“I Am Stunning and I Will Survive” (w/ Jeremy Beiler)

always always with me? Thank you? This this podcast has been a be real for six years. Honey, be real, more like been real. It's actually real culture number fourteen, honey, honey, be real, more like real? Say that actually hashtag lost culled hashtag lost culture. But I will say I have retaken several be reels and that's not being real. That's not being real. And you had the goal to be on here be I like, I think this is going to save social media. It's getting me to be so real.

It's still orders of magnitude better than any other social media platform. I'm actually reaching over with my foot right now to grab my for those of you, because podcasts are not a visual medium. I'm actually horizontal right now, sort of like Maria in her in her in her show Mariah's World. I'm horizontal on on my on my bed in my hotel right now. I'm reaching over with my foot to get my phone because I think the reason why I'm getting is because I don't want to

be real. To tell me to be real, and then what will happen going for for we need a plan if if be Real happens this episode or any other episode during recording, what do we do. I think we have to be real. We have to be real, and I have to be I have to be real right now. I really hope that that happens. I hope that happens because let me tell you something. I want everyone to know what I'm doing right now. I want everyone to know about the people I'm with and talking to because

I'm talking the legends. I'm talking the legends. Before we sort of bring in the legend, can we talk about your legendary night you presented at the Tony Awards, You fucking six fiend. I presented at the Tony Awards, and I was telling our guest and you moments ago that like, we're just again, and I know it's so uninteresting. This is so interesting, this is so interesting, but it's so uninteresting conceptually to hear someone talk about how tired they are.

And we know, we we realize the couple of Systems readers that we've been doing this for the last few episodes talking about tired we are. But you know, the Fire Island press cycle is not over yet, not even close. And so sorry, by the way, sorry, by the way, it will it will culminate in the Culture Awards that will be like basically the last press stop, which is this weekend on saturd Day, and we want to see you all there. So Bowen and I are doing watch

it Happens live. By the time this comes out, that'll be out, and we're doing We're going to Pete Town so Bowen can get an award and I can sort of hashtag be there and uh, then Saturday night is the Cultural Awards, and then that's really kind of it. That's kind of it, and I and that would be a perfect sort of coda and a little little period to the whole thing, a coda and a period. The coda and appeared anyway, the Tony's I'm just my body

is just like barely functioning, and so I did. Unfortunately, I feel like I was dissociating the entire time I was there, and it was a four hour ceremony that is long. And the choice when like when when the Tony Awards or any awards, body is like, you know what we're gonna do, be very long like that is

that is a real genuine choice. I will say that I read something that made me really laugh about you presenting at the Awards, but they said it was someone who tweeted and said the Tony Awards audience just reacted to Bow and Young coming on stage like Andrew Garfield coming out of the portal and Spider Man like like they were just like, oh my god, it's Bow and

Yang from Saturday Night Live. It's you. I was just impressed that people had the energy towards the end of the show, because I was presenting towards the end and I'm like, everyone's going to be so tuckered out. Out of all the performances who tore and slay it and went off the hard, Oh my god, Rakina Calucongo was incredible and fucking immediate stating as soon as she's done, and then her speech was also like everyone was shaking, and then I had to follow that by coming in.

I think maybe I think she probably set me up. She amped up that entire crowd so that I could come out and be like Queen Slay a pop star, Henry the eight six and then and then it happened this six, Oh my god. But it was actually really fun to Okay, I will be real and say, isn't it like our dream to like present that not not not not an award, but like for like be the be the Travolta for the Frozen, you know one. That's

all I want to do. And I I actually I am, I am a little gags if I think about it now. But yesterday was such like a okay, now you go here, you go here, you go here. It was just like really really crazy and I most see the grounding force was Eddie Valk, our stage manager at US and I was stage managing the Tonys, and it was actually really nice to have him there. Sorry, this is some show biz,

show biz biz. I thought you looked absolutely stunning, like a queen and ps mind it was interesting too because I had game showing at the Bellhouse and Thomas by the way, everyone's obsessed with Thomas now from the episode last week, of course, and they came and absolutely destroyed game show. You have to go onto their Instagram. They posted their making entrance, which is what the wise queer does at the in the second half of the show. It's a guil. See just instagram and watch they're make

an entrance. It's so iconic. But anyway, I took them to Bubble Sea on Friday and they were the bell of the ball. Yeah, the main event of events, unparalleled star quality, beyond beyond beyond, speaking of beyond, so sort of, um, what's going to happen this weekend is not just the Cultural Awards. So basically, so this is the schedule for the weekend. Friday, the finale of I Love That for You was streaming on Showtime. Then Saturday is the Cultural Awards.

Then Sunday at eight thirty on Showtime I Love That for You airs Because the thing the interesting thing about I Love That for You on Showtime is it it has its episodes come out twice, sometimes even three times, and that's what's so kind of queer about the show. They talk about how you know, like like there's actually some you know, if you watch the last episode, there's actually sort of maybe a queer love story starting. I

don't know. But the queerest thing about the show is how they choose to release the episodes, which is sort of everywhere, all at once, everything everywhere, all at once. You know what I'm saying. It's very queer. Step Shoe is queer basically. Um, what I'm saying is the finale is this week, and we have the co creator, really my boss, I call him daddy all the time. He insists upon it, and he is the creator of the show.

I love that for you, and really, amongst many other things, Bo, this is an icon, an alleged this is an icon and a legend. I was really crushing standing since like the Onion days, crushing even okay, crushing even well, it was just like it was. It was it was Mr Biler, not Mr it was Jeremy Piler. You were like, didn't you guys match on Tinder? No? Well he I don't think he remembers this. Oh we can remember, saying I remember because because I remember it, we can't we can't

talk about it. I guess I can. We can talk about anything. This is one of the most explicit sexual graphic podcasts out there. Has been heralded for it's for the way that it talks about gay sex. It really has. The podcast has received critical acclaim and many things that it changed is the way that gay men speak, like sex in the City. Women didn't talk before that show came out, and now gay men are talking to each other finally because of this podcast. It's just what Wikipedia says,

it's I think you're actually inspiring. I don't think so. I have my own things, so honey for for this episode, and it has to do with I love that for you, but I but I will bring it up during the stay tuned to the end of the ends. A good stick ability. You've been liking the words sticky lately. You've been saying that, You've been saying the movie sticky. I

love that for you. It's sticky. It is sticky. Okay, we actually have to tell our guests about all of the the most perfect moments of praise that Matt has gotten from the wildest assortment of people. It is true, but we'll talk about it, okay. So well, Yes, our guest has written for Inside av Schumer um fucking Saturday Night.

