This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Hear's the Thing from iHeart Radio. If you turn on your device or television or go to the movies, you're likely to have the good fortune of enjoying the work of my guest today. Who else has such a prolific output a starring role in a Coen Brothers movie, one Moment, and a cameo in a network sitcom. Only one of the hardest working people in show business, Richard Kind Kind single
handedly redefine the term character actor. Memorable roles on Spin City and Curb Your Enthusiasm exploit his killer comedic timing, while HBO's Luck and the Oscar winning Argo exercise his dramatic chops. He lends his voice to animated films like Cars and Inside Out, and then graces the stage as a Tony nominated Drama Desk winning theater actor, and his stage resume is deep, dirty, rotten Scoundrels, The Tale of
the Allagist's Wife, Candide, and kiss Me Kate. He even starred as Max bi Ali Stock in the iconic mel Brooks musical The Producers, kiss Me, Squeeze Me, Touch Me, Love Me? What Are They? And the producers hulled me, touch me, hold me. You played that part I did Where did you do that part? Broadway and the Hollywood Bowl and Mel wants me to do it in London now Broadway mean after they when they left, you came on or.
I did it? I did it? I call it. I did it for Asians and Iowans because they got all of the New Yorkers. Then Stephen Weber and it was Henry Goodman, and then Brad Oscar did it for a while, and they got some of the New Yorkers who couldn't afford the expensive seats, and got smart people from all over the country, you know, from cities. And then when there's nobody left, that's when I came in the show. I swaart of did I didn't? But I did it
with about eight different leos. Whenever there was a leo that was gonna go out on the road, they would put him in for three days to see what he was like with me, and I would test him. And there was one guy. One he's a lovely, lovely guy, Patrick and I can't remember his last name. He has a Broadway stalwart and so he's but he's built like a bricks. No, no, no, no, no, he's playing Leo. Nobody you would know.
He's built like a brick shootout and he's playing Leo.
And he's playing Leo. And at the end of the act, I put my arm around him, you know, and go, we're gonna do it. We'll do it like that. And I go, oh my god, this guy could pommel me. But he's been in twenty Broadway shows. He's a real stallwarty. But he's a he's a guy.
You know.
There's a lot of people on Broadway who are more known as understudies because they can do every sort of role. They're in the cast, the swings, they can do everything, and you have great talents, and they will not raise them up to the role of performer.
And they should be.
They mistakenly keep themselves in constant employ employment as swings and they don't have the ambition to rise above. And I think that's an interesting person I.
Found, and I'm sure you found over these low these many years that for some of them, certainly not all of them, it's about geography. They don't want to leave town. There's things they could go do that could maybe help their career whatever. Maybe TV films or shows. But they want to stay in New York. They don't want to leave wife, kids. Yeah, I remember them doing soaps. We used to call Upper Montclair, New Jersey, the soap opera Riviera.
They all lived out there, and yeah, and that was not fair.
I believe that. But no, I don't totally agree with you. I'm sorry, And right off, we don't content us. No, they want to stay in a position. Maybe they do have families, and that is why they are complacent about their ambition.
So complacency is to blame for their career.
I think it is. They work all the time. Yes, it's complacency, but it's not fear of travel, because a lot of them go on the road. There's a lot more money to be made on the road. You get per diem and you get.
The moment you walked in, I knew you were not going to have the kind of conversation I called the log rolling conversation. But none of us is going in the water. I guess which one's going to go in the water. Which one was gonna get tossed in the water now?
Right, But I'm right about this to you on everything now we're still dry.
We also concluded my producers and I who work on the show with me, we also concluded that this podcast is the only thing in show business you haven't done yet. This is this one show You've done everything.
But it's crazy. I know I should be much wealthier. I do everything. I have said this before. I am the costco of acting. I come in quantity and I come cheap.
And that's right.
The toilet paper like toilet paper. Yes, instead of buying twelve rolls at the CBS, you got twenty six for the same price. Yes, that's me.
