I was getting ready to drive to the Warner Brothers to read with Shane, and I called Bonnie up in New York and her agent her assistant put me on hold because I'm calling her up to be to say to her, I can't go in and do this, like this is like way over my head, this material. I have no idea what I'm doing. And in that moment, of course, I hear myself telling me it's I'm on hold for ages, and all of a sudden, I just hang up the damn phone, and I was like, you know what that means. I have to go in.
I have to do this audition, you know, and say, God, I did because it changed my life.
Hi.
I'm Michelle Montiman, and I am very happy to be here.
Hi, everybody, we're back. Well, your back off the beat is back and I am back me being your host, Ryan Bomgarterner, and you know who else is back, My guest, Michelle Monahan. Technically she's here for the first time, but she is back in my heart. She's had an incredible and incredibly prolific career, starring in movies like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Gone, Baby Gone, The Mission Impossible franchises, Pixels,
Patriots Day, and most recently Maxine Plus. She's been in spectacular shows Boston Public, The Original True Detective, The Path, Echoes, and a brand news series that I am enjoying very much, Apple TV Plus's Bad Monkey with Vince Vaughan. She's such a complex and versatile actor. She has an epic career. But before we got into that, there's one thing I
have to address with her. While doing my usual research for this converse, I came across one tiny detail that, well, it truly rocked me, and I don't think I would be doing just as her her story or to you listeners if I didn't address it head on. Michelle is a blue ribbon hog wrestler. I repeat. As a child, Michelle wrestled hogs with such skill she was proclaimed the best of the best of all other hog wrestling children. Now, what is hog wrestling? Why are so many children doing it?
What happens when the hog wins? And most of all, why did she leave behind a promising career in hog wrestling for Hollywood. We're about to find out and learn all about this ancient Iowan tradition. Here she is champion hog wrestler. Michelle Monaghan Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and squeak.
Gana bubble and squeaker, cooking every move from the nut before.
Hi Michelle, Hi Brian.
How are you.
I'm doing all right? How are you?
I'm great? Thank you?
Yeah? Where are you hanging out here this summer? Are you? Are you overseas?
I was overseas and i just returned from Thailand, so I'm back in Los Angeles.
All right, Well, welcome home.
Thank you.
Yeah. I have been diving into your your life and career here a little bit, and now I'm a bigger fan now than I was before. I understand. You grew up in Iowa. Winthrop.
I did Winthrop, Iowa, very small town in northeast Iowa. Yeah.
What do you think that gave you as a base?
Oh gosh, it's such a good it's such a great question. I mean, I think it's interesting. You know, growing up you don't know any different, right, It's like wherever you grew up is that's your backyard, and that's what you're familiar with. It gave me a strong sense of community. I grew up in a town of a little over seven hundred people. I had thirty nine people in my graduating class. We were a tight knit community and you really loved your neighbors and you were just there for
one another. So I think it gave me a great kind of backbone, also a strong work ethic. My dad was a farmer, My mom also ran a daycare from home. We fostered children all growing up. My parents were really incredible members of the community. And so that's what it gave me. It gave me my family and my community for sure. And then what's so interesting about kind of coming from a small town like that, I guess to kind of think everything is possible and maybe nothing is possible,
and depending on how maybe who are raised. You know, I happen to be raised with like you can do anything you want to do. And I was naive enough to think, like, yeah I can, why not? And so I set out for bigger cities and kind of greater things. And then once I discovered, you know, the rest of the world, I sort of never looked back. But it's always maintained having had that great small town as a foundation.
Yeah, I mean, part of the reason I ask, right is because you and now this is so dumb, all right, Admittedly, but you think about like I don't know, particularly people who have families and the entertainment business who start out maybe at a super young age. You're from la or for you're from New York, and not that there's anything wrong with both of those places. My children will come from those places but same but but but a diverse
a different kind of upbringing in background. There is going to be something about you that is different that now people may not be able to articulate what that thing is. But like you, for example, you were a blue ribbon hog wrestler. Now what this Now? What this true? No one, No one would be able to say, oh, yeah, she's
the hog wrestler. But that experience in and of itself is is you're going to present yourself to the world in at least a slightly different way with it with a slightly different perspective.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's funny you mentioned that, but yes it's true. I don't think they do that anymore at our County Fair. I don't think Peter would be down for it. But that was a normal that was like a normal, that was a normal thing that you would enter into a hog wrestling contest, and people probably still don't know what it is, but you basically my best friend, and she's still my best friend. I just saw a
couple of weeks ago in Iowa. I was back there and she and I were probably I don't know, everybody did it from around town. I mean, that was just the thing you did. You get in a big, probably about fifteen foot diameter pin and it's full of mud, and there's a hog in there, and there's a barrel, and you run around and you chase the hog and you try to, like as fast as you can get the hog into the barrel. It's actually cruel and unusual when I now look back at it.