I've ever heard of it, UM and it basically is the co creator with Vanessa Bayer and uh, you know, it's just just the genius of all time of I love that for you, the show that I am so proud to be a part of UM and the finale as this week, everyone, please welcome into your goddamn ears one the only Jeremy fire O my mother I legitimately

stars Brooke was getting to see from Spain fucking obnoxious. No, you can hear people like switching to another podcast that's this White Man Vacation and is the first thing that we I think that, well, the thing is, you're not the most exotic location that we've talked to some from Alan Cumming was in an Australian limestone cave. Yeah, oh fuck, that's not I have to listen to that one. He'll He'll always He'll, Alan Will always went up anyone like

at any of us. Seems like a fancy, like a fancy person who's kind of gallivants gallavants, but like has a house to stay, like you know, like I think I think he seems very balanced to me in terms of his creature comforts, like he knows how to enjoy everything. I once, long ago was saw him in cabaret and had a mutual friend or something that brought us backstage

into his dressing room. And he had like the classic like old Hollywood dressing room where there's like his own lamps and like a fridge full of drinks and just so much kitch and like handkerchiefs, and it was just it was really like fantastic. He feels like one of the people who like still do that kind of yeah, he has, and he is an international phenomenon and that is all true, but sort of, you know, getting drifting away from that. Do you remember matching with bone Yang

on Tinder? It wasn't Tinder, Jeremy. When did we match? I don't remember, but I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled. I was working a temp job in midtown. Uh, this is grinder. Chickasn't twelve? Oh wow yeah yeah, yeah, this is this is a decade ago grinder. Yeah. I was really playing the numbers at that time. We all were. We still we still basically keo. I was like the old lady playing pino and how you and I one baby? Yes, a husband? Oh, my god, we met I r L. We met I r L. Yeah, we met at a

dinner party that neither of us wanted. It was so I know, yeah, you can't ask for anything better, you really can't. Well, it was it was tumultuous. It was like he was in a relationship I was. I was, as I said, playing the numbers and but I but we were like we just had like an immediate like thing like the moment. And but I was like, but that actually made me so sad because I had spent so much time just like kind of sleeping around and

like hanging out. And I was like, Oh, here's a person who I actually like, really connect with intellectually, very attracted to, Like he's hilarious, beautiful, so all those things like the spark. And then I was like, oh, but of course he's taking I was like, of course that, like this person is not for me, and I'm not it's not like me to like I like, I didn't pursue.

I was like, maybe we'll be friends or whatever, and then it was there was just sort of this undeniable connection and he ended up breaking it off with his other person and because of you, because of me. Wow, that's kind of iconic. How long it's it's what, well, I don't know, it's it's it's complicated. You know, it's kind of quote what made that movie Nancy to quote Nancy Myers, it's complicated. That's actual culture number one. It's complicated.

How long was the period of tumult or complication? Truly? So short. It's no notes, it's no notes, like you met, you had to meet at a dinner party that neither you wanted to be this it's so like, it's so I don't know, it feels like a Sally Rooney book or some ship like it sounds so nice. It was really it was really pretty magical. And then we um. You know, we had our moments that you know, we've been together some weeks. You know, it's work, baby, but

it's right now he's like making a fire outside. Yeah it is, it's um and we right after we got together, he wrote a play that was going to be up in Williamstown and he was gonna be there for several months, and then I was gonna be in Tokyo with a couple of friends for like several weeks. So we didn't we like immediately connected, but then we were going to

be in completely different places. And I drove before we had even like touched or done, and I drove up to Williamstown and we had our little, you know, magical weekend and then he came to Tokyo. I'm so hot for that. Wait, so you went up to Williamstown and you guys sucked it all up like for the week, every every every corner or of that rocks. Oh my god, I want to have a fun weekend. Oh my god, it's been such a long time. I really like everyone's bad right now, but really, what but what are you?

What are your what are your love lives? Like? What's going on? Can I ask man? Maybe are Web's going through something similar where we're being like I'm needing. I'm needing to release something, um and I think it'll be good. But I kind of like, for me, it's like I haven't done this in a long time. But I sort of let myself like emotionally run amuck on something and

like it's just it's fine. I just had like a sort of situation summer situation last year that I thought maybe it would continue and is not going to, which is totally fine, um and for the best and we still love the person. But the thing is like it did give me that little taste of like, oh I really like someone, and like, I think I didn't realize how much I kind of want that. I've been kind of saying the thing of like, oh, I'm find not in a relationship, it's better for me to be single,

you know, etcetera. I've been enjoying it, but then like there is those little things like I don't know, I'm so much more of a It's like a grass is greener thing, right. It's like when you're in a relationship and it's it's great for a while, then you really

want to be single. And now that I'm not in one, I'm feeling those little like nibbles again of like oh I forgot I'm someone that likes to be taken care of and like loved and like I I do have that unfortunate impulse to want someone to be obsessed with me and only me, and it's you know what I mean, Yeah,

Well I don't know. I'm trying to stay I'm trying to, like, yeah, to be honest with you, because I can promise I I would love to be obsessed with someone else too, like I I do crave that thing of like, this is my person. We're obsessed with each other, and like for however long that's gonna last, is great, but you know, I don't know. Also, this summer I'm kind of interested in, like just kind of being a capital W whore, which

probably will happen. Life is long, honey, it's gonna be your You just make sure that whoever it is deserves you. Thank you for that. But what you feeling, sim, I'm feeling sim And yeah, it's that thing where I really want to be infatuated with someone and that hasn't happened, and it's exciting and it feels good. I know, I know, um, but it has to I wonder what that is. People have written about it for ages and yeah, you know,

we still don't know. And usually when people write about things for ages, there should be an answer by now. But feelings complicated A lot, They're complicated a lot. That's real culture number seven. Feelings They're complicated. That was the original title of Nancy You got. Even Nancy has the first draft, you know what I mean, Nancy doesn't the final draft to nail at every time. Nancy struggles, you know,

Nancy is there. She's typing away, she's fucking she's drinking her you who's I don't know why I picture her drinking you. She definitely does. She flops a pillow. Sunlight streams into the room. No, no floods. The room is drowning in sunlight, and they're like, Nancy, they're not going to read the stage directions in the movie. It can be whatever it is, like, just work on the dialogue, mama.

You know you guys, remember something's gotta give. Of course, where Diane Keenan is playing the player right, and like she makes writing. Look if if if there's some similarity between Erica Berry's, which is the character's names, there's a similarity between Erica's process and Nancy's process. I feel like there's something not quite right about that because it's her and her Hampton's house facing the window, typing and the

writing is not good. It seems like I love my girl Nancy, but it seems like Erica Berry is not that good of a play right, like the movie the movie, playwriting is like not great to me? Or do you stand Nancy? I feel like you do, Jeremy, oh absolutely, oh my god. Yeah. But but then you get in the movie like lines like fucking like, dude, do you know what this is? This is heartbreak haws that like,

are you to me? It's a guilt to me, it's a guilty pleasure to me, it's it's scratching that it's that corner of the brain that's like I want to watch a movie, but also I want to flip through a magazine and it's like I guess to do both in the same like two hours, which like is yeah, which is genius, Like that's a genius genius And I can I just say not that people care about my process in any of this, but for Fire Island, like the thing that like anchored the whole performance was I

was watching scenes from Something's Gotta Give, like the seat, like like in terms of like the heart playing the heartbreak of it, I was just like, okay, like it's it's it's Erica. It's like it's eton like realizing that like like like walking away from Jack Nicholson in the house being like, oh, she's sleep in separate beds, like that is such a good scene to me. Oh that is an amazing so like she's so likea like she's she's so oh my God, she's she's off the page.