When you were a child, New Jersey, Buck, I'm sorry.
Yeah, my dad was head of store in Princeton, New Jersey.
She was in Princeton, Western New Jersey.
There, but I'm on the way to Yeah, we were right across the river.
Right. The point is that you're there. What was because I'll preface this by saying, when I was a kid and there was only network TV, no streaming, no HBO, there was network TV.
Yeah, yeah, I watched the little album. You call it network TV. I called it Channel two, Channel four and channel seven and O R P I x exactly exactly. And we would watch the Million Dollar Movie five times a week. Monday through Friday was the same one every week. What was the theme song for a million dollar movie?
From Gone with the Wind?
Thank you very much? Okay, please let's go out and coming both on the log right now?
Saw falls to be here. Now wait a second. I'm going to get you with that in a minute. But when I was a kid, it was all like I would. There were some dramas and whatever, But I watched f Troop and Gilligan's Island and all this crap all the time, and I dream of Genie. I watched Network Comedy.
I knew that was my roots, and I knew the TV guide and at that time I had my finger on the pulse of America and what they liked. And it was a big slap in the face when I thought that I knew about things and I absolutely didn't. How So, okay, who wants to be a millionaire? Who's gonna watch Who wants to be a millionaire? It's Jeopardy with seven questions. I said, nobody's gonna watch this biggest hit in the world. That's what it was to me,
And I go, it can't be that you did. Okay, I'm going to tell you something I was the first person to ever win a million dollars? And who wants to be a millionaire? Oh my god, I'll tell you how, wes No, I'll tell you how. It was an ABC show and my character from Spin City goes on who wants to be a Millionaire? And I win a million dollars? And nobody who would win a million dollars had been broadcast yet? Hey? Hey really no? No? Yeah, okay, okay, no, no, no, no, see d D.
You're sure?
Yes, d me? He is your final les Hey, d D. Saya So I was the first person. I wasn't. Paul Lassiter from Spen City was the first person, and that they you know, and it had already hardly been on, and there were some people.
Who do you have a lot of confusion between yourself and your character.
This is how good I am won, this is who how good I am? But really was past I immersed myself.
I kissed Elizabeth Taylor. It really was, Uh, it was it.
Was flat Okay, But I'll tell you something else. Do you remember when Farah Fawcett had her poster oute right of course? Okay, Arnold Schwarzenegger said, I will be bigger than Farah Fawcett at the time. We all snorted and I said, who the hell does this idiot I think that he is. I was wrong. I thought I had my finger on the pope. I don't know what There was a day that happened, but when it continues today.
I'm at a party the other day and Greta Gerberg is there with bomb back, and I said to them, if I could go back and I could have one wish, my wish would be I go back in time while you were filming. I'd say, Barbie is going to earn a billion dollars worldwide and take all comers, take all back exactly, cover everything. Yeah, And they looked at me like, wow, that's a weird thing, exactly. Okay.
I was at a poker game with a guy friend. So he's at the poker game and says, my wife has been asked to write a pitch for the Lego movie, at which point seven guys start making fun of the Lego movie. Oh oh, I don't know which piece to punt here. Do I put a long, long rectangle or do I put a square here?
What do I do?
All of a sudden, Yes, all of a sudden three or four or five years later, the Lego movie comes out and it's it's huge. But can you imagine coming to a table and saying we're going to make a movie about legos and we just laughed.
We just left my career. I make a movie with my ex wife. We decide we want to work together. We weren't really very fussy about what we were doing, not fussy enough, but we get our hands on on this original script that Walter Hill wrote for The Getaway with Steve McQueen, and we decided we're going to do a remake of The Getabay.
I want.
