Ed Begley Jr

My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast is joy. I talked to interest in people about what brings them happiness. Ed Begley Junior is a legend and show business and he came down from on High to talk to poor lonely me in Hollywood. He's a wonderful man. Ed Begley Junior. I first met you it was I'm going to say it would be about nineteen ninety seven.

Was it Drew carry It was the Drew Carey show, Right, so good on that show.

Oh man, you're so good on that show. But I remember one of the things that really stick in my mind about it was that you turned up in an EV one.

I did. That's right. I had one on that year, EV one ninety seven.

The electric car, and I was like, I remember because I said does it go fast? And you said yeah. We drove around on the Warner Brothers law and an Evy one and it was like shelf a shovel that thing.

Yeah, it was rievable.

And then they shut it down.

They crushed them all they did. They did everything where they had them in production available for lease and not sale. And keep in mind they'd never sold one. They just wanted to lease it so they could control it. Right, there's a line in Shakespeare I think to condemn with faint praise. That's what they did with that car. They had all these ads in the la time, not for a long time, but they had full page ads the electric car. The Saturn logo is as big as my thumbnail.

I remember, because I remember I'm saying I would do this. I would get an electric car. How did you charge the EV one was a deal to charge it?

Yeah, it was a bit of a minor bit of work to charge it properly. You could charge it in one hundred ten volt, but that was you know, slow, slow, right with that amount of current. But if you had a two and forty volt line in your garage many people do for an electric dryer or some other.

Apartment well in Britain as that that's exactly.

That's the standard voltage exactly right. So it's not not that difficult to get an electrician to come in wired if you don't have it, because there's you know, three wires coming into everybody's home that you know equals two and forty volts, so you can do it.

It's so crazy to me that who should have done did you? I mean, I know there was that documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? Did you see that?

Yeah, I'm in it, believe it or not.

I didn't see it.

So it's a good no, because it's a good documentary. Chris Payne did a wonderful job.

Well Who Killed the Electric Car?

Then they rightly put the blame at several people's feet. You know, there's lots of people that did things that made it go away. But Wagoner I think that's his correct name, the guy at GM. And they said, what's your biggest success while you're there? And he said something I don't remember, And he said, what's your biggest failure? He said killing the electric car?

Oh?

Really they knew it was it right in the customer being something great. And now every manufacturer has electric cars.

Yeah, no, they all have to do it now. Yeah, and it's do you drive an electric car? You do?

I have? Yeah, I've had electric cars since nineteen seventy believe it or not quite primitive?

Then what what did you have to?

Let me be full disclosure player here we're talking about electric you know, electric car its a golf cart with a windshow wiping a horn, Electric carts with a t a cave, electric cart?

Do you play?

I do not play golf. Do anything involving a sphere or count me out.

I don't think if you has been a big sporting man.

No, I'm a bike rider. I used to ski, but now I've kind of slowed down.

You know, I have to say I fell off a horse about three weeks ago. Oh boy, and it hurt, but I'm okay. But I'm sixty one now, and I think I don't think I'm going to ski again because because I like, you get an idea of what it's like to come back from a fall, and it's it's not like it used to be.

Man, I know I can't do it anywhere. There's no rolling, no tuck and rolling.

No I can tuck or roll.

I can't tuck and roll.

It's like it's like when asked to do a job. Now I can sing or dance. I can't sing and dance.

Let's be to my drumming. Now I can do the high hat. I can't do the kick drummer. I can't do the drummer. I used to be a drummer.

Yeah, me too. Yeah, that was Is that how you didn't start is that you were an actor? You were a kid actor?

Yeah, it was a I started at seventeen. I wanted from the age of ten, but I had no skills. So I was shocked that no one gave me a job. I had to real wake me when I'm famous attitude, and I never got any work. And I finally trained and I got work.

You would do well, no, because no, it doesn't matter exactly.

You can reality star and next thing you know, you got thirteen on air.

What was your first gig?

My Three Sons?

That's right. I think I asked you that before My Three Sons, which is in the you know, it's in the Hall of Fame as an American classic.

It is. It's a classic. Fred McMurray. Yeah, to get a star of that magnitude, you know.

To do TV back then, Yeah, to get a.

Movie, start to do television. They had a guarantee he would only shoot like one day a week. So we do all this stuff with him with Fred McMurray on Friday, let's say all different actors came in, all different you know, shots, angles and what have you. To do it you're done, see you next week.

See what one day a week?

One day a week.

I love that. See that's what I miss about the glory days of sitcoms that you know, when we were doing the Drew Carey Show, we got it down to like two and a half days a week.

That was such a good show.

It was a fun show. It's lost media now though, It's like you can't find it anywhere.

Is that true? Yeah?

I think there's something to do with the music rights on it or something.

Damn it all though it was so fine.

It's I don't know where it is. But is Do you hear about Drew Carey during the Right of Strike? What he did?

What did he do?

He kept an open tab at a restaurant in Hollywood. I think it's called Scribbles or Scrandles or Sandals or something. It's a restaurant like a diner that everybody likes to go to and Drew captain open tab so if you had a w G A card, you can go in and get I love that.

Guy for so many reasons. Another one, he's amazing. He's such a great guy.

Swingers, that's Swing Swingers restaurant.

He did, didn't It shouldn't shock me for a moment. I think he would do.

His tab was like seventy grand or something for the strike. I mean to just buying tuna melts for every right for five months, which is but that's who he is.

I got to call him up an embarrassing when we're here.

Yeah, the thing is as well. He gets embarrassed with that kind of thing. It's weird.

Good, then my work is done.

So let me ask you this. Because you're you're a child of show business, right, I mean you're at Begley Junior because your dad, Ed Begley was a famous actor too, right.

Yeah, big actor angry man during number ten won an Oscar for Sweet Bird of Youth, best supporting. I didn't want any front Broadway with Paul Muni and inherit the wind, big big actor, big time.

So was he hesitant about you becoming an.

Eye or he was quite hesitant and rightly so my older brother Tom, Tom had been in show business with him briefly. I mean going back to you know, like Vaudeville, that had a Vaudeville act together father and son. But it turned out at some age Tom went, I didn't want to do that. You made me do that, and I want to be playing stickball with the guys, and you had me when you're a stupid act and forget about it. And then so he didn't want to do it for about five or seven years, and he went,

This is the glory days of television, man. Everything was. The whole city was pumping with wark at that time.

Rod Serling he wrote patterns that my dad was brilliant in, and Dick Kylie was in and all these Everett Sloan was in just nothing but great writer, sitting limit directing these TV shows like Twelve Angry Men. Then it became. It became it was a television show, I believe the teleplay, and it became a great movie and it's still here. Patty Chaievski, that's the golden age of television. But you know what I think. I think this is the platinum age of television right now.

I hear you. You were on one of the best shows ever made recently, The Better Call Saul.

No Question and Peter gold come on. Unbelievable doing it once with Breaking Bad, Breaking Bad, than to do it again.

I know. I remember I saw Bob Odenkirk. Got kids used to go to the same school, and I know Bob a little bit, and you know, one of the nicest, easiest men.

I love Bob so much.

Unbelievable. So I see I see him in the parking lot. We were dropping the kids off for the school bus or something, and I said, what are you up to? Because Breaking Bad had just ended, and he said, well, the guys that come back to me and they want to take the soul Goodman character and maybe do something with it. I said, you're going to do it and he went, oh no, I can they do it again?

That's what I thought.

I didn't And but man, did they ever? I prefer Betcle and I love Breaking Bad. I love to tear a better call Saul.

I don't know. It's like which child do you like? I like so much. But they really the art direction, the cinematography, it's like a feature film. Every single episode is like a feature film. And then Vincent Peter know how to do it. Every episode they have that thing like they had Breaking Bad, that that original visual thing. You go, what the hell does that mean? Yeah, it's flying through the air and a motor home blows past the pants. What could that possibly mean? Yeah, a low

And then we learn it's it's I think the visual storytelling is unbelievable and it's fantastic. But what also kind of struck me with Bear Cole Soul was it seems like the they had mailowed ever so slightly in the sense that for me it made it because Breaking Bad something It's like, I can't I can't watch this. I

I had the best time ever.

I enjoy the act and then I love it.

I thought i'd be done by now, but I people still.

Call, well, you're a great actor, right, I mean, you no idea what. I'm not anyone who was on my three sons exactly, and everybody knows how punctual you are. I mean, I've never heard of anyone say.

You know what. I'm going to say something now, and I really believe it's true. Well, first of all, the first part we all know is true. I'm not Joaquin Phoenix, I'm not Meryl Streep, I'm not Bob de Niro. I don't have that level of skill. I just don't know. Nothing bad about it, nothing, no judgment. I don't have it. But I show up on time, No, I do not. I show up early every single day. I never cost him any time, and I always there and know my

One hundred percent. I mean, I think that what kills actors, particularly on the way up young actors is attitude. When you think that you're so talented that people will look beyond your behavior, which that's that's not the case.

My job is to do my job as an actor, be prepared with what I think the character is in my lines and all that. But then my job is also to make every single department do their job better. To help the boom man, the lighting guy, everybody, the first assistant with his follow focus, hit that mark so we can keep it in focus, all that stuff. That's my job to make their job as easy as I can. Did you get done my job?

Did you get that ethos from your father?

Was that he never ever walked to the set. He ran to the set. Mister Begley, we're ready for you. Now hold that boy, I'm going in. Now start running with his stubby little legs. He just ran his ass to the set right there. Knew everybody's name, made everybody's job easier.

People have an odd idea about how Hollywood it is. It's actually it's a very I mean, it's very worktown. It's work based more than anything else. And this idea that you know, those actors are millionaires and they, you know, going on straight and you go, well, some actors absolutely are millionaires and then make a great deal of money. But I think the vast majority of actors in this town it's like it's a middle class job exactly.

The vast majority of people just getn't check to check.

Yeah, but I.

