Ike Barinholtz: Wahlberg Adjacent
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This is the time of year where you just want to donate all your old clothes and revamp your wardrobe, right? Spring cleaning means out with the old and in with the new. And that's where Macy's comes in. Yep.

Spring fashion has officially landed at Macy's, and they've got the perfect items for a serious wardrobe upgrade. Macy's knows what's hot this season, like lightweight knits that make you look effortlessly cool, matched sets that make you look as polished as a celebrity's photo filters, woven skirts, mini dresses, and red carpet-ready maxi dresses. Macy's has got all the new arrivals,

The latest colors, your favorite brands, and brands waiting to be your favorite brand. And just when you think it couldn't get any better, bam, they've got timeless jewelry, classic denim, and workwear that says, I'm here to work and look awesome doing it.

Find Macy's Spring Styles in linen, crochet, cotton gauze, all the perfect fabrics for when the heat kicks in and you still want to look like a million bucks. So what are you waiting for? Shop now at macys.com or in stores. Summertime's here. The sun is shining. You need powerful sun protection that feels light on your skin. Meet Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Sunscreen. This is

SPF 70 lotion. Absorbs fast with smooth, dry-touch finish, so you'll forget that you're even wearing it. It blocks 97% of burning UV rays and is water-resistant for up to 80 minutes. Lightweight, effective, and perfect for sunny days. It is just what your summer needs. Neutrogena Ultra Sheer. Sunscreen you can't feel. Shop now at Target.

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Subