STAYING ALIVE: Will Arnett, Part 1!

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Hey smartless listeners, it's John Gabris, one of the hosts of Staying Alive, a health and wellness podcast. hosted by the Unhealthy and Unwell. That's Adam Palley and I. And we've got Will Arnett on our pod today. We got to spend some QT interviewing our pod father. And we went deep with him about is this thing on, Bradley Cooper, eating right, fitness, sugar, all the stuff we cover on our show. So please enjoy the first part of the interview with Will and if you like what you hear.

Come on over to Stang Alive and hear the second half. Hit subscribe or follow while you're there. Hey Will, thanks for thanks for doing this, but thank you. So gents. How you doing? Dude, you look you look awesome. Look at that facial hair. Really? Oh thanks. Yeah. You got some you got Tony Sun? Yeah, you got some son and you got some Iron Man fucking uh Uh yeah, I was just shipwrecked.

You don't hear about it that often anymore about people being shipwrecked. It's fucking old school. But I knew I had to do staying alive, so I paddled to shore to make sure I did this stupid fucking podcast with you. I hope that the intro m are we allowed to play other artists' intro music or it just has to be ours? I think we should keep it to be just ours. Oh, okay.'Cause it would be cool if to it it would be cool if today we could play something from Bruce Springsteen because

The boss is here. Yes, our boss is here. He does not like we we will learn that he does not like to be called the boss, but he is our pod father. He is the boss. Will Arnett on the podcast today. Big guess, so we're not gonna go into a long cold open because w we don't want to turn off anyone who's here to hear will and not

Understand that it's it's for anyone new, welcome. We hope that you uh you can learn a little something about what it takes to stay alive as you get older and you don't necessarily play by the rules all the time. Yeah. Well, without further ado, I'm learning French. Will Arnett is that your next Duolingo? Trio lingo. The podcasts lately oh I I've been feeling a little podcast burn. Lately I've just Oh yeah? Oh yeah? No, of course not. Advertisers. We love it. Uh but it's so I made a joke.

I mean it's it's I I did this podcast with this guy in the UK. He's so Fun I mean it w I forget how long ago. It was like uh uh whatever, a couple of months ago. And uh do you know this dude Romesh? Yeah this comedian. He's he's so funny. He's really, really funny. So this podcast and he asked me and I told him this, like I have this controversial position. I said there's a direct relationship.

Yeah. The more tattoos you are, the more ha you have, the more boring you are. Now, here I I was very clear. A, it's something that I've said to my friends with tattoos. I don't have any, that I've said to my friends with tattoos for years. And it's and it's basically a bit, right? Yeah. But I say with it. The people are freaking out. And the comments and the thing. And then I'm like

What a boring response. If you're if you're insulted by it, then you're proving my point. But the truth is I don't have a point. I didn't even mean it because I have a million friends who are covered with tattoos. And people are insulted by it. It's insane.

Insanity, man. Yeah, it's crazy when you realize that bullshit is news. Like all of a sudden you're like, Will Arnett says they did have a cr uh guy on smart list that they didn't air or whatever. Yeah, yeah. This goes everywhere, and you're like, Who d who is who is this matter to? What does it even matter to Will? Are you looking have you it does it doesn't matter to me at all. But it mattered matters to

Podcast. Most of them are bits. Most of them are just to fuck around in the moment, right? And then you're like and then you hold it up. Let's read this back in court. So your theory on tattoo it was not a theory. It's a bit You said here you like you love to go swimming with bow legged women, is that correct? It's like I was quoting a fucking movie. Anytime you get like even do this is all a net loss. Like this can only hurt

This can only hurt. That's why we are so thankful that you're coming on our podcast. Yeah. It's just a fucking minefield of like. That means Rich is our boss. problem. That is you're right, by the way, that's a problem for everybody. If you prefer the term pod father, we could do that too. Oh, I like that. You know what I wanted to ask you? Will like uh

Please be about tattoos. Please be about tattoos. No, it i i it's not. You're talking to guys who have matching tattoos. We are we are wildly boring. I can give a fuck about tattoo. When I saw that he was like, You know what? He's kinda right, I am a drag guy. My home like your home, it's a retreat, right? Is it's your nest, right? And you wanna you wanna be able to just

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My head goes instantly to cause now you're like a a dramatic waiting man um is to What like do you feel how how are you thin? How how are you looking like this? Oh like oh oh physically and phys oh yeah. Like how because because the our show is about staying alive, like we'll'cause we're too out of shape or better in shape now. We're we're Yeah. We're doing pretty good. I don't know if it's the show or like dark medical revelations in our lives. You guys look good.