Learned something as far as cooperating and making everybody's job easier. I did a movie called She Doubled with Meryl Streep.

Oh yeah, that that's a great movie.

She would come in with some brilliant idea, like she has in every movie she's ever done. What's on the page is often wonderful, and she always does something brilliant, and Susan Seidelman, the director, would say, mmm, you know what, I think you should do something else, and she says something and I'm sitting there thinking that's terrible. My god, She's going to get now scolded by Meryl Streep. How dare you tell me what to do? And how dare

You ever worked with you, and you don't have to say any names, but you've ever worked with an actor and you thought, what the hell you doing here? Because I'm well, I'm going to preface with saying that I've worked with a couple. I'm like, I have to why are you doing this job if it's so painful? I know, because it's easy, and you know, all you have to do is just like you say, be professional about it, and everybody's cool. That's what people.

Want, right If you had a reading, if you auditioned some manner and they like what you did, try and do that for the first take. I want to do something else and do that. You want to do something that's occurred to your sense of reading? Fine, ass the director if he wants to see that. I just bring in like a salad ball with different stuff. If you want some of this or that, what do you want on it? And you guys pick what you want?

Will you read for a part if you like it? Or is that in the rear view mirror.

I don't have to read often, but when I have the opportunity, I'm happy. To my agents. No, we don't want you to read. We don't want I said, dude. I like reading. I get to go and play the part in the room. Then I get to do it again with pay in front of digital camera.

But I guess you do, see. I always I had a different thing about about reading for parts. I always thought, wait, so you want me to do the job, and then if you don't like it, you fire me. I feel right because because once I get as far as landing the lines, which you got to really do for the reading, then now it's mine. I care about it and now, and then I get fired. I found it very difficult. And of course everybody gets you know, doesn't get every audition.

I'm thinking right now, I haven't had to read in a while, but if I had to read for something tomorrow, for something good, sometimes I get confused, like a casting directory. Wait a minute, you read for me last month, I said, yeah, but that was different. It was great material. This one so great, you know, they don't know that's what it is. Then material, I get to go and play it in a room, I get to play that part. It's gravy.

So let's talk a little bit about because you and I have a similar no, no, a similar story when it comes to the old Uh yeah, the old alcohol.

I had a thirst. I like my gargle.

Yeah, I did the wage. Were you when you quit?

I was thirty years older in nineteen seventy nine.

I was almost the same. Obviously, look at just before my thirtieth birthday.

My daughter got sober at fifteen. I got sober at fifteen. World, I'd run.

The world, you know. I look at that because people sometimes say, you know, you know, I spilled more on Mortal than you drank and all that. I'm like, yeah, that doesn't make you better at it now, that just means you drank longer. I'm glad I got sober when I did, because I felt like, I think thirty is kind of a sweet spot because you've done enough damage to really fuck up your life a bit, but usually not beyond repair. And I convinced you this is what

You were sober.

Oh yeah, I was sober three years by the time I stuck me.

Too before sat Els, the same thing three years before st elsewhere.

Because gag for you. Didn't you get like ten Emmys for that or something.

I mean, I got nominated six times. I never won, but I got you never won. No'sful. No, It's fine to get nominated, really is it is?

But I mean I always think when you go to these awards ceremonies and you think I'm not going to win, but you kind of you do.

What if?

Yeah? I remember once I want to name me, and I was like the first time I want to namey, I was like so excited. I didn't want to be that excited. I totally blew my cool. I was like, this is the greatest thing.

It is the greatest a rush. It is a rush.

Oh my god, I love I would know.

The winning rush, but I know the nominated rush. And that's fine. That's enough. That's all I need.

I think you've I think you've had a few. Can You've won stuff, haven't you.

I was nominated recently too for this show, great show done by these wonderful women control all to lead about women's health clinic. I got nominated for an Emmy for that for best you know, like streaming show or something or online only show, whatever they call it. And I was literally this is the truth, sitting there thinking, oh, please, God, don't let me win. I just don't know. I don't feel like talking to a lot of people right now. Please God, don't let me win. I was actually praying

Oh yeah, you didn't.

When you saw the show, you know why? Yeah? People say you tried to act so humble, I said, I'm obviously humble. Go see some of my early work. I have reason to be humble. I'd a lot to be humble about it.

I don't know. I think you'll be in a bit tough on yourself. But that's the kind of thing that what surprised me, I guess, and I think surprises civilians who are not alcoholic, is that I thought, when I stopped drinking, i'd get bear you know, mentally, and that that wasn't the case for me. I kind of go crazier. Was he my behavior? But in my level of this comfort? You know what I mean?

Was there a period early on where it worked for you drinking? Yeah?

Yeah, for sure too.

I think it. I literally think it saved my life before it almost killed me.

I totally agree, one hundred percent.

I was such a wreck I needed at sixteen seventeen eighteen, all this stuff that happened to me. I went, I just need to numb my ass somehow. I'll take anything you got, right, they give me heroin. At that young age, I probably would have done it.

Well. You know, you were coming through Hollywood when that a lot of that stuff was around. Did you run into it constantly?