But at the time, my friend and I happened to be really good at it, and we won the Blue Ribbon that summer, and so that is, you know, But you're right, like those are the things that defined me.
You know. It's just like I just said, I was suspect from my brother's wedding, and we were laughing because I was looking at all the cornfields that are just surround my mom and dad's house. Of course, I used to go like God. I used to walk beans, I used to cancel, I used to pick up rock like all those things that are just very Midwestern. Yeah, but that really really defined me. Those were my first jobs.
I spent so much time in those fields, and you know, I still when I go back, I have so much nostalgia for it.
Well, you know, I grew up in large part the same way. So just I mean, just to make you feel like you have nothing to worry about. Mine were distinctly Southern as opposed to the Midwestern, right, got it. So it was more shrimping, okay, but but frog gigging a thing that I that I have done. Yes, this is Oh my god, have I never told the maybe
I'm going to get canceled? And I was just like trying to make you feel better, you know, because they were by the way, they were eaten, so they uh, this is in the middle of the night dark you wear my this is when I was a kid. This is not a joke. My mining helmets, you know, uh no, not mining lights on the on your forehead like like
a miner. You go with a cane pole in a canoe down a creek a little river, and you shine from your forehead the light onto the banks and you see the underbelly of the frog and the frog freezes in the light and then oh my god, all right, producers, it's got this. Then you you have a long other pole with a little gig on it. Yeah, and you get the thing as close as you can through the frog and then yeah, and then you can you gig it. Yeah, and then you take them home and you eat it.
But that, yeah, it's frog hunting. It's frog hunting.
Hunting.
We go, we go deer hunting, you know where I come from, but we also eat the deer. But also like, how do they how do they? You know, frog legs. I've had frog legs before in France, and that's just another form of frog gigging. But it's just, uh, it's the French French gigging. I guess I don't know.
All right, enough about frogs and hogs. What else did you do as a kid, Like, did you have other hot Were you into sports or I.
Wasn't wasn't Yeah, I wasn't. I wasn't into sports at all. I like being around sports, Like I I was a track manager. I was like a wrestling cheerleader. For one year, I did sill which are otherwise known as like the flags. I did that for several years. In high school, which I loved and I still like to throw a flag around the backyard. I babysat. I mean, I did a speech class, I did debates. Yeah, my brother did drama.
And then, you know, for lack of anything else to do, I sort of followed in my brother's footsteps and I joined him in the school play. And I think that was the first time and I didn't have any desire to be an actress at that point at all. It took me until my early twenties to discover that, but I remember that feeling of being on stage, and I remember loving that kind of collaboration with everyone so much.
So that was probably my first introduction to what ultimately I was going to I was going to do.
Yeah, you moved it to Chicago, the big city to study journalism. Was journalism the plan that journal was that the plan.
Journalism was always the plan. You know. I grew up in a family that we loved current events. We watched we sat down and watched the nightly news of Tom Brokaw every single night. I loved journalism. I loved the news, and I really really wanted to be a journalist and an investigative journalist. Broadcast news. And when I think about it, I'm like, maybe that was the closest thing I thought that I could be, to be on camera. Maybe that
had something to do with it too. I don't know, because when you grew up in a town, it was like some I heard people, I don't even think, like you think you could be an actor or anything like that. So I went and I studied journalism at Columbia College in Chicago, and you know, I loved it. It was it was really my dream. And I had started modeling in Chicago, and I modeled for Montgomery Ward for Target,
and that's really how I put myself through school. I really thought that that was the end all and be all. And then I realized my senior year I wasn't. I wasn't cut out for journalism. I didn't. I found out I was going to have to go back to small markets such as Iowa and essentially be a one man band, you know. And I was like, wait a second. I really liked the big city. The modeling was going pretty well.
I was paying my bills and saving some money, and uh, and then I had this overwhelming feeling I needed to move to New York and I had a buddy that moved there, and I moved. I moved in with him, coincided with a terrible breakup with someone, so it just all the cards kind of fell into right into place, and moved to New York.
Okay, so before before New York, how did you start model? Like? Did you find an agent? Did you there's a mid photo?