I want to do an action film. I hadn't done one in a while, and I'm we're gonna go to Arizona and do the Ghetabay. And Walter Hill leaves because they wouldn't give him enough money to make the movie. And then we go do it with Roger Donaldson. And the point is is that we come out and I don't have high hopes. Means it's we're doing a remake, which is always dicey, and the movie comes out, but we're up against the movie. I looked at my ex wife and I said, we're in. We scored, We're up
against this movie. We're opening weekend against this movie. Ace Ventura pet Detective, right, I mean, what the fuck is Ace fan? And then there's his history history yep, who knows? Who knows?
I do not have my polls, but your childhood, my childhood. I knew everything pas TV, I knew everything well. Dick Van Dyke, by the way, who did I have breakfast with this morning? Bill Persky? Oh god, who created? Well, he didn't create, but he wrote the lion's share of Dick Van Dykes shows, and he quoted, he quoted an episode that Howie Morris did. And I go yes, And I started filling in the blanks with because I remember Dick Van Dyke, sho gets smart, get smart? Was it
was manna to me? That's what I was raised at, Soupy Sales. Was manna to me? I was, I was raised on Soupy sales.
That's yeah, he was.
I got a funny story about it, but I'll tell you later. But super, I went to his funeral over at the Campbell now, but I had never met him before it. Since I read the bit and it says it's at the Campbell Hall, I'm going on Campbell Frank Frank Campbell. Yeah, over on seventy seventh or whatever. The funeral part, it is the funeral. It is the funeral parlor to the story. Yeah, but you went to super be' S thing. I mean to me, it's like, who's the other one?
I remember? Super say? I mean I would sit home. I mean I would lie to my mother. And I didn't do this like all the time, but I did it at enough times to believe me. I almost got in trouble for this. And I would sit to my mother, I'm sick. And I realized my mother was lonely. My mother put all of her kids in school and her husband was gone all day and she was lonely. So she let me stay home from school to have a companion.
And what did you do? Did you to watch?
I watched Hollywood Squares and I watched Paul Lynd. I learned half of my acting from Boland. Paul Land taught me how to act.
Have you done Hollywood Squares?
I did Hollywood Squares? I did a Millionaire. I did Hollywood Squares with Whoopee and it was for charity. The guy that was his name King, that owned the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so King kind to me and knew that my charity my mother's foundation for breast cancer. My mom passed away last year, but she had a breast cancer foundation housed at sunny Stonybrook, and then we got a chapter rep State where she moved to, and so a lot of beneficiary.
Danny Wegman from Wegman Supermarkets very kind to my family, and King gives me two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to do the show. So I go, on, dude, you give me two undred fifty thousand bucks to do one week of the show with Whoopee. I go, I have a bawl, I do millionaire, I have a bowl, I mean, and then I host match Game. For those three years we did match Game, and someone would say to me, oh, of course in this way that my career is like a very blurry polaroid. Here I do this, I do this,
I do this. They're like, well, another coffin and Alec Baldwin's career casket. And I think to myself, well, I did it for the money. I did it for the charity thing, to give the money away. But then I couldn't hold my hold back with the truth, which was I had more fun doing that than a lot of others. I loved them. I love it. I loved doing that. Yeah, we had a ball.
Now, I'm gonna tell you something. When I was on Spin City, I was approached to do special episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos. So I did a Christmas show. It was an hour show, and I said, I will do it, but I don't want to do it like Bob Sagett. I don't want the fireplace and I want the audience. I don't want me talking, talking and making these stupid jokes. I'll narrate the films, but I'll host set by introducing the clips, but I don't want to
be funny. They did plasma TVs were first invented. I said, let's have them on poles. I wore a black turtleneck. I hosted it for an hour, highest rated America's Funniest Home Video special they ever.
Had, Richard Kind. If you enjoy conversations with inspiring comedic actors, check out my episode with one of Richard Kine's earliest co stars, the legendary Carol Burnett.
In that era, the only one who really would speak up was Lucy.
She was very strong.