Yeah, we're a better we're a better place. I'm like down twenty pounds. Uh wild. Yeah. I'm under three hundred for the first time in like ten years. It feels amazing. Yeah. I might have to start buying new budgie smugglers. Nah. Uh well like so what are you what are you doing to stay alive? Like are you because I have a text exchange. That you and I have that I found on my phone today from over the summer that I could read to you. Uh that we might have to edit.

I don't think we do. It's pretty I don't think we do. Okay. It's pretty it's pretty base and it heads into the question. Starts with uh Long Island, baby, where are you at? Headed to Ruby Rosa to eat my weight in red sauce. What are you doing? No canto on pizza, but let's hang out this week. Then I wrote back, W what are you doing to keep that Walton Goggins physique? And then you wrote back you wrote back, I start by not eating.

Then I smoke a couple butts, repeat every day. And as always, we are not doctors on this show. Do not take any. And as someone who struggles who struggles with everything including the smoking. I'm flood type marinara at this point, so I get it I get yeah, it's it's it's that old school diet, man, of just right I look I look I think a lot of people I look like that dude who like now that I'm looking on the thing here, I look like that dude who's like kind of

tan and smokes butts and and uh drinks coffee. Yeah drinks coffee plays plays chess I became the guy that I used to go to my buddies, hey look at that guy right. That's who I aspire to be. Look at me, I look like fucking m Mark Marin drowned in a pool. Yeah, I look like an offensive lineman in court for a fucking D UI. I didn't know. I uh Lock the gate!

How come you didn't lock the gates? I drowned in the pool Jesus Christ Jesus. Um I you know what the truth is about what are we uh about eighteen months ago um One of my agents was like, Hey you should go. talk to this doctor like out of the blue. Not out of the blue out of the blue for you. But that's something that was on the agent's mind. Meanwhile like just A morning meeting about my weight.

And they go and he goes, You g you you should go see this dude who's basically like a nutritionist and talk he's like, What So I was so and that's a true story. And and I was like, uh, you know, I think I always was able to stay thin and then I got over fifty and as you know, like it just g it gets hard. When you're over fifty it's just and then like so like, I'm gonna eat what I want, but I'll just work out and then you just get massive.

So so so I was like, what do I do? So I went to see this guy and he helped me look at the stuff I was eating. Uh and he was like, Okay. And it like you know, you tell him he's like how uh

What do you you know, you you tell him like it's not that bad and then you tell him he's like, Wow, that's terrible and you're like, Oh shit, really? Right. Uh the worst with those kind of situations is when you downplay what you're doing and they still say it's bad. You're like, Yeah, I have like two beers like a couple of nights a week and they're like

That's really bad. I'm like, oh I was lying already. That's a good I did that once years ago when I used to drink and this guy said that I went to this doctor and I I I could tell and I go, This is like early nineties And he goes, uh how much do you drink? And I said

And I'm thinking like when it's gonna be I go s uh probably six drinks a week. He's like that's a lot and I'm thinking, motherfucker, that's before I go out, I have six drinks. That's a a day. Yeah. So Adam and I are very adjusted to telling a doctor, not Cigarettes. Whenever they ask you smoke and it's like so I can't even do that anymore. Now I'm lying about cigarettes to a doctor in New Zealand who's like filling out

A physical. I'm like sitting at a like the in order to get to set that like a doctor's gonna come in here, you alright with that? I'm like, yeah, whatever. Guy comes in, he's like, says he uh uh uh three to five drinks a day. I was like, I don't No, I don't know. I don't know. I didn't even fill that out. Somebody else wrote that.

