Yeah, it was crazy. It was sort of like, oh, this is what must be like for Mick jagger.
Man. What's handed man?
You got Marshaw Bismall Lynch.
Doug Hendrickson and Gavin Newsome and you're listening to politics you know, to be you knowing to be.
Hey, Marshawn, what about this? I mean, it's it's it's been like Christmas for me. Early the greatest coach of all time, our good friend of the program who many people don't realize that you and Bill are good friends, Bill Belichick, Bill Belichick, the head coach the North Carolina I mean, Marshawn, what's your thoughts on that?
Man?
That's crazy? That is crazy considering we just talked to Grunt and uh edam Man and edam I said he one hundred.
Guaranteed that he would give back the coaching.
Well, here's my thought. People are like, why is he doing this? This is crazy? But like at the end of the day, like we always say, we're on borrowed fucking time. And so if you if your coaching is in your blood, you think Bill's insider on the condo in Florida and just chilling.
Yeah, but I think but the big back to coach. Of course he wants to coach, and he said that, he said, they said, why do you want to do this? There's better than a job, he says, I love what I do. But what about all those NFL teams that were that were I like, I look, I think a lot of them. I think a lot of them missed
the boat. I think that, But you got you. We were talking about Bloody Monday a couple of weeks ago on the podcast Coming It's Coming hasn't even come, and then all those opportunities to present themselves anew every one of these head coaches.
I think the problem is the perception on Coach is that they think he's going to come in and have his own people do his own thing instead of being open to possibly work with others, et cetera.
Which is not I'm not saying it's the right move.
I'm saying it's short sighted on these owners because it's the greatest coach of all time. Okay, yeah, you're gonna hire an assistant, to hire a coordinator defense court and offense court un versus Bill.
I think it's crazy. But I think he said, you're telling me, Marshawn, you think that's is accurate that he wasn't likely going to get an NFL UH coaching opportunity, and that's why he jumped it. You would see.
I just don't think it would have been in the conditions that he would apparently want.
It so more Sean, the question is these youngsters. How will the youngsters deal with Bill? The college kids in this transfer portal want more money going to him for money? Do they want to play for him? How do you think these guys are going to react as far as the young guys in today's culture.
I mean, it's going to show a lot. It's going to show, uh you know with those youngsters, like is they really in it for you know what, I mean, to be the best player or if they just in it for a bag and a lot of that shit is going to show because we're just talking to a lot of players that play for him, like like he he no fucking joke when it comes to you, I mean playing off. So if that's not what you're about, then you probably not gonna make it over there, most definitely.
But he don'na he gonna weed out. And I mean, you know, you look at it he took you know, he take late round drafted individuals and he gonna build super teams with him. So I mean, you know it's he it's anything to do it. And then I mean, you know, just the fact that he'll be able to get exactly the kind of players that he won't then that shiit just will take care of everything. Because once you buy into the program, then it's hard to uh to to.
To be beat.
Which is why I think he had so much success, you know, I mean, especially with with the guys that he had. It wasn't like he had a team full of fucking uh superstars. He took guys and then turned them into superstars because they bought into his program.
Well, now, look like the college is a an NFL system, gut and you have a salary cap of twelve thirteen million bucks. You got to spend one hundred players, and so you now have to figure out what value upon the quarterback, the running back, O line, transfer, portal guys and all that stuff. So Bill can manage this now.
Because he's got that NFL mindset.
And he spent a lot of time University Washington with my client Jed Fish, his son was coordinator up there, to learn what to do.
But This brings me back to the Wether way. You know what, that Washington experience may explain a lot of this one hundred percent like not overstated. Yeah, because it was interesting. You were telling me this time last year how much time Bill was actually spending up there. Yeah, and hanging out, walking around engaged. That was kind of an earthly got to know it and he got to like it. Interesting. Yeah, I didn't even think about that in the.
Co for for our audience. One of the great stories. I don't know if you remember more Sean a couple years ago, we leave it. We leave a lunch and there's media and coach and we get in the car and I'll never forget I'm in the I think I'm in the very back seat, and you and Bill are in the in the in the front seat, and where Sean looks at Bill as a coach, I fuck with you, and he's like, no, no, no, really fuck with you. Bill looks at him. It's like Marshawn, I fuck with you too.
He's like no, no, no, coach, you don't understand. I really fuck you with you. And Bill's like dude. And there was a love fest between Marshawn and Bill and I think Marshaun correct me if I'm wrong. You then said, coach, by the way you do, will be in one of these rings.
Yeah, you won't be one of these rings. Remember that. I do remember that. It's hard to people that don't know Belichick don't know what a great guy he is. Great guy, and I mean you see him on and even the way Marshawn was describing him. If you're not bought into the program, you're out of the program. It's one thing on the field when he's coaching, that's sort of a different Bill Belichick.
But off the field, there's nothing. If you're in Bill's orbit, he's he's family like I. For whatever reason, Bill and I have gotten to be very close, and I was always one of the only agency ever dealt with and communicating with. But if you're not in that orbit, he can be a scary motherfucker.
Do you remember, speaking of family, You remember we had and this is one of my great memories. We're at the Super Bowl. We you and I were there together. Belichick is there. He's sitting to my right and pat Riley sitting on my left, and I We're watching the forty nine ers in Miami and had Belichick and Riley, who have more Super I mean Super.
Bowl and by the way, the greatest hedge fun guy of all time, Paul Peter Joe.
Yeah, well, of course, I mean that was there was the reason the Mount Rushmore of people and Mount Rushmore of people, but the Mount Rushmore of experiences. Every single down Belichick was calling the play, literally whispering over to Riley and I saying, they're like, they're going to do a past, like, damn to do a pass. I'm like, and it's second and long. You guess running. I'm like, it ain't gonna be a running play. Coach.
He goes running, like predicted every single day you had you, I mean you you. That was probably one of the unique chairs ever. I mean you're sitting between what thirteen four teen rings? It's crazy more between Belichick and Riley and Riley. You know the funniest part about that too. Riley gets up and there's someone next next to us, and the guy. As Riley leaves, he comes up to me says, hey, man, just wanted to introduce myself.
My name is Sam. I said, hey, Sam, my name is Gavin goes Man. It must be so cool to have Pat Riley as your dad, He's not my father. You got that hair, man, it was the hair. But that was a hell of an experience. And uh, and that's when we got That's what I really got to know Belichick at a different level and just matter.
Respect and And what's interesting where Sean lately in the NFL, He've been seeing an NBA too, like.
All these robberies of these guys. You saw Joe.
Burrow got robbed, Gavin if you saw that mahomes Kelsey. There is this ring across the countryes robing these athletes, which is bizarre. So these guys are going to play and it's a if you're if you're a Robert, it's a brilliant move. It's almost like Ocean is eleven movie. These guys are playing a game Monday night and they're gonna go rob Joe Burrow or whatever it may be.
And watch watch your Instagram, brother, watch your Instagram what you put up there?
Man, I don't play Instagram.
Watch your TikTok, watch your Twitter, none of that.
I don't play none of them. Ships.
But yeah, I think I've just seen uh Tua said, somebody had I think ran up in his car or something. But yeah, they they they bowled, and I mean, you know, I think, uh, you know, rest in peace to one of the one of the greats, like you know that happened with Sean Taylor. Yeah, you're right, And I think and I think that the concept was, you know, they tried to hit his house considering thinking that he you know, he wouldn't be home, and you know just how tragic
that is. But uh, Tua was saying that he went and uh he got I get some arm go.
Yeah, I mean to be at his house when he when he's gone leave by the talent and shit like that. Yeah.
Man, it's getting I don't want to say it's getting but you know, now everything is you know, broadcasted through social media.