She's off the page. She is so good in that movie, honestly, and she didn't kind of stand a chance for the Oscar that year because that was Charlie Starron's big monster year. It's sort of like when Charlie Starren put on a different face and gained you know, fifteen twenty and like putting on like a mullet to like pretend she was a swamp monster serial killer and then never ever did that again. She's like kind of only hot now, but

that was like the big year for her. But Diane Keaton, that's like talk about like like a movie that never would have been nominated for an Oscar until someone comes in and like destroys a hundred percent. She like took what was there, and oh my god, that's that's like one of the great scenes. And she's like for a millisecond she's crying and then she's not. It's like that kind of like Andy. She Nancy stays on her and

and then sucking. Diane goes through the ten different micro expressions and then she goes, this was really wonderful name and then walks away. It's so good because honestly, honestly, that is how it feels like when when that is bittersweet, I mean you know what I mean, Like, oh God,

I start crying. It's just that kind of thing of like it was it really was nice, but it's also wrong and you feel great, but you feel bad and you feel anxious, but you also know what it is and it's kind of just like you also feel like you played yourself, but also you're happy you did it because it's great to experience all the emotions and then you're like, I want to take it back, but also you never would, you know. It's just it's and and it's all coming across in that moment. And that's why

I love romantic comedy so much. And that's why it's like like what like with Fire Island coming out, Like I keep playing this sometimes covered by Muna, and I keep just getting so emotional because I'm so happy and proud to be a part of a great rom com and like Bow and like the scene in the movie where you get that moment with James, like that to me is like what I love about movies. And that's why I love like, you know, it's it's just it's that I love Nancy Myers, I cannot wait to see

Fire Island. I can't believe I haven't seen it yet. And for the for the readers, you were giving just now into the zoom as you were describing, you were giving a performance right just now, like you were giving you well thanks. That was that was really Jeremy. I'm always sort of auditioning for you so you can see what I can do, so you put it into the show, you know what I mean? Can I toss you an adjustment always? Maybe what's okay? Both of you tell us

what they seem like good writing? Tell me and the readers what the dynamic was Jeremy coming with an adjustment study, coming with an all like like what what what? What's what's all? My favorite thing ever? I mean, come on

better alt, Oh my god, she's She's study. Actually was the one who came in and said, I mean, probably my favorite moment on the show that I get to do well that that that everyone by this time has seen if they're watching it is like the discourse is toxic, where when Darcy gets his bag finally and then he's posing in with it in the mirror and sort of rehearsing lines he's going to say to people when he when he can carry this bag and have like a

serious conversation with people, and we're brainstorming things he could say, and Suddy came in and she said, just say the discourse is toxic. And I was like that, and I just pictured YouTube clowns in village just like cracking each other up, and it made me really happy. Oh, that was a hundred percent study. That was a full study invention.

And also that scene the pairing to give you a sense of the dynamic Boe and like the Matt and study together, like collaborating, just like having a moment, having an idea, like putting it on screen like we did. That was its own thing. That was like a constant source of genius for the show. And it was like set up, knock them down. It was it's such a like flow that you guys have. It's so beautiful and so funny, and that scene is one of my favorite

scenes in the show. And it's one of the only scenes in the entire show that when we saw the first cut of it that like usually is longer and like includes like everything that the editors loved. We didn't change that scene one frame We didn't change a frame of that scene. It was like, this all has to be there. It's perfect. That's Mad, that's Matt, Matt, and

that's and that's the show. That's the show too. I gotta say, I just I feel like I come to a lot of viewing experiences when I watch a show or something as like Compulse three, as like its homework, and it never has felt that way once with what I Love That for You. For me, it's always been oh great, it's Friday when it's streams, or it's Sunday when it airs, like I get to watch, or there's

an Actually I was in New York that night. It was like April seventeen, and the show was gonna secretly premier on linear Um like on Sunday night, like after the first Lady and I was with Blowing and Study and our friend Dave Mazzoni, and I was like, would you guys want to watch it? And that was the same night I was on watching It Happens Live. So we watched that, and then we watched I Love That for You, And I remember being a little nervous. Study and I were a little nervous because you know, we

obviously care what they think. And I remember Bowen turned to me after the pilot and he was like, this was such a great pilot. This is exactly the kind of show I want to watch, and like it made me feel really good and confident, Like obviously I was always confident, but like, you know, all you want is for your smart, funny friends to think it's smart and funny. And then he did. So that's because of you, though, bitch, I mean you came up with the ship. Oh no,

it's it's it's because of you. It's because of a billion people. It's so much bigger than the sum of its parts. I also, I share that like feeling that like that you like it, Bowen is very meaningful to me because I feel like you are truly a taste maker, a genius everybody like I like that is very meaningful to me. That means a lot. I mean, it's it's

it's just true. It's very honest. I mean that that that that that thing where that thing that I said to me is in terms of like being in this show that like is exactly kind of show I want to watch. Is like it was just the truth, and I I want to say that it's just such a it's just such a great vehicle for Vanessa. I know it's like her she's the best show, but it's like she hasn't like she's just such a good least for this kind of thing. She is such a such a

fucking genius. And also like she's the type of person who when we wrote together at us and now like it was like, oh, writing for this person makes me a funnier writer, you know what I mean, Like when you hand when you handling something and it's just like they do like the of it that's like really making it. It just makes you take bigger swings. It makes you feel better. I'm just like, I'm just in love with

She's one of the gift great gifts of my life. Yeah, it really the the ensemble, Like you know, we had a good feeling about it, but watching the show and this is something. So the finale is this this weekend, everybody, and I honestly have thoughts since the beginning that it would make a really great bin. So if you have not yet done it, you can get the showtime trial and you know you can knock it all out and

then watch the finale. And I honestly think all eight episodes are gonna feel very cohesive and good together because the arcs are going to be really fun to see play out in that short little burst. And I'm just excited for people to um to see it because the journeys for all the characters are really really clear, especially

I think with Molly. I think I think for me, it's like, you know, episode two, episode like, watching it week to week is one thing, and then I think watching it all together like what's really great to me?

And there's so many great things. But something I wanted to compliment you on that I've noticed and Molly as well, is that there's stuff in the pilot about Molly's character and even the second episode that you think, oh, that's just a Molly Shannon quirk that ends up like really paying off in a huge character way and in a writing way by the end. And I honestly think, having seen like episodes six and seven and now eight, like it really the seeds are there from the beginning in

a way that's like really really cool. So this to me is like, I think, going to really be a good binge. I agree with you that like the show is actually pretty serialized if you watched watching it all together. I think it would be a nice experience. Absolutely that that is a credit to our incredible writers, Like truly, our writer's room is just fucking geniuses. They're so Albert, Tina Rizzo, She's still Jenkin, Zora be Congaga, Study Greeny, Ali Nda Good, Jesse Klein. Maybe I mean one of

the best. I wanted to ask you though, So something I get asked a lot about the show is um because because you are the gay co creator of the show, and I'm the gay role on the show, openly gay, and we're both openly gay men, and we should say that um openly gay. And so what I wanted to ask you was something I get asked all the time is like, well, how did you navigate this not being like just the sassy gay assistant, or how did you

navigate like this not being like so? And I even get told sometimes like you really elevate this apart from just being the assistant just the assist And what I loved about it from the very beginning was that like he seemed to be aware of that trope and wanted to remind everyone, actually, no, you take me seriously and then immediately gets treated by Jennifer as the assistant, and then we see that navigation and that rub in, that

push and pull. But I would imagine that, like as the creator of this show and as a gay man and as a gay person like in entertainment like that that role probably did give you an opportunity to push that forward. So I just wanted to ask you about, like what went into like creating the gay character on the show. I'm I feel so lucky to play it because it's so dynamic, but like I wanted to ask about,

like how how you approached it. You know, I think we we when we wrote the pilot, we just Vanessa and I love this idea of somebody who was like struggling for power and just didn't get it and was kind of walked all over. And I think, like the gay of it all, like I don't know that I like thought too much about it, And I think maybe that's that's sort of an example of like maybe we stepped into a trope that we didn't really realize that we like should have been a little more aware of.

