your life.

• 21:41Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, you were, you were chasing the right thing.

• 21:43Speaker 03

  You know, my way of doing it differently was perhaps going, okay, well, the things that you've, you've done in your life, maybe, I don't know, I don't know. But I, I knew I was throwing, I knew I was throwing it to the wind and I knew I was chancing it. But I think the moment I thought, I can't really not do this, is when I got serious about A-levels before going to college. At university in, in England, obviously, and I, yeah, I met a lot of lawyers who were saying, look, turn back now, people who were doing bar exams or people who would, who'd made it into, to being part of a chambers or even people practicing going, it's just, it's really pretty hard. It's an oversubscribed profession, it's very.

• 22:24Jason Bateman?

  Being a lawyer.

• 22:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, you're only as good as your last case. I thought, that sounds very familiar.

• 22:27Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, right.

• 22:28Speaker 03

  Why am I doing this, which would have required an inordinate amount of work on my part? I'm not that smart at all and I, I would have had to work so hard. For what? For, for as big a risk?

• 22:37Jason Bateman?

  But at least the credentials, the, the, the, the stuff you come out of college with, you are somewhat guaranteed a, a, a base salary and, and, and some, and some future to it. Whereas with anything in, in the arts, you don't have that. And so if, if one, if one or two or three of your boys said, hey, I wanna go into acting, would you, uh, what, what would you, as a father, would you recommend that they dedicate the requisite number of years needed to kind of build a base? Or would you say, ah?

• 23:12Speaker 03

  What's have a backup, you mean?

• 23:14Jason Bateman?

  Or put that time into something that is a bit more predictable.

• 23:19Speaker 03

  Where there's a guarantee.

• 23:20Jason Bateman?

  Something you can count on, yeah.

• 23:22Speaker 03

  As a parent, of course, yeah. Because you worry about what the world will be, let alone what their talent will be or won't be recognized as and where their ambitions and dreams are and their expectations and what the reality is and the gap between that, you know, you never know that you're gonna get to where you wanna be.

• 23:36Will Arnett?

  I just tell, I tell my kids all the time, roll the dice. I'm always like, just roll the dice. Just fucking.

• 23:41Speaker 03

  Yeah. I'm afraid, you know, I did it, I did it, so.

• 23:45Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 23:45Speaker 03

  Well, how can I, how can I, how can I turn them away from something that I ended up doing?

• 23:49Will Arnett?

  Actually, you know what's funny, you know what's funny, though, I will say, what the difference now is, well, one of my sons, I think, is gonna likely pursue something in the arts and the other one is, yeah, and, and, well, he's sort of leaning that way and the other one is not, he's, and he was talking about some areas and I, here's the thing that they're talking about with amongst their friends, he's, uh, it's my eldest son, he's, he's a, he's a junior in high school here, so he's seventeen. He says, um, I said, they have to talk about the, what, what are the jobs out there going forward that are gonna be affected by AI? And so, so kids are thinking about like, you know, they don't wanna become computer programmers or they're not gonna become, you know, things like graphic design, well,

• 24:32Will Arnett?

  by the way, go down, lawyers as well, legal work, all that stuff is gonna be handled by AI, so now you're not competing against other kids, you're competing against the computers of the world.

• 24:43Speaker 03

  Right, right, right, right.

• 24:45Jason Bateman?

  I know, I know, I know, I, it's, I don't, I don't, I don't envy them right now.

• 24:49Speaker 03

  And I, we, yeah, we, we're avoiding the fact that AI is massively in our industry as well.

• 24:54Will Arnett?

  Yeah, of course it is.

• 24:56Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, what's safe. Um, all right, uh, before we get.

• 25:00Speaker 03

  It's evening here, I just, can you see, I can't.

• 25:03Will Arnett?

  It just got really dark there.

• 25:04Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 25:05Will Arnett?

  It got really, really dark, it's very moody.

• 25:07Jason Bateman?

  It's very nice, it's beautiful. Oh, nice, now we can see you.

• 25:10Speaker 03

  Is that better?

• 25:11Jason Bateman?

  Oh, Benedict, got it. Oh, it's Benedict.

• 25:15Will Arnett?

  Oh, it's Benedict Coverbatch.

• 25:17Jason Bateman?

  Um, all right, so like, like Sweet Willie Arnett, you did some time in boarding school, was that a positive experience or was it challenging? Cause I get homesick real easy, that, that would be tough for me.

• 25:31Speaker 03

  How long have we got? Um, I.

• 25:36Speaker 03

  I, just the perfect mixture of both, I'd say, the first one was amazing, I mean, I'm an only child, as I keep saying it, I, I had a band of brothers for the first time in my life, so that was. Yeah. That was Easy Street to thirteen and then the thirty, the whole adolescence thing. And it was a single sex one. And it was at the sort of top of a hill, looking down over the London basin and yet so, oh so very far away from it. And I just thought, this isn't quite right. This isn't real. The demographic was very narrow and no girls. And I just, I, I, the school itself was extraordinary. Some amazing teachers and fantastic experiences. But at that point, I was like, okay, the boarding thing, I think I'm done with. Not because I was homesick, but because I just, I guess I wanted to be part of a broader community. Sure. But that's a healthy thing.

• 26:20Speaker 03

  There's also a very healthy thing to be straining away. It was, that was me leaving the nest. I was already a home lever, I guess, at the age of eight. I, I boarded when I was eight.

• 26:30Speaker 03

  We'll be right back.

• 26:33Sean Hayes?

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• 27:15Jason Bateman?

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• 28:44Sean Hayes?

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• 29:25Sean Hayes?

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• 29:57Jason Bateman?

  And now, back to the show.

• 30:00Will Arnett?

  Wait, so Benedict, you were eight when you went away, yeah?

• 30:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:03Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 30:04Speaker 03

  How old were you?

• 30:05Will Arnett?

  That's, I was 12, but my roommate had come from, uh, when I was 12, I was in 7th grade. My roommate had just come from boarding school in England, and he'd been there since he was 7.

• 30:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:17Sean Hayes?

  I bet you it's easier when you go younger, right, Will, than when you're older? Because you just, you've, you've, you've created those relationships once you, once you were way younger.

• 30:26Will Arnett?

  Yes, I mean, I, I'll sort of, I'll sort of, um, jump on what Benedict said, which is, you do create. Now, I have siblings. I have, uh, two older sisters and a younger brother.

• 30:36Jason Bateman?

  Quick, what are their names?

• 30:37Will Arnett?

  And, fuck.

• 30:40Will Arnett?

  Gary.

• 30:41Jason Bateman?

  Absolute worst.

• 30:44Will Arnett?

  Target, Tesco, and, and.

• 30:47Sean Hayes?

  Tanis.

• 30:48Will Arnett?

  Tanis and Shanley are my sisters, and my brother's name is Chuck.

• 30:52Speaker 03

  Right.

• 30:52Will Arnett?

  AKA Charles. So, anyway.

• 30:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:54Will Arnett?

  We, I was at boarding, but I went when I was 12, and you do have, and I'm still friends with some of those guys that I went to school with. Because in those formative years.

• 31:02Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 31:04Will Arnett?

  And, and I also was just an all-boys, when I went, it was all-boys, it's now co-ed.

• 31:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:09Will Arnett?

  But it is, you know, when I, when I look back on it now, and I don't know how you feel about it, Benedict, but I look, I, the idea of my boy is going away. There's no fucking way.

• 31:18Speaker 03

  Right, I know.

• 31:18Will Arnett?

  I couldn't stand it.

• 31:19Speaker 03

  No, not unless they really want to, but no way, no way, no way. And Sophie's the same mindset, you know, we do, yeah. And selfishly, I want them around. I want to be part of.

• 31:27Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, even summer camp.

• 31:28Speaker 03

  Even, whatever, whatever dad, however pushed away I am, I still want to be there in case.

• 31:32Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 31:32Speaker 03

  The call comes, the fall happens, the, the need.

• 31:35Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, so can I ask a question to the group here?