Well, speaking of our guards, Moore, Sean, the insurance guy needed some of them guards as the problem. And this guy's now people looking at this. By the way, that's another thing that people look at this guy Luigi who by the way, that the guy who killed the insurance guy more Sean, you know, to me, I thought, initially in San Francisco's but California, initially I thought, maybe okay,
you know, maybe his his mom had cancer. The refused payments and she died within thirty days instead of whatever it may be, none of that was actually there. People a looted this guy like he's a hero, which is really crazy.
Well, they hate the insurance companies and they hate the fact the insurance companies den I so much coverage and people are dying on their watch. And there's a lot there, But that doesn't excuse someone from being assassinated. Someone being killed from behind doesn't absolutely doesn't excuse a horrific act. But yeah, no, everything about that disturbed me on every damn level. I mean, we can there's a plenty of time and plenty of ways to focus on insurance abuse,
and I take a back seat to no one. I happened to be governor of a state that's only stay in America that's provided universal healthcare regardless of preexistent condition, ability to pay, or your immigration status. It's controversial, but the fact is we're doing it at a whole different level than any state in America. So I have a lot of a lot of opinions about.
Being study is that screwed up?
Because it is completely screwed up and in every way, shape or form, But that's not the way you highlight an issue by assassinating a guy's got two young kids in the middle of the you know, in the middle of the streets.
So now you got a twenty six year old kid who's going to be in jailed the rest of his life.
Yeah, and he's got a manifest in his life's completely destroyed. So not about nothing about this. There was some weird punitary around this, and people sort of romanticizing this. They them right about it. Everything was wrong.
About it, by the way Sean they spell, by the way they say more Shawn, this guy's gotten over twenty thousand letters from women that one like married this guy already in jail, which is bizarre.
No, he's been there three days. It'll be their thirty damn years. Well uh, well, and we'll see maybe more.
But what was you say? He was the insurance guy? What what was his? Uh?
This guy just went went right out there and assassinated a fifty year old young executive.
Of which which insurance was he?
United Healthcare? United Healthcare?
Yeah, United Healthcare? Oh shit.
But then all of a sudden, he's you know some you know, some hero to some folks. I guess on the uber left. I don't even understand. And on the uber right, I our pop men again. The world we're living in right now goes to the point of people going on your So you can you can say it's better.
You could say I'm going to go I want I want Roger Good. They'll take it out because people can see t from football.
You can say that.
People will cole minds. Then they have trust U. I mean everybody in this whole industry. Someone's I don't think this.
I can I can personally vouch for a half dozen people that I know have now security that never had in their life really because they think they're on some buddy's list and they're not. But they just think because of the nature that sort of the classes and that everything, it's not just classism. It's just there's something else going on. And by the way, speaking of that, did you guys watch that Brett farv thing I did? Do you watch that mar Sean? You miss that? Marshan?
Well, it's Brett Farvard, Mark Gastineau, and Gastineau approached far At like an autograph show, you know about the sack about straight ahead side and he was he was emotionally and passed. Yeah, and it got so bad Far have had to actually leave Yea and not talk to Gaston anymore because Gas said ruined Gaston's life because it.
Would have been the Sack record. It would have been.
You know it's it stood for what twenty years, and you know, poor Strayians getting put in the thing and take it Far did take it time's.
He didn't want to take straights hit, which was arguably understandable, but that's just mere Far.
A tough So when you say you know he didn't want to take straight hand hit, bred farther A tough motherfucker, man, I mean, I don't.
I don't know if it was.
That man, I mean you know I think it. I think it was a I think it was. It was it.
Was brother in law, thy ship going on.
It was with Nod like, hey, I'm gonna roll right, I'm gonna go down.
You got the right. So you think the whole thing was choreographed.
I mean should from the from the sounds of it, you know what, I don't. I don't uh actually remember the play, but I had a conversation with it with it, had a conversation about it with an individual, say kind of rolled out and you know, kind of dropped down and gave him that.
Half a second.
I mean, I mean it wasn't that straight hand. You know, probably needed him to do that, but I mean, you see, we're straight hening at now.
Hey, But more Sean, I want to ask you. I want to ask you a serious question. I thought about this last night when I was watching the game. Your teammate walks out of the game and refuses to play. What do you do to the guy.
After the game?
You said? After the game?
Yeah, and the guy, the Niner linebacker left the game, refused to go in the games as his teammate. What do you do at the end of the game.
What was going on? What prompt him to do that?
Nobody knows why, but apparently he was upset he wasn't starting to playing, and so instead of going in the game in the third quarter when Greenlaw came out, he actually quit, walked off the field in the locker room and left. He's gone, well, yeah, but what does Marshaan do.
Know what I'm saying, Well, you you know me fresh, especially if that's one of my one of my dudes, and most of the time guys I'll play with. I fucked with tough, and if he is somebody who didn't matter a situation like that happened, I'm going in the locker room to go and get.
Him, right.
I mean, come on, bro, at least at least we gonna do is We're gonna finish this motherfucker out together, and then you feel me. Yeah, I mean after the game, we can go ahead and figure out, you know what I mean, what type of time we on and what need to be done. But you know, a lot of guys like you know what I mean, you get you get that edge when when I'm looking over to the sideline or you know what I mean, I'm on the sideline and I and I hear Cam Chancellor talking about, hey,
beach molds you up. Yeah, I'm up like that. That kind of give me going and to see one of my guys. Yeah, I mean just walk off the field now. If I'm not aware of the situation of what's going on, yeah, for sure, I'm going in the locker room telling brother, hey, let's go finish this shit out.
Then figure this out.
That's the beauty. So that's an open ended question, and any any of any of his players, any of his college going but Shawn is gotting reserved judgment until he finds out what's going on. Bro Niners didn't reserve any judgment. They they're getting rid of this guy. Yeah, they spend them. I guess the spending, and then they're not going to he's gonna be.
If you spend them, then you don't have to pay him.
You can go after signing bonus.
If you cut him, then he gets everything.
Can't put up with that man? All right?
Listen, guys, this is an incredible moment for me because you know what a Star Wars fan I am?
Are you an actual Star Wars fan? How can you not be?
Seven? Forty seven times? Okay only forty And not only that. You know we have out of Oakland. I can name the athletes, but we have you know, Tom Hanks, and we got obviously more Shawn Lynch, and we have all the people, but we also Clinton California, Oakland, California. I mean, this guy is the most one of the most iconic people in the world today and we're blessed to have him.
Gavin the one, the only Mark Hamill, what's up?
Mark? My guys, I'm a proud product of Oakland, California. Who else was from Oakland. I'm getting a fist pump from Marshawn. So maybe he's from Oakland too.
Yes, he may be the next Mark. He may be the next mayor of Oakland. The things are going.
If you don't Mark. I do remember when Marshawn uh did not stand for the anthem? I think you liked his his uh that back in the day.
Am I right?
Probably? I mean I was. I'm always for uh, you know, resisting authority and standing up for what you believe in regardless. I mean, it was shocking to me that Colin Kaepernick suffered such consequences for express you know, it's his right to say what he wants. Now I'm wondering about how Marshawn got the nickname beast Mode.
Oh man, if you're from Oakland, you know a little bit about how to start, you know.
I mean, it wasn't it wasn't easy. It was not easy. But it started off as.
As man child, and then I evolved into beast mode.
That was a little more fitting.
I should be clearer now. I yes, I was born in Oakland, but I was like six weeks old when we moved. Father My father was in the Navy. I was in the middle of seven kids. And I went to nine different schools in twelve years. God damn yeah, from kindergarten to twelfth grade. And I graduated Yokoma High School in Japan. So, and it was always coast to coast because it was Navy, so it would be like Oakland, Annadale, Virginia,
San Diego, Pennsylvania, San Jose, Williamsburg. You never never the Midwest. Always coast to coast to coast. Do you pick up.
Japanese when you were out in Japan?