In fact, it wasn't like if you wired, you're fire the way it became, let's say nineteen eighty something. Before that, it was like, why is he not doing any of my cocaine? Is he a n arc? Is he up tight? Shall I be worried about this guy? Who is this guy that's not doing any drugs? He won't even smoke a joint with me? Get him, get the get him off the set. It's crazy it was crazy.

I don't know about like the rise of mariwa on cannabis now, right, Like it's it's like people is like a Starbucks you can get I know, I mean I kind of like that is the drug. I mean, I've taken every drug that was available at the time I was taking drugs, right, I've taken heroin, I've taken crack, cocaine, I've taken cocaine. I've taken every drug, like a lot of the stuff math and stuff like that that wasn't there or ecstasy. I was out of the game by

And but high end cannabis, not the kind of cannabis day of today, right.

I don't know.

Yeah, who knows.

From a store I was buying from a guy. Yeah, but I don't know. I mean, it produced in me a psychosis, which I still makes me a little uncomfortable to talk about thirty plus years later, thirty two years later, nearly.

I actually, now that I think of it, for only a moment, I had the same reaction most of the time when I smoked pot, I got extremely paranoid. Yep, I, oh my god, I'm in the post office, the post office. What am I doing the DMV.

I don't know what to do. No, it wasn't a cool thing.

Yeah, it shouldn't be scary to be in the DMV.

No, it shouldn't be wow.

Well for other reasons.

But it's kind of weird though, because there is this kind of the orthodoxy, because because everything is about media orthodoxy. I think, right now, you've got to you got to say the right thing, or you're in trouble. Right, And the implication is that if you, I feel anyway, if you say anything negative about cannabis, that you're somehow you know, like slightly to the right of Hitler when it comes to, you know, social interaction. I'm like, no, I just don't like it at all, and never did.

I never did either. I I kept doing it. Well.

I see, I loved that alcohol.

I loved it too.

I love this work.

Yeah, you could get it anywhere. Yeah, it was okay to drink it. I used to drink it on this that in a scene. I would ask the prop man, I said, now, don't get don't give me that near beer stuff I want. I need it for my character. I need real beer. The movie was blue collar, and there's a shot in it you can see not that. Well, it's a good movie. It's worth seeing. I don't see it just for this, of course, just when I was walking in my car and I'm clearly really drunk or

Well, they're not mutually exclusive conditions. I mean, there's been prenny are really good actors who were really drunk while they were acting.

That's why, that's why I drank. Now that you remind me, it was your brothers, you know in England that were the ones that you know, Burton O'Toole, all those guys, you know, all those guys.

Date or sober though all those guys now they all either died of drink or I mean Tony got sober and uh.

Not a few of the others did.

Yeah, yeah, I mean it was I remember I talked to as a director. I know, do you know Peter Medak.

Peter Maddock? I know, I love Peter mad Yeah, isn't he great? He's a great guy.

He's a lovely guy. He directed The Ruling Class.

What a good movie that was?

Yeah, and that was Tool was in that movie. He was Drake and he said, yeah it was.

It was insane and Caroline Seymour was in it so beautiful.

And yeah, that's a crazy film.

Crazy film.

But these movies these kind of like, I guess that would be the seventies, late sixties, early.

I think so, I think it's seventies.

I mean that kind of almost like Easy Riders was an easy rat of Raging Bull.

What aod? Did you read that book? So?

Yeah, did you Was it accurate? Do you think at that time? Because you were?

But I knew of those movies. I was not on those movies. I was not Easy Writer Raging Bull, but on a lot of those movies that those same people did. I worked with Bob Rafelson, for instance. I worked with Paul Schrader and in my book I talk about you know what set was like in that book, and believe me, it was the wild West.

Yeah, it kind of I want to talk to you a little bit because the biography tell me the title again.

To the Temple of Tranquility and step on it.

So that's you know, it's the story of growing well, it's your life story, but growing up around those sets, it must have been very strange. I don't know anython get made. I mean, I don't know how you could make a movie with a cell phone, never mind everybody being high on cocaine.

You look at some of these old episodes of I don't know, Charlie's Angels. I'm not picking on them specifically, but I think it might have been that show, any show, And I worked on that show in the seventies, so I should probably shut up. But I mean lots of shows like that. The writing is so incredibly bizarre, and then you find out everybody was high on something. Everybody everybody was high on something.

Well, I think if you if you get a show like Fantasy Island, right, which runs for years and years and years. So Li Sister print money, Yeah, I mean really it is. But that kind of thing doesn't really. I mean, I guess it exists, but it doesn't. It exists in kind of like the Netflix thing, Like some people make a ton of money, but the actual formula of making these big network shows, I think that's that's kind of over.

It is a lot that. Yeah, that formulae.

Stuff yeah, which is a shame because I kind of loved it. But you know, everything changes. The new the TV is dr it is better, no doubt about it. Now. Listen, you are comedic royalty. It's true because of if for nothing else, and there's a large, large body of work, but for nothing else, you have a role, into my mind, the greatest comedy movie of the last fifty years, which is of course Spinal Tap. I agree, yeah, you know,

He is a very serious man about his work and everything. And he's because of that he makes brilliant movies.