So I was scouted in Iowa and like Cedar Rapids, Iowa and yeah, yeah, So it was one of those things like we think that you could be a model that can take some photos. And I loved the sound of that, you know, I'd been told that before and didn't really think too much of it. But I was also the gal looking through all those Sears catalogs and you know, just loving all the ladies in there, you know, loving all the models. And so when I had the opportunity to take some test photos, I guess I got
very excited. And shortly thereafter I was able to secure an agent and agency Elite Model Agency in Chicago, and my dad would drive me four and a half hours. This was a big deal for him to take time off of work to take me into Chicago to dry. He wouldn't even he never missed a day work in his life unless it was to drive me into work for Montgomery Wards. That was a really big deal, Like, you know, they really believed in me, and you know, I was making I was probably making six hundred bucks
for the day, which is a lot of money. Yeah, and you know he didn't even make me payper gas. So that was awfully sweet. So that was it. That was it, And so I knew, you know, while I was in high school, I was able to make that money. And so I thought, gosh, I grew up very humble, humble, and my folks were always like, listen, we want you to go to college, but we can't help out that much, you know. And so you know, I saw a great opportunity.
I was like, listen, I love modeling. I can make some tuition here and I can go to college and studying journalism in a big city. Like perfect.
Yeah, that's awesome. So okay, so then you go, it's the perfect time you decide I'm not going back to small markets, I'm going to the big city. For you. At that moment, was it about just getting to New York or did you have a plan.
Okay, yeah, I wanted to live in New York. By that time, I had been there for a couple of jobs and gigs, and there was just something so special about that city that I felt really connected to, and I really there was this feeling that something was going to happened for me there and I didn't know what it was, but I knew that I'd be okay because I could continue to model and I would just kind of make my way, and for an entire year, that's kind of what I did. I just went on casting,
so I made enough money to pay my rent. I found another roommate, and it was great. And then commercials started coming through.
Through the modeling, through the through the model, through.
The modeling, right and then you know, I think it was like a secret dealtorant commercial. It was a it was a face wash commercial. It was a clean and clear. There was a Tampax commercial. And there it was like all of it was going and then, you know, and it was great because I was making money and I was, you know, kind of paying off my loans now at
that stage. And then sure enough, an audition came through my modeling agent for a role on the show called Young Americans, and it was this yeah on CW and I think it came through the modeling agencies because they were looking for a model type and the agent was saying, listen, you've had good luck doing these commercials. You know you should give it a shot. And I thought, yeah, I don't have anything else. Sleeper was like why not? And
I got the gig. I got the gig and they were like, can you be on a train to Baltimore tomorrow at ten am? And I was like wait what? And sure enough, you know, I was on a train at Baltimore and started working with Kate Bosworth and Kate Minnig and Ian Summerhoulder. It was such a wonderful cast, but I had no idea what I was doing when I mean to tell you like, it took me a whole season to learn what my mark was. I mean, I was so green. It was so green, but it
was it was such an amazing opportunity. And I think that's really when I was like, wow, I loved it again. It was that collaboration. I was familiar with the camera from modeling, so I felt comfortable with it and I loved the people. And then it was when I got back to New York after that gig, I thought Oh wow, Maybe I should find an agent, you know, maybe I should take this more seriously.
How many episodes did you do on that?
I think I did gosh, I'd hate to say maybe five, okay, and it got it got canceled after the first season, and it was just a I think I was just a guest star. But I think I did five.
Five.
But you were there long enough to you know, because a lot of guest stars sometimes it's hard to have the time and feel comfortable enough to figure things out. But being there five weeks doing five episodes or however long it was for five episodes, you can kind of get your feet under you feel comfortable with the people, you know, all of those things that are just sort of inherently difficult totally.
And we were all just a bunch of young kids too, so it was all it felt like summer camp in Baltimore. We were jet skiing on a lake and are yeah, I come on, man, it.
Was like we were having a you know, for sure, I felt co Yeah, this I old girl felt right at home.
I was good. I was totally good. I was like, do they have beer in Baltimore? They do fantastic.
Well, pretty shortly after that role on Boston Public. Yes, now talk about what kind of doors that opened for you, because this in terms of shows, would you consider it break?
Yeah, it was definitely my first break. It was a really big break. And I think, if I remember it correctly, I had auditioned for a David Kelly show at the time, and I didn't get the gig. But then he turned around and he wrote me Kimberly woods As. I can't believe I remember that name, but it was because it was like my first gig, and that was a big deal because I was living in New York at the time, and I remember having to come out to LA living
in Manhattan Beach in a little apartment. I was shooting at Rosecrant Studios, And again, that was an amazing cast, just such a beautiful, welcoming cast, and I got to play this teacher, this young teacher, and I learned a lot on that show. I mean, that's really where I learned how to act. That was just that was the beginning because I had never studied acting. So every job that I went to from there in on out was
really acting one on one, acting two two. It's I learned everything from my fellow coast and directors.
You get a huge role in a very very big film, Kiss Kiss, Bang bang. Is this happening at the same time the Boston public is happening, So.
Boston Public happens, And then yes, it's happening. It's basically happening right around the same time I'm in town. I auditioned for the role, and originally it was somebody else that was going to play Robert's part, and then I knew they they they were interested me, and I think the movie kind of went away for a few months, and then I randomly got a call saying, you know, Shane Black wants you to come in and read with him.
I remember calling it my agent at the time who I got after Young Americans, who I'm still with today. By the way, twenty six years I was with her last night.
We realized, what's for you?
Thank you? Yeah, well that's a testament to her, my friend.
Twenty six years with the same agent.
Yeah.
I basically knocked on her door in New York when I had that job of young Americans, and I said, I have this job, but I don't have an agent. So first of all, that got me in the door, right, and I was like, I don't know, but I think maybe this is what I'm supposed to do. I don't know really what I'm doing, but I promised all work hard, and she was like, I believe you. Let's give it a shot. And so I remember calling her. I was flow. They flew me out here. I was staying at what
was the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood. It was close to Warner Brothers, and I was getting ready to drive to the Warner Brothers to read with Shane, and I called Bonnie up in New York and her agent, her assistant put me on hold because I'm calling her up to be to say to her, I can't go in and do this, like this is like way over my head,
this material. I have no idea what I'm doing. And in that moment, of course, I hear myself telling me I'm on hold for ages, and all of a sudden, I just hang up the damn phone, and I was like, you know what that means. I have to go in. I have to do this.
Audition, you know, and say, God I did because it changed my life.
Wow. And that's just a number of times now I always go up against that I can't do this or oh, I'm scared to do this or you know that fear of me. And I always go back to that moment because that was such a fundamental moment and the perseverance you know that it takes to be an actor, because it did. It was an integral moment that changed my life.
And I sat down and I read with Shane. It was a great reading, and I think the following week they offered me the role and I went in and I read with Robert and it was an amazing It was amazing, and that that experience is one of the highlights of my career. I just had such an amazing time working with Robert and Shane and of course Val. We were all super tight and again I learned so much.
Robert taught me how to improv on that on that on that film, not that we needed better words than Shading Black's words because they're so brilliant, but you know, Robert, you know, Oh, so that was awesome. That was like, that was a huge turning point for me. And I think it was in the middle of shooting that I got an audition for North Country and then that was a very another really big film for me, and the cast was incredible and still very dear to me. Nicky Carro and Charlie's and Jeremy.
Yeah, I mean you go on to run at this time? Do you give credit to kiss Kiss Bang Bang? Is that? What? Did it?
A hundred? I would say one hundred percent. It's interesting.
There was a film that I did, and it's important for actors to hear this too. I did a small role in Constantine with Keanu Reeves. This was so many years ago, was structured by Francis Lawrence and I get a call from Francis Lawrence after I shoot it and he says, I'm so sorry, but I have to cut you out of the film.
Well, I'm so green. I call it Bonnie my agent, and I'm like, do I have to give the money back? Like, I'm so naive? Right, He's liked, of course, you don't have to give them money back. Of course you don't have to give them money back. Well, it turns out like the acting was he assured me, it was good. He's like, but it was just the storyline was too long, and it was it was unnecessary, so they had to
cut me out. But what happened with that cut footage is that Francis Lawrence actually happened to give it to JJ Abrams and he said, you're getting ready to cast this film. There's this actress that I worked with who's really good. Here have a look. And JJ Abrams saw that because I've never even seen it myself, I should ask Francis. I ran into him a year ago and he apologized again for cutting.
Me out of the throm. I was like, are you kidding me, dude? You got me mission impossible three. So that's a great story. So that was like bang bang put me on the map. But it was like Hollywood works in those mysterious ways. You know, just because you get cut out of something doesn't mean. I always remind people it's not because it wasn't good necessarily, and people people talk.
You know, this is a small town, this is a small industry, and people want to work with talented people, good people, like minded people. And so that's that's that got me the audition for JJ and then I read with Tom and then that was that was it.