Well, when you're there, especially when we lived off base the first summer we lived off base. When they move you on base, everybody speaks English, including the Japanese. So I learned more in that first three months off base. And if you don't keep it up, you know, I'll turn on a Japanese television station. I'll start remembering phrases. But if you don't keep it up, you know you can't. I was never conversion. I couldn't discuss politics in Japanese.
I could tell the taxi driver, wait here, turn right, you know that kind of thing.
Look, what age did Luke sky Walker come to be? What age when I started? How old were you I was twenty four, So twenty four years old. Here you are the most iconic, one of the most iconic characters of all time. I mean, how was that? That had to be insane?
Well, you try and ground yourself, you know, because you haven't changed. Everybody around you is going nuts. You know, you sort of at the center of the hurricane. But it was crazy. I mean I eventually snuck into the back of the theater see it with an audience. I couldn't believe it. I mean it was like a party there. They were bouncing beach balls around. I mean, who knows it.
By the way, where where were you? What city? What theater? Do you remember where you were?
Yeah? I was here in southern California, and I think I snuck into the back of wherever it was, like at the Egyptian somewhere on Hollywood Boulevard. Maybe No, it was at the Gramments. It was Garments Chinese.
Remember act.
The day it opened May twenty fifth, seventy seven, they picked me up to go dub the thirty five millimeter prints because only the seven millimeter prints were in. I think sixteen theaters went and open. Can you imagine nowadays? They opened up in one thousand theaters, so they they're driving me in. I was in Malibu, and I said to the driver, can you drive past Grahman's Chinese Because there was a huge argument at Fox on how to promote it, and because of that, it opened with no poster.
There was no They put photographs from the movie outside, but it took a while to get a poster. What shocked me was when we drove past the theater there were lines around the block. Now, I hadn't seen any ads on television, usually on Saturday Night Live or you know, those kind of programs. They they want to get the young audience there. I didn't see any ads. I can't say for sure there were none, but I didn't see any.
And I thought to myself, well, this is going to take a couple of weeks for word of mouth to get around because science fiction is usually very dry and serious, you know, two thousand and one and so forth, and this thing was, you know, funny. It was, you know, like a fairy tale.
Remember those are the days of Rocky in seventy six, in Star Wars. I mean, these were like massive movies back in those days.
I was in the front row in corner Madera, California. I'll never forget. It's ten years I mean literally ten years old. Corner Madera like I felt, but we were in the center of the universe because we're kind of felt the Marin vibe, because Lucas being out in Marina felt the Bay Area thing. So you kind of felt it was like your own personal like discovery, which you'll never forget. But the lions were the thing I remember the most.
It's no surprise George stayed in Marin County. He's not comfortable in Los Angeles or southern California. And it's a wonderful place to work. I mean when I go up there, it's because everybody's so happy to be there, you know, at Skywalker Ranch by.
The way Mark speaking of where you know, because place matters right now. Malibu Franklin fire. Yes, we share this in common. I from afar, you from a lived experience. How's this been going for you? The major four plus thousand acre fire down in Malibu just this week?
How you doing well. We're monitoring it very closely and as as of now, it's not coming towards us because we're right near Topanga Canyon, so it's up by Pepperdine. But I mean that's just one of the things that you have to deal with living in a place like this. It's mud slides and fires. And the reason we love it so much is you feel like you're outside Los Angeles. You don't like feel like you're in town. But we're
you know, we're keeping an eye on it. It's it's it was shocking how fast it grew because I was watching what I was watching, Jimmy Kimmel, and they interrupted to show that I think it was at that time ten acres were on fire, so I stayed there. An hour later, it was one hundred dang yeah, and my wife had gone to bed, and I thought, should I wake her? Ey won't bother But by three d am it was eight hundred acres, so I went up and just let her know, and she turned on the TV in our bedroom.
But yeah, you had to shelter in place, right, you were sort of actually stay.
We couldn't leave, which, as I said, fits in with my elderly rec loose lifestyle. But now it's open. Yeah, it's open, so you know, and again, I mean, you never get used to it, but it's not like it's never happened before. And by the way, now that you're mentioning Malleble, I want to thank you signing the bill that allowed cameras to come on peace. Yeah, because it's tragic, you know, these four teenage girls walking along and the it's so narrow, especially with the added bike paths that
you know, somebody gets distracted and swerves even afoot. It's really critical that and I want to thank you for that.
Wait where the camera's gon No, just on pH.
We've had so many We've had so many pedestrian fatalities, and it's such an iconic freeway and a lot of tourists, but not even just tourists. People get easily distracted understandably and and and Caltransit State manages and operates it. But we haven't been doing've been investing in pedestrian safety as much as we should. So we're going to finally get some cameras out there. We've got some other strategies to address just slowing folks down.
Hey, Mark, I appreciate asking about the be I always love the story or two of how someone got there.
Like you know, I've known Gavin for thirty years.
He's my family, Like I know, he got here, and Marshaun's been my client.
I know he got there.
So as a navy brat like you were, take me through, really how you got from that, travel around twelve cities and night schools, whatever it may be, to become Luke Skywalker.
Take me through how you got there.
Well, I came to Los Angeles. You know, I my parents thought I was crazy. They said, we don't know anybody in show business, and we don't know anybody who knows someone in show was. There's no connections. There's no way that we can see this happening. Because my game plan was, well, I'll go to New York. I'll get a job as a waiter or a taxi driver and start auditioning. That's the only way I knew because I read a lot of books about people and how they
got started, and that was my game plan. But my brother, my older brother, Bill, was getting married in Los Angeles and I came to be the best man. And at that we talk about luck.
I mean.
His best friend was an artist named Michael Franks who had written a musical that he had hoped to bring to Broadway. And it was a summer of sixty nine and he had known me growing up because they had been friends for years and years and years. So he said, you can be in it. You don't even have to audition. I have a part for you. So I did that and one of the girls in the cast had a
father who was in the music business. He worked for Neil Diamond, and he, after a performance said, if you're serious about this, I could probably introduce you to some people so you could get an agent. So I went around to all the offices and I did two scenes. I did a monologue as Snoopy from Your Good Man Charlie Brown Show comedy, and I brought his daughter, the cast mate Lauren, in to read with me. For the subject was roses. I played the Martin sheenpart to show drama.
So after about six of those, an e took me on. That was the summer sixty nine. He wanted to start sending me out. I said, but no, if I don't go to college, I'll get drafted. And I didn't have any money, but luckily, as a California resident, I could get into LACC eight dollars in the pen and you were in. It's probably more now, but yeah, you know, I buy zero to.
Just for the records, not the full cost of attendance, but tuition's free for two years. So thank you to the you know, I'm just saying just for the record.
Which is so pro you know, free education for all regardless. I mean, by the way, I sent my daughter to USC and boy is it pricey.
Yeah, that's another that's a that's that's ridiculous. Right, it's literally it's one or two of the most it's one or the second most expensive school in the United States now exactly.
But she did really well. And what did she get married? What were degrees? Anyway, she did fantastic. What I'm saying is, you know, when I bought to young students and so forth, I say that you have to be ready to not only seize an opportunity, but recognize an opportunity. I said, go do dinner theater. It doesn't matter what the status of the production is. You just got to get on stage. You have to get out there. So I majored in the theater arts. But and he would send me out.
One time I got a part where it was going to take five days, and I said, and he said, you've got to do this, so you know, to get your SAG card. And all that I had to lie, I said to I went to the head of the department, Jerry Blunt, and said, my mom has diabetes, which is true, but I said, she's going into the hospital. I have to go visitor in San Diego. So I went and I hit out, I got it's crazy. But what I'm saying is by the second summer I there, I got
my union card, I had four credits. I look back and I say, it's just astonishing because a lot of these actors struggle for decades. Even some of these character actors have to grow into the way they look because they're not right at twenty four. But by the time they're forty five, they become really successful character actors. But it's the perseverance. So you know, that's what happened. And you know I did. I don't know, maybe I don't know.