• 31:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:38Sean Hayes?

  Cause I don't have kids.

• 31:39Will Arnett?

  I mean.

• 31:40Sean Hayes?

  Just one kid.

• 31:41Will Arnett?

  Let me look at the clock real quick.

• 31:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:43Will Arnett?

  Okay.

• 31:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:43Will Arnett?

  If you make it quick, yes.

• 31:45Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, Benedict, get comfortable. This is gonna be a long question.

• 31:47Will Arnett?

  Oh shit. Benedict took his jacket off. When you asked a question.

• 31:52Speaker 03

  It's hot in here.

• 31:54Sean Hayes?

  No, is, is, what is the, cause I don't know about boarding school. Why would a parent send their kid to boarding school?

• 32:01Jason Bateman?

  Better education, focus.

• 32:04Sean Hayes?

  Okay.

• 32:05Jason Bateman?

  Yes, question?

• 32:07Speaker 03

  Amazing facilities.

• 32:09Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 32:10Speaker 03

  Very immersive educational experience where, you know, you have, well, the beginning of it only, where you have a very structured timetable. So you, there's sort of purpose to your day. Uh, it's very fulfilling. God, I sound like a brochure, but it.

• 32:23Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, because it always sounds like a jail or something.

• 32:26Will Arnett?

  No, no, no.

• 32:27Speaker 03

  They're very plush places.

• 32:28Jason Bateman?

  It's like Hogwarts. It's like incredible.

• 32:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:31Jason Bateman?

  Oh, I'm in.

• 32:32Speaker 03

  That is exactly how it was described once by Martin Freeman. He said, I went to a law school and Benedict went to Hogwarts, which I kind of did. It wasn't wizard school, but it was, it was a particularly old one.

• 32:41Will Arnett?

  It is, but it is true. And you know, think about all those things. You learn how to, you know, by the time I got to college age, and I dropped out quickly from college, but, and part of it was because everybody, my peers who were there, who did not go to boarding school, it was their first time away from home. And I'd been away from home so, so much earlier that getting out, I was ready to get out into the world. I was like, fuck all that. I'm ready to go. I've been, I've been looking.

• 33:07Speaker 03

  And I was having a frat party and like, isn't it cool to put, yeah.

• 33:09Will Arnett?

  And you're like, no, I've already done this.

• 33:11Speaker 03

  True, true, true, true. And I think, I don't know. I, I, I'm here and I, I've come out of it okay. And I wouldn't really change it. I wouldn't know what I'd change it to. I didn't have any other experience, but.

• 33:22Will Arnett?

  Like Jason, who taught you how to tie, tie a tie?

• 33:25Jason Bateman?

  Oh, that would have been.

• 33:27Speaker 03

  Or shoelaces.

• 33:28Jason Bateman?

  Set dresser, the onset costumer for Arrested Development.

• 33:33Will Arnett?

  Is that true?

• 33:34Speaker 03

  Really? Yeah, really?

• 33:35Jason Bateman?

  But I, I did really, really nail it down on that because I had to tie a tie every fricking day.

• 33:41Will Arnett?

  And then loosen it?

• 33:43Jason Bateman?

  And then loosen.

• 33:43Will Arnett?

  And then roll up the sleeves.

• 33:45Jason Bateman?

  Roll up the sleeves.

• 33:46Will Arnett?

  Because Michael Bluth, can I just say something just as an aside? Michael Bluth, this guy got down, well, he got down to business. He was rolling up those sleeves. If you go back and you watch Jason push his sleeves up in Arrested Development.

• 34:00Jason Bateman?

  Still to this day, Will, you, you've given me a full complex about that because that's just, that's just Jason. That's not Michael Bluth. This is, I always roll up my sleeves on a button down shirt. And I still do it to this day. And I think, I hear your stupid fucking GMC voice every morning when I roll up my sleeves. Getting down to business and thinking, stupid fuck. All right, now.

• 34:22Speaker 03

  How long, how long have you two known each other? Was that, was that when you two first met on Arrested Development?

• 34:27Jason Bateman?

  I think so.

• 34:28Speaker 03

  Too long.

• 34:29Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 34:31Jason Bateman?

  And now we're stuck on this fucking podcast. So, now you must have loved-

• 34:36Speaker 03

  You guys, it's such a blast being here. I have to say, I'm a huge, huge fan of this show and it's just, it's one of these things one of my best friends put me on to and said, "You've got to hear the-" I mean, I love all of your work individually, but the- Yeah, it's a very good thing you've got going here. It's fantastic.

• 34:52Jason Bateman?

  Now, listen, back to you. You must have enjoyed the education at the boarding school enough-

• 34:58Speaker 03

  You sounded like pets when I said that.

• 34:59Jason Bateman?

  Where you've become, you've become a teacher yourself and you teach English-

• 35:04Speaker 03

  What?

• 35:05Jason Bateman?

  -in a Tibetan community.

• 35:07Speaker 03

  Oh, good segue.

• 35:08Jason Bateman?

  What? Untrue. Just outside of Dejarlang, India.

• 35:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:12Jason Bateman?

  Yes?

• 35:12Speaker 03

  I like that. Especially the pronunciation of Dejarlang. No, I was-

• 35:18Jason Bateman?

  How do you say it?

• 35:22Speaker 03

  We should all now say it, Dejarlang.

• 35:24Jason Bateman?

  Wait, what is it?

• 35:25Speaker 03

  How do you say it? Did you go to Dejarlang, darling? No, Darjeeling, I think.

• 35:29Jason Bateman?

  Darjeeling, that's it.

• 35:30Sean Hayes?

  Darjeeling. Dejarlang? Did you go to Dejarlang? No, I didn't have the time.

• 35:34Speaker 03

  It's great. My dad has this habit of doing- He says, "Oh, I think I'm going to go to Marks and Spencer's and buy a Miles Bar". Dad, what? You're a trained actor. What did I do? Well-

• 35:48Will Arnett?

  Every summer in Ibiza, I like to Dejay. You know, for like, for like a week or two, I'll go down there to Dejay.

• 35:56Speaker 03

  What? Dejay.

• 35:57Will Arnett?

  So, Dejay.

• 36:00Jason Bateman?

  Now-

• 36:01Speaker 03

  Sorry, yes.

• 36:01Jason Bateman?

  So, it is true.

• 36:03Sean Hayes?

  Wait, so you're taught?

• 36:04Jason Bateman?

  You taught English in a Tibetan community.

• 36:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, teacher's a very loose term. I kind of turned up and they giggled at me, which was a fair enough cultural exchange. Well, no, it was very unfair. I learnt so much, as you can imagine. I was a nineteen-year-old kid who knew nothing. He'd come from a very, kind of, you know, enclosed, private school, you know, boarding school education. And it was the first talk at the school that we had given to us. This is the school I went to. We got given talks about what you could do with your year out. If you wanted to take one between school and university school and college.

• 36:39Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, a little gap year.

• 36:40Speaker 03

  A little gap year, exactly. And it was the first one I heard about and I just went. I didn't really listen to it being about teaching. It was all about being close to Tibetan culture. I just had this very strong gravitational pull in my soul. I thought, I have to do this. There's nothing. And people, what, don't you want to volunteer in Africa? Don't you want to climb a mountain? Or do you all these amazing opportunities? And I just was deaf to all of them because of how strongly I felt I needed to do this.

• 37:06Jason Bateman?

  And what was the pull to the Tibetan culture? When did that start?

• 37:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't know. Maybe in a previous lifetime. I really don't know.

• 37:13Will Arnett?

  Whoa.

• 37:14Speaker 03

  I mean, I was fascinated by it visually and I knew a bit about Buddhism, but it was just so overwhelming. And as was the experience I had, there was six months of, well, five months of teaching and then some tourism tied to the end.

• 37:30Jason Bateman?

  Wandering about, yeah.

• 37:31Speaker 03

  Wandering about India, yeah, and Nepal, which was, both of which were extraordinary. And.