But but I do feel like from that that I'm talking about like the early stages of it, but like from there, it's like once we knew that it was you and that it would be so much more and that you're just so funny with any scenario that like I, I personally don't look at it as like he's the day one. He's the day assistant, like even though you know I can see that, Like I've also got my question too, So I think that is part of what we've made in the show. But I just didn't. I

just didn't think about it that way. I don't know, I just feel like he's I do. I feel such attachment to Darcy, especially after you know on the page I felt it, and then times and millions after seeing you play him, And we have so many ideas for him, so many backstories and so many things that we just even for real estate's sake, like I didn't get to didn't get to show, or had to cut for money, like we have this this study. Ever tell you about this scene that we cut for Darcy where he goes

and visits his cousins. Oh my god, so we had we couldn't afford it, but so where there was this scene where Darcy goes to like, hey, I'm trying to remember the details, but he goes to like his cousin's birthday party or something and it's or his cousin's kid. It's a nine year old birthday party and it's at like ten pm in like a dirt filled backyard and

and like, yeah, I know exactly. It was like everything has to be, everything has to be in these four walls with literally but so and then Darcy like shows up in um, you know, wearing his like loafers and like just and we get this sense of like him with his family, like just very out of place. And it's like and then I think originally that was when he bought the bag because he was like minded that he comes from trash in his mind, he's embarrassed about

his art. Perfect yeah, perfect genius, great writing, amazing. Is there a tony left for me? I'm gonna make a call.

I think this is the thing, Like, I think people are so easily like programmed with a quote unquote stereotype or a trope that like they think examining it or like popping the hood open on a character level for any like one instance of that trope is like something that they can write off, but it makes it so worth I mean, it's why legally blonde is great is because it's like taking this like stereotypical dumb blonde person but actually like excavating like what she is like as

a human being. I think you guys are doing that with this tripe of what a gay man on TV as a character usually is quote unquote, and yet like of course you're gonna like like fill out all these different contours in like his life, you know, like like hearing that like cousin back story is like makes perfect sense to me, and like I'm like, I want to see that. I don't know. Yeah, And I also think like it's in there enough in the subtext where it's

like that's sort of I understand him now. And I remember in the very beginning, like because I had only seen really the pilot, I was and I maybe it's my own like not trauma, but like experience with like you know, playing roles like this, because I actually have played assistance quite a lot. I would have you, I would imagine that we've all done an assistant. I have. Yeah, So it's because it's just what we're given so many times. And so I think, like I was like, oh, I

really wonder where it's gonna go. And then when it became what it was, and like that there was actual like emotional stuff to go through and that yes, it was about this bag, but really it's more about like he wants so badly to be taken seriously and to be to prove to himself that he's more than just someone who's secondary. Like to me, that's that's like really

rich stuff. And I think that, you know, by the end, like what I love about it is he's in such a different place than he is in the beginning, and so honestly, like it feels weird, but and it's like this was Fire Island too. But before this, I had never ever, ever even gotten an opportunity to play a

character with an arc at all. Like the only thing I had ever done was just like come in and like say a joke or whatever, which is fun and fine, but like, you know, I think that it's like you work for so many years to get like to get this opportunity and then for it to be so good, and like, you know, I remember towards the end, like when I was getting the scripts and just hearing everyone

screaming their trailers about how good they all were. I think, to me it was just exciting for it to be surprising and for it to be layered because I think as like a gay actor, like and as a gay even as a gay writer and gay creator who's like had the opportunity to write these types of things for myself, like because you're experiencing so many times like a limited um amount of things to do, like you just don't

imagine yourself doing them. And so then there I was, like in episode seven, like playing that scene with Perry where it goes a certain way and it's just exciting for me. And so I guess, like I'm just so grateful to you and thankful to you for caring so much about the character and like you know, making it something that's so fun to play and so funny, but also to be honest with you real because I get it.

I understand someone that takes themselves very seriously and like works very hard or not even that they take themselves seriously, is very hard on themselves, and like I think that in doing it, like I was hard on myself, and so now to watch it and be so proud of it is it's I just I can't thank you enough. And like I don't know from the very beginning when I first came in for the audition, I felt really good about it. It's been such a good experience and

so I really man, I can't thank you. And truly and also when you walked into that audition, it was like there was the role belong to absolutely, it was just not it was not even a question. It was just not a question. And so you like, but you also like brought that the acting like you brought like you like are delivering the moments in this show, like it's not just funny, it's more, which is exactly what

we needed and wanted. And like the fact that you can do that, it's just I can't wait all that day. I can't wait for like more, a lot more if we get it well. And I don't know, Bowen, I don't know if you feel like this, but it's like maybe Jeremy to like I don't know, just coming like being true clowns in the beginning of all this, you know what I mean, Like coming from like truly doing comedy, like being clowns, like getting writing jobs, like doing what

you need to do. Yeah, all right, and then but then like but like truly like and then all of a sudden you get an opportunity like this and Bowen, I would imagine it's like this for you as well. It's like you don't know that you can do it totally, like like all the stuff that they throw at you for that, Like we and sometimes I'd read scripts and it will be like Darcy is hysterically crying and weeping

over this, or like this happens. It's like no, no, no, no, but like and then but then you read it and then there's a part and get the drop out. Yeah, well literally, like there's tips and tricks. But like a lot of times, like you as a performer and as an actor, like when you get those scripts and like bow and I'm sure this is true for you to like you read it and you're like, oh my god, I'm so excited. But am I capable of this? Like it really is a thing that you go through right

like I do. But but Jeremy um on set, like it wasn't in the script that you were hysterically crying, but the Jeremy would come in with an adjustment and be like, hey, can you do anything that we wrote and do something a little different than we didn't came up with. I love an adjustment and in theory. I love an adjustment because that's what the job is and it makes it makes I've started to get less in my head about it, like especially at SNL, where it's like, oh, no,

they're not doing this. No, they're not coming in with an adjustment because you're doing a bad job. They're coming in because they want to make it work, and like that's that's all it is, you know. Anyway, the Darcy storyline with the bag, I didn't realize how much I related to that until until like this past episode, until when I was seven were Jeremy, I, I'm sure you can relate to this like any anyone's first season at SNL, and any job is very hard and you feel like

you are powerless and worthless and not valued. And so what you you get it you get a decent paycheck for the first time maybe in your life. And so what do you do. You buy a nice thing for yourself to make you It's it's the retail therapy thing of like making yourself feel better. And that is a

very human thing that anyone would do in that situation. Um, no matter if they were like the gayestest, anybody would like try to I don't know, um just just just just just make just just make comfort themselves with that. It's a version of self soothing. Yeah, it's totally Yeah. And and it's almost like what the whole show is about in some way to like for that, for that which and I participate in it very much, so like

and adjacent does to that. We're like in an examined way, But what do I say, but like but just that that like when you open a box and it's like your thing that you bought your like for that one moment, you will never die, you know what I mean. It's sort of like yeah, and then you just send it to the send it to the island in the middle of the Pacificae. It's it's a show about coping as

a means of survival. Like that's like what is so brilliant about it, I think and literally like in terms of like Johanna and Patricia, like surviving um Joanna and this new place of work, Patricia in terms of like her diagnosis, Darcy in terms of like being treated like garbage at his job, and like just trying to make it through, trying to make it through this like Martha's