that when they saw me. Well it's metr it's metric down here, right? So yeah, it's not actually the same amount Yeah, and a day you mean tomorrow'cause tomorrow is is our yesterday. So I'm ca yeah. Oh, we're not doing time zones? Okay. Next thing I know He's like writing like psycho. conversation. Borderline personality disorder. Yeah. Borderline. Um I s I and so the truth is actually so I I uh

I I cut it I ended up cutting up basically sugar uh w th which is my number one I I think my number one addiction um because I won't because I'm not addicted to cigarettes. And and um their addiction. Me. Well you. Yeah, you're cigarettes and I are synergistic. Where we help each other. They've never let me down. They've never lied to me. They always told me what they were gonna do. Me well. They're like blind to you.

Uh I uh I I was gonna say like sugar when you say no sugar, like how strict are we talking? Are we talking like no like so you go out to sushi, you're doing sashimi? Yeah. Basically when I'm really doing it in uh so I go, I eat it's so boring, but I not on this podcast. I know, I know. Also we kinda live in the boring world, so don't let don't

It's so good. It's so good. You're like, I hated that this blurb went around and we brought it up a lot of times in one internet. No, I I love it because it's dumb because it was so meaningless. Uh Romesh is la laughing himself. You know what I took from that clip is like Rome Romesh is like uh he's like I have a lot of tattoos. Am I boring? And I wanted to be like, no, but the Apple Watch is making you boring We should be Tattoos are fine, it's the Apple Watch.

So you you you cut it. Was that difficult? Like do you have any hat anything that you did for yourself, like any s uh substitutes or anything like that that were like Dude, uh I I'm I'm addicted to ice cream. I l I fucking love ice cream. Like it's my favorite sweet. It's my fucking favorite.

So I'm like a c like every day for me is like a nine year old's birthday party leading up to this when I d uh every day you'd be like, What are you what are you doing? And so so I had to like go so I had to go

The i to answer your question, I couldn't I didn't even go for sushi because I couldn't I I was too nervous that I w wanted to eat the rice. Right? So then I just so every day I'd wake up and and eventually I started I was doing like I always do like uh a little bit of oats and then some berries and whatever and then like a little snack and then lunch I have a salad with chicken and then at dinner I have to have like eighteen ounces of protein, fish or or meat, and some veggies.

And then th actually there's a crazy thing here. So I did that and then eventually he and I could have a cup of rice with lunch. Then he got and then like Forty five days into it, he's like, You now you gotta cut all the carbs. So now I have none. And I don't have a cheap day, I have a cheap meal once a week. Every seven days I have one cheap meal.

Cheese Yeah, and he's like, Don't go downtown w on your go uptown. Meaning like don't eat a bunch of crap on your cheat meal. Don't go to like Taco Bell and McDonalds. Have a nice dessert. Yeah, have a nice dessert that doesn't have like a bunch of preservatives in it. And so I've kind of stayed to that for the last year and a half.

And I've had a couple of times where I haven't been able to, but for the most part I I've sh I've stuck with it. And exercised at the same time. And and it's been pretty good. What kinda exercise are we doing? I just I just do l you know, street fighting mainly. Your kimbo slice in the backyards of Florida.

But it's easy to find a street fight. I'm doing you know, I do I pretty light w in in terms of the gym, pretty light. I was doing this thing where I was like uh I and I do it uh uh I don't do it as much anymore just'cause of uh time or whatever, but I was doing this boxing thing. Called Fight Camp.

And uh Thoreau turned me onto it and it's like you get like a it's almost like Peloton for for boxing. I look like the loserist bi boxer of all time. Oh, I'm the worst in there. I'm the worst in there. But the cardio of it was really great. So so I do that a couple t days a week. I do these like sort of uh long walks, and or hikes and then I do stuff with like kettlebell. Pretty light stuff.

Um just you got a trainer or you're doing this on your own. No, I do it on my own. I'm pretty consistent. That's cool. Yeah. And and uh and so that that's been good. He taught me this really cool thing, which is he's like forty minutes before you go to bed. before you're gonna go to sleep, eat like a cup of berries or a sorbet. And he gave me a couple brands. Uh so that you get that that spike of natural sugar and then you'll crash

And you'll have a you'll go into a sleep better and you'll sleep better. And he goddammit he was right. Oh, and and there's probably the psychological element of like, now I get to have my treat. And then it's like and you a little treat and then you're going to bed and like oh that's a real interesting wine down. Pretty insane.