Thirty or forty guest appearances and twelve TV movies, and then some my friend of mine said, did you hear about this movie that George Lucas is doing Star Wars? And in fact it's Robert England who plays Freddy Krueger. Into this day, even in his book he said, if it weren't for me. Mark would have never. I don't want to burst his bubble. But when I called my agent, she said, oh, yeah, you have an appointment, you know, ten days from now.
I know it was already set up, huh.
But the weird thing was when we went in. It was a meet and greet with Brian DePalma, who was casting Carrie the King horror film, and George and you know it's just like tell us a little about yourself and blah blah blah. And so five minutes over I went out to it was a cattle call. You know, there's fifty guys there, you know, Han Solo types and
Luke types. And I said to one of the actors who was Brian DePalma's assistant in there, the guy with the beard that didn't say a word, They said, you idiot, That was George Lucas. I said, oh, I didn't say anything. Brian talked. And the next step was getting a screen test about ten pages long. What I'm geting to. When I got the part, you see, I hadn't read the script. I read the one scene and you couldn't make heads
or tails out of it. I said to Harrison, who I tested with, I said you were in American Graffiti. You know, George, is this like a comedy or a send up, like a spoof or it just it can't be serious, right He said, Hey, you know whatever, let's just get it done. There's no help, no help at all. I said to George, is this sort of like a parody? Is it like a send up? Well, let's just do it and we'll talk about it later, which translates to let's just do it and we'll never talk about it.
Because George isn't an actor type of director. He comes alive in the editing room. He doesn't want to hear about backstory or motivation or any of that stuff. Just say your lines and do your best. But what what what was astonishing is when I when I finally because you know, there's a line in the screen test. Thank god it's not in the movie to show you how difficult it was to make it sound like it was
natural dialogue spontaneously come coming out of your head. Because at one point here since said, hey kid, I've held up my part of the bargain. And then I get the chance you and the droids I'm dumping in moving on, and my line in the screenplay was, but we can't turn back. Fear is their greatest defense. I doubt if the actual security there is any greater than it was on Aquaire's Solace, and what there is is most likely directed forwards a large scale assault. Huh, I mean you
could make sense of it. Fear is their greatest defense. Yeah, the Death Star is intimidating. I doubt if the actual security there's integrated. That was on two made up planets acquire sauce, and what there is is most likely directed towards a large scale assault. Yeah, like an armada. But we could slip through because you're like the size of a penny. But again, how does any of that make sense?
Hold on?
You?
Wasn't just read us something right now?
No, I've remembered that line for nearly fifty years, because no, I couldn't get it out of my head. And when I read the screenplay, which by the way, was called the The Adventures of Luke's Starkiller. That's taken from the Journal of the Wills, Saga number one, the Star Wars and my name was Luke star Killer, well killer that I read on the call sheet. When I rescue the Princess, I had filmed it. She said, aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper? And go what? Oh the helmet?
I take the helmet off. I'm Luke Starkiller. I'm here to rescue you. So we had filmed that and I got the call sheet and I saw that scene was on there again. I said, what's up with that? They said, oh, well, they've changed your name. I said to what? And they said to Skywalker. I said Skywalker, Oh, my.
God, like fire.
I mean, because we have just gotten used to that name. And I I thought I could use a little macho in my name, and given my character he's such a wimpy little farm boy, but I had just gotten used to star Killer. But they said they pulled all the women at the ages eighteen to thirty five don't like characters with kill in their name. They had a little contest on set because at one point George was told that the focus group don't like the word wars.
So Mark, here you are. You're doing this movie. You probably have no idea where this thing's going.
But actually tell me, Nobs, deep down, you're like this thing's going to be a flop. I mean, did you feel that way or just it's a paycheck or what did you do?
I asked Carrie and Harrison what they thought. They were sort of noncommittal and I and I remember telling Robert Watson, the production manager, the first person I met when I went to England and went to the studio. He says, what do you think of this little endeavor about to embark upon? And I said, I think we're on a winner, because here's why. At that point it was only seven and a half million. It later went up to just
under nine. So I did the math and I said, we'll only have to make twenty five to get in, you know, get our money back. And I thought this thing is so funny and whimsical. I said, it's not science fiction. It's like a fairy tale. You've got a farm boy, you've got a pirate, you've got a princess, you got a wizard's it's it's a fairy tale dressed up as science fiction. And I said, and it's effortlessly feminist.
I said, how about the princess. You know she doesn't she's not a damsel in distress, and she takes over her own rescue, grabs the gun from Luke and Hans. You call this a rescue, give me that gun. I said that kind of thing, because women overall are not the biggest audience for science fiction. But said, I just think it's so different, I said, And I was a kid. I was a famous Monsters of Film Land kid. I loved all the black and white universal horror films, and
so this is right up my alley. I loved science fiction and fantasy, so I was predisposed to like it. And I know, I said, even if I wasn't cast in the movie, I'd still love this movie no matter
who played Luke. But not everybody felt that way, Like I say, even to the point where they were about to release it, Fox didn't really believe in it, and we had no poster because one segment wanted to you know, entertainment voyage beyond your imagination, far beyond, and the other campaign was sort of like little rascals in outer space, but they couldn't merge them.
So nine million dollars to make what's that gross?
Now?
After all yours? I'm curious.
I don't know eleven d building and I don't know.
Yeah, oh yeah, you definitely from Oakland.
Yeah, I don't really know. I mean, it's a lot of money, but uh, uh, you know, for a while, I think, yeah, I remember an ad where they had R two D two with a fishing rod pulling Jaws out of the water. Spielberg said, congratulations, George, who has replaced Jaws as number one film of all time. But it's been surpassed many many times since. I don't know how many, But.
Mark, did you know how many there would be? I mean, was it was? This? Was there a contract option when you did the first one subsequence exactly?
So when we signed, if it were successful, we were required to do a second and a third. And uh that was one of the reasons I wanted to be successful because, uh, you know it was it was so much fun. I have to tell you. We just laughed all day long. I mean it was especially My fondest memories are on the Death Star with Harrison and Carrie, because by the time of the second one we all separated. I went off to a swamp planet with Yoda, and I loved working with Frank Oz. He's still one of
my closest friends. But i'd see, you know, all the other actors walking in the other direction, Hi, guys. I mean, but it was very isolated on the second one, it was the call sheet. I'd be the only human being on the planet on the call sheet, me robots, a puppet, various snakes and lizards.
So, Mark, you're now the Heyday, You're in the seventies, You're you're in your mid twenties, you got the biggest hit in the planet and your single la. I mean, how was that life back then? I mean not had to be pretty. I mean, I know, you're wife's into the room, give not out of be a fun time, right, Well, it was a.
Different time, you know.
I was.
I did fine before that happened. I mean, you know, go to when I was doing the Texas Wheelers, a TV series for Mary Tyler Moore. I mean there would be all these beautiful actresses that were extras and I mean, you know, and it was like seventy four. So when that happened, Yeah, it was crazy. It was sort of like, oh, this is what must be like for Mick Jagger. I met my wife. She was my dental hygienis, and I cleaned her, she cleaned my teeth, and you know we're
still married. What is it now, forty five years? Honey? Yeah, congratulations most men, Yeah, fingers crossed. It's gonna work Gezo.
When you started, did you not that it will be as successful as it is now?
Like?
Of course not. I mean I thought, like I said. I remember specifically saying I was talking about the original, not the remake. I said, this thing's going to outgross Planet of the Apes, which at that time I had made like forty million dollars. And I believe that. I said, not only will it one of the reasons I thought I would be successful even without a poster and no commercials,
I said, people like me. There are so many people like me that will go see this just because of the genre, and then word of mouth will kick in. Oh but it's funny, and it's this and that, and it's scary, it's all these things. So I was fairly confident that it would be successful enough at least to make the second one. Did I think it would go supernova? Of course not.