• 37:36Jason Bateman?

  Any pull from Everest at all? Was that part of the pull at all? Because I've got this, I've got this fascination with Everest, but was that part of it at all?

• 37:44Speaker 03

  I'd like, I'll do it with you. Yeah, I want to get at least a base camp in my lifetime.

• 37:47Jason Bateman?

  Wouldn't?

• 37:48Speaker 03

  I would, but you know, then you hear about how much pollution there is, how much tourism and craziness there is. And I kind of go, well, maybe there's a better mountain to walk to.

• 37:55Will Arnett?

  Watch how quickly we can turn Jason off Everest. Do you know how dirty it is, Jason?

• 38:00Jason Bateman?

  Wait, what? No, wait, what?

• 38:02Will Arnett?

  And the tents, the tents are really dirty.

• 38:04Jason Bateman?

  I just shower every night, you know?

• 38:05Will Arnett?

  No, they don't have showers.

• 38:06Jason Bateman?

  They don't change the linens?

• 38:08Will Arnett?

  No, they don't change the linens.

• 38:09Jason Bateman?

  No.

• 38:09Will Arnett?

  You can't use sanitizer.

• 38:12Speaker 03

  There's no ring of that.

• 38:13Sean Hayes?

  That'd be scary.

• 38:16Jason Bateman?

  But all right, so that was.

• 38:19Speaker 03

  So the landscape did have a pull, in all seriousness. Of course it did. It's such an extraordinary bit of geography, the whole area. And this lives in a foothill, so going towards Darjeeling. And it's a little hill-stationed town called Sonada. And it was a converted Nepali house. And at the top was this monastery, this prayer room. Below was the monks' accommodation, the eating area, and then a small teaching area. And I might have got the height or the numbers of levels wrong, but I was basically very much on the bottom. And it was really, we were high up in what, 4,000 meters, something like that? And. You opened the window and it was sort of coming into autumn and winter there. So the clouds would literally roll in like dry ice through the window. It was utterly extraordinary. Wow.

• 39:02Speaker 03

  And pretty basic. My dad reminded me, his panic, this is pre-cell phones, I'm that old and and the internet as well, I'm that old. And it was a moment where I'd written in tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny scrawl on a blue airmail letter home one weekend. Don't worry dad, all the cold is solved now in my room as I have a gas heater and I've managed to block all the vents. And he was reading it going, oh my god, he's going to die of carbon monoxide poisoning. Yeah. I didn't, but you know, might explain a few brain cells less that I have now, but it was, it was very basic, but very romantic, very hard, very lonely, very elating, very inspiring and spiritually mind blowing and utterly mundane. And it was just a really- How do you clean yourself?

• 39:48Speaker 03

  How do I clean myself? Sorry.

• 39:49Sean Hayes?

  Like how do you, like how do you-

• 39:51Jason Bateman?

  We're talking about-

• 39:52Sean Hayes?

  How many days, how many-

• 39:54Will Arnett?

  Sean's talking to somebody off camera.

• 39:59Jason Bateman?

  He's setting up the weekend.

• 40:02Speaker 03

  He's talking to his dog licking its balls.

• 40:04Jason Bateman?

  How do you do that?

• 40:06Speaker 03

  We all want to know, Sean. We all want to know.

• 40:10Speaker 03

  And that's my teaching class. That's my teaching class.

• 40:13Jason Bateman?

  He's talking to somebody off camera.

• 40:15Will Arnett?

  Show me after. When I'm done, I'm doing the podcast and show me.

• 40:20Jason Bateman?

  Sean, your mic's still hot.

• 40:24Will Arnett?

  I can't wait to see, show you show me after.

• 40:31Will Arnett?

  No, I'm recording a podcast. I'm doing it now, but you start, start now. They can't see, start.

• 40:42Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 40:43Sean Hayes?

  Wait, I want to know the answer.

• 40:44Speaker 03

  Okay, back to business. What the fuck? What was your question about? How do I clean myself?

• 40:50Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 40:51Will Arnett?

  Even the real-

• 40:52Sean Hayes?

  In general.

• 40:54Speaker 03

  But it's more a street and uply house.

• 40:57Jason Bateman?

  No, when you.

• 40:58Speaker 03

  With melted snow.

• 41:00Jason Bateman?

  When you're out there in a tent for what days, weeks? What do you, how do you, what do you do?

• 41:05Speaker 03

  No, no, no, no, I was in a house. I was in a house.

• 41:09Jason Bateman?

  Oh, next question.

• 41:16Jason Bateman?

  All right, never mind. He's filling in for someone this week. I thought you were in a tent.

• 41:20Will Arnett?

  Is it a zipper or buttons?

• 41:23Will Arnett?

  Is it zipper or buttons? Show me his zipper.

• 41:26Jason Bateman?

  Do you need a loofah back there? Scotty, get the loofah.

• 41:31Jason Bateman?

  All right, so let's, let's move to that now. So we're back, we're back from Dejarling. And we're, we're gonna, we're gonna make a. We're the DJ. We're back from DJing. And we're gonna make a career of this acting thing. And we're gonna go for the acting and we get, we get a little bit of momentum going and we're on our first film set. Which is.

• 41:54Speaker 03

  Well, that's a lot, that's a fucking long way into the story, but with the, maybe the early bit's boring, but yeah, go on.

• 41:58Jason Bateman?

  To Kill a King, is that a first feature film role?

• 42:02Speaker 03

  Uh. I don't remember. Maybe that was my first.

• 42:07Jason Bateman?

  But do you remember, do you remember what that first, being on, being on a set for the first time? Well, how did that, how did that jibe with what you had, you'd, you'd gone through all this great theater education, acting education, and then you're on a set and you see all the equipment and, and you're just doing little bits at a time as opposed to theater? Like, how, how did that strike you, this, this, this film process?

• 42:34Speaker 03

  I just remember, I remember small snippets of Doug Ray Scott being very lovely and serious and smoky voiced and. I remember Julian Ryan Tuck being very sort of funny and witty and just being incredibly on it. Um, and I mean laughing quite a lot. I don't remember anything that I did in front of camera. I didn't come away going, oh, wow, yeah, okay, camera work, interesting. Not, not, not because it was a bad experience. I just, I'm being genuine about my lack of memory of that particular experience.

• 43:04Jason Bateman?

  You don't remember being scolded for looking at the camera?

• 43:07Speaker 03

  Did I? Maybe I have. Maybe you spoke into the director.

• 43:09Jason Bateman?

  No, no, no. That, that would be, that would be, that would be my fault.

• 43:13Speaker 03

  Well, I, I, yeah. Well, no, so, I mean, I guess, I guess, well, two things. I suppose mum and dad helped in that regard a little bit. Not because they rehearsed me or anything like that, not nothing stage mummy, but just, I guess I was a little bit aware of what you do and don't do on the set, having been on a couple where they were doing their thing.

• 43:27Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 43:28Speaker 03

  But, but also, I, I, funny enough, I'd been, my first ever film job, TV job was in Heartbeat, which is an ITV staple, or was, I don't know if it's still in England. A very nostalgic, uh, police drama set in the, on the Yorkshire Dales and, um, was it the Moors? Sorry, Yorkshire. God, Olivia did this when she was talking to you about Devon and, no, Devon and Dorset, it's Devon, by the way. That's what we're doing. Um, see, I do listen to your show. Um, and I, I, I just remember being very nervous on Heartbeat set. I do remember that very, very well and just wondering, am I any good? I don't know what I'm doing. I, and I, and I know there's something capturing everything I'm doing. Unlike an audience which has this kind of multi-camera perspective.

• 44:12Speaker 03

  And you can't watch yourself back, but you can? And I really wanted to, but I didn't. But I kind of wanted to know, what the fuck am I doing?

• 44:20Jason Bateman?

  What do I look like?

• 44:21Speaker 03

  Am I, is, am I doing too much, too little?

• 44:22Jason Bateman?