And it makes a whole lot of sense psychologically also, right, because I'm going to assume that your work was really good in Constantine. By the way, when you start talking about Constantine. I'm like, dang it when my researcher there's I don't see Constantine here. And then you start telling the story and I'm like, oh, okay, well that makes
sense why it's not okay? Yeah no, but but also right, you do good work on a story that makes the movie too long or it's you know, superfluous whatever, which is nobody knows until you put it together. But you've all got just go with me. You also have Francis who now feels bad, right, no, but I mean for real, and so like I'm sure that he just wanted to do you a solid because he felt like you were
really good and whatever. But he also in his mind is going like, man, that sucks because she was really good. But you know what, let me see, let me see if I can do something that is how hot. People never talk about that, but that like it does work. That because good people who are doing good work, like people want to support that and continue to help in
a way. And that's why, which I think, which is where you're going, not to take your words, but like sometimes doing those smaller things are really important because of a relationship because you know and you never know what it could breed.
That's exactly right. I couldn't. I couldn't agree with that more. That's exactly right.
Yeah. I got to mention this because of my old pal Amy Ryan. You work on Gone, Baby Gone with Casey Affleck. Now you've done the action, You've done the kiss kiss bang bang, You've done some television. Is this like your first like drama drama? Right? How was that experience different for you? And really just you can talk about Amy Ryan.
Yeah, I Oh, she's amazing. I think my first stab at the drama, I would say, was North Country. That's kind of oh right, yeah, no, no, no, no no, but that was but that was totally different. Gone Baby Gone was It's just an intense film. The subject matter I felt very very close to. It was emotional, it felt personal. It was just in working with Ben and Amy who Amy is just so extraord in that role.
That was one of the times that I'd seen an actress just so lived in, like so lived in a role, lost and lost in the role and in all the best ways. I mean, she was so fantastic. And also just shooting in Boston with Ben and Casey, their hometown,
everything felt very so, very real and raw. For me for that film, and it's it's still like when I really think about it, it's still affecting like it really and it's oftentimes the film that people will come up and still want to talk about, which is like so rare to have a film that's still so thought provoking, so provocative that people want to weigh in on what
would you do at the end? You know? That was that was just people walked away from that film shook, and it was because of all of those performances and Harris. I'd never seen a method actor before until I met Ed Harris. I remember, you know, sitting in the makeup trailer and he'd come in and I'd start chatting him up naively, and he wasn't chatting me back up, and
I kind of just thought, what's going on here? I really was still at that point pretty naive about various processes of actors, and it was clear, you know that he was in his using his very specific headspace and in his character. So that was very informative for me that role. I mean, I just I have so much respect for Amy Ryan's I've been a fan of hers from that day forward.
Yeah, well, she is fantastic part of why I bring up that movie as well, and I hope that you don't take this the wrong way. I don't know what that even means, but I think that my brain associates you probably first from that movie, and then you did Patriots Day, and you've worked time and again those guys. I thought you were a boss tonight, Like that's what
I thought. I just sort of assumed that you were in that crew, and I think part of it, which is really where I'm finally about to get to a question, which is ya, you seem to have found people or people have found you that you like to work with, and the relationships and the associations and the projects keep multiplying. Is that just because you guys enjoyed working together? Is there something about that crew I guess in particular that
you keep wanting to go back into it. I guess just talk to me a little bit about that.
That's so interesting. Yeah, I mean I always say I think it's just you really just connect with people. I mean, when you're working that intensely for that many days in a row, You're either going to really really like somebody and go like, hey we should do this again. You know, we're gonna say, were you going to say, like, this was a great experience. We don't need to repeat this, but it was good and I learned something and whatever,
and there are it has been those experiences, you know. Specifically, it was Mark Wahlberg. We did Patriots Day, and I don't have a lot of scenes in that film, but those scenes that we had were really intimate and really emotional, and we just really connected. I really respect Mark as
an actor so much. He's incredibly disciplined. It reminds me a lot of Tom Cruise actually, and there's just a I don't know, there's just a real quiet confidence that I just respect about him, and specifically in that role. And a couple of years ago, they were pretty family planned together, you know, and Mark was said, hey, what about Michelle. We had a good time, Like that was a drama and we had a good time making that.
He was like, so he was like, this is you know, in action comedies, Like I think I think that we'd be good this. You know, we could, we could pull it off. And so for me, I was so grateful to get to reutine with him, because again, I think he's so great. He's one of these just great actors that just understands tone so well and can play the comedy and the drama and the action. I mean, he
can really do it all. He's a really unique performer like that, and I just I doore working with him, no doubt we're going to get to do it again.