He sure does.

Rob Reiner and the guys, Harry Sheer and Michael McKean, all of them. When I did it, I had no idea what was going to happen with it all. In fact, it was purported to be just like a part of the sizzle reel. They're going to do to raise money because it was kind of kinescope looking stuff, you know, old footage looking stuff where that we're playing there, like black and white mop top kind of stuff. And so

It's funny, so it was kind of pieced together a little bit. So lucky to be in it, but you became part of that kind of loose repertory company that Christopher Guest put together for you know, A Mighty Wind and these movies. So did you do best in the show as well? You did best Show.

And that's how Chris Guest single handily sprung me out of movie jail. I was in movie jail in the nineties because I'd done a bunch of movies that weren't successful box office and got poor reviews. So by nineteen ninety it was like, yeah, Ed's fine, but who else you got and I wouldn't get. I didn't get a lot of studio work. I could go up to Canada do a movie with a little girl and a bear. I could go Australian movie with a little girl.

Yeah I did. I went to Florida. I did a movie with a token dog. I know what you mean.

I did Miss Bear True Story, and I did Joey in Australia. So that's what I did. But I gotta do it though exactly I kept working. I did a lot of TV. So don't throw any benefits from me. But Chris Guests single handily by putting me invest in Show in nineteen ninety nine, I believe was the hear yeah, he busted me out of movie jails.

It's a great movie. It is a great movie. The method of working, I mean, there's been a lot talked about it. Is it as is it as improvisational? Is it fields? Or is it more scripted than people realize?

It is as improvisational as you could imagine. Really, Chris Guest and Eugene Levy, that's who did the first like three of them did the you know, Best in Show, Guffman Best in Show in a mighty win. Then After that, it's been Jim Pittick, the wonderful Jim Pittock too great.

He was on the Drew Case show as well.

Yeah, he's fantastic, great guard too. I love him.

Yeah.

So they would take the time and do the hard work of writing the treatment, the twenty five page treatment, so Best in Show, for instance, all it has on the page is Jerry and Cookie Fleck, which is Eugene Levy and Katherine O'Hara. So I can't go wrong. I got to just stand there and not break up. Jerry and Cookie Fleck try to check in the hotel. The credit card doesn't work.

That's it, right, And that's a great premise for people like that to work.

So from there, it's like, you know the court, it's the G minor seventh that you're going to be playing here, and just now start riffing. And that's what we do. We just play. They give you the chord, chard or whatever you want to call it of the treatment, and then you blow some notes after that.

Now you talk about it in terms of musicianship, which makes perfect sense because all of these guys are all musicians. They're all the musicians. Are you? Are you a player? To you still play.

I do not play anymore. My neurological condition dictates otherwise.

You haven't usological condition. I do.

I have Parkinson's. I kind of spoiled the last chapter.

I'm shocked to hear you say it.

And I'm very happy that you don't know it. I'm doing pretty good. This is the way Parkinson's can be twenty twenty three.

Your hands are not shaken at all.

I know I could pass the sobriety checkpoint.

Yeah, that's I'm well. Do you feel okay? When did that happen?

I feel okay. It happened in two thousand and four. I got it. I didn't even know I had it for twelve years. Twenty sixteen, I got diagnosed. And I've done all this stuff the AMA kind of neurologists tell you to do. Then for extra credit, I did other holistic things that have helped too.

So like, let's let me guess you you you already didn't drink alcohol, so you probably stopped eating meat and dairy and stuff that vegan.

I've been a vegan for a while. Yeah, And so also I started doing uh, I always did vigorous exercise. I upped the and a bit there. I do a lot of very useful exercise. I do something called glutathion. I do something it's something that's good for people who have neurological conditions. It kind of helps ease the uh, you know, the nervous system from kind of zopping out a little bit, right, And NAD helps to Hyperbaric chamber

That's kind of I remember when my kids were born. They just started with the oldest boy that you could get the from the bilical cord. They would take it, I store it right stem cells if it was ever needed for treatment later on.

Very smart, that's what they're doing. Stem cell is a very good way to go too.

So what do they do. They just like inject some kind of mixture of it into you. It makes you feel better.

Yeah, They give you an ivy with stem cells in it for about thirty minutes with some gluecoase, and they give you four injections wherever you have a little bit of body fat. I have a little bit of body fat my abdomen, So they give you four shots there.

Where I'd get it as well, or my ass.

I should probably get it there too. Read it around.

I've got plenty of body fat. But I hope that's where it stops. For note, I had no idea. I mean for me, that's great, because you don't. I mean, you don't come across as anyone who's even remotely infirm in any way. You just look like, yo, it's dead.

Bless you.

It's the truth.

I had a similar reaction for people I worked with on two separate TV series, and I said, thank you so much for being so patient with my Parkinson's and went, what the hell are you talking?