  Because you didn't get any feedback, like you were used to from like an audience, you know, from doing theatre? Was that it? No?

• 44:28Speaker 03

  No, none, because it's just a very, you know, well-oiled machine, a crew that have been doing it for literally decades. And, um, yeah, it was just very kind of.

• 44:41Speaker 03

  Oh, well, I hope that's all right. I hope I get to work again, you know. And it was the first job I got. I was still at drama school, so I had to ask permission. I was only at Lambda for one year, but I had to ask permission to do the job. You're not supposed to work if you're still at a drama school.

• 44:53Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 44:53Speaker 03

  I don't know if that's changed. I hope it has in many ways, but.

• 44:56Jason Bateman?

  And now you mentioned not being able to see yourself back. Do I ask actors this? Do you watch yourself act? And if so, have you have you treated yourself to looking at your older work? And do you see a big difference between how you used to act versus today? And is that a is that a do you applaud yourself for having gotten better, different? How so? Smaller, bigger? Do you do that? Do you watch yourself?

• 45:26Speaker 03

  No, I'm not. I'm not my own my own sort of crazy fan. And I don't mean that in a sort of it's only vanity that does that. It is that could be an incredibly useful thing to do, but I'm not quite that.

• 45:36Jason Bateman?

  For me, it is, yeah.

• 45:37Speaker 03

  I'm not a pessimist tool in that way. I kind of. No, I'm not going to compare myself to what I have done. It's always about where I'm at at the moment. And that the need to see some reflection of what is going on. Is it registering? And also to have that conversation with the director going, no, no, I think. I think I know what you wanted, and I was trying to do something else. Can we can we go again so I can try and give you something nearer what you want? I've seen now that that's not quite that doesn't quite fit it. And for the character and the movement and whatever it is, I mean, it's a really hard thing to generalize about. Because I guess I've been stretched like gum in all sorts of directions as an actor. So I can't really be specific.

• 46:22Speaker 03

  Certain things, like I think Power of the Dog, I never. I don't think I ever watched a playback on that because I just I knew I was in and either it was shit or it was happening. And I just had to just be that guy anyway. So kind of going around as Phil Burbank going, can I see the playback? You know, being an asshole about it. I didn't really want to have that interaction with crew. And I wanted to have the arrogance of the character, so.

• 46:45Jason Bateman?

  You strike me as somebody who's skilled enough, talented enough, in touch with yourself. Enough to really be able to direct yourself to a certain extent and know whether it's good or bad. How much, how much do you, how much do you defer to a director? You mentioned, you know, well, I know what you want is let me do another one to see if, see if I can do what you. Will you, will you shape a performance for a director? Will you do what a director wants you to do? Or what, what is your opinion on that? Like whose character is it?

• 47:14Speaker 03

  I think I've been very, very lucky with the caliber of director. Well, thank you for what you just said, first of all, but I also think it is, it is about how lucky I've been with the caliber of director. You know, I, I form trust with that person and so therefore can filter my own inner sense of whether I was shit or good, bad or indifferent. And, and, and match it to their honesty about it.

• 47:37Speaker 03

  The best directors as well often give you a prompt that turns everything around 180 degrees. And it's not that they've rejected what you've done or didn't like it. They just want to see something different. That's what's, that's what excites me is just trying to jump through a different hoop in a way.

• 47:49Jason Bateman?

  Do you, do you remember the first time as you were coming up and, you know, after you kind of got your sea legs about you and acting your first gigs? Do you remember the first time when you took a real big swing and you're like, oh God, this is something I never imagined I could do. And I'm, it scares the shit out of me.

• 48:09Speaker 03

  I think a little bit on every, every job, but I, it's to one degree or another.

• 48:16Speaker 03

  Really, but that's a really good question, Sean.

• 48:18Jason Bateman?

  You do take great swings and you, you, you never clank it. You always hit the ball hard. It's really admirable. Like you always feel like you're in great hands as an audience member when, when, when you're watching.

• 48:28Speaker 03

  Oh, thank you.

• 48:29Jason Bateman?

  Truly.

• 48:29Speaker 03

  That's a huge compliment coming from you guys. Thank you.

• 48:31Jason Bateman?

  No, it's, it's, well, there's drama or comedy. It's, it's pretty impressive.

• 48:36Speaker 03

  Thank you. Well, I, I, I guess the, the bottom line is there's no sort of secret sauce to it. I feel. Yeah, I feel excited when I'm taking a big swing. When did I first feel that sense of, oh, I'm not sure I can do this?

• 48:51Will Arnett?

  How about?

• 48:52Speaker 03

  I know, is that what that, that, sorry.

• 48:54Will Arnett?

  No, go.

• 48:54Speaker 03

  Well, it was, I was just gonna say, it was one of those reactions where I've got, I've got the job. And then I thought, oh, my God, how am I gonna do that?

• 49:01Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 49:02Speaker 03

  And that was, that was playing Stephen Hawking in a television drama about his life. Right. Which sort of compared to Eddie's, took it up to, you know, he was walking with a stick and the, the speech was very impaired.

• 49:14Speaker 03

  Still married to Jane Hawking, so it was a very, it was one slice of his life, his extraordinary life. And, um, yeah, the thrill, the elation of that, and then going, oh, my God, I just convinced people that I can do this. I don't think I can, you know, I was, I was immediately terrified after the 10 seconds of elation. Right. So I guess that was the first moment where I thought, well, this is kind of a big swing. Yeah.

• 49:34Will Arnett?

  But was there, what was that first, what was that first, that first moment where you, so I, I totally get that and relate to that. But then the, the moment where you-

• 49:42Speaker 03

  I think you're, I think Sean's question was more about, you were talking about choices. I mean, within the performance.

• 49:47Will Arnett?

  He was talking about, he was talking about choices, but, but when do you feel comfortable? When was that first time you felt, forget Sean's question, he's, when was that first time that you felt-

• 49:57Speaker 03

  I had to lick my balls.

• 49:58Will Arnett?

  That you felt comfortable in a performance where you, because you know there's that thing when you're a young actor and you go in and you're just, sometimes you're like, I don't wanna fuck up, or you're just kind of, you're nervous and blah, blah, blah.

• 50:09Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 50:10Will Arnett?

  And then what's that first moment you felt like-

• 50:11Speaker 03

  Tight, rather than going, oh, hell.

• 50:12Will Arnett?

  Yeah, you hit a groove, you felt tight, you got it, you know, do you remember that job?

• 50:17Speaker 03

  No, I think that was what Sean was saying, I, I- Oh, I'm back in. You're back in? No, I do think that's what you meant, I, I think, I don't know, it, it's so hard, it's so hard to be specific about this sort of thing. Yes. Fuck, I don't know, I've, I'm always saying to acting students that I, I feel you can have, you can have, you can have something very theatrical in a close-up as much as you can have something very myopically focused and close-up on the stage. I think the magnification, magnification of a performance is really to do,

• 50:52Speaker 03

  if something is too big, it means often it's wrong, it doesn't mean that the scale of it is, is, what am I trying to say? I don't know, some big choices I made where I thought, I'm just doing this and I think it's right. I mean, Patrick Melrose would probably be one because I've partied, but that guy was other level. And I think the choices I made with him were pretty committed. And I, you know, because I was in a very sober state doing this crazy, different levels of inebriated

• 51:29Speaker 03

  dance work, I kind of just, I just really committed to it. And it's those things where you go, I think this could, you know, I didn't, I don't even remember thinking this could be silly. I actually remember thinking, well, it's quite fun.

• 51:43Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 51:44Speaker 03

  Maybe I should try Quaaludes and, no, I'm joking. I just had a, I had a commitment to it that meant it felt like I was on the ride, but also thinking, I hope this actually works. I think we have that a lot, don't we, when we're having a good time doing something as well, going, okay, this feels great. And everyone here is enjoying it and we're all, but is anyone going to watch it or think the same or?

• 52:06Jason Bateman?