But it's not in my nature to take over confront or anything. You know, if a sketch wasn't working or something, instead of like glees and or Sid would say, look, guys.
This stinks.
Now, come on, you got to fix it.
But bu you know they would do that, I would say, I'd call the writers down into the rehearsal hall and I'd say, you know, guys, I'm not doing this too well. Do you think maybe you could help me out with a different line here or there, because you know, otherwise I would have been a.
Bit to hear more of my conversation with Carol Burnett go to Here's the Thing dot org. After the break, Richard Kind shares his experience landing a job with the one and only Carol Burnett. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. If you feel there is no dramatic or comedic role Richard Kind can't inhabit, you might be right. With over two hundred and seventy film and television credits to his name, it seems like the
profession was built for him. I wanted to know if Kind always knew that the field of acting was his destiny.
No, no, no, no, no, now, so business was made for other people exactly, yeah, yeah, no, no, but I'm an actor, are you kidding me? And my yeah, my fad. My father said he wanted me to go to law school, business school to take over his story.
And then you went to Northwestern great law school for one year.
No, no, no, I went to Northwestern undergrad. I was accepted to U of P Law school, and I deferred it. My dad's best friend he said, try acting, because you'll be resentful of your children and your wife.
You'll never be young again. Did you do try it young enough so you didn't go to law school for a year. I didn't go to law school at all. I deferred, no, no, no, never went to law school. My first year, I took acting classes with a guy named Bud Buyer. Bud Buyer.
During one class he knew my parents, he and met them and liked them, and that I was supposed to go into law school. He put me on stage in a chair and for forty five to fifty minutes he berated me for not having the courage to become an actor, that that's what he coward, everything like that, And I said, it's just what I was made to do. I was supposed to go into my dad's store. It's all there for me, have two and a half kids, belonged to the country club. And then it was just it was
in February. We were watching a football game with Steve Holsman in our living room January February, and during the commercial night, he said, you should defer law school and try it. And like I said, one year turns into two. And then I just never went.
How did you try? You went to school for it? You went to Second City? No, no, no, where was Galotti a professor of yours?
Ah?
Gallotti was a Galotti was great.
Did you know him? You love him? Yeah?
Oh? Galotti was great. Galotti at Northwestern. I went to him my probably my junior senior year, and I said, I want to be an actor, but you know, I think that I should be going to law school and business school. So I go to my dad's story. He said, well, why don't you become a producer, so then you get the business that I go. No, no, no, I become an actor or I become rich at my dad's store. It's one or the other. It wasn't. I just want to be in sobiz. I want to be an actor,
and I said, I told him that. He goes, well, you're not going to work until you're thirty two because you don't have the face for what Hollywood wants. So go out there get good. And then at Agelati Galotti said that to me, and I did. I came to New York, I went, I had HB Studios. I worked at You'll remember the saloon. I opened the saloon. Okay, it's now a bed bathroom or was a bed bathroom behind? No, you didn't, No, I was, no, but I did. I
was a waiter. I was a waiter at a saloon with Jennifer Gray, who I later became my wife in a TV series. So we all worked there, and I took classes at HB Studios. I did off Broadway plays. I did a play called Take Death to Lunch with Lonnie Price. I did a great play that sounds like it shouldn't be The day the horse came out to play tennis by Arthur Coopitt, who later became a friend of mine, the Arthur copeit. In fact, Arthur he wrote, oh Dad, poor dad, about a little you know, five
foot four stutterer. Okay, So one day Arthur.
Was in the closet and she's feeling so bad.
That is correct. So one day I'm doing a play at Bay Street. He comes backstage to say hello. I'd never met him, and he's six or four handsome, was all got out, looked like a baseball player. And he comes up and he shakes it, shakes my hand. He goes, I'm Arthur copeit and I go, no, you're not. I couldn't buy Hit a stud And he wrote about a little stutterer. So I just did all of those things.