vineyard trip, Like it's just it's all. I think the allegories are all and it's not an allegory, but I think all the like representative narratives are there in terms of like all it all feeding into this one concept. That's my take on it. At least. What's the craziest thing you bought during Okay, I was gonna ask you this. Okay, the craziest thing I bought? And Study actually encouraged me because Sudi knew that I was like struggling. She was like,

you should buy something. You should go to SAX and buy something nice for yourself. And Gary Richards into um They're about like go to Sax and buy something nice for yourself. So it was and Studio was like, you should buy a pair of shoes so that when you walk around, people go, oh, there's there Goes Bone with his nice shoes, you know, like it's a way for people to index you or whatever. And so I bought

like just the most basic like Gucci sneakers. But at the time that was like the nicest thing I'd ever bought for myself. But that's, yeah, that's really nice about you. I don't think I don't think I bought anything like I think I blew it on like travel, like yeah, you're breaks, like I just like busted out. Yeah that's the Yeah, well no, and then I would just blow

it up like on food. I'm like, um, like just so that I didn't have because you don't have energy to cook anything, and you're like you want something like you just want like thirty shrimp for no reason, just to like try and feel better. And yeah, this is this is what makes Jeremy like a great like a great creative person. Is that, um he spends money on experiences and not like objects. That's it. I wish I

was like that's how he will eventually go down. What do you mean, Darcy, No, no, no, Jeremy just like like irresponsible, like like travel, it's not irresponsible. It's like, can I tell you all I want right now is to go somewhere far away because they haven't done that in like three years, and I was going and I just I'm reaching out to Brendan Skinnell's boyfriend Joe today because he's a travel agent and I'm gonna be like, can you help me plan this trip? Because Junior, you're

gonna go to London and in Mayorka, Spain. So yeah, maybe Amsterdam because Michelle Collins is there. I'm gonna I was talking Michelle Collins today. She's just in Amsterdam now she has to come back on anyway, I'm going to Amsterdam on Friday. Damn it for how long? What are you doing? For? Like five days? We're seeing like just a close friend of ours there and then okay, like my blabsolute blunt is it? It's sout less fun now that I remember. When I went there, I was like,

oh my god, I'm gonna smoke so much. We like, yes, like I don't all the time anyway, And then I went there years ago and it was like I got way too fucking high so quick, and like me at Henry and his brother Sam, We're supposed to go to the Anne Frank House. And so we arrived so stoned at the Andrank House and we were like shaking, like too emotional to go. We're like it makes me so anxious, like you can't go, you can't be so high, and

then go to the Frank House, You're gonna die. But that I would have a panic attack in there, for sure. You know, that's the experience that millions upon millions of people have had. Yes, I know it's just shaking. That was such an anxious trip to I would have been absolutely out of my mind. But no, I mean it's also the Amsterdam also like such great food, it's so beautiful. Oh my god, you're gonna have the best writing. And Frank, I mean amazing authors, amazing authoress. She really tore um.

I'm obsessed with tour and tearror, like I think it's so funny, so stupid. I think it's time to ask Jeremy. I think we have to ask the question, Jeremy. The question, the central question of this show, Last Cultures. What was the culture that made you say culture? It was for me, this is a cultural moment in your life in terms of movies, television, theater, Tony's music, something in your immediate cultural experience that made you become Jeremy Biler. What was that?

I think for me it was the movie Titanic. I think it's the nineties. I'm like fifteen years old and like the idea that like that my personal boyfriend Leonard DiCaprio would be in a movie that's like about I feel like I've always kind of also been just like a little bit of a like forty five year old dad who likes history and like, so the idea that like this is t wait a minute, this is like a bygone era of like glamour and a tale of like high class, low class upstairs downstairs, and it's on

this wreck, like this ship sang. It is so personal to me and it felt like that was my Like I had a personal relationship with Leo DiCaprio. But the idea that that was like so so popular and so big and so everywhere it was. It's actually like it was like almost confusing to me that like this thing that feels like mine is everybody's. And I had like the double the double VHS. It's like has like it's like holding like the weight of a Bible, you know.

It's like I remember the ca Sto drop of the of the w VHS and just shelves and shelves of Titanic and everyone just like snatching these fucking cassettes. It's so that was such a moment, like the yeah, the release of it all, like the imagine what doing press for that was like Jesus Christ, probably two straight years of NonStop Titanic press. That that that like Leo and Kate and James Cameron were doing like and the whole

cast basic yeah, and they were. They were international, Like I can only imagine what that experience was like, what that journey was like, to the point where like I almost feel like I completely understand both of them, like afterwards not being like I'm going to do the next huge thing, like basically they offered Kate Winslet Shakespeare in Love on a platter, and she was like, no, I am not doing it, Like I am not doing another big thing, even if it's like a slam dunk oscar Win,

even if I'm right for it, or even I would even want to do it, I'm not. And Leo too did like that weird movie The Beach instead of like probably anything else, like well, both of them are real actors, are like thought that they could be. And so they were like, let me not continue this grand journey because everything, like you just said, everything about it was so grand, you know, yeah, it was, it was. It was strangely

meaningful to me. Can you like go one concentric circle in and can you pinpoint it to Leo specifically or does Leo have to go with Titanic? Yeah, what's the sense memory you get from talking about it, like what do you smell? It's like a little bit it's for sure a little bit sexual, whatever the sense for. It's like it's like a little bit like Okay, this, yeah, this is a feeling I want more of. I am

Kate Winslet this is happening to me. I will like I will run down to the lower decks and like swim through the water and like chop off the like the handcuffs with like and I am stunning and I

will survive. But don't you think that like when when when Rose was kissing and licking Jack's fingers in the car, that you were kissing and licking Jack's fingers in the car and he could smell the sweat after the handprint, you know, like I was, yeah, I was in that old car and you could kind of hear the creaking of the ship and then I but I also feel like I don't know if it's the one thing that I can pinpoint because there's also and this is almost

sexual too, there's also like I'm really into like machinery and like big things and also like things in history, like I truly am and like mostation and so like

I not only was obsessed with the Titanic movie. I also had this CD ROM like first person video game like on my power map that was like going through the Titanic, So I also knew like the map of the Titanic and the floors and just something about like the machine and it was like it was like I had an orgasm with Leo and then like double when it's like when the captains like engage these engines, it's

like that that whole thing. I don't know why. It's the it's the perfect convergence of all your interests, which

is Leo, history, machinery, glamour, glamour. Titanic was the container for too many amazing things that people love and nothing will be bigger than it in the Cure and there will never be a greater director than the great James Cameron, and the fact that the fact that his his like most iconic follow up to Titanic is something that had to they had to invent new technology for and there's gonna be seven of and it's like just as long and just as crazy and just as like going for

it in terms of emotion, even though we can all agree like like no one will care, No one will care, as much, but like we will be They're like I'll buy a ticket to Avatar or nine for sure. But it's just like that the only thing that could top Titanic is to like literally leave this world and go to another one and create like another thing, because this

was maximalism. The house down it was because you talk about like it got little kids or teens at the time to literally learn just the nuts and bolts of how this thing sank. I remember having a and splicit understanding of what happened when the iceberg scraped the side, how the water filled all those containers, how why they were on and it could only cover five watertight doors but not the six. Yes, and it goes over the six then she'll break in half, yes, which she did,