You know, going back just to sort of the origin story, because I'm curious you talked to I mean, sounds like you had the acting bug very early on. I mean, you knew what you wanted to do, and and you know you're a pretty young man. But was it what did you Was it you're inspired to get into acting as you're traveling around the globe. Is you're you know you're you're there at different naval bases. Was there someone you admired, someone you looked up to, and you said
I want to be that when I grow up. At what age did you really say this is my career path.
I hosted a variety show with my Jerry Mahoney dummy in sixth grade, and I realized what all ventrilo chist must realize is that you can say really obnoxious things and blame it on the dummy. So I was able to insult the cafeteria food. And I don't say that about mister Gagnan. He's a nice man. Yeah, sneak gag, Oh, don't be so terrible. And when the way the laughter, I was just it gosh, I thought this, this is
what I want to do. And I didn't think, well, I'm going to be an actor because all the time, I mean, I loved I learned to read by getting the paper off the doorstep and reading the comic strips, you know, simple comic strips like Nancy and Hey you stop. So I loved cartoons and comic strips and stop frame animation. I mean I saw King Kong on TV when I wasn't know five or six, and it was the first
movie that made me cry. And I didn't know how they did the dinosaurs, I mean until Famous Monsters came along and explained Willis O'Brien stop frame animation and Marcel Delgado and the model makers and all that, and they showed illustrations of the tabletops with the miniatures. I mean, it just blew my mind, and I thought that I want to somebody goes to work every day and makes
dinosaurs come to life. I want that job. I mean, I didn't really think of much as and I remember seeing Clarence Nash, this distinguished man in a suit and tie on the Walt Disney Sunday Night Show and he steps up to the microphone and does Donald Duck again. I don't even know if I'd started school. Then it just blew my mind because in those days you just think of cartoons as you know, they just arrived full blown.
But I thought, somebody goes to work every day because this is the wife goodbye, and pat's the kids on the head and goes and he's he does Donald Duck and they paid him for that, and I did a terrible Donald Duck. But I was always putting on shows, puppet shows and imitating people. I could make my brothers and sisters laugh by imitating relatives and so forth, and so I always had that performance gene in me. But
I also was pragmatic. I thought, well, don't know how to go about doing it, but I don't have to be in the show. I just want to be near the show. Because again, Disney would put on these shows where they say it's the making of Darby O'Gill and the Little People, and he would show the camera crew and wardrobe and the the carpenters and all these things. And I would think in my mind, I said, well, I'm not a bad cook. If I can't be in
I could be a caterer for sure. So I just knew that I want to be, you know, in in a business that uh that you know, the escape is some business.
And what's to take me through? So you're you're in the You're doing these movies and and and again, I mean you're the biggest start on the planet.
Luke Skywalker, et cetera. Take me through.
After that was there was there was there some years where it's like you're a pigeonholed as this guy did the did the call.
Stop coming at times?
And a meetings d I mean, tell me take me through some of the rejection part of it.
And it struggles you face.
That the the the business I'm in. When you do something well, they want you to do the same thing over and over again because it's been proven to be profitable. And Mary lud just said Amadeus. When I couldn't get character parts, I went to New York where they will add open auditions. You can just audition for things. So I auditioned for Amadeus and Sir Peter Hall said, we actually we've offered it. Who was it, Colin Firth whoever?
He was a British actor that they wanted, but they couldn't be sure that he could get his green card, so they put me up an hotel. This is why I know they were serious. If he couldn't get his green card, then I would replace Tim Curry. So on my fingers crossed, I felt like, you know, John Cassavetti's and Rosemary's baby rooting for ill will to befall some actor. So that didn't feel good, but turned out. I didn't get that, but Peter said, well, I want I want
you to do the first national tour. So I did that. I did Los Angeles, San Francisco, Baltimore, Chicago. I was scheduled to go to Boston and they pulled me out of the company and put me in the Broadway production. Anyway, so I got some of the best reviews of my career. But when I Milis Foreman said will you come in because I'm doing the movie of Amadaeis and I want you to read off camera for Costanza the actresses that were up to play Costanza. Of course, so I get in.
I'm doing that between auditions for these all these young actresses. I said to him, I said, you know, I've played Mozart and I wonder if you be willing to consider me. He laughed me. He said, oh, no, one is to be believing that the Luke Skywalker is the most so and I thought, well, I get that, and at least he was honest with me, so it removed any sort And I thought Tom Holse did a great job of
the movie. But that's just what this business is. It's you know, and I tell young actors you have to have. I don't know, just the nerves of steel because you're gonna face constant rejection. And it's not because you're not talented. You might be too tall, too short, too fat, the wrong color eyes, whatever it is. There's thousands of people that you're going to be competing with and the odds are it's like playing Roulette. You have to spin the wheel five thousand times.
By the way, it's funny Mark because you know Marshaan obviously is transitioned and doing acting. Now, are you getting that mare Sean from as Do they look at you and say, well, dude, you're beismo, you're the running back and you can't do this or do you get a lot of that on some of these directors Marshall, Uh No, not so much.
But it's just more so like because they're not familiar with me. So like the movie that I've just did, Love Hurts, They like a lot of them knew me from football, but a lot of the guys was like from Germany, so they didn't really understand, you know, the football aspect. But I'm like, you know, like I'm really athletic. I can do a lot of the stunts that you know that got going on, but they're like, ah, well
you just don't know. And then I you know, I have to prove to them to show them like no, I can actually really move, like I can move move like really moving, you know. I mean, they'll give me an opportunity like, oh ship, I had no idea. And then they were going actually watch me uh uh you know play like oh I had no idea type ship.
But when you when you when you say that, I got to work with uh with with Mike Loven Chris and he did uh he played Mike Lovin and uh super Bad and we were doing the show uh stars on Mars and everybody you know, we would seeing and we're like, oh shit, is mc loving And he's like, no, don't call me mc loven.
My name is is Chris, Like.
Call me Chris.
And it got to a point where, you know, some of the producers had did some ship and they had called him like mc lovin and he lost his ship. Like I told you, my fucking name is Chris, Call me fucking Chris. So when you were speaking on that, I'm like that was the first thing that went to my mind, like, you know, getting a pigeonholed.
In a row and Mark, you ever break down like that? You said, fucking talk to you. My name's not Luke, you asked me.
While I listened to him talking, I'm you know a lot of times they won't let you do stunts because it's an insurance risk. Because in my career, I said, I want to do all my own stunts. The only one I wasn't allowed to do was when he gets blown out the portal uh and I think the second one, and the stunt guy said, can you do a flip off a diving board? I said, oh, yeah, I've been doing that all my life. Well, then you can do this. So I was really thrilled because they had a springboard.
Colin Skeeping was my stunt double. He never he wasn't even on the first one. I didn't have a stunt double on the first one, but I did on Empire. But then insurance stepped in and says, no way you're doing that, because do a flip out candy glass which can't damage you. Onto to all these mattresses that are on those big, you know, packing boxes like beacons. What's out with stunt guys all around to make sure you don't bounce off or whatever. So I wasn't worried about it,
but they said, you can't do it. Now flash forward to my elderly years. I look at the script and I said, anything you can get away with with a stunt double, I'm down with that.
So there was fighting and uh, there's a lot of fightings, but one in particulars it was actually like, you know, what's moves that you can do that we can incorporate in the facing that you know would show it now to you know you actually you know, being an athlete. And I was like, well, I mean, you know, there's a few things like I played running back, so you know I can move a latter latter room, you know,
pretty quick. So I showed them a couple moves like I actually just you know, ran a you know, like a simple drill in the in the gods they like blew they ship like, oh my god, like that ship is amazing. And I was like, well, you know, if I could hit somebody, and they're like, well, we'll show us what you mean. So they got a guy and uh, and I tackled him and they're like, oh, my fucking god, let's go. How would you how would you feel if we actually had you tackle this guy through a wall.