Pretty insane. My version of that is I switched from a joint and a bourbon to a joint and a chamomile tea. Oh, that's been and I'm out on my balcony sipping tea and having an indica and I'm like I'm gonna sleep like a baby and it it's so much better for me than two two fingers of fucking uh basil Haydn's two fingers. Well I mean much like Much like my OnlyFans, I prefer a little more than two fingers. Well, I mean alcohol is the big alcohol is the big thing that like

Uh I mean It's a saboteur of your health. It's like it's a one killer. It's it's trash. For a lot of different reasons and yeah, I'm I'm s I I don't drink I'm so happy that I don't for uh for myriad reasons. But one of them is the you know, the Every time there's a new study that comes out which is like every

Four hours. Every four hours Huberman's making a fucking proclamation about I can't believe we ever drank alcohol. You're like, Oh come on, man. Yeah. And I'm I just think, oh thank God I don't. And I do I do feel better as a result of it. And you can't do it as you get old

get older too, like you just can't like your body can't do it. It's harder, it's it takes a more and more of a toll on you every year. Like I want to quit smoking butts. I really do. And uh I and I d and I and I don't smoke as much as I used to. Are you sitting? Yeah. I mean I just put one out.

I just stubbed one out. That's I that's that that's the level I I I have a problem zinning. I can't do it. I can't so many of my friends are zinning. So many of my friends are zinning and still blasting cigs, which is like I'm like Yeah, it's me. I don't do it at the same time. At the same time.

So someone I've got people who are telling me that nicotine is actually like a nootropic and it's like it's like a performance enhancer. It is. Well we just we just we actually just had Huberman on on the podcast and I gotta say he was he was pretty great. And I ended up being fascinated with everything he was saying and I didn't want it to end. And I was like And then what if I do Yeah.

And what if I like I was like the little kid, you know? Yeah. And he talked about nicotine and how great it is. Yeah. I just look like I have nine zins in my mouth at all times. Five mil lip pillow or whatever? I'm on the I'm on the three right now, but I I go back and forth between the three and the sixes. And then and then and what does it do? It's just like a pouch like a baseball player, or is it like uh it where you swallow it or like

You put it between your lip and your teeth. It takes a second to get used to. It's like these little pouches like this. Uh and uh we I know for a fact based on our experience that Adam can't handle just packing a lip with something. We we did we did recreational ketamine together and you're supposed to just put it in your lip and Adam's like, I chewed it and swallowed it. I was like, What the fuck? You can't leave it there. It's like a little kid. I played baseball in high school and like

Swallowing sunflowers. Like as soon as you go from sunflower seeds to like the first kid brings in chewing tobacco, I was just like like I can't I can never pack a lip in high school I can't do it. I I have a weird d that's a funny you're saying that I have a weird time off half the time when I would go to get it out of my lip, I start to gag. Something about that that place. It's also I can't I also gag when I put my contact.

Well I think you're supposed to put them in your eyes. Not not the back of the eyes. I have no gag reflex. For my OnlyFans clip that clip that for my OnlyFans. Fuck that's a great clip on its own. That's gonna be the clip. That I mean I I it gets somehow gets credited to Will, unfortunately. It's like Will on that's got It says tattoos tattoos are bad. Again. Never limit that. People love Venmo Stash because it just makes sense. Something that can always be said about this podcast.

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It does make you think it does make you think about Tom Hanks. God, he's done so many different things. It's un the dude's kind of unreal. I was just thinking about his run the other day. Like It's unreal. W right? His run his run from like Uh Joe versus the volcano maybe? I mean splash is the original, but like he made a few clunkers. I mean they didn't they never stuck. They never stuck to him. Yeah. It looks like yeah, but he m he made like sixty movies and he he made like

Thirty really good movies. So like uh yeah half of them. I'm gonna let'em have I mean, th mine is I made only clunkers. Dude, I was gonna say, like, do you know my if you looked at my IMDB like my average I'm batting one sixty four. Hanks also did like Ten years of dominating comedy and then switched to drama and then was the go to drama guy for like another decade. Like that's similar to you, Will. You're a little late, but a little late.

I don't think I'm dominating anything. I don't know, dude. I think it depends on how you look at it. Like this is your turn to Hanks run it just a couple years later than he did. just doing a few more terminals. I decided to wait till I was fifty five'cause I didn't want to embarrass anybody. I love it when people people do say to me sometimes they're like, Do you ever think about doing like a a drama, like changing up and always like

I'm trying to do comedy. I'll do drum ladder all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you know what you gotta do? You gotta work with really good directors. Okay. Yeah, great. I'm available. I would love that. Yeah. Because I have you could Google me. You got a number on them? Let me just you got a number on them? It's like, oh it'd be so cool if you worked with Wes Anderson. You're like, fuck yeah it would. Yeah. It would be fucking awesome.

The that's the real like grown up version of your aunt saying like have you You should do the Conan O'Brien show. You should do what he does. You know, and you're like yeah, I would love to Right. I should I should get on S and L at forty four. I could speed run my fucking uh speedball death.

I was gonna ask you about this press run that you that you've been doing because It's a dream of of mine as someone who's worked, you know, in comedy uh the way you have for a long time, to see you doing the like a A like Academy Award run press tour. Where you're like in cool clothes. And like you know what I mean? And there's like pictures of you in a swimming pool with clothes on. Yeah, yeah. And you know, and there's like

Yeah, you're sitting sitting cross legged in like uh the W lobby with like a uh with a bourbon or something. And then there's like an interview with you and D how does that feel? Like do you ever does the comedian part of you ever cause I consider you w like a comedi you are one of the the you're comedian. Like, do you does that side of your brain ever click on while you're doing where you while you're doing it all, while you're like, wow, this is new?

Up uh a gazillion percent. And so what the difference you do that. Well yeah I I I spent a long long time, you know, doing stuff and fucking around and what happens is by the end, like when you do something with as part of that when you go and you do something like with Ramish and I'm just dicking around, it's so fun because then I just get to dick around, which is why I say a bunch of stupid shit that I don't mean. Because you're just you're just having fun. Right.

But a lot of those things you gotta go and w you know, look the m the movie we made this this movie is this thing on that that Bradley and Mark Chaplin and I wrote and we worked on for it took like from the time that we decided to start doing it until the time that it came out was

uh s like seven and a half years or something, right? Jesus. Yeah. That's it. And so so like w we took it really seriously and we did it and it's a and it and we spent a lot of time on it, obviously, and a lot of care. And so you come out with it and

Then when they start to, you know, start thinking like, hey, maybe this has a chance for people to recognize it for X, Y, and Z. You wanna give it the you y you you're you're you're doing a bunch of different stuff and so you're you you you wanna speak very It's tough because you don't for me, I feel like, man, I it it's hard for me to be that earnest in a way. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I mean. Comedy is not comedy is inherently like

You wanna undercut yourself and undercut the situation so frequently? Yeah, yeah. But then you but it but you know what, y the same rules apply in that you just gotta read the room, which is Th these are people here who are appreciating it and so that you you do take it seriously. And I did take seriously doing the the project its itself and I do really like it and I am really proud of it.

So then but there were times when yeah, where you just kind of like you you you fuck around but but a lot of the time, you know, the questions are different too. The questions are like what Wha you know, why why did you do this? Or w what is the message or w you know, what was the process like? And you're like

Well actually the process was pretty serious. Uh yeah, it took a lot of preparation. Uh yeah, to do those scenes took a lot of uh we workshop for a long time. And when you find yourself down this road And I did have a few times that there were some really cool interviewers who were like I I see that you're struggling with taking talking about it in this serious way. Well there's like the there's another layer to it too that you're a comedy guy doing s serious interviews

about a serious movie about comedy. It's like it's like a quadruple four D cake or some shit. Yeah, man. That's a thing. Yeah, it's it's complicated in and uh And then but but at the same time and then what happens is i it's very alluring because people do respond to it and they're like, Hey, we really liked it and and we thought it was a great story and you're like You're kind of forced to put your guard down. It was tough for me to kind of talk about it, me and or it in this way that

I was like catching myself. I didn't want to seem like I was being self aggrandizing. Do you know what I mean?