which she did, which she did. And also the the I remember like reading up on the decision making that was like essentially those life boats were really just for show. There were not enough, like they never stood a chance, and like the the like ego centrism of like you know, what was it um John Jacob astar Um, you know, and like all of that, Like I just knowing these names and like researching the characters in terms of who they were based on and can get in contrast of

how they were portrayed, etcetera. The Victor Garber of it all. I mean, it was just so you you couldn't read

or know enough about. And I feel like it was also so smart because it was like it existed in that space of like this is an awful tragedy where you can watch people like screaming and like praying for their lives and like fully hurt die, but like far enough away and far enough gone that it's like entertaining or something, or like there's something like it's somehow can be also entertaining and you can like eat popcorn during it. Like it's not like you know what I mean, I

don't know. Just the Titanic, guess the only trash that lives in that's the thing. But at the time there were fully survivors, Like there's no longer any survivors now, like they're all gone, but at the time of the release, like people that had been on that trip were alive, but they but they saw the movie as Wow, like what an incredible thing that like and we can speak

to this experience. I feel like that was no one spoke out against it, right, I don't know, I wondered, because remember this is a time when the media was much more controlled by but by what they wanted the narrative to be. So I don't know that everyone felt like that. I would actually be hard pressed to believe that every single person that was on that ship was like, Wow,

what a commemoration and not an honor. What an honor to have Leo do that by Jeremy's right though, because I mean not to bring this up, but like, there were a few people who like sent me messages after I did the Iceberg on update. They were like, that's that's how Jesus And I'm like, okay, a ship and and but I like, I was just like, I think I think with that like that, I think you're right.

It's like it's just like we we all ate popcorn and like jerked off to a movie about this, you know, Like I think there's been enough distance from it now, and if there is such a thing, I don't know. I just there's not. There's not. I mean, tragedy is always tray tragedy, and it's a mystery to me. I don't mean to interrupt you, sorry, I just no, no, no no, I don't I was throwing it over to you. I'm like right like like like like this is what you're saying.

I think so I think just I don't have the answer, but just somehow Titanic, somehow, just that one thing is like in the pop like people are so fascinated with it and it becomes this thing that's like there's probably like a ride at Disney that's like Titanic. It's like in that kind of space, you know, totally totally um And I don't know why. I just know that it is.

I just I also think something that is so important that we have to say is it is such an important choice to have her hair be read It is such an important shade of hair color because it is she I think she's the only person on that ship besides her mother who has that color hair, right, like like she is the beauty of the ship. She's she's literally her name is literally Rose and she's got red hair. Like even that is just so funny. Like I find

it incredibly genius. And the script is the mind of James call Yeah, but that's another thing too, is like you almost have to hand it to the script, like because we all watch it and we're like l O L. This script is so bad, like like the fact that she's going to be the one that's like, yes, I noticed that there are enough lifeboats nor singable. But that is how you speak to everyone by dumbing it down so much. It's like everyone's gonna get this. It's Star

Cruss lovers. He's poor, she's read. They fall in love, they find each other, they finally vocalize it. The ship sinks and it's a tragedy and it's it's it's based in reality. It's like and there's a big song, you know. And the arc is the arc is the first time you see her, she's in a big fucking hat yep, coming out of a car. And then the last time you see her, she's in rags, you know, on the s s on the Carpathia looking at the Statue of Liberty.

That's that's that's the arc. That is the ark for you, Yes, exactly. And she's so miserable, you know, she's just got everything

but nothing at the beginning. And you have like the great Bill Paxton scenes where like he he occupies such a special place in movies where he's always like walking next to a truck explaining something like how it works, right, I'm just really you buy it rest in peace because he's in another one of my favorite maximalist movies of the night you twist, twister, twist, I mean, and never forget how how one Hunt relates this, because I remember being a little fag watching the Oscars that year and

thinking it's a Titanic is gonna win all the Academy Awards. I can't wait for Kate winsle to win her Oscar for her portrayal of Rose. And then Helen Hunt walked up there a TV star and takes the Oscar for as good as it gets, which probably, looking back, is the performance of the year. I probably, but I remember being so pissed off that that happened to Kate because I had attached her. Yeah, where we're not? Were we not devastated that Leo did notch it up to the

Oscars that year, not nominated, not even nominated. It was a controversy. It was like really the beginning of the end for him and he he of course, he of course was a prior nominee for his um you know, portrayal of someone with with with mentally handy. He remember that this this is also and I'm gonna I'm gonna use the word and it's just because this is what

everyone was at the time. Literally, people in the nineties would just be like and Leonardo DiCaprio's incredibly brave performance as a retarded child, like just they just the word retarded was being thrown out around so much, Like, so, you played a retarded kid in the movie, and you were so good as being retarded. So can you talk a little bit about how you've studied to be retarded?

He was like, well, when I've tried to be retarded, it was just like it was just so funny and you would never do it now, and it's such a relic of the past. It's but the fact that he he clearly wanted it so bad, you know, for his entire life he has wanted going all the way back to his true youth, when he did truly something that you would never do now, which is the most oscar bait thing in Gilbert Grape to like play a mentally handicapped person, which we allowed and allowed and allowed, and

it never stopped until he finally got his oscar. Like the lengths he would go to get one, so of course he didn't show him this. This is obviously always been so paramount to him. I never put that together. Oh, he's wanted it so bad for soul. Really I didn't. Yeah, that's yeah. I think you're right. Yeah, and I think I think we can print that. Yeah, it's printed. It's actually real culture number seventeen. Leonardo. He's wanted, said, um, I think I could spend hours talking my Titanic truly.

I mean, there's also so many iconic scenes that are only iconic to gay people, such as the scene where um Rose's mother puts her in the corset. Ah. Yeah, I mean you know the line, wait when gone? Our choices are never easy gone? Of course I know, of course, I know they's gone. You want me to go back to being a seamstress stress? This is the most iconic couplet. You would see me working, You would see me working here. It is Why are you being so selfish? Selfish? Amazing?

The whole scene is absolutely epic. I mean, it's just it's just I can't. And Francis Fisher is her name of the mother and she never got the credit, never got the credit, and she was an amazing episode of Grace Now and during season two amazing episodes of Graz season two. Who was She? Who was she? In Gras

and season two? Remember remember there was a story at the end of the season where a family of like Hillbillies got hit by a truck and um, you know, the pregnant mother was dying and they had to save the baby. And but Francis was so good at it. That is that is a performance that that she says it lost to the winds. She just lost to the winds. I mean, she can't bring it in Titanic. She she

did to the evil like she served the fucking story. Yeah, well, I just want to say Billy Zane, like, abe, what Jeremy, what's your Billy Zane moment? I for something? I like when he was on in the movie, I'd be like, okay, I'm looking back, like next next you were not. I don't know what I was not. I was not. I was like, I think I didn't both didn't like the character. But then I also something was like I don't want to watch this man. I don't know why because he

wasn't because he was he was, thank you. That's exactly probably right. He also slaps her, yes, and people forget that he slaps her across the face and screams in her face, flips the table, flips the table a tray or something, and it pretends to get out. Yeah, oh god, that's right. Terrible guy. Also at the end, at the end, the stock market crash and he put a he put a bullet in his mouth. He put a pistol in

his mouth, like you find out of that. And also like her performance the Old Woman's performance George and Academy Award nominee for sitting in a chair and being like yeah, yeah, Niconic Titanic even at one point I think it was that as now I don't remember. We never wrote it, but it was we had a sketch idea for you know, like the the like the court to string quartet keeps

playing as like as the bow goes down. It was like that on the Titanic, and it's thinking that happens, and then he pan over and there's like an improv troup that's going to keep doing take a suggestion there is so like I'm not actually not surprised, Like it's funny that Bowen's iceberg thing popped off so much on SNL. I also was doing a Titanic themed bit for years, and it's it's actually still in my stand up every

now and then. I feel a little self conscious doing it now because I feel like people are going to be like, oh, yeah, here he is doing a good Titanic thing, even after Boonen did the Iceberg, but I hadn't doing this. I will say about the Iceberg, there's no way. It wasn't. Not that there's no way, but it's like it popped off because it's Titanic, because of course, obsessed because of you, because of what you mean. I mean,

it's fucking Genia. There is something about being a gay person who like is obsessed with this like that you can't help but think of like sketch situations around it.