Yeah. Oh is that a spoiler alert?
Yeah? Maybe did something? No?
All right? Do you do you have a preferred genre? I mean I worked in so many different types of movies action, comedy, deep, dark, boiling over drama. Is there something that you prefer? And if so or not, are you looking for a balance or do you not care about that? Do you not concern yourself with that? I?
Yes, this is such a good question. It's funny because I've been doing this now for so long, over twenty years, and I really have dabbled in it all in all of different genres. I've kind of started out in the comedy space, you know, even the Heartbreak Kid, Made of Honor, the rom com com Baby Gone, then did a Shift, Action, and so all of those are real facets of me, you know, they're my personality traits. I really I love drama.
I'm an emotional person. I love to connect and so I would say like that would be my first instinct. I loved the emotion. I love playing the heart and the soul and the nuance and all of those things. But I find comedy to be the most challenging, and I think that's why I'm drawn to comedy. I feel really grateful to be doing comedy now with Bad Monkey coming out with Vince Faughn and Bill Lawrence White loaded.
I was in the middle of shooting a TV series for Netflix called Echoes a couple of years ago, and it was such an intense experience that I remember telling myself, I'm drinking comedy after this, like enough with the drama.
It's like this is too much. It's like, oh my god, it's so exhausting. And then sure enough, you know, Bill the Lawrence called about three or four months later, and I thought, wow, heck, I really manifested that one quick with Bad Monkey. But I was so grateful because I really wanted to get back to my comedic roots and I and I and I am giving you a long winded answer here, but it was interesting going toe to toe with Vince because I was like, WHOA.
I feel a little rusty. I was like, oh my gosh, I feel our little Dusty a little rusty, and he's click, you know, he im proms like lightning lightning fast. And that was a great challenge for me to get back in and understand, you know, get back into tones. Bill has really specific Tony's very like satirical, but he's also it's also super grounded and real and vulnerable at the same time. So you kind of play this, you kind of play that that balance. And so I would say
I live in the space of dramedy. I would say, that's what I'm I'm gearing up to to do. Is something in the space that.
Is such a hedge?
Yeah, it is, I know, it is.
It is.
It is. It's such a hedge. But it's so true though, and it's its own genre now. But I feel like that's the truest to life, to me, right and to all of us right, Like, I feel like that's the space in which we all live in. That's my life. I'm equal parts drama and I'm equal parts comedy. I mean, that's it. You know, I'm either laughing or I'm crying, you know, And so I think creatively that's where I'm kind of at. I'm kind of you know, and when I look at a lot of the work that I've done,
you know, True Detectives. I mean, that's straight up drama. The Path was very much drama, you know, Bad Monkey, very comedic. White Lotus now it's like, we know, we know what that's onto it, that's its own genre. But I'm loving that.
What is White Loatus?
Yeah, I mean I think that's a comedy. It's it's I think it's a dark comedy. Yeah, I do. I think it's a dark comedy.
What happens in season three, Oh my gosh.
You know, I can't. I'd lose my home, probably take my children.
You know.
All I can say is because it's been said before, you know, this season is is like one and two on steroids. It is very big. We have much bigger set pieces. We we spend a lot of time, of course in the White Lotus hotel, but we also venture outside of the hotel, and that's something I don't think that we've previously seen in the earlier seasons. We have a really big cast. It's it's even more international, and it's in Thailand, so there are very specific elements of Thailand.
There's a lot of light and a lot of dark, and it's it's perfect for the tone of a white lotus because we can just explore all of that.
Good answer, very good. I wasn't I wasn't even supposed to ask you, it says here, But I did anyway because I knew it. I knew you wouldn't. I knew you wouldn't answer. After Boston Public you, I mean, thankfully for you. You went on and you were doing a lot of film, but not so much television. True Detective kind of brought you back. But I mean that was like really early early iteration of this, like what do you
call it? Very early iteration, very and so very film, almost like, well, here's a story that we want to take eight hours to tell instead of two correct, right, correct, instead of a movie.
Yes. And I remember having those exact conversations because it was such an early iteration of television that people didn't even want to refer to it as television, right, right, because there was still that stigma, which of course no longer exists, but that was at the forefront of that. And I remember probably been saying, like, Matthew mcconnie's never done television. Matthew went on a big break and a
big hiatus. You know, if you recall, and he'll say this, he was like, I didn't want to do wrong comms anymore, didn't want to do these comedies. I really wanted to to explore different genres and really push my work creatively. And on the heels of that came True Detective, and so I think people were surprised that that was something he was doing. So and then there was Woody, and then Nick hadn't you know, I think this was the first series that he'd written.