  You're right, yeah, people, people that aren't obligated to say, hey, great job. Yeah, you're fully reliant on a biased audience and it's a little bit scary.

• 52:16Speaker 03

  And I think, I think to your point about directors, you can come out of an experience and go, oh, should I really do? Need to trust my voice and my instincts a little bit more sometimes because I think I could have got that better. I have had moments watching things soon after their completion and gone, ah, yeah, I should have dug my heels about that.

• 52:33Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 52:34Speaker 03

  The best take or the best choice of acting.

• 52:36Jason Bateman?

  Well, but yeah, but you were, you were not foolish to count on the taste of people like Sam Mendes or Thomas Alfredson, but.

• 52:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, like I said, some amazing directors, so.

• 52:46Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 52:49Sean Hayes?

  We'll be right back.

• 52:52Sean Hayes?

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• 53:36Sean Hayes?

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• 53:53Sean Hayes?

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• 54:28Sean Hayes?

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• 55:04Jason Bateman?

  And now, back to the show.

• 55:07Jason Bateman?

  Speaking of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, what about the fear of acting with those incredible actors around you? Like, was that nerve wracking? I mean, you were obviously very, very well established by the time you did that film, but still, you can't shake the little guy who was at Lambda. You know, like, you're sitting there with these titans. Was that frightening?

• 55:32Speaker 03

  Yeah. I mean, yeah. The first time I met, I mean, Mark, I'd done a little thing with Mark Strong, so I knew him. Colin was just absurdly wonderful and lovely and nice and goofy and impressionable, as well as being ridiculously smart and talented,

• 55:49Speaker 03

  and devilishly handsome and all the rest of his. And then Gary, when I first met Gary, he walked around the corner of, it was either working titles office or it was somewhere uninspiring. And it wasn't where I was expecting to meet him. And I'd gone in for a costume fitting and there he was. And he just got me, and he just stopped in the corridor and he looked at me, looked me up and down and went, "Oh, hello."

• 56:19Speaker 03

  "Oh, hello." Hi, and was just sort of, just a mess in front of him. Yeah. He was very, very cool. He was very cool. Yeah. And I thought, oh, fucking hell. I felt this horrible ill comfort of, "I've got to please this guy. I've got to somehow impress him and make sure things..." It literally felt like he was sizing me up going, "Is this really the guy I want to spend my time with, this Peter Goodham? I'm not sure, really." You know, there was that very kind of like, "Oh." Good impression. It took a little while and then, and then I realized he was the, he was the one who was terrified. He was terrified. Really? I mean, I think I can say this.

• 57:03Speaker 03

  Maybe his lawyers will write to me afterwards, I don't know. But, you know, he was frightened. He didn't, he really thought he wasn't capable of doing it. He couldn't push this.

• 57:11Speaker 03

  Iconic Alec Guinness performance away. He was worried that he hadn't found him and, you know, it became the most amazing friendship out of that. But, you know, yeah, that that man was frightening. And that to have that vulnerability as an actor and to see that in someone as capable and extraordinary as him, I was like, hooray, okay. We're all the same, really. We're all the fucking same.

• 57:33Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, but I mean, like, like, people feel that way about you. I think, you know, your body of work is it's unmatched. Like, I mean, Star Trek, Imitation Game. I can name them because I've seen them and I love them. And and Doctor Strange and August O'Sage County and the fucking Smaug. And I mean, your fucking Smaug and The Hobbit. I mean, that's crazy to me, to me, you know.

• 57:58Jason Bateman?

  And on and on and on. And recently, you know, The Roses. I thought it was just like that. That was that was a total minefield. You could have blown yourself up, you and Olivia, at any moment in that. It was truly impressive.

• 58:12Sean Hayes?

  So people feel that way about about you too, I think, where.

• 58:15Jason Bateman?

  Oh, for sure.

• 58:16Sean Hayes?

  Or you just wanna just, you know, if if you get a job with Benedict Cumberbatch.

• 58:21Speaker 03

  Well, know that I'm shitting it. Know that I don't know what I'm doing on a first day. Know that I doubt myself. You know, it's that thing, isn't it? And I I don't know if you guys have it, but that first day on set where you you go, um, you know, here's the crew that were watching, uh, they're actors and directly you think, oh, maybe they'll give me a second day, but these guys are just, they're going, it's Roman right away. And of course it isn't because the focus pull is shitting it. The fucking clap of, you know, everyone is doing their job for the first time as a unit, putting stuff on film.

• 58:51Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I agree.

• 58:52Speaker 03

  You have to remember that and get over your own, your own.

• 58:55Jason Bateman?

  We all have to figure out how to wash ourselves, right, Sean? That's right. We're all, we're all human.

• 58:59Sean Hayes?

  But I do, I do wanna, just having done a show there in London.

• 59:02Will Arnett?

  And the back too. Do you do the same for the back? Show me how you do.

• 59:06Jason Bateman?

  Show me how you do. How do you wash your own smaller your back?

• 59:10Will Arnett?

  Let me just see that.

• 59:14Jason Bateman?

  Do you need an extender for the loofah? Because we've got one. Scotty?

• 59:17Will Arnett?

  Oh, wow.

• 59:18Sean Hayes?

  It's a selfie stick.

• 59:18Will Arnett?

  How old are you? You're so nimble.

• 59:21Sean Hayes?

  Flex. No, but in theater, in theater in London, they have this thing called, and the barbecane. They have this thing called Cherish Notes. And I've never heard of this until I went over there. And I'm like, and I had to ask people in the cast. I'm like, what's Cherish? Cherish Notes? Well, we meet every single day, every day before the show onstage. We just check in with each other. I'm like, can't we do that just backstage in the hall?

• 59:49Jason Bateman?

  Or at E-mail?

• 59:49Sean Hayes?

  Where the dressing rooms are? Yeah, or just in the E- that's what I said. Can we just do an email or like a fax or something? And no, you have to go onstage. And every day we would go onstage and the stage manager would be like, great, I don't have anything. Does anybody have anything to? Like, no, why are we standing here?

• 1:00:06Will Arnett?

  I like that.

• 1:00:07Sean Hayes?

  It's so crazy.

• 1:00:08Will Arnett?

  I like that. It keeps everybody accountable and reminds you of where you are.

• 1:00:11Sean Hayes?

  Yes, I know, but, okay. What do you think about that, Benedict?

• 1:00:15Speaker 03

  I think it's quite lovely. I think it's quite nice.

• 1:00:17Sean Hayes?

  That I'm an asshole.

• 1:00:18Speaker 03

  As long as, you know, as long as you're not spending too much time doing that. And as long as there's a moderator. I think what the dangerous thing is, especially in theater, long run, like, there's gonna be those moments where something's going a bit strange in a scene or someone's, you know, and then the lines of communication can get very, very fuzzy unless you go through the appropriate channels, which is obviously, you know, the assistant director or the director and say, I'm having a bit of a problem with the scene. I'm not sure what's going, whatever it is. If you go in there in the Cherish scenario and go to another actor, you know that bit where you're doing that bit? That means I can't do my bit the way I want to do it. But that, to me, is like, oh, here we go. But that's not what cherishing is. Cherishing sounds much nicer than that. But I guess if it becomes, cherishing is just a positive feedback loop, isn't it? That's what that is.

• 1:01:03Speaker 03

  And just looking after each other.

• 1:01:05Sean Hayes?

  But it was nice to see everybody.

• 1:01:06Jason Bateman?

  But if somebody brings up something, is there enough time?

• 1:01:08Will Arnett?

  Try to save it now. I mean, everybody in your cast is already, they feel like, fucking, this guy just barely put up with it.

• 1:01:16Sean Hayes?

  No, I loved everybody there.

• 1:01:17Jason Bateman?

  Is there enough time to iron out whatever problem somebody might bring?

• 1:01:21Sean Hayes?

  Well, that's what, that's what it was. That's what it was. It was, it was, I wasn't used to it here, like in, in the States. Where you, you kind of, um, it kind of interrupts your, what you've created for yourself, your rhythm and your routine in the States. And so now I was like, oh, I have to stop that. Go up five flights of stairs or down five flights of stairs.