Like I remember I had written a bunch of Titanic team sketches in college when I was in Hammercats with Sudi, And then in my stand up, I do like like a gay guy who was like convinced to go to on the Titanic with his like gay friends for their cruise trap and he wanted so badly to be on the Mauritania because it had better night life and enough life boats and there weren't gonna be kids, and now here they are sinking, and like he's so piste off that he's so cold, even though he said this was

not the boat, and like he's just so pissed off because like the violinists are playing and you can't even dance to this music. It's so it's so fucked up,

and he's just mad at his gay friends. But I remember like being on like a like a gay trip, like it was like a Palm Springs trip or whatever, and like those little squabbles that pop up a hashtag Fire Island and thinking like what about a group of gays that were on the Titanic together thinking it would be fun and it's just like like they tried to say third class and now they're like an absolutely sink, and like fucking why they Leo didn't even talk to them.

There had to be one gay group on the Titanic. The gays on the Titanic were so fucking pissed, Like Oscar Wild and boy Douglas Okay he said, he's a history. Okay, here he is. We we're going to figure out if his last name was less or not. But in the meantime we're gonna do I don't think so, honey, And this is our sort of iconic segment, Jeremy, Um, where we sort of pop off for one minute and you've

done it. You've done a live show. I've seen you t we do sixty seconds of cant believe I get to witness the two of you doing this right now and see your face's privileged. Sorry, go ahead, prepared to prepare. Um always so um, Okay, I have one want you want to go first today because I think I need a second? Yeah, I have one waits has been real popped off? No, okay, there's been no real That's okay,

thank god, Okay, thank god. Um, but I was really nervous there because I've been so engaged in the conversation. I almost forgot to be real. I was being real here. We were too busy being real here to be real over there. And sometimes that's going to happen with the adamit. Do you have be real, Jeremy? No? In fact, I um, I truly didn't know what the funk you were talking about.

And I, as we were talking beforehand, I google it and I look at it now and I I'm seeing I'm looking at it like literally as we speak and are you not in it's not for me, it's not for you. I think I think it's for everyone because it actually like it solves so many problems that are so like disgusting about social media, about Instagram specifically, where it's like it feels to like it's a brochure. Yes,

it's a brochure, and so be real. It's just like you see how boring you see how everyone is just as boring as you are. I'm gonna get on it. I'm gonna eat my words actually and get on it. And I definitely am entreated. I don't want to pressure, like control over my image is like very very scary to me. I get I understand it's benething with people. It's not like I'm not interested in that. Okay, Okay, then maybe it isn't for you, But I think I

think it could be liberating. Like I found it very liberating, and and so you felt like you follow people and they follow you and then and it's so so what it doesn't happen. So every there's a there's a time, a random time that every single day where it goes you have two minutes to po it's your be real, and it's a front facing camera shot and your face camera shot, and so and so you just wherever you are.

It's so nice too. And everyone was looking to feed the same time of each other's be reals as people walking down the street or cooking or just sitting around their house. It's just it's just it's actually, that's actually kind of genius. So genius. You're gonna love the way you look, guarantee it. This is I don't think so, honey. As time starts now, I don't think so honey. Us not getting to see Darcy and Perry fuck, and I love that for you. You just see them make out

and kiss and that's it. I wanted to see these two hot. My friend is hot and John O Wilson is hot. White men? Fuck, why can't you give that stile? I wanted to see that. And then you and then you get Matt Rodgers taping up a box with a smile on his space in the next scene, no show me skin flapping on skin. I want, I want, I want these two men to work with it into these into MS coordinator and have a good time and respecting others boundaries. And Jono Wilson I met him very briefly

at a screening once. He was so lovely. I just want. I want more Jona screen time in addition to more Matt Roger screen time. I can't wait to see how this story ends up. I can't see. I can't wait to see where the story ends. Um, but I just

give us five set scenes in TV. It's showtime. Come on, it's a Hunter parishes ass every season on fucking Weeds, and that's I have to agree, honestly, what my my dream for a season two is just it opens on uh, Perry and Dar fucking just parts, just body parts, fucking for an unbroken five minute shot, and have to have Bethan there. Why not just if if it's like, oh, we can't have two guys like we can have anal, then like have like one of we can't have anal.

It's actually it's actually in my track essentially in my showtime contract that I have to show my ass if you ask. Okay, So I'm just saying yeah. I spoke with my lawyer about it. They were like, you have to show your ass a showtime and I was I was like, I'm good with it, but my my I have many hopes and dreams for That's my contract, right. I remember reading in the script that that was going to happen and we were like, we're going to shoot it. And I remember coming to you and I think you

remember this, I asked you. I was like, so, do you think that they fuck in this product closet? And then you were like, I think that they do, like everything, but fucking I think that, like they don't fuck explicitly, but like I think they have a good time. And I was like, Okay, cool, and I just have to like fill in the blanks for myself, like and what happened and that I had a fun I had a fun time doing that. I like I pictured it that

it was like that. It's like that moment where you finally which I definitely like in college had with somebody in a scare well or something where you're like we are going to go there and this is not the place right now, but like this is hot TBD. What what's what's background? Was he like a is he comedy guy?

Did he done? Great? He's a fucking genius. He really is so funny and he's so he's just so good at the character and he's great energy to the point where like I remember, like we shot a scene earlier in the season where it was just like get me getting like a video testimonial for him from Ally's characters, like Anniversary. I remember we went back and forth a couple of times, and like I did have a little bit of butterflies in my stomach because I do think

he's so funny and handsome. And I walked away and Jesse Klein came over to me and she was like, I think there was a little bit of chemistry there, and I was like, do you think? And then I didn't think about it until the end of the season, and then I truly like had such a friend crush on him. I loved him so much. And then I read in the script that it was gonna happen, and I remember my stomach went to my feet because I was like, oh my god, Oh no, I hope he's

like cool with this. I hope he doesn't like mind like, because he's a strict guy. You know, I've never I've never done kissed, and he was like, no, I've never done it on screen kiss before, and he was my first on screen kiss, and so I was just like, oh my god, Like I was so nervous. I was really nervous. Man. It's so funny. It's so it's just it's so funny. I love it too. Well, that's that's my I don't think Mack, you have one. Yeah, sure, okay, this is Matt Rodgers. I don't think so, honey. His

time starts now. I don't think so, honey, Top Gone, Maverick, Mama. I really tried super hard for this, Honestly, I don't. I think it takes a really long time to get good, and I am standing. But the thing is, like, I don't think so, honey. The fact that they had like this like beach volleyball scene that they tried to recreate with like a beach football scene, and it was nearly