Yeah, I mean, it's really it's a I'm genuinely shocked to hear you. I mean, I had no idea. Let's just see. This is why I never read the book or see the movie before I talk to someone, because I used to say to me when I was doing late night the would say you have to see the movie before the guest comes on, and I'd be like why, They said, well, then you can talk about the movie I said, But truly, the idea is that if we're going to talk about a movie, that nobody has seen

Whatever you're doing, this is one of the best interviewers I've ever had. So whatever you're doing, keep doing it, my friend. I'm enjoying this.

But I kind of feel like interviews, like everything in life, marriage, family, to a degree, you can't really do this, but marriage, relationships, movies, interviews, everything is casting. Everything is casting.

You know that. I think you're right.

I think it is like I've directed one movie and I compromised and compromised and compromised on casting. Now I directed this movie, I wrote the movie, I'm in the movie, and I don't like the movie. Now, how did that happen?

Wait a minute, because I pushed the name of this movie.

It's called I'll Be There, and it's now I really really want to see You should see the movie because it's some people like the movie. I don't like the movie, and I've never liked the movie. And the reason why I never liked the movie, and I don't want to say that like some of the actors in the movie, like I was like very happy to have them, and they're good actors, but it wasn't the way I wanted it to be. I compromised on a lot of things,

I directed a couple of NYPD Blue, but I wasn't in any of them. So yeah, I made it just nothing but fun.

Yeah, I bet you'd enjoyed it. See, I should never have put myself in the movie. First of all, I was not as good an actor as anyone else who had cast in the movie. They were all much better actors than me. I'm sitting there in the you know, watching the rushes, which we used to have back then, and you know, I'm watching the dailies and I'm going, oh my god, I suck and they're all good. This is terrible. And we try and cut around it, but

I'm one of those people. I love being directed. I come in with something sometimes, you know, I have my choice. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not so good at all, and the director says, why don't you try it this way? I go, how could I have missed that? That's like eighty five times better than what I had in mind? How could I not think of that generally the general category of something like that. That's so brilliant and not at all what I came in with.

Have you ever worked with someoney, You've thought this guy there's no idea what he's doing.

I think that of myself. On the take one, I think, oh god, I know i'm talking.

About you know, I'm talking about you and secure, I'm talking about what am.

I going to do? I've seen that happen. Yeah, And sometimes they cut it together in the editing room and you go, you would never know in a million years. Know there's a performing something and right now, very very famous actor. And he did it one line at a time. He somehow just couldn't get his lines two in a row. Had to do it one single line at a time. And he did it. And I went, this is going to be a disaster. They're gonna have to reshoot it.

It's amazing, amazing. I remember I did you remember Rod Steiger? Oh?

I loved I got to know him a tiny bit.

Yeah, I got to know him a little bit. First movie I did in Hollywood was a vampire movie, which I think was maybe in his last movie. It was a movie called man what was it called Modern Vampires? I think, and exactly as you would think, you know what, I mean, like like a schlock vampire movie. I think Ky Elfman directed it, Danny Elfman's brother. Oh wow, And it was it was fun and crazy and sort of I think it was awful on purpose, but I don't know.

By a way.

I'm laughing, I know, because Bobby Pasarelli was like, he's a guy from Brooklyn. How he's doing the creatures of the Night, the Sun and all that. You know, it's like crazy, you know, Bobby Passli's paying Dragon and Rod

When I am in the.

Back of the cab and he said he didn't like Brando. He said he didn't he didn't get along with Brando, said it was terrible actor at work with He didn't did enjoy working with him. He said that he would never stay for a reverse show. He would never do any off camera working, which is mean you got to do that, you do that, and he said, and he would never do that for the singles in the cab show when they're doing you should have taken care of me, Jony, I could have been a contender and all that kind

I knew him fairly well. Yeah, I got a nice chapter about it in the book. Really yes, did.

You get along very well? Good? Because I've heard terrible stories, but I never met, so I don't know.

But the reason I kept getting asked up there to visit him was I knew the ground rules. He never ever ever wanted to talk about acting, writing, directing, clamation, puppetry, trained seals, anything that was like show business. He wouldn't talk about. You'd be done, you'd be out of the rolodex. What did you guys talk about drywall, steel pipe, galvanized pipe versus copper pipe, you know, panels, wind turbines.

Oh, he was interested in green stuff.

Yeah, electric eels is a power source?

Is that possible? Come on?

Not remotely?

No, I didn't think so.

So I dissuaded him with that thought. He literally wanted to do it.

Well, the idea of electric eels as I mean, fuck, that would be great though. Imagine how cool it would be just fill your car up with eels.

But he wanted to do them in a motor or something, and he thought you could put an anode in a catherine in the water and get current. But before that, when he called me up this time, I thought, wow, this is finally it, this is the big day. Called me up and he goes edward ed the bagel. It's bran Flake's. You need to get up here as soon as possible. I've got a project I want to do with you. I've got all the funding in place, I've

It's it's a shamement never gave bus.

I mean, I thought he was winding me up, but he was serious about it.

You really wanted to use the electric kills.