I went on the road with did you Know part Performing Arts Repertory Theater Children's Theater now known as Theatre Works, playing Blackfish the Indian with Daniel Boone thirty six States and five and a half months, and I was I had these braids and the makeup and everything. And one day we played this elementary school and all the kids are going, I want to see the Indian. I want to see the Indian. And I had my makeup off and everything and they come out and all their o
their faces were just ah, they were crestfalling. I go, sorry, I'm the I'm the Shapiro tribe, you know. And then I just did you know Practical Theater Company?
Ever?
Hear of that? No? In Chicago, Second City, next door to Second City was a little space called the Etc. Which had people from Second City who were you know, on the in the touring companies and on the Upper Way, and they started a company called Practical Theater Company. I went from New York to Chicago to do a show at their place. Second City saw me in that. I went on Second City and then and then I went to Hollywood after four years, four and a year eighty eight eighty nine.
Yes, and when you get there.
What was that like for you?
At your age?
I'm one of the I'm stupidly I like auditioning, right, I love auditioning. An artist can work alone, a writer can work alone. But an actor, you go in front of a mirror. You can't do it alone. You got to You gotta act in front of people. So I loved pilot season. I loved it. You go into these rooms, there's old friends. You know, it's not in New York. You pass old friends in LA you see them in the audition room. I used to have pilot season after
pilot season. I didn't really because I usually got the job. I don't mean to be like that. But during the pilot season I got a pilot. They wanted the funny went to series.
I was just lucky, untalented, but but my thank you.
But my first show was a drama because when I came out of Second City, I said, I don't want people to think of me as just funny. I want them to know I can act. So I did a Stephen Cannell show called Unsub. I call it unsubwhat unsub? Because I say unsub? What unsub? So it was that mean short for unknown subject. That was the name of the show, unsubbed unsub. It was like, why don't they just drive the fucking camera truck into the lake. You're right,
but the word unsub. They were chasing unknown subjects. Whenever I see Peter Roth, you remember Peter Roth for brother. Whenever I see Peter Roth, he asks me, he goes, we were the first. We were the first procedural. And I'm not kidding unsub unsub because usually police shows went into their private lives. This was only about what they were doing, the crime, the crime, the work. Now here was the first episode? Are you ready?
Yes?
Paul Gilfoyle Wonderful Acts love Gilfoyle. Okay. Gilfoyle plays a cobbler, a shoemaker who puts razor blades in the heels of women's shoes. When they try them on, they bend over in pain and he stabs them in the back of the neck with an all Okay, so this is in the eighties. Okay. So he comes running home to his mother, Grace Zabriski, the Great Gray Sabriskie, who's lying in a bathtub with her legs spread, and he comes in. He goes, mother, Mother, Mother,
Mother had done something bad. Okay. This was the first episode. Brandon Tartakoff had gone to lunch with Stephen Cannell. He had two writers, Steve Cronish and I can't remember the other guy's name, and they had created a show called Wise Guy. So Cannell goes to Tartakoff and says, I got a show for you about the guys who chase serial killers. He thought he was getting eight team, He thought he was going to get another eight teams. He
sees the first episode with the killer. It happens to see it the night after Harado Rivera had a show on about which craft. It was on NBC, and the reviewers said, this is the bottom of network TV. It can never go lower, and Tartakoff is getting attacked. He sees this episode the next day in the screening room. Midway through, he stands up and he goes, what the fuck are you trying to do? Bring down this network single handedly? So Canell knew the show was off, but
we did eleven episodes. How were the Carol Burnett experience? Oh that was the greatest great, Well, let me tell you about Carol Burnett. I worship her. So I go in for the audition. I had done a show called an episode of Anything But Love with Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis, and the producer of that says, you know, he's great, instead of the casting director coming out to get me, and I'm just I'm the only one there out in this hallway, said the casting actor Colling. Richard,
come on in. Carol Burnett comes out to the hallway and says, Richard, come on in, let's play. And I said, well that how you'll run Hollywood. We hear your good. Let's see your best. Not come on in and show us, show us what you can do. It's come on in and let's play, let's see if we can have you at your best, and I went in. I read with her, and she, of course is Grace's. Of course has showed her kindness. And I said, all right, I will.