Understandable like headspace to be. My therapist one time said to me, Do you ever use positive self talk with yourself? I was like I was like, No, why? That would be corny. He's like, No, you that is something you need to do, like and I'm like, Oh fuck, I never like It's so easy to just downplay everything, but then when you're a part of something larger like a piece of art that you're involved with other creatives that you're like,

Well I can't go out here and downplay this because I I worked hard, other people worked hard. I w my instinct is to like undercut myself for the sake of comedy and to not come across as like a guy who is too serious. I got a billion quests. Yeah, he's an incredible filmmaker, right? I mean I've known him a long time. Hi his his capacity for all of it is so insane. and his and his concentration and his focus is so intense in the best way. And Laura Dern

Who's one of our greats. You know, and she's just she's just incredible. And so you kind of you you you you start to get in that, you know. I heard but what's what's interesting is so so that part of it made it really easy and then when you listen to that and the way they talk about it, you're like, Okay, yeah, I can talk about this thing and and I did take it seriously. W You know, w what's what's weird is you know, as uh Pally you were saying that like you go and you

You're you're doing these like screenings for the Academy and stuff. And of course we didn't get any nominations for anything for our film. No, I've got that. But I know, but what's what's weird is they you you get put in this place where you've gotta go and do that. And then and then you're disappointed and then you're like I heard Ben Affleck talking about it. I think on

Kimmel maybe or something recently and he d he he was much more articulate than I was. But about this idea that people are like Oh man, sorry it didn't get the thing and you're like I didn't even when we made it, it's not like I was thinking like, Wow, we're gonna get we're gonna make this Academy Award winning Right.

thing. When you get drafted in the NFL you're not like, uh fuck. I just want to get the ball this and just want to get exact. Exactly. And and that was it. We just wanted to make something good. So played a great game. So it's confusing and I I I remember my fifteen year old said to me, uh and he's such a great kid and you want to talk about this This kid is so funny. He's a absolute bit machine. It's it's unreal. Do not introduce him to my son. I do not w I don't need two of that. My son is

A nightmare bit machine. Yeah. It's it's insane. And and uh We were driving home and we uh I was uh driving him home somewhere, uh I was out here in California and and I said uh and we found out like that we Something came out, we didn't get we didn't get recognized and he goes, uh and I hung up and I go, Yeah, he goes, What happened? I go, Yeah, it's a bit of a bummer and he goes Don't let the fact that that happened ruin what you think about this great movie that you made, Dad.

And I was like, You're right. You're absolutely right. It was so dope. It was so dope. And like it took my fifteen year old to give me the perspective. Yeah, the clarity comes from the most the wildest places sometimes.

Uh you work you you worked with our mutual friend. Oh, real quick, that my buddy Bob Castrone. Uh you've got to be a big thing. Oh yeah. Dude Bob Bobby Castrone He's one of the all time funny dudes. Yeah, he's w one of the best. I I I met him when I was a PA at Best Week Ever like twenty something years ago when I graduated college and we've been tight ever since. I mean you wanna talk you want to talk about bit Machine.

Bob Castro. So Bob came with us when we were doing'cause as you know, he used to be a stand up back in the day. Yeah. And so when I started doing stand up and was going to the the cellar when I was living Were you using your name? Were you using like would they say ladies and gentlemen Will Arnett? No, no, no. I was using the name of the character. Which was yeah, it's some fucking uh golf mention. Yeah. I think that people are like

low rent Andy Kaufman ripoff. Daniel Day Lewis over here. Daniel Day Lewis doing it on the set everyone call me Will. I'm I'm living the life. Everyone treat me like Will. Okay? A stand-up comic is going through a divorce. So I so I would I would go down and so Bob Bob came with me and because we we wrote all the stand up Uh, you know, that's in the film that kind of tracks where this character of Alex is going and stuff. And so I wanted to have that experience.