I literally thought it was possible.

Man.

He had a vision for my wind turbine, and he went, you still have that wind turbine in the desert. Yeah, I still have it. How would you like to increase the power one hundred percent? Percent? One hundred percent? How can you increase it one hundred percent? And he draws a picture of like like a corner copy with en cutoff, or an ear trumpet or a funnel right in front of my wind turbine. I said, do you know how big my wind turbine is? Because it's like he had

You have a giant wind turbine.

I had a wind turbine in the California Desert. I was just part of a wind farm. I invested in it. So he knew that. And the thing he had in front of this funnel would have made that like three hundred feet. It would, I said, it would tear down the wind turbine. The winds would be so much you take every bird in the Pacific Flyway and chop them up like a queasin art. But he had all these Why is it always no with you? For God's sake, everything's always no.

You should have got in on the electric eels.

I should have. You got to beat a billionaire. By now, I'd be rich by now.

You'd be rich in that sweet electric iel. Money swimming, swimming in it. The idea, because you hear a lot of stuff about electric cars and fossil fuel and wind turbines and stuff like that, and people the negative is always the amount of carbon footprint that it takes to get these things to where they are. Or the big thing about electric cars is where do all the batteries go? And you know, is that real? Is that a real.

You should always consider those things. But it's been very well studied by Union of Concerned Scientists, lots of other people who PHG after the name. I looked at it, and there's still pollution. There's pollution in the mountain bike, there's pollution, pllution. Cape men have made pollution with their fires. There's pollution from anything. But the question is how much. And it's a tea spoon to a tanker truck. You know, from what you make with solar panels, there's energy used

Yeah, they're all over Scotland. They're the big giant.

One, the big, the megaw and a half, they're two meg.

Yeah, they're huge. But it's kind of tricky because they're not pretty.

No, they're not.

They're and I think when you get so many of them, you know, because you have to basically with the nature of where they are. They have to be in areas where it's wind. It just tends to be areas that are pretty, you know, but the coastal Yeah, it's it's it's a little tricky. Yeah, this idea to put them all out to sea around Britain like.

They could do that. Yeah, they can do it so far away you won't even notice the spect in the distance. Yeah, run the cable in.

Be kind of cool. I think they should do more than very committed too. Obviously. You still ride this subway.

In la and I do. I write it regularly.

Yeah, no, I've never been on it. I lived here for twenty three years. I was never on it.

It's a wonderful system, is it actually? Oh yeah, it takes a lot of people a lot of miles. It's a big area they cover. You can take the rail of the bus or light rail or something from Pomona all the way out to Long Beach and from also you can take it out to like Trencas to uh. You know, it's a big area that the Metro covers.

It's so funny because I whenever I'm in Los Ange. I mean, I don't live here anymore. I haven't left here for a couple of years. But the I can't imagine not having a car. I need to rent a car when I get here. I feel trapped. Yeah, you know, I but maybe it's a mindset that needs fixing.

Yeah, some roots are going to be trickier than others. If you live somewhere out in the middle of the West Valley and you need to get downtown every day to get to that Orange Line bus and then you get to the subway and make those you know, connections can take you a while. They're trying to eliminate that, make that more efficient. But but for me, I live in Studio City. I hop on that Metro Red line, you know, to go downtown or Hollywood. It's just much

I'm going to try it. You towed me into it. I'm going to give it a try. Yeah, is it clean.

It is. It's now clean again. It was not clean for a while because of COVID. You know, some a lot of people who have, you know, mental problems and drug problems kind of took over the subway stations, what have you. We're taking it back. Not for me. I have choices. I could get in my electric car and go. People have no choice. Working people rely on the subway and on the bush line. The bus line is the backbone of the system, and you got to keep those

Do you do you get involved in local politics and that bit.

Yeah. My daughter's working at Metro now, so I'm very supportive of her.

Cool.

We did a thing she wrote she writes the Metro all the time. She has said she was a baby with me. And then she did a thing where she wrote it all week, didn't get in her car, her electric car once, wrote it all week, and then we went to the oscars together on the Metro.

Ah, that's right, Yeah, I heard about that. Yeah, that's awesome.

It was very very good. So now she's working at Metro trying to help spread the word about what works and what needs to be worked on.

Well the seat now I have O kaid. My youngest boy is thirteen, my oldest is in his early twenties. And you mentioned earlier that your dog got sober when she was fifteen, and I haven't seen anthem like that and my kids, but I'd be terrified by that, you know. But the idea of I did. I don't want to, you know, you know, discuss your daughter because that's her business.

What was the I did a little bit of each, you know. I just said, because there was a morning with it, it seemed like things were going off the rails, and I just wanted to say. She said, do you dad? Do you think I Do you think I have a problem? And I said, yes, I do. Do you want help? Yes? I do, said, She says, okay, then I'm here. And I didn't want to make her do anything or be a dad in this case, make her do X Y or Z.

A tricky I mean, it's funny because I mean, I definitely qualified to get help when I was fifteen years old. I didn't get it till I was twenty nine. But any anyone that can sin, and I've met people who get sober at that age are great, you know, just great. And I love the idea that people can get sober

Imagine if that had social media when I was out there drinking, I'd never work another day. I would not have worked in the seventies eighties. And I think of it.

I talked I obviously, I have friends who have been sover for a long time, and we talked about that, that the idea if there had been social media in the nineteen eighties. I mean, not because of anything other than just like pathetic behavior exactly.

It was just tragic, it was.

But I mean, that's the thing about and I've been guilty of this as anyone that when talking particularly to you know, in show business or doing stand up and stuff. You can make the drinking years sound funny, right, but they weren't that funny. They were.

There's some serious stuff connected life connect Yeah. The fact that I didn't kill anybody I'm so grateful for because.

I too when I get busted from my d UI, I'm like, oh jeez, if i'd hit someone us, Oh my god, do you imagine.

I drank a quarto vote every day, took pills, and operated a vehicle.

Yeah the hell I did that. The pills, did you say?

I would take thallium to cure the hangover. I would occasionally take kayludes, which you're not to take one.

I never got around to quailudes. That's one dimest I said earlier. I took them home, but I didn't take queludes. I hear tell. They were They were pretty good, remarkable things.

They were considered an hypnotic drug, and yeah, I was definitely hypnotized by them.

Yeah, and the acid, I remember. Cannabis and acid were the ones I didn't like. I like the zippy ones like cocaine or meth, you know both, or a nice solid base note of heroin. You know.

I did it four times. I snorted it four times, and I loved it too.

Yeah, about how many times I did it? About the same amount of times. And I remember thinking, I remember lying down, I've don't you remember they used to call it speedball, Yeah, cocaine and heroin and staying together. And I remember lying down in a shitty apartment in New York having done that, and I felt like I was upside down and I couldn't shake the feeling of like

No.

And it was only another nine years before it gets over.

I started to realize there was a bad scene for me in seventy six. It took me three years to finally get it together.

It takes a while. Yeah, So do you think is there's still a time when when you were owed by Hollywood? Because I think of you, someone who's lived inside this business, in this town for so long, your entire life. Really you have been inside it. Does it contain mystery and awe for you know? Or is it it's a place of work and like you ever meet someone you go I can't believe I met You know.

I still get that reaction when I meet people who are fine actors, fine musicians, things like that. I just get all the twitter because it's a big deal. People that are that on their game, that creative, that talented. Just when I first met Joaquin Phoenix, I was like trembling. He's such an incredible actor. It just inspires me everything I've ever seen him in. So that was a big one.

He was, Yeah, I tried to get him to go in that to that movie I told you about it. I spoke to him in the phone. Oh my god, I love this old rock star in it. And I spoke to the one and I said, will you Ben? He went, well, who else is in it?

Very good? Bob Hoskins.

I said well, and I said, a bunch of people who were in it. He went, yeah, Oh, I'll have a think about it. I never heard, never heard again, But that's all right.

I have a bold work of art. Right as you enter my home, Bob Hoskins came in years ago for the first time, looked at it, went, hey, what happened to here? What happened here? Here?

What's the what's the Is it? Very fan of kind of striking modern piece? Is that? What it is?

Just a bunch of colors, splatter kind of colors and what have you. It's not a facer, a vaz or a flower or anything like that. It's all right, he was great.

It sounds good. Well, you know what, we're out of time, man.

Well let's get together and do it again.

I'm very happy to do it again. And I am sad to hear about your diagnosis, but I am delighted for you that you had to tell me about it because I couldn't. I swear to because you know, Billy Corny has Parkinson so now and Billy you can you can see it.

I love that man. You read that wonderful piece about him in the Times. I think it was La Times. It was a great piece about him, and Pam I didn't not wonderful. I'll send it to you, yes, please. Billy was Jackie Robinson for me?

Do you know what I mean? Yeah? I mean he was like there was he was Elvis.

You know he is Elvis.

He is Elvis. He's amazing, amazing, And he said that did he tell you about that? He was walking through the airport and a doctor come over to him and said, I think you may have Parkinson's. You should you should go and get checked out, just because of the walk.

Oh that's right. I heard something to that effect. Yes, that's right. He didn't know that happened to me. But the guy didn't tell me. He told my cousin. Really, and so my cousin said, rightly, so for what I knew at the time. A neurologist said, does your cousin know that he has Parkinson's. My cousin rightly said he didn't have Parkinson's. He would have told me that. Yeah, but he could see it and I didn't, and he didn't.

Want It's amazing.

He seemed uncomfortable come and say, ed, this guy thinks he have Parkinson's. I wouldn't want to do that to him, so he didn't do it to me. It's probably just as well I didn't learn it till years later.

That's an amazing thing. I mean, it's but you don't have that distinctive walk.

Now it's very subtle, all very subtle.

Back, Yeah, well look, continued health to you, to my friend, it's great to see you. You are an inspiration and a force for good in this time. You are a corrective weight and in in the Hollywood scales and powerful one.

Good to see you now, always, good to see you all right,