Actor Richard Kind. If you're enjoying this conversation, tell a friend and be sure to follow Here's the thing on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. When we come back, Richard Kind shares one of the best pieces of acting advice he's ever been given. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. We all know and love. Richard Kine's long running characters Paul Lassiter from Spin City and cousin Andy from Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Another role Kind is famous for is that of doctor Mark Devino on Paul Riser's Man About You, but surprisingly only for its first season.
Well I got fired, You're fired. Without knowing it. I started off as a recurring character. We were on every episode and we said, well, you got to make us a regular. There's a big difference in pay see. After about six episode, they made us regulars, and then we
asked them in April, am I going to be coming back. Yes, of course, I go do the music Man out in North Carolina in summers because I always do theater during the summer, so I'm guaranteed I don't have to go make a lot of money because I got a show on the air. I get a call from Paul's manager that I'm not coming back, and I start to cry. It's on a payphone where I'm living out in North Carolina, that you know we're sharing the And I get a phone call and I go, why do They go, well,
we just don't think that you're working on it. I was the only person who was let go and I said, I don't understand, and they go, well, we just don't think that you're right right now for the show. And I just and I didn't call Paul. But and then Danny, who was a great guy, but he did not stand up for me. He thinks some funny, he thinks some great but he did not stand up for me. And they this is who the guy created the show.
And Paul and I.
Have made up with both of them, yeah, in ways that we didn't even properly make up. But I should I should be mad at both of them.
Well, listen, we all I was the biggest movie star in the world at that time. Wanted me to do a movie with him. And there's another guy they wanted. They had cast this sky and then he couldn't. There was a conflict in his schedule. He couldn't do the movie. The TV show he's doing wouldn't let him out. So they call me and they go, it's you. It's you, blah blah blah. The director, the writer, the producer, the star. They call me. Oh, they're on a comfortable they're all
on a comfort Oh through the phone. Oh my god. And I'm sitting in my car and like West Hollywood, I'm going to go buy like T shirts and some fucking store there and on Melrose and they call me and go, it's you. And my agent goes, it's you. They're gonna do the movie with you. Within a week, nobody calls me. Nobody says they say, you're out. They blow my deal. They completely dynamical because the guy they make him available, the other guy comes back again, which
was their desire. And you never want a director looking down the lens wishing somebody else was there. I've been there before.
I don't like it. I mean, in a series. You can't quit, but they can fire.
You now when you go. This is always intriguing to me because when I did thirty Rock with Tina. You know, Tina was the one who, in whatever language she used, she impressed upon me. The network's harder. It's harder to make it funny. I know, you can't say fuck the girl can't come out of the cake from the top of Cable and streaming are different fish, and to make it really funny and edergy on network is harder. Your career transitions Carol Burnette and Mad About You and spend
Citty for years and then you go into curb. Describe that arc for me. Do you miss the old ways or do you like being able to say whatever you want to say on streaming TV.
Gee, that's an interesting question that I don't know whether I can answer. Like I just did an episode of Night Court. I don't think you need to say whatever you're referring to in order to be funny, but I will tell you where I did miss it is right now. I like doing single camera better than four camera. So having just done Night Court, which I enjoyed and the cast is phenomenal, and the show's funny, everything like that.
But I did a show called East New York last year which was well regarded, highly rated, the Jimmy Smith's Amanda Warren. If you know Amanda, it's a great, great cast. I missed cursing there did, Yes, I did. But but for network it was as gritty as a show could be a lah NYPD Blue because it's was written and created by an NYPD Blue alum guy named Bill Finkelstein.
So using it warranted them.
It should, but it's Network TV and they there are certain FCC rules.