• 1:01:42Will Arnett?

  Oh my god.

• 1:01:43Sean Hayes?

  I know, it's terrible.

• 1:01:44Will Arnett?

  These monsters, this gets worse. Five flights of stairs. I mean, and you can barely, we know that you can't swim because you can barely catch your breath.

• 1:01:53Jason Bateman?

  And then at the top of these stairs, you had to say something nice about it?

• 1:01:56Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I went down the stairs like this.

• 1:01:58Will Arnett?

  It's just a tub of water and just get in it. Let me watch you.

• 1:02:04Jason Bateman?

  Is it still hot?

• 1:02:05Will Arnett?

  Just dip in it, let me see.

• 1:02:07Jason Bateman?

  What I wanna, well, I wanna talk about, well, Sean, do you wanna get into, Sean, would you wanna talk more about Doctor Strange? Or Star Trek? Because I'd love to get into 1917 when you're done.

• 1:02:19Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, no, I mean, look.

• 1:02:20Speaker 03

  Are you big into fantasy, Sean? Is that your fantasy?

• 1:02:23Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I'm a huge sci-fi nerd and fantasy.

• 1:02:28Will Arnett?

  Is he into fantasy? You should, you should see what he's wearing.

• 1:02:36Will Arnett?

  For bottoms right now.

• 1:02:37Speaker 03

  Full lizard suit from the waist down.

• 1:02:40Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:41Will Arnett?

  So Sean, Sean loves.

• 1:02:43Sean Hayes?

  I love Star Trek and, um, the movies though.

• 1:02:46Will Arnett?

  You love Marvel.

• 1:02:47Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I'm, I'm, I like Marvel. Scotty loves Marvel. I like Marvel a lot, but I love, um, I love the Star Trek movies. I wasn't a huge fan of this, of the television series like Scott, Scotty's massive Star Trek fan. But, um, but seeing you on screen as that character, that iconic character and I don't know, you have this thing about you where you, you don't, you're so fucking commanding.

• 1:03:13Will Arnett?

  Yeah, you're magnetic.

• 1:03:14Sean Hayes?

  Like, you're right, you don't have to do a lot and you're just, you, it's, you're electric right through the fucking screen.

• 1:03:21Will Arnett?

  Do you want, do you want, Sean, Sean, do you want Scotty to come ask a que, by the way, if Scotty comes on camera and he's covered in French's mustard up it.

• 1:03:32Jason Bateman?

  Wait, let me see if he's got a question. With Spock ears. Mustard Spock ears. But also, I'm a massive, massive Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit fan. Like, huge. I've seen him a million times in those movies. And to see, right when you popped on today as a guest, I'm like, oh my god, that's so... It's such an icon... Another iconic character, that Smog, the dragon, that your voice is synonymous with this legendary thing.

• 1:03:55Will Arnett?

  And Sean, I will say this, Benedict, before you... I've asked people who've done these kinds of things before. You've done a bunch of these different films with, you know, sort of franchises, if you will, but they came out of very well-established, you know, sort of ideas that have a very well-established fan base. And there's a sense of... Do you ever feel a sense of responsibility to those legions of fans who existed before you kind of stepped into these roles?

• 1:04:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, huge. Very big. And then you have to forget about them. You have to. You have to make a commitment to something that can't please everyone. So that's immediately... If you play the aggregate game, you're dead in the water to anything original, or alive, or daring, or that asks questions, or is worth actually seeing the 78th, or whatever I was, version of Sherlock Holmes. You know, you have to just go...

• 1:04:42Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:43Speaker 03

  No, it's gonna be alright. And that... It's not arrogance. It's just, you can't have that much head traffic. You just have to focus on doing the job. And, so yeah, it's a take on something.

• 1:04:56Will Arnett?

  Yeah, I forgot about Sherlock, too, which is like...

• 1:04:59Jason Bateman?

  Fantastic.

• 1:05:00Will Arnett?

  I loved Sherlock. You were so great in Sherlock.

• 1:05:02Jason Bateman?

  I mean, the list goes on and on. This guy, I mean, are you even 35 yet?

• 1:05:07Speaker 03

  I'm more than that, Jason.

• 1:05:09Jason Bateman?

  The resume is stunning, you know? It's... Anyway, we're already over time. I've got one last question, though, because it's something to bring you back down to earth, because you're so goddamn good at what you do. What is the one thing you'd love to be half as good at as you are as an actor? Is there something that...

• 1:05:29Speaker 03

  Surfing.

• 1:05:29Jason Bateman?

  Surfing.

• 1:05:30Speaker 03

  Surfing.

• 1:05:30Jason Bateman?

  Oh, wow. Really?

• 1:05:31Speaker 03

  Or speaking any foreign language.

• 1:05:33Jason Bateman?

  So you try, but you're not great?

• 1:05:34Speaker 03

  Exactly that. I started in my 40s, and I'm near the end of my 40s, and I'm still feeling like I'm starting. But, and I had a Sherlock operation last year, so I haven't done it at all for about... Actually, no, this year, for about six months, but... I love it. I love it. It's

• 1:05:49Sean Hayes?

  Where did you start it?

• 1:05:51Speaker 03

  Um, weirdly enough, in New Zealand, when we were doing Power of the Dog, we got shut down because of lockdown. And we had the decision to make to stay, which by then, because I had two octogenarian parents, one of whom is a severe asthmatic, staying with us, as it would happen, my mom and dad, and uh, uh, our three very young children at that point, Sophie and a nanny. And we just thought, okay, we're gonna stay. And it was a bit scary to begin with, but utterly magical and extraordinary, one of the best places on earth to be, as it, as it turned out. Um, and there was a little left-hand break in Tiwanga in Hawke's Bay. Big shout out to Tiwangan's. Um, anyway, the point is, it was where I learned.

• 1:06:30Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:30Speaker 03

  And uh, I'm goofy actually, so left break's not, not as good as a, as a right. But um, I quite like, no, that's wrong. It must have been a right break. Yeah, because I'm right foot forward. So you're not, you're supposed to be facing the wave rather than facing the shore. But so I learnt really on the wrong wave, but loved it. Every now and again, you get a left. And I, I just, I really fell in love with it. I fell in love with the view of the coastline. Um, I fell in love with that connection to the ocean, that sense of how present you are. And the community as well, this extraordinary group of people where all is kind of forgiven as long as you don't take their wave. And, you know, the drug dealer would be there and the head of the local police force would be there.

• 1:07:14Speaker 03

  It was just all of human life was around you.

• 1:07:16Sean Hayes?

  Right.

• 1:07:17Speaker 03

  And I, I can't, I can't explain to anyone who hasn't surfed what that feeling is of nature giving you a ride from somewhere out in the ocean towards the shoreline. It's just magic when it works.

• 1:07:28Sean Hayes?

  And when you get out of the ocean, how do you clean yourself? I'm kidding.

• 1:07:35Sean Hayes?

  What happened to your shoulder, by the way? You got a shoulder surgery?

• 1:07:39Speaker 03

  I, I was so boring, so, so forty-nine, um, um, yeah, fifty to say, but it was forty-nine when it happened. I bet, well, it's a long time of ill use and done a lot of surfing in very bad conditions and overdoing it. I'm probably lifting stuff in the wrong way over the years, not, not the particular, but I basically had a torn rotator cuff and then also a frozen shoulder on top of it, which I went in to do the repair to the rotator, which was a complete tear. And I'd lived with chronic pain for about a year and a half, not really realizing that you didn't have to. And I kept on doing physio and being told, no, it'll heal, you just give it time. I'm a patient guy and I'm doing everything you're telling me to do and I'm still having sleepless nights, getting up like three, four times in the night because I'd rolled over onto it and it's sunny, but just.

• 1:08:24Sean Hayes?

  Right, but it's better now?