Did that help bring you in?
Yeah? Yeah, I mean listen, that writing brought me in. I mean obviously in Matthew and Woody, but the writing was so incredible. And I remember that Carrie sent me three of the episodes, I think the first two and then the real pivotal one for my character. And I can't remember what episode that was, but it was five or six, it was somewhere down the line. And when I read that one, I was like, oh my gosh,
I need to know. I need to know everything if between and I remember zooming with Carrie at the time, taking a meeting with him, and he was wonderful and I could tell that he was a very special creative and I thought, yeah, let's let's do it. And I'm so grateful I went on that journey because it was It wasn't long after I remember just being on set that I felt that it felt palpable, that I really did feel like we were embarking on something really special.
Bad Monkey out well right now with Vince Vaughan, Jody Turner, Smith, Rob Delaney, amazing cast.
Meredith Hagner.
Yeah, yeah, Meredith Hagner, I have to ask you, so, so Bill, you were allowed to improv?
Oh? Yes, I mean the fact is, with Bill's writing, you don't you don't have to. You don't have to improv. I mean because his writing is genius. But he comes out of the world and it's like improv and writing, and so he's not pressure with his words. In fact, he's so quick that when he's on set and he's standing over by the monitors, he may think of a better line, what he thinks is a better line than
what he wrote, you know. And so what happens with Vince and he, who have known each other for over thirty years, so they have a real comedic shorthand, is that you essentially turn up as prepared as you can be so that you can get the words on the page. So then when they when they say let's play, you just like you just get ready to roll because you've got Bill over at the monitors just like shouting different
lines at you, different takes. And by the way, there's nothing It sounds terrible to say, and I shouldn't lean on it too much, but there is nothing more gratifying than hearing Bill Lawrence or Mike White like laughing over there at the It's just it's it's just the most like it fills your cup in a way. You're like, oh, I got I got it. I made you laugh, like I got your tone. And you know, because I consider these guys comedic geniuses, you know, So it was very
much like that. And Vince is so funny and so quick, and even if I didn't say something that was right or funny, that their caliber and they just pick you right up and they roll with it and they make it. They make it good. So it was a really fun loose environment because I was coming off the heels, of
course of doing a lot of dramatic stuff. So to come into a creative environment where like anything goes basically and Bill was like, I'm gonna push you so far, you're gonna you're gonna be so uncomfortable, you're not gonna want to do it, but just do it anyway and we'll figure it out and that we'll go this direction, you know. And I appreciated that because he gave me the opportunity to just make just make a jackass out of myself, you know, And that's kind of what you
need to do. And that's why I say, you know, comedy is hard, because half the battle and comedy is just getting out of your own way, right. And then once you get out of your own way, and you're with supportive people who just love the process no matter what. They just like to have a good time, which is everything that Bill is and everything that Vince is, you know, you're going to be in good hands.
I did a small role in a movie with Vince sixteen years ago. Now what's what's significant about this is this was during the other writer strike.
Oh yes, it was two and eight because I just had my daughter and we were on strike and I was home. Yes, I remember it, yes, of course, So.
The writers were on strike and we shot this movie. Vince was a producer, so he was able under his title of producer to alter the dialogue.
Oh you're kiddings right.
So writers couldn't. So when you were just telling that story, it was bringing back this like crazy flashbacks of us assembling in his trailer in the morning before shooting and essentially rewriting the script and then getting on set. And he had one of those I don't even know what you would call it, except like a classic Vince Vaughn monologue where he just goes on. And we were scheduled to do this for a day and a half, this extended scene. And I am telling you, I'm not exaggerating.
Every single take this speech was different. This speech was dramatically different. It was it was you know, and there were words you're like, yep, I know what you mean, Like I mean, like ninety seconds ish of a speech that was different every single time. And now here's the story I don't think I've ever told. And I don't know if he would like me telling this story, but I guess we just were talking about him. So I'm
going to tell it. On the second day that we were shooting this scene, and of course the coverage was on him to start with, and then it moved, and on the second day, where he was still ill improvising, not on camera anymore, by the way the cameras are directed at me and someone else, he found a joke that he liked, and so he said, well, we have to turn around. We have to get it. We have to get it again. We have to because I've found
this thing. And this was the only other thing I'll say is this was not an intimate two person scene. There were like four of us who were sort of involved. Yeah, I don't know, one hundred extras, some of which may have been at home by this point that we're behind him. Everybody was called back in and we did another day because he had found he had found something in this monologue, and that's my memory of him, and I respect it. I respect the hell out of it.