And I'm like, hell fucking year, Like, yeah, so they put up this. They put up this whole fucking wall, and was like, okay. The stunt coordinator, the second director, was like, hey, man, you know, you know if you're not up to it, you know your stunt guy who Marcus, who was who was really good? And I'm like, no, you know, I'm good. I'm ready for it. He's like, because I don't know, man, we got that, we got one wall. I'm like, all right, don't worry about it.
He's like, but you got to land here and where it sat is probably like five feet from uh from the wall. And I'm like, you know what, I'll be able to get it done. So when we do it, And I mean, I fucked that wall up. I tried to tear the whole fucking house down, to be honest with you, And all I remember was running through that fucking wall and I hit the dude so fucking hard, and when I landed on it, I just heard all the air going oh. And for a second I fucking
forgot we was even filming. Hey, hey, you all right, I shouldn't stay in it. Stay in it, oh ship yeah and right. It was probably some of the most funny shit I ever did period. But when I fucking smashed that dude through that wall, like the insurance that you were just talking about, now they everybody coming in, all the doctors on set, the pro everybody, Hey, you all right, you all right, making sure everything's all right, and you go back and you look at that.
Wall, like, what the fuck just happened. Now.
I'm not big on playback so or watching playback, so I just kind of was. I was in a zone. Pick up the phone.
I called Doug, Like, Doug, I just ran somebody through a fucking wall. Bro.
See if anybody want to, uh, if anybody want a thirty eight year old running back, I think I got some more left in the tank. So I hear the people they watching it, and all you hear is them motherfucker's just laughing, laughing, like, oh my god, that shit was great. But that was a big moment. But now you talk about the insurance. Had I done anything wrong or fuck some shit up, then I'm probably out for a while.
And by the way, mark as an agent as I am, I did I did make a few calls to teams. I said Marshawn send me that footage, and I called a couple of teams.
I said, you need a guy for a few games.
Doug, you're his agent?
Yes, I was his football agent, correct, not his entertainment agent, but football agent.
But he has a theatrical agent now, correct, because remember, Marshawn, you're not just an after, You're an investment.
Yeah.
They have to protect their investments.
Yeah, so I got I got that understanding after I, uh, after I ran through that wall.
Yeah.
Man, that ship was That ship was great.
And what's crazy is a lot of the guys that I, uh, that I worked with, they actually did stunts for uh, some Star Wars movies. They actually were showing me like some of the what they call them some of the gags where they put the harnesses on everybody and people
pulling and swinging and all that shit. And they showed me this this clip where it was on a set for Star Wars and uh, the guys they like through some kind of bomb or something and everybody was exploding and flying in every which way and shit, and I'm like, god that like I'm going to I'm want to trye some of that shit. I was like, nah, you probably would never be able to do no shit like that one because you big than a motherfucker, Like, I don't know how many people.
We would have to pull you.
But when you start talking about the insurance and then being a liability, uh, it kind of made sense. But in my mind, I'm like, oh, I run through people and run into people like that's how I made a living.
Hey, Mark, let me ask you a question.
I see the brotherhood of the athletics and sports, and I'll I'll go back and use more Shaw's example. You know, when they won the Super Bowl and he's the players he played with and the love, the half of each other and the kind of the respect and when they see each other after years and whether it be a
you know, social setting or reunion or whatever. So when you go back and see Harrison Ford now or George Lucas, do you guys like have that special bond like, dude, we did something like crazy out of this world good, you know forty years ago, fifty years ago. Do you kind of have that bond where you see each other as kind of like that love as an athlete might have with the teammate.
Absolutely, and not just with those movies.
It being.
You know, it's a community and we all support each other. I mean, whether it's television, movies. I remember I was telling you I went to New York to try and get character parts. And one thing that really changed my career is I read in I don't know, the Comic Buyer's Guide that they were going to do an animated Batman. And I saw the and producers they were putting forward. I said, oh, my gosh, this is clearly going to be a step above the Saturnnay Morning, you know super
Friends version. This looks like it's going to be intelligently written for once. They were getting people instead of, you know, hiring people that have never done the character, and they read the best of Batman over the weekend and start writing a script on Monday. And they were getting people that had long, decades long experience with not just that character, but all the you know, comic book characters. So I said,
I'd love to audition for the Joker. And no, I said, I'd love to audition, but I wanted to play a villain that never been done before, clay Face, two face, whatever. But they said, you have an audition for the Joker. I said, oh, it's a little too high profile. Jack Nicholson was so great. She's a romero anyway. The only reason I think I had confidence was about two months earlier they cast Michael Keaton as Batman, and all the Dan boys lost their minds. Oh my god, he's mister Mom.
He can't be Batman, blah blah blah without seeing him play the part. Ever, so what I'm saying in that atmosphere, I said, if you think they lost their minds over mister Mom playing Batman, how are they gonna feel about Luke Skywalker playing the Joker. There's no way they can cast me. So normally you go in and if you want the part a lot, Sometimes your anxiety can get the better of you. They can sense a neediness that makes them uncomfortable. You're off your game because you're nerves
or whatever. Here, I thought, well, since there's no way I can get it, I'm going to make them lose. I'm gonna make them sorry they can't hire me, and I just let it rip and had the greatest time in my life. And what happened was it really turned my career in the sense that opened up doors in the voiceover world, and the voiceover world is one of the most talented subsets of show business. And everywhere you go, if you do your job and you're on time, you're
not a prima donna. You get accepted by the Broadway community, the off Broadway community, and so forth. So you know, once I started doing various parts other than the joker, I was very quickly accepted by people that I admire so much. And I don't know, I've lost count of how many cartoons have done over one thousand since ninety two, but yeah, they cast with their ears, not their eyes, so you're going to be able to play characters that you would never get on camera. And you know, I
never got to do dialects until I did voiceover. Then I could do Australia, and I could do Cockney, I could do whatever, because they unless you're Meryl Street, they if they wanted at you, they'll hire an Australian.
So Mark, how does that work? Get a voiceover? They give you the script and then and then they give you like, hey, you have a month to do this, and you do it every day. I mean, how does that go about?
With the voiceover stuff?
Well, you usually get the script the night before or two days before you go in and they record the voice first then send it overseas. Unfortunely, I wish they wouldn't outsource, but it's animated somewhere else, and so the finished product doesn't show up to at least nine months to maybe eighteen months later, which is why I've missed so many of the things I've done, because they don't send you an email say hey, your episode of Powerpuff Girls is on this Tuesday, and if you don't really
keep it. When the kids were small, I see a lot of seriously go wait, you guys, I think that's me playing the gangster squirrel.
Yeah, yeah, that's me.
That's me.
But I got it by accident.
By the way, Mark, it's interesting you you were. You talked about being type We talked about being type cast. You talked about how you can lose yourself in an animation frame and become something so much bigger than what you physically are are perceived as. But what you by definition attracted to the villain character even before Joker in order to express your desire to be more than what you were type cast for. When he was at the impetus for trying to find that contrary and frame, it must.