• 1:08:27Speaker 03

  It's, yeah, it's great, it's great.

• 1:08:29Sean Hayes?

  Oh, great, I love that. Oh, look at that, look at that.

• 1:08:31Jason Bateman?

  All right, well, before we let you go, we, we need to know about, about The Thing With Feathers, because this, so this, this is a new project, you guys.

• 1:08:39Speaker 03

  Jesus, if I hadn't said anything about that film, I'm so sorry.

• 1:08:43Jason Bateman?

  No, it's my, my fault.

• 1:08:44Speaker 03

  It's not How To Clean Yourself, it's very much not The Thing With Feathers, I mean, I suppose you could use that to clean yourself.

• 1:08:48Jason Bateman?

  It's a prequel to How Do You Clean Yourself? Yeah, so this, this.

• 1:08:52Speaker 03

  It's called The Duster.

• 1:08:56Jason Bateman?

  I've, I've only seen the trailer, which is, is, looks magical, to say the least. What is it called? The Thing With Feathers.

• 1:09:05Sean Hayes?

  Okay.

• 1:09:06Jason Bateman?

  It's, it, it's, I'm not going to ask you to describe because I, I think that's, that's always frustrating, but it, it seems like there's, it, there's, you're dealing with loss, but you're dealing with it in a very magical, fantastical way, and it looks like the filmmaking is exquisite and your performance looks mind blowing again. Is it, was it something that, that you love doing?

• 1:09:29Speaker 03

  Very much, and it's something that I'm very proud of, we, I produced it as well, so.

• 1:09:34Sean Hayes?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:09:35Speaker 03

  It's one of those projects that wouldn't really have got off the ground, well, it would have probably got off the ground, but, you know, it, it took a lot of effort and it was 10 years in the making. We only came on board in the last sort of year and a bit of it, we being the production company, Sonny March, Adam Ackland, Leah Clark and myself, and it was an approach for me to act as, as this dad, this man who, because he was so kind in telling me it could be a real bore to describe it, I'm going to describe it very, very briefly, but it's a, it's a man who suffers a very sudden bereavement and of his, he loses his wife and has to bring up his two children as a widow and it's about their first year as a family.

• 1:10:16Speaker 03

  And it's based on an amazing, amazing novella called Grief Is The Thing With Feathers.

• 1:10:21Sean Hayes?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:10:22Speaker 03

  Which is a misquote of the Emily, famous Emily Dickinson line, love is the thing with feathers.

• 1:10:27Speaker 03

  By Max Porter, who is just a titan of a heroic human being in actual physical stature and in talent. He's a wonderfully kind, brilliant mind, and he's created a space where male grief is examined in the most unimaginably crazy and imaginative way. It's about dealing with it as an acceptance of something you live with, and it comes alive. It comes alive in the form of the dad's work, which from the book, maybe the film, but certainly the book more or less is hinted at as being a memory of the boys of what that time was like. You kind of learn that as the story unfolds. But it's a crow. It's

• 1:11:07Speaker 03

  a crow that comes fully to life as this horrific entity that's both Mary Poppins to the children and a menuensis, a hero, an absolute nightmare, a ferocious noise in the heads, a tormentor, and an ally against despair. And it's a huge homage to the literature. It was born out of the poetry of Ted Hughes. In our version, he was an academic at the book, in our version, he's an illustrator. And his illustration comes to life, basically, and lives, torments, and is accepted by this family grieving the loss of their mother and their wife.

• 1:11:42Jason Bateman?

  Wow, wow, wow. I can't wait to check it out.

• 1:11:44Speaker 03

  That's a punchy hour and forty minutes. And it's, yeah, I don't know. I just...

• 1:11:49Jason Bateman?

  What I was taken with with the trailer is, you know, you all can see, it seems to be done in such a sophisticated cinematic tasteful way. Like, you know, that can go wrong real quick. If you go, oh, so there's going to be a crow that he's got to talk to. That's like, how does that look? And how is it framed? What's it like? You know, it just looks so tasteful and special. So congratulations.

• 1:12:20Speaker 03

  Well, thank you. I mean, that's mainly down to Dylan Southern, who adapted the book and directed it. He's a pop documentarian by trade, as in that's what he's done up until this point. This is his first fictional narrative drama.

• 1:12:30Jason Bateman?

  Good for you for getting behind him.

• 1:12:32Speaker 03

  Well, yeah. I mean, that's one of the things we do at Sunny March. We want to promote and platform voices that are coming out of the stocks, who are the first and... Very often female-led talent, but also in this case, someone who hasn't originated their work in this medium. And he's spectacular. He's a real cineaste. He's a real cultural nerd. So the references are thick and fast. There's Kubrick, there's Spielberg, there's Hitchcock. There's all sorts. There's even a bit of Jane Campion in there, weirdly. But it is just, it's a rich tapestry of imagination and minds coming undone, reflected through a cinematic idea of how that would happen in the culture of these people. So it's

• 1:13:10Speaker 03

  the father's imagination and that North London forty-something maleness, which I know very well. Set in South London, but a big deal, not much difference. And it's just, it was a crazy ride to go on, very short shoots after ten years of creating it and getting it made. So I'm really proud.

• 1:13:33Will Arnett?

  Benedict, before we let you go, I have to ask you about something that I think that you have been attached to, to either be in or to produce or to do something with for a long time. And it's one of my favorite books of all time. It's an absolute mind blower for those who haven't written, which is, you know what I'm about to say.

• 1:13:53Speaker 03

  Rogue Mail?

• 1:13:54Will Arnett?

  Rogue Mail.

• 1:13:55Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 1:13:56Will Arnett?

  Dude.

• 1:13:57Speaker 03

  It's a winner, isn't it?

• 1:13:58Will Arnett?

  It's

• 1:13:59Speaker 03

  It's so cool.

• 1:14:00Will Arnett?

  It is such a game changer of a novel, Rogue Mail, written in nineteen thirty-nine.

• 1:14:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:14:04Will Arnett?

  It's

• 1:14:05Speaker 03

  It's the original fugitive novel. It's the original, and you know, a huge inspiration for Ian Fleming, for Bond. And yeah, and it's so prescient to what's going on in our times, not to allude to that too much.

• 1:14:18Will Arnett?

  It's so prescient, exactly. And it really is.

• 1:14:21Speaker 03

  You know, when we first sat down to try to talk about this, we were, is this a bit of a game? It's not about AI, but is this a bit of a kind of guy's film? And then the longer we were exploring the themes of it and the motivation behind the guy's actions and the outcome and how he's turned on by his own side, as well as obviously the side he's tried to take down. It is, it's fascinating how it plays into a political spectrum of what's going on in the world now. I don't want to say too much about it, because people should read the book. And yeah, we will make it.

• 1:14:49Will Arnett?

  You will make it, huh?

• 1:14:50Speaker 03

  Definitely.

• 1:14:51Will Arnett?

  Oh.

• 1:14:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, we haven't got a filming date yet, but it's something we're trying to slate for next year, although there are other huge commitments involving cloaks floating about. So yeah.

• 1:15:01Will Arnett?

  I'll be the first guy to watch it. I'll be the first one there at Sisso.

• 1:15:04Speaker 03

  Sure knows what that means.

• 1:15:05Will Arnett?

  Can't wait.

• 1:15:06Speaker 03

  Me too.

• 1:15:07Will Arnett?

  Yeah, I know.

• 1:15:08Speaker 03

  It's exciting to get going on that.

• 1:15:09Sean Hayes?

  That's good.

• 1:15:09Jason Bateman?

  Um, well, we, uh, we owe you, uh, 12 minutes now in back into your life. Uh, we just invoice us.

• 1:15:16Speaker 03

  I think I owe you a lot more because I was very late on, so you owe me nothing.

• 1:15:18Jason Bateman?

  No, no, no.

• 1:15:19Speaker 03

  I'm very glad to be.

• 1:15:20Jason Bateman?

  Um, such a pleasure, honor to have you on the show, Benedict.