That's that's that's the interesting thing right about him. Because I finished the scene and I'm like, whoo, we're turning around. God, does that feel good? That feels great? What do I have to do tomorrow? You know what I mean? Of course, I'm like, is there at present as I am for the other side, of course, but like I like, at that point, like I let go of the words you know what I mean. I'm like, I'm I'm like, it's okay.
But it just goes to show how much he loves his job and that his brain is just always clicking. He's always looking to find a joke to better himself. And he's just so smart. He's such an astute actor, you know, and all you gotta do is just sit down and hang out with him for fifteen minutes, like in between takes. And this guy just knows everything about everything. So it's no surprise that he can turn around and every take be different because he knows so much. He's
so literate, you know, he's like a resource. He's like an encyclopedia of jokes and information that he could well, information that he can turns into jokes on a dime.
You know.
Yeah, Well that out now. I'm very very excited to see it. I tried to get an advanced copy, but nobody would send it to me. Uh. And then White Lotus season three. Of course, when is this coming out?
Twenty twenty five? I think early twenty twenty five, so I don't know. I'm guessing I'm hoping maybe first quarter.
How long were you in Thailand seven? I'm not digging.
No, you're not. No, you're totally good. Seven seven months, seven months, yes, yes, months, Yes, it's seven months.
Oh my god, I left. They have so much money.
Oh my god, it's crazy. Seven months.
Yeah.
You you basically when you sign on to do it, you basically sign up to just go to wherever you're shooting.
Right.
This is how they did season one and two for whatever that time period is. You know that that that shoot schedule is. And for us it was a six and a half six and a half seven months, And it was a no brainer for me because this is you know, I've always wanted to work with Mike White, fortunately, because it is such a big ensemble and there's so many multiple storylines that eventually the storyline that you're a part of will have a bit of a break and
then another storyline. So I did get to come home for a week or two at a time. My family came out and visited for a few months, so I wasn't super disconnected, thank goodness, because seven months is a really long time, and oddly it went by so fast. It went by, so when you're you know, listen, we we were a beautiful, beautiful country surrounded by ocean, you know, beautiful hotels. I mean, this is not lost on me.
This is a once in a line. Was like, this is seven months that I get, I get to be here and I get to do you know, it was pretty pretty rad. It was pretty rad.
Well, congratulations on that and everything else. I am such a big fan of you and your work and your approach and you're the variety of projects and styles that you have been fortunate to do, and we have been fortunate that you have been able to do as well. You taking a little time off now after Thailand.
I am I'm taking some time off. I'm taking some time off. Yeah, I'm going to chill out and be at home for a while.
Well, good congratulations. I also do have to mention mac sack sack scene the new Tie West, a twenty four horror film. Are you are you happy with that now that that's done too?
Yes? I really. I was such a huge fan of those first two films of X and Pearl. I wanted to collaborate with Tie so so badly on the third installment, and I said, you know, just whatever you got, whatever role you got, buddy, I'm in And I was excited. Man. It was such a cool cast and you know, led by just the incredible Mia Goth And it was a
really really fun project. And it was the first project, no kidding, in about fifteen years that I got to shoot in la Is shot in la Yes, yeah, so I was like, wait, I get to shoot down the road. This is the best gig ever.
That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, it's been a while for me as well. Well if you haven't seen, by the way, guys, all three of ty West horror films ex Pearl, Maxine check them out for sure and Bad Monkey out now. Yeah, available now. And of course no one will be watching White Lotus whenever Mike decides to send that out. Michelle, thank you so much, thank you, thank you so much for coming by. I appreciate it so much and I can't wait to see everything you've got going. Thank you so much, Thank.
You so much. Such a pleasure to talk with.
You, Michelle. That was great. Thank you so much for joining me today. I can't believe you're not giving us any intel on White Lotus. I thought we were closer than that. But I guess I'll just have to return those matching friendship necklaces I got for us. Anyway, check out Michelle in Bad Monkey. It's on now and White Lotus coming in the very near future for your listening pleasure. I'm going to be back next Tuesday, same time, same place, and we may be talking a little football. That's right.
Week one of the NFL is upon us and we have a Hall of Famer. I'll talk to you next week. Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer, Ling Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bretton