Have been because I'm so pure in one note, but I thought the best part was Darth Vader. Now he's only in the movie maybe twelve minutes, but in terms of impact and gravitas, you know, that's hard to top. But you know, I have to to tell you that recently on its on Netflix now Mike Flanagan, who I was a huge fan of from the Haunting of Hill House, the Haunting of Blind Man, or Midnight Mass and so
for I was a huge fan. He requested a meeting with me, came over the house with Trevor Macy, the producer, and pitched me the Fall of the House of Usher, and I was going to he was wanted to hire. It's this criminal family. It's you know, he puts reality into his fantasy so you can relate to it. The Usher family is making billions of dollars on ligadone, which is killing hundreds of thousands of people. Oh it's the Sackler family. Yeah, I get that. So he grounds it
in reality you can relate to. And I was asked to play this amoral, soulless sociopath lawyer who covers up for he's the long lifelong attorney for the Usher family. Just pure evil. And when I read script, I thought, oh my god, I don't have no idea how I will approach this. But if Mike thinks I can do it, I've got to do it. So I agreed. And it was scary because you know, normally you have some concept of how you should play this character, what the script
requires from you to make it all work. And it's a big ensemble cast. I'm a supporting player and like this. And that's typical of Mike's projects. You know, he has all these wonderful actors who I had already admired. I thought, I just want to meet these people, because you know, a lot of them I never seen before. Henry Thomas
i'd seen, but twelve of them i'd never seen before. Anyway, it came very late in the game, but once I got to pick the wardrobe and figured out, well, this is the guy that gets out of the bed in the morning. When he gets out of the show, he's gonna just wipe his head once and not do any product. So I said, kind it short enough so it's not sticking up, just short enough so it lays down. Then they found I found these glasses, and I found the hat and I looked in the mirror and it wasn't
me anymore. It was Arthur Gordon Pim, who the other characters referred to as the Pim Reaper. So the last element they came. We went to do the first scene on my first day of work with Madeline and Roderick, the brother and sister that are the head ushers. And I didn't plan this, but when I started talking, I started talking like this. Well, we tried to contact him, but he won't return our calls because I want to
impart this deadness in him. And later in the morning, when Mike walked passed, he said, love the voice, and I thought, I'm home, because once you have the blessing of your director. And Mike fin mcnari did the other He did four and I did for But I mean, I just it was the first time I ever got to do I did a typical roles all the time in voiceover. I mean, you play all these different gangsters and well, like I said, a gangster squirrel. But this was the first time I was ever get to do
it on camera. And I'm really grateful for him. I formed a real bond with him, and I've got a movie coming out that he directed based on a Stephen King novel called The Life of Chuck, which comes out when in May. And I'm thinking, wait a second, these two titans of horror, Stephen King and Mike Flanagan, I'm expecting the script to be, you know, the horror epic of all time. It is the sweetest, most pointed. It
is not horror at all. It's the story of a boy named Chuck, you seem at four different stages until he grows up to be Tom Middleston. And I'm telling you they showed it the Toronto Film Festival. I'd seen a screening at Mike's house, but I saw it with an audience and I can't tell you what elation I felt, because they loved it. They laughed the everything it's it's it's so uh, I said, I don't know how you're
going to quote this because it's completely indescribable. You just have to see it to believe it.
But Mark, the greatest thing about you, which I love and I appreciate, is that you're the epitome of you live to work instead of work to live. We just talked about our good friend Bill Belichick, who's coaching again. You You don't want to retire to fishing village in Portugal or go to Anguela and sit in the beach. You want to You're working more now than it's insane what you're doing, which is incredible. So you love what you're doing, and this is what you want to continue
to do it correct. There's no there's no shutting it down for you.
I mean, I have I have a movie out now, the Wild Robot. I'm the voice of Thorn the Bear, and.
Which is again all kinds of awards. Congratulations next level.
Yeah. I mean last year I was a Voice and the Boy and the Hair and which won the Oscar. This time they're talking about an Oscar nomination for Wild Robot. And next year I have three things coming out of the Life of Chuck, which I told you about, the Long Walk, which is based on a Stephen King novel, and those teams. This one really is horrific. In fact, when I read it, I was just so turned off.
I said, ugh, you know once you have to what we have to do is you have to don't think like Mark, think like the character, because villains don't think they are villains. They think they're doing what's right, even though an objective observer would say, this guy's horrible. So once I got into that, and plus, it's about all these young men. It's all these twenty one year old guys, and I'm not really the villain, but the state is the villain, and I represent the state. So in that case,
I am the villain. And my son read it and said, Dad, you got to do this, So I thought he because I said, I'll watch this someday. I don't want to be in it, but I'm glad I did. I'm glad I got over myself. And the last one, what's the last one? Oh, I'm in the I'm in the new SpongeBob SquarePants movie, which comes out in December with Tom will have one of my I've been friends with this guy for thirty years, one of the nicest men in
show business. And I'm telling you he is so pure and so genuine you realize he is SpongeBob in real life because he's relentlessly optimistic, and whenever you are around him or his wife, Jill Tally, they just lift your spirits.
Speaking of life, real life and not necessarily lifting the spirits. It would be remiss if I didn't ask you you know, a big part of your life and all these iterations and just the longevity that Doug talks about, and your resilience as an actor, and your remarkable career that seems
to be gaining speed steam not losing steam. But one thing you're known for is your activism and your willingness to assert a point of view in a very public way and accept all the slings and arrows that may come your way, the adihilation and the condemnation both And I imagine particularly from a political sphere, when did you start to find that voice or when did you start to express that inner voice as someone that wanted to be known for something more than just the work you did on screen.
Well, I've always been interested in politics, as far back as when I I would have been eight, when Nixon and Kennedy ran and I said to my mom, you know, because you see jfk And he just radiated charmed. He was funny, he was inspirational, and you know, Nixon reminded me of the scary teacher in school that you didn't want to be around. Let me just you know. And I said to my mom, why is Dan voting for Nixon? I just don't get it. Yeah, I had no political
point of view. I didn't know what any issues were. I'm just saying just from the standpoint of the way, a dog will sniff you and either walk away or want cuddles. Dogs know. And she said, well, don't tell him, but I'm voting for JFK. Those were in the days where the white hat slavishly follow the husband. But no. I also, I've always been engaged. The first election that I was able to vote was in nineteen seventy two. I read an interview with play on Playboy magazine with
George McGovern. I said, oh my god, not only do I despise Nixon, but this guy is I mean, I'm wholeheartedly in love with every position he has. So I went to after school and LACC. I'd go to McGovern headquarters, stuff on below, go door to door, make phone calls, all the things that we do. And of course that's my first election. It was crushed one of them, yes exactly, and so you could have even given up or said, you know, double down and stick stick with it, and
that's what I did. So I never I've never missed an election. I'm even local races, you know, whether it's a mayor or committ you know, councilman whatever. I always vote, but I was never asked to be so I supported every Democrat, you know, Mondale, you'd name it Clinton, Barack Obama. But they never asked me to be a part of
the campaign. I just told my talked to my friends and made sure they were all voting and government Do Caucus asked me to join the campaign in the last six weeks when it was things were really dire, and of course I did that. I went with him and we went all over the Northeast. And I remember, because you get your assignments, they say, okay, you get on that bus, you get in this car. At one point
they said you get in the governor's limousine. And I was there with Michael Lucucus and he said, so, Mark, I understand you have a daughter named Chelsea and I said, yeah, she's my youngest. He said, you know Bill Clinton has a daughter named Chelsea. I said, oh, are you considering him to be maybe on the ticket with He goes, well, he's got a bit of a woman problem.
How's that for foreshadowing us? And a good do Caucus. By the way, Mark, well done. I don't want to hear you do me after this, I'm not a little worried.
Well, listen, the thing is, I never like you to your question. I never became active until wanting to make sure that first of all, I was devastating. I want to get rid of the electoral college because Hillery Beatium by three million votes just to Shy under three million, and Gore be w by half a million. And it was making me crazy because I started reading about the
electoral college. Oh my god, this is the remnants of slave days when they were trying to you know, proportion the amount of votes with you know, how many slaves you owned, and oh it's awful. But anyway, so that in Citizens United I'd like to get rid of. But in any case, I started, as you said, you get most scorching hate tweets from the MAGA crowd, and when I was still on Twitter, I had to stop reading
the responses. I wouldn't block anyone because then they could display Mark Hamill blocked you as a badge of honor. But I muted like a mofo. I would mute, you know. I looked up one day and like, oh my god, I've been muting people for forty minutes. So once I realized how it was eating into my own time, I said, the only thing to do is don't read the response. You just can't.