• 1:15:23Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, what a joy.

• 1:15:24Speaker 03

  Thank you. Likewise, guys.

• 1:15:25Sean Hayes?

  Really cool to meet you.

• 1:15:26Speaker 03

  Really glad to meet you all too. Thank you.

• 1:15:27Jason Bateman?

  I hope to bump into you again soon.

• 1:15:28Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:15:29Jason Bateman?

  One day.

• 1:15:29Will Arnett?

  Continued success, Benedict.

• 1:15:31Speaker 03

  You too, you too.

• 1:15:31Jason Bateman?

  All right, pal.

• 1:15:32Speaker 03

  Well, sorry, I've got to say, Will, before we sign off, you were phenomenal in this, is this thing on?

• 1:15:37Jason Bateman?

  Oh, it's fucking great.

• 1:15:39Speaker 03

  I, I asked Bradley, because I've, this to give me a link, because such I wouldn't. Oh, it's not really ready for a link yet. And I went, fucking Bradley. It's a, I missed a screening of it, and I can see it. You are so good. It's so tender and real. And that camera is so, I wanted to ask you about how you deal with, it's, it's so close to you all the time when you're up at that mic. Like, was he shooting on a long lens at any point? Or was it really on stage with you getting in your eye line? I mean, it was, and yet you're utterly in it all the time. And it's so moving.

• 1:16:05Will Arnett?

  It was all, it was all on a 40, the whole thing was shot, everything was shot on a 40, the entire film.

• 1:16:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:16:11Will Arnett?

  Uh, on one, on one single lens. And he was, yeah, Bradley was right there, you know, right up next to me. It was very tense. But thank you very much.

• 1:16:17Jason Bateman?

  So impressive.

• 1:16:18Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:18Speaker 03

  Yeah. It's brilliant work.

• 1:16:20Jason Bateman?

  Great work.

• 1:16:20Speaker 03

  It's brilliant work. Um, anyway, I just wanted to throw that in. It's really good.

• 1:16:23Jason Bateman?

  Um, all right. Well, you enjoy the rest of your night. Um, and, um, and thank you again for doing this, pal.

• 1:16:29Will Arnett?

  Bye bye. Benedict Cumberbatch.

• 1:16:31Speaker 03

  Thank you, Jason. Thank you, Will. Thank you, Sean.

• 1:16:33Sean Hayes?

  See you, bud.

• 1:16:33Jason Bateman?

  Take care.

• 1:16:34Speaker 03

  Bye bye.

• 1:16:37Jason Bateman?

  There he goes. Benedict Cumberbatch. We, I didn't, I didn't get to so much, but that went by very, very quickly.

• 1:16:43Will Arnett?

  How could you? He's got a million credits.

• 1:16:44Jason Bateman?

  I know, right?

• 1:16:45Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, that was really cool. I mean, are you guys a Lord of the Rings hobbit fan? No?

• 1:16:49Jason Bateman?

  I'm, I, I, I've not seen those.

• 1:16:51Will Arnett?

  I enjoyed it.

• 1:16:52Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I loved those movies.

• 1:16:54Jason Bateman?

  So he played, he was a, yeah, there was some motion capture questions I have here, but I didn't get to them.

• 1:17:00Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, but, um, you could tell.

• 1:17:02Jason Bateman?

  Cause he was just a voice of a dragon, I hear from the question, yeah?

• 1:17:05Sean Hayes?

  That is, that is correct.

• 1:17:10Sean Hayes?

  He, uh, but also you can tell just from talking to him, he's, this sounds really corny to say, but you could tell he's such a massive team player. You could say, you can tell he's not, you know, he's a very giving person. He's very loving, down to earth.

• 1:17:24Will Arnett?

  You could smell his team spirit.

• 1:17:26Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah. Nice. Smells like teen, teen spirit.

• 1:17:30Will Arnett?

  Oh, I see.

• 1:17:31Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:34Jason Bateman?

  No, he's, uh, he's pretty, it's pretty cool how he's, uh, dances between the comedy, the drama, the big Marvel stuff and also like things like, uh,

• 1:17:44Will Arnett?

  I know. God, fucking damn it. I know. Like intense, like, like little sort of really cool niche films and then these massive box office hits.

• 1:17:54Jason Bateman?

  He's fancy and also.

• 1:17:56Will Arnett?

  Are you with them?

• 1:17:59Will Arnett?

  They're now in, you can just jump in with them.

• 1:18:01Jason Bateman?

  The listener, uh, Will's building on, uh, the clean yourself.

• 1:18:04Will Arnett?

  Jump in there with them and then you guys together.

• 1:18:07Jason Bateman?

  Yeah. You could clean each other, more easily reach the back.

• 1:18:12Will Arnett?

  Just do that. Start there. Is it a button or a zipper? I asked before.

• 1:18:19Jason Bateman?

  Oh, my God.

• 1:18:23Jason Bateman?

  Hey, Will, was I with you on a plane when we ran into Benedict Cumberbatch? Oh, really? Was I with you on a plane or was it was somebody else? Anyway, I ran into him on a plane once. Um, and he was so fucking funny.

• 1:18:36Will Arnett?

  I didn't run into him on a plane, I don't think, but I ran into him once. Uh, I didn't run into, I didn't say hi to him. I, he was at the Greenwich and he was trying to repack his suitcase in the lobby.

• 1:18:45Jason Bateman?

  Oh, no.

• 1:18:46Will Arnett?

  And I, and I was like, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna leave him alone.

• 1:18:48Jason Bateman?

  You know, that's why I hate looking inside somebody's suitcase. You ever notice that? Why? Opens up a suitcase. I, I feel like there's stuff in there I don't need to see, don't wanna see, especially not, not the suitcase on the way to the destination. It's the one coming back where all the dirty underwear is up on top and it's folded and it's all just like, you just know if you got your face in there, it would be insane.

• 1:19:11Will Arnett?

  You're so crazy about just regular life. You're so fucking insane. By the way, my, my biggest luxury, the thing, the one big luxury that I love, that I really love treating myself to is doing hotel laundry.

• 1:19:25Jason Bateman?

  Oh, you just throw, you, you give it, you put it in the bag and let them take it?

• 1:19:28Will Arnett?

  And people are like, oh, I'm not gonna do hotel laundry. It's gonna be four dollars for my socks. I'm like, yeah, you know what? I'm gonna treat myself.

• 1:19:34Jason Bateman?

  So you do that laundry before you leave the hotel so that when you get home and you unpack, it's already done?

• 1:19:39Will Arnett?

  Yeah, depending. I mean, the last few, there might be a few items, but, but I'm not gonna like just deprive myself, you know what I mean?

• 1:19:45Jason Bateman?

  So you, you don't go home with all your dirty laundry like the rest of us plebes, uh, and, and throw it in the machine?

• 1:19:51Will Arnett?

  I'll often do, the, the bulk of my stuff will be clean, yeah.

• 1:19:55Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:55Will Arnett?

  I'm not jackass-ing a bunch of dirty clothes across the globe.

• 1:19:58Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, why would you? Yeah, when you got all that money to burn, right? Yeah.

• 1:20:01Will Arnett?

  Like an extra 12 bucks.

• 1:20:03Jason Bateman?

  Oh, is it? For a t-shirt?

• 1:20:05Will Arnett?

  Ugh.

• 1:20:06Jason Bateman?

  Nice. But listen, all those, um... Here he comes. Did I, did I meet, did I meet Benedict Cumberbatch on an airplane, like a jet plane? Or was it a biplane?

• 1:20:17Will Arnett?

  Why would it be a biplane, but we'll allow it? Bye.

• 1:20:21Jason Bateman?

  Bye.

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• 1:21:24Speaker 06

  She'd throw things, wander, and started hoarding. Mom's Alzheimer's was already so hard, but then we found out she had agitation that may happen with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. And that was a different kind of difficult. So we asked her doctor for more help.

• 1:21:39Speaker 07

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• 1:22:14Speaker 06

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