gay enough. The thing that's so good about Top Gun is you have that insane scene event playing beach volleyball and their greased up and the men are so fucking hot and the camera lingers on their body and it feels homo erotic. Was this I don't think, so, honey. And I don't know if it's because now Tom Cruise all in his head about being called gay like so many years later, and he wasn't in his head about

it then. But the fact is like the cuts were so short and sharp, and you didn't get to linger on the hottest men in America j Ellis, Glenn Powell, Miles Teller, and you're gonna float away from them. No, I don't think so, honey. I needed more. I needed more. I needed more of Jennifer Connelly, like with her perfect hair after a sailboating. I needed more. It wasn't gay

enough for me. I don't think so, honey. The thing about Top Gun is it's like it's like a gay homo erotic movie on top of being frustrate red, and that's what brought everyone together to enjoy it, mono culture. And I just feel like the thing that was missing was like I was watching it the whole time, waiting for the climax, and then in the process of watching and I'm like, where's the gay ship? You know what I mean? And like just having the Lady Gaga score

in the background is not enough. Like I wanted more visceral homo erotic ship. That is what brings me to Top Gun, and and as a result, Top go on Maverick and I feel like they chicken out of it. Yeah, you have a good you have a decent point. Yeah, but I loved the movie. Yes you loved it? I did, Yes, what did you like about it? I just love Tom Cruise. I love Tom cres. I think he's a perfect movie star. Um,

he's got so much going on. He makes the most simple, like ridiculous little things feel so high stakes, like one minute it's it's And the way he listens and he's sort of like clenching his jaw when he's listening and you see a little like muscles in the side of Space movie. He's just so so in the world of make believe that you're like, you can't help but only believe the reality that he's presenting to There's no way

to look away from it. Totally. I think the last great Tom Cruise movie I saw it was unfortunately, Edge of Tomorrow, and that was like ages ago. Well, that's fantastic. The thing about Tom Cruise is he is a great actor, and you actually, as an actor, can learn a lot from watching him because because he is so crazy that he is like an active listener and everything feels very watchable when he's on screen because he is so in it.

My problem is not with him, and I understood, I understand that in Dragging Top Gun Maverick, you sort of do drag Tom Cruise because he is so involved in the fabric of making it like it's everything is always a Tom Cruise production, etcetera. But for me, it's just like I feel the movie shied away from one of the elements that, whether they want to admit it or not, made it really great, and you want to see j Ellis great stuff like kind of wrestling with another good

with Glenn or something. And also too many characters, like just too many characters that I didn't I didn't care about, like j Ellis's character at all. I didn't really when Glenn Powell ex oiler alert seconds eeen seconds when Glenn Powell comes in and like saves the day at the end, Like I get that he and Miles Teller like had like a like a like a rivalry that sort of mirrors the one that Val Kilmer had with Tom earlier, but like it wasn't lived in enough, Like I didn't

feel the stakes of it. I also really don't like and this should have been in the I don't think so, honey, But I don't like what they did with the Meg Ryan character, Like she dies off screen they barely mentioned her, and I feel like it was giving sexism that they didn't have her back. And also, like, what happened to Kelly McGillis what happened to her character? I know she

wasn't asked either. They just like moved on with Jennifer Connolly, who's like, I guess character's name is mentioned in the original. But that's not really enough for me. I wanted a little bit more connection to the original, for the gays and for the women who also enjoy top gun. This movie was aggressively hetero in a way that I feel was like hetero drag fun maximalism, but the grandeur of the homo eroticism I was missing, and I thought that

they could have made that gesture. They would have been amazing if like when John Hamm walks up to him on the beach, is like, we have like one week left for training. What what are you out here playing football? What are you doing? He's like, you want a team, there's your team. You just cut to them and it's just full orgy. Just yeah, exactly exactly. That could have been great, Thank you. So it is time for Jeremy

Byler's I don't think so. Honey, are you ready, sir? Okay, I'm ready, Okay, Jeremy Butler's I don't think so, honey. His time it starts now, Okay, I don't think so, honey. QR code menus okay. And this is a phenomenon that has been has made it to Europe. I think we have read you cannot catch COVID from a piece of paper. I want hand me a piece of I don't want to. I don't want to click through to the to the

correct tails and then click back to the appetizers. Can I please like order like a ferrata or or like an avocado without having to use face I D and by the way, classes okay, uh ages, okay, my parents are know how to use a QR code. Not everybody is on the tim cook tea like flowing your thumbs on a little like little rectangle of glass all day like a fucking t rex. Can I just want a warm glow? I want to be with my my husband's fellowshipping. I don't want blue light. This is not a blue

light place. I don't think so. And that's you know what? That was topical, timely and truthful. Thank you. Well, there was a real anger within me. All you want is your husband and fellowship? Is that what you said? Gorgeous fellowshipping friends? You know, just a candle light glow? And is there anything more relatable than a complaint about a restaurant? Absolutely, we all understand that this time. But here's the thing. You are so correct. You can't get COVID from it now.

It's like you know what's going on. It's like, oh wow, we've really like reduced the like wasting paper, the footprint, and now I don't think we will ever go back. I think that's one of those things that with COVID has changed forever. I really do. Is it also the restaurants? Is it restaurants being like, oh, this is just easier, like maybe we have to do anything. We just like take this to the table and then we put it

online and like whatever. Like it's I guess it's more tedious to have the menus, but it does for me. It takes away from the service aspect a little bit. I'm like, oh, I want I want to be like I want for someone to reach over me and hand me something or take some one and hand me a thing that's been that's been printed in my It is just it's a lot to negotiate, like like the scrolling back and forth between like brunch, lunch, dinner, drinks. It's like to be able to like check your email while

you're ordering. But you know, it's, yeah, I'm happy, like I've been trying to, like notice when I have like little feelings like deep within and when I pull out, you know, when I pull out the take the QR code, it's like there's something happening, something happening right, and you let that out. I'm so glad, and I wonder thank you for thank you for affording me the opportunity. I

hope that restaurants here, this restaurant matters here. This I think a lot of people in the industry listen to this podcast, and I what I want is I want people to start unionizing, shaking things up at their restaurant. I want servers, bus boys, bar backs. You guys are the backbone of these restaurants. So it's your voice that matters. Let's during the next staff meeting, let's say something, okay something, Let's make this bottom up. Okay, Let's make this bottom up,

not top down, top down, bottom up. This has been a top down, bottom up, absolutely fantastic episode of Lost culturest this Jeremy, Oh my god, thank you so much, thank you for inviting me here, Jeremy. It was a lot of fun the best. I feel like I got called to the to like the fun the fun person table, Like I really feel was it fun? Fume? Do you guys, do you gonna have fun anymore? Doing these we have?

We always have fun. But you're in Spain while your husband is like in the yard, Like that sounds like more fun to me. Well, but here's the thing. We're parked for like a long for like weeks. I'm like, I'm having all my long days reading my books. Now is my moment to like connect with the real world and see people that I love. And uh, this was actually perfect And I'm gonna go, oh my god, your gorgeous husband god in Spain, what the aspirational life? Um? Well,

we love you so much. And the season finale of I Love That for You is airing this weekend. You can stream it on Friday and then forever and you can watch it when it airs linear on Sunday at eight thirty on Showtime. But this has been great, Thank you, motherfucker, and every episode with the song yeah go to listen to the rest of that. You can get the VHS tape of Titanics away in your parents closet somewhere and sort of fast forward to the end of the second cassette and wait for their credits by