That's a dramatic show. But it was, oh yeah, because you like, I'm not just saying this to be kind. There are people who are arthic, are very funny, who you'd see that they had a and I see what I see. This is a very subjective process. But I mean where you take Mathow and Mathou is comic genius and he plays it straight. I put you in that category. You can do it. You can do anything. Very you can because you're because you have your commanding, your your
you're articulate, you're beyond funny. But I mean you drive. We used to stay on thirty Rock all the time. You give the scene the stick to the end, you give this you you don't pause. People just keep you got to keep. Yeah, And you have that velocity in that pace of a very smart person. And I put you in that category where you can do the drama as well.
Well. I recently you do more drama. Who the fuck is going to hire me?
Somebody smart?
Well, that's right, but you don't always get that in Hollywood. Now here's something that I did do and it's we're trying to shop it now I should send it to you. It's called hit Man. Do you know who Lawrence Block is? Yes, Lawrence Block wrote a series of books, three books called hit Man. Each chapter is a hit. But it's a guy who looks like me, maybe lives on thirty eighth between second and third Murray Hill, exactly, a guy who you would and is a killer the way some guys
are plumbers and some guys repair cars. He knows that the HiT's going to be done. It's not that he's a moral he just does his job. And that's the kind of character it is. There is not a funny moment in it.
I'm you're gonna do it?
You think we did a twenty minute pilot and it's pretty good friends of yours. Peter Regert, Karen Allen. They're both in a worship parent. Oh, it's the best, the best, that great, beautiful funny.
Yeah.
And the Bill Sadler, you know Bill Sadler. You know there, they're in it. And I am very quiet and not loud and serious and it's straight up for good.
Let's talk about Big Knife. Who invited you to the party there? You weren't involved with Joanne when they did it, And yes, I did.
It with Joanne and Joanne Joanne wanted you.
Who the part?
Scott Cohen played the lidro? Yeah, yeah, I was wonderful. And Chris Reeves's wife, Dana, Dana, and she was magnificent.
She was great.
I thank god, she had no idea. You talk about taking a gamble, She had no idea. Who I was, no idea in the world. So I go to the Paul in her apartment and and I got up there and that's where I read, and I read the thing. And thank god she didn't know me from Mad About You or or Spin City or any of that stuff, so that I could be this character. And I came in as a blank slate, and she gave me the job.
I was.
I couldn't believe it.
You know, when I'm I'm doing thirty Rock and we get toward the end and I this was, how did Tina ask you to do it? Why? I think that she jokingly said something to Lauren about me, or he said something. It was always between the two of them.
Yeah, law Lauren.
Wanted me to come. He said, would you come and do the show? And I did not want to do a series because I was getting divorced and my daughter was in LA and she was very young. And Lauren said, I'll make the schedule suit you. You'll be able to go to LA every weekend or every other weekend. So they made the schedule very convenient for me. It was almost a joke, and I went and did the show. I remember toward the end. I mean, there were many
moments that was just very affecting to me throughout. I mean many that I thought to myself, these guys are just the funniest writers. But toward the end, I'm sitting there and they go, we want to ask your ex wife. They're going to have Kenneth the page. I jack Donneghey makes him the president of NBC Universal. I'm going to make him the president, and his father has died, and his stepmother's going to fly up to New York from
Georgia to visit him. And it's my ex wife, Kim Basinger is going to play the part, and they're going to have me fall in love with his stepmother and marry my ex wife on the show Jesus, and Kenneth becomes the president and he becomes my step son in law, and the waves all came together. I was in tears, laughing how amazing this was. But then Kim didn't want to do the play.
She said, now, she just said, all right, I'm going to tell you something. I once got the great honor of introducing you at some benefit of some sort, and I remember saying, I can't say to your face because we're peers, we're friends, and you don't do that. But you are phenomenal.
Oh you're very good.
No, you're a you're great. And this was years ago, and you're only greater. This is before you did thirty Rocket. Right, you are precise, you are great. You you are just dead on. It'sid enough that you're handsome, it's enough you're charismatic. You're so good in the roles that you still go but but that you are so good at podcasts. The episode you did on the Garbage, I've ever listened to it three four times. I tell everybody to listen to it. It is so fascinating.
What's been more difficult for you the lifestyle and what it's done and how it's played out in your life. Never that family, kids, all that's being away, traveling or the work itself.
Neither is hard. I mean, you have Daniel day Lewis who submerges himself into the character, which I don't believe at all, But he sits alone and he does that. Michael Stolberg, I've seen do stuff like that. I show up and I go today, I'm this guy. Let's play pretend and I play pretend saying anybody else you the same thing?
Yeah? But I but will I do?
I try to try. I do turn off my phone on the set. First of all. I like talking to people, and the people on the set are more interesting.
I want to stay connected to the set in the world i'm in.
Yes, there was a great acting teacher who I was lucky to have, Harry mastro Joy have him.
I heard the name.
He was great Raleiota took from him a lot and anyway's pretty great. And he just said, just go play. Pretend when you see kids out on a playground doing Cowboys and Indians, there they go what tribe was I from?
Where?
What?
What state?
Where's what state I went? Now they go play Cowboys and Indians and that's.
That's when we play asters, which Apollo mission is this? Yeah?
Right, But but in my head, in my head, I imagine in my head, I've made decisions. I haven't done research, but I have made decisions in my head.
This is where I know. Michael Dorsey, you Dustin's carater right right, exactly exactly I am. I was a beefsteak tomat all.
But but but he said, you have to go over the script. All the answers are in the script. That's what Harry said. Every answer you want is in the script, and that's what they do. You pour over the script. Anthony Hopkins used to do that, read the script thirty times, he would read a third prey forty times. By the way, you want a great story, my favorite showish story. I know where we're going out about tomast go out on Tom. If we'll go out on Tom McGowan, a great character actor,
great guy. There's a show called La Bette Friend of Yours. Ron Silver is the lead. Okay, Ron Silver, a week before they open, decides to quit. He doesn't want to open the show. Tom McGowan is the understudy. They go to Tom McGowan, They go, do you know the show? He says, of course I do, and it's a forty minute monologue. You know La Bette? Do you know the show?
Yes?
You can go on.
Yes.
They go, we are going to ask Kevin Kleine if he wants to take over for Ron Silver. If he does, we're going to close the show, rehearse for four weeks and open with Kevin Klein. If Kevin Clein says no, We're going to open on schedule in a week on Broadway with you can you do it? Says of course. He goes home to call his mother. He says, Mom, they're gonna ask Kevin Klein if he wants to do it. If he says no, I'm opening next week as the lead in this Broadway show. His mother goes, oh, I hope.
Kevin Klein says, yes, I love him. It's my favorite show. This story.
You're somebody who has that thing. You come on screen and everybody's happy.
That's nice.
They're happy to see you. They know they're gonna laugh, they know they're gonna think. They know that. You're an intelligent comic actor mostly, but you do drama as well. But you're somebody who the minu You come on screen, everybody's happy. They're happy to be with you. They want to be with you, and that's why you need to do this until you're ninety five.
Fucker not what I will, but it's true. I love it.
I think you're amazing. You're so talented. Everybody in this business loves you. Everybody in the business loves you. That's a big thing. Respect you. They think you can do any they think you can do it. Well, don't cry anyway.
I love you, Thank you, I love you very very much. I love you.
My thanks to Richard Kind. This episode was produced by Kathleen Russo, Zach MacNeice, and Maureen Hobin. Our engineer is Frank Imperial. Our social media manager is Danielle Gingrich. Here's the Thing is recorded at CDM Studios. I'm Alec Baldwin. Here's the Thing is brought to you by iHeart Radio,