Truly what it was like to be this dude. I I'm and I'm not a stand up so I'd never done it before. But I wanted to understand what that experience was going down and being that dude and so really what I got to do is kind of rehearse for six weeks. And going to the comedy cellar every night and walking downstairs And being introduced as Alex Novak and people did like kind of s I'd get up there, they'd sort of snicker and think like I was losing my mind or whatever. And

Poor guy. Poor Will. He's going through it. I joked I I joked I did joke though. I did joke that people you know like A uh uh you know, so I'm getting divorced and stuff that people are Googling like this asshole got married again? Like what And you were doing a super high pitched voice, right? I was doing like this Dude, um the worst part of that was lugging that prop.

Dan up and down those stairs though, right? I'm glad you guys did the rewrite to make the guy make Alex not a prop comic. I think that was a smartphone. It was so It was such a I'm glad we dropped that because it was It was just hard to get the shit up and down the stairs. It was so our department was furious that they were so happy. I mean everything, the plunger, the chicken, the glass, all of it. You gotta be careful with it. You can't just throw it down. You have to look at it.

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You know, you've heard me talk a lot about my mom and how uh funny she was and how much we love her, but boy was she a huge inspiration to me. She gave me the tools I needed for the work ethic I have and the funny bone in my body. She's One of the best human beings, if not the best human being I've ever known. Women deserve to be celebrated. But we should also recognize that many women carry emotional weight at work, in relationships, in families.

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We come from improv as you know. Yeah. And so like there is that is a different thing. Like we you know, we we we we had all this training at the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York. So much stage time. But so much over where you're like, Oh, I can get on stage. I you're like I can get on stage with no material in front of however many people and feel feel comfortable.

And then you're like, but that doesn't mean anything. That's not currency. That's not you know, it's not music. It it's it's like

Shitty jazz, you know, in a way. It's like Well what w you know what was interesting was so so when I was yeah, so when I'd go down there the first time that I did it at the cellar We walked down the stairs and I was there with Bob Castro and and uh Bradley and we're standing there by the doorway, you know, downstairs there at the in the main room there and and um I'm about to they're they're about to call me up. And Bradley knows me and he knows that. I'm gonna g if I get up there.

that because I didn't come up through through improv, I wish I had, I wish I'd known about it, I wish it existed in that way when I was coming up pretty adjacent. I mean adjacent. I'm adjacent. We've hung out at McManus enough for you to be considered an improviser. Yes. But but

But like I wish I just wish that that was kind of around more when I was when I first moved to New York in nineteen ninety. Like it just wasn't. So but But I but he knows that my instinct is that if I get up if I walk down there, get on stage that I'll try to figure out a way

to make to to to squeeze out a laugh somehow. Right. To make it work. Like you say, with no y to make it work. To do something and whatever. And and he the first time he stopped me and he and he puts his hand on me and he and he leans in and he goes We're doing something different.

And basically we were saying, You're not doing that. We're here to do this. This is the job. And so go out there and do the material as Alex and do Alex's material that we do from the film, which is what I did. And that was Really? Yeah,'cause the impulse would be to be like, Yeah. Oh I know how to impress this crowd. I'm a funny guy. I gr give me a mic. Yeah, just lean on my sweaty bits, you know what I mean?

Yeah, the tattoo thing. Let me try something out here, guys. From everything you said, the the the I mean, I've had a director that that I've really loved working with that I trust. You know what I mean? But I never had a f like a friend who is also my director who's like it must have been really bonding where you're doing this if you guys are like going undercover, writing the movie as it as it's

forming, you know what I mean? Like that's pretty special to have a friend that's like, hey man, don't do your bullshit tonight. And then but trust, but trust me that I'm gonna have your back and make you look good. A hundred percent. And it was, and it was, you know, again Because I do I I got to see sort of under the hood over the last couple of years as we were working on developing it w what an incredible m mind he has for this kind of thing and and for making movies and and

So I trusted that in that moment and it did help us be y you're absolutely right. I mean in terms of weeks later when we actually start shooting, I do that trust is just built, built, built in such a strong thing. And then and then Actually it was, you know, coming to those moments where we had these really insanely vulnerable moments in the film. And I've got to trust him and he's You know, I'm ba I uh I I I've never done anything like this on film in this way. And I had to kind of