You can't.
And someone said to me, my daughter would say, Daddy, you shouldn't tweet politically so much, because you know, people get so angry. And so I wrote a tweet that I said, the people complaining about my Trump tweets have to understand I love my country and I feel it's my patriotic duty to oppose this sociopathic well, I forget the other word, whatever it was, with every fiber of my being. And that's the way I've been, I thought, I mean, I do feel it's an obligation. And who
cares about your career? People say, oh, well, it's hurting your career because you have to appeal to the whole country, not just half the country or forty five percent or whatever the MAGA crowd is. But I said, in a grander scheme of things, who cares if I lose a part in the movie Because I hate the orange atrocity I do, and I want people to notice. So that's what I've done.
So here's the deal.
Mark, If our guy here runs in four years. We know the way in the sprinter van with me and more Shawn and Gavin.
How about that, Mark, No, it's gonna be a Corvette because my favorite movie is Corvette Summer. You guys forgot about Corvette Summer. Everyone forgot about.
You.
Hey, Marshaan, you got to check out Corvette Summer like it's sweet.
When Annie and I filmed the movie, it wasn't called Corvette Summer. Is called Dantley and Vanessa, a Fiberglass Romance. And then god MGM changed the title of the Corvette Summer. We all went, oh, no, it sounds like, you know, drive in garbage. And it's a really sweet little moviere a kid he's in love with the car. Over the course of the movie winds up falling in love with this girl and he doesn't care about the car anymore. So I thought it had an interesting message.
But Mark, you've been an Mark, You've been an Oakland guy. Marshan be an Oakland guy. I think Marshawn would be great in some voiceovers as well. I think we've got to connect you guys, know, man, I want to I want to try this shit so bad. Should you should?
I'm been doing.
A lot of what is it a d R Yes.
Additional dialogue recording, get the three bet beep beep, come in and on the fourth Yeah, what I'm saying, Marshawn, if you go into voiceover, see, they're not gonna look at you and say he's type. They're gonna listen to your voice and if your voice is right, you're gonna get it regardless of how you look. So and not only that, but voiceover is the ultimate lazy actor's dream because you don't have to memorize lines.
You read it.
You can you can come in looking like hell because they don't see you. It's I said, where's this been on my life? When I did a chess Yes, and I'm in the early nineties, and I'm telling you it's you can make a lot more money in television movies, but it's volume, volume volume. If you're doing three four hundred cartoons a year, that adds up. So some of these people are the Jim Cummings, Tom Kenny there, Rob Paulson. These are the most famous people you've never heard.
Of, but we've heard from. Is what you're saying, yeah, because we're hearing their voice over and over and over again.
And it's the best of both worlds because I mean, you can be anonymous and go anywhere you want. I mean, if I go to like you know, last Star Wars thing I went to, there's dealers there, not fans dealers. Because memorabilia is such a big deal. They get you stick you're on a poster. The value.
Can you imagine walking with Mark in a Star Wars convention? I mean, are you kidding me?
And they follow you all the way to your car. I've been followed home where they stop at the red lights and run your car during red lights. They followed me all the way to the base where I turned to go up the hill to where I live, and I got out of the car and said, look, you guys, please don't follow me all the way home. And it's like a nuisance. I mean, I remember when I was a kid and I said, a hard day snile. I went, oh,
that's what I want. You know, the Beatle they were being chased down the street and girls were clamoring for them, and it just seemed I wanted it recently emptying. What a horror movie this is. They have no life. They go from a car to a studio through a car to a hotel room. It's just like it's horrible, and you know you don't want to be ungrateful. And I do love the fans, I can't stand the dealers. And
like I said, just a commodity. I mean we signed stuff at Universal, We drive home to maunt of who you know, forty five through an hour later and my son goes, hey, Dad, that stuff you signed in the garage is already on eBay dot. Don't put it to anyone. It's a gift and I'm not sure who I want to give it to you. I might as well sign it best wishes eBay because you know that thank you, I say, instead of me signing your lightsaber, I'm about a saltie.
How about a come tell me your son didn't your son hasn't snuck a piece of memorabilea. Did your son ever ask you say, hey dad, can you sign this for me? When you weren't helping him with the allowance or something nose?
I do notice nowadays I said, wait a minute, didn't that used to be my shirt?
They're like, well, Mark, it's been great to be with you. Thank you for being such a huge part of our lives. Our journey. You know I wasn't joking. I swear to you, I can. I can remember the exact seat in the front row left at that court of Adrea Theater after waiting.
Looking at the movie like this in the front row right.
I know.
And you you said it when you watch King Kong. I swear to you, I'm not making this up. When you said you cried, that would make no sense to me, except I remember crying watching that movie and like changed everything. I didn't know. It was what Orson Well says, don't give people you think they want, give what you never thought was possible, And it was. And it was that moment. It just expanded quite literally, not just figuratively, a universe.
And so you've been such part of that. But you also I admire, and I of course you know, unsurprisingly may say this, but I also I admire your activism. You're willing to be yourself, the willing to have a conviction, and willing to put yourself out there regardless of what other people are thinking. And I appreciate you've been on the right side of so many issues. So it's great to be with you, and thank you for continuing to be such an inspiration.
We're down, but we're not out. We're not going to capitulate in advance. I was really sorry Chris Ray decided to resign instead of, you know, going the distance. And because I'm telling you one thing I would like to say before we leave. If we can't agree on proven facts, the conversation shuts down. There's nowhere to go from there. So if you believe the election was stolen, there's nothing
else to talk about. And until that is adjudicated, I believe January sixth is adjudicated in a court of law, there's no way for us to completely heal. So that's why I'm hoping they preserve all the January sixth committee's materials and finally rule one way or the other, because it's just shocking to me that, first of all, I didn't think he could survive after inciting in an insurrection like that. I said, oh my god, thank god he's out.
But I've been wrong before. I remember driving home from recording something and hearing the Hollywood access grab him by the privates remark. I said, oh, I wrote in my datebook campaign over no one could survive that, and yet he's been able to survive. We don't have to do
the laundry list. But it's just shocking to me. It's very disillusioning because I said, up until the end with Kamala, I said she's gonna beat him by more than Joe did, because I believe there were more honest, decent people with integrity than there are magas and I was wrong. Now maybe I'm right that there are more, but they didn't all vote. And again I'm still in a state of shock.
And in fact, I had second thoughts about today and talking on the podcast, as I said, you know, for I don't know how many weeks it's been, but I've just been I've stopped cable news. I don't watch cable news anymore. I'm telling you I've never watched the Food Network more in my life now.
So here's the deal, Mark, you have an open invite to come back to Oakland to hang out me and Marshaan and Gavin.
I would be great. I love it.
Well, hopefully we spared you too much politics.
Frank Oz was born in Oakland. That tells Angels was born in Oakland.
How about that, Marshaan Hell's Angels.
You know, I was so excited to give a g key to the City of Oakland. What I didn't realize was like when I went to the ceremony, there are like seventy five other people getting one too.
Everybody get a key, You get a key, You get a.
Key, right right right, See when Marshan's when Marshaan's mayor, he's going to upgrade that key and he's only hand him out to select Field, right, Marshaan.
You Good luck to all of you.
I'm no Mark Mark I, Gavin said. I appreciate what you've done, what you're doing. I love your drive, your career has been incredible and this has been an absolute pleasure to have you on with us today. Honestly, got it, really you and I can't thank you enough.
Man, Thank you my pleasure.
Thanks guys, appreciate it. Chief next time.
Hey, Doug, we love hearing from our listeners and if you have any questions or comments, you can email us. Doug, where do you email us?
It's Politicken at iHeartRadio dot com. That's Politicken at iHeartRadio dot com. But Gavin, here's the deal. We want all the questions, good, bad, indifferent, ugly to Doug.
To beast mode. Send your questions to politicking at iHeartRadio dot com.