You know, we talked about it and he'd be like, You gotta trust me that that you have to there's there can be no bullshit here. There's no acting, there's no bullshit. You have to and we gotta go deep and he would like pull the camera off. He's operating too. So that was the crazy. There's no frickin' chairs. There's there's no chairs. By the way, there's no there's no chairs, there's no video village, right? Yeah. Everything is

From the moment you show up, from call time to to rap, there's never a break. I wish for that. It's amazing. So you're always engaged, and he's right there. He's a foot from me with the camera in my face. And he's talking to me as we're rolling. And he's like, Here we go. Hell yeah. Here we go, man. Here we go. And then he'd go like, We gotta go. We gotta go deep on this. We gotta go. You gotta fucking throw it all away. All this kind of shit. It was dope, man. It was scary as fuck.

Okay, can you introduce us to Bradley? I'm not ready to hang out with Bradley yet. I need a couple more years. Oh, I'm not concerned that. He's You make a movie. You guys should work with Bradley. I didn't say movies. I don't wanna hang out. I'm not ready to hang out with Bradley yet. I need a couple more years. Because like there are people like that in my life who who who like I feel like I'm gonna meet Bradley Cooper and I'm gonna be like, I gotta get more like Bradley Cooper.

And you know what I mean? And like right now right now I just gotta I can't handle that identity. I can't handle that right now. I gotta just figure out me. He's crazy inspiring. I mean I I again like it it it it But our whole thing our whole relationship went into a totally different gear and he really inspired me in in so many ways. It was pretty sick and and are you gonna do it again? Are you gonna I mean Are you gonna I obviously the material you're you're getting

a different look now, right? Like there's gotta be cooler stuff. Yeah. things uh in front of you that you can uh do next. Yeah, for sure. That's that's the exciting that's the exciting part. And and I'm not uh what's funny is again, uh I think because maybe um because I'm fifty five I'm not I'm not precious about it. I'm not like, hey, now this is what I do. Uh but I had these like really Mm.

What should be obvious realizations but but but it's taken me a long time where I go like I only want to do stuff that I that I respond to. I haven't had that revelation. She's like, what? And like, yeah. I want to do And so so it's been cool. Yeah. And it has been different. You know, I just finished this thing um um with Tony Gilroy, which was pretty dope. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah. And with with with Pedro Pascal and that was that was really awesome and Olivia Wilde and a bunch of it it was

Pretty dope. And and so j just a small little thing but but like really cool to be able to kinda do do some different stuff. So that's Uh yeah, I'm pretty I'm pretty psyched about it. Are you are you looking to downshift it and to do a comedy again and be like, oh fuck it like safety. I feel like a lot like you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.

a taste. Did you get a taste? And you're like, I gotta I wanna fucking uh I you know, let's let's see what else is in there. Let me keep digging. You know what I I think it's more I I don't think that I uh I mean that's always that's always alluring. Right, just th because you wanna'cause if you read something really funny, you're like, Oh, that'd be really fun to go fuck around and do that. Right. But at the same time I think that it it is much more about like uh

I I I just and if it if it ends up being something that's funny, that's great. I just wanna do something that feels as you know, it takes it y you know, it takes time away from your life and your kids and all that kind of stuff. So it's gotta be something that feels valuable. I get to screw around like you guys do on with with Jason and and Sean all the time. So

That scratches a lot of itch, oddly enough. Right. Yeah. That's actually kinda cool when your quote unquote day job is like riffing with other talented funny friends. It's like it's a little spoils you a little where you're A little bit. I don't need to chase this high elsewhere. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. I hope you've been enjoying the interview with Will Arnett as much as we enjoyed doing it. So if you want to hear the second half where we get into Will's morning routine.

his kids dunking on him, an extended conversation about Benicio Del Toro, then you gotta go over to the Staying Alive feed, anywhere you get your podcasts. Hit subscribe or follow while you're there. Uh, we've got other great conversations with people you'll know and love, like Manzucas, Mark Marin, Scott Ackerman, Casey Wilson, Ego Wotem, Eric Andre, etc., etcetera. Come listen to a very funny people telling us what they do to stay alive. You have been Staying alive with John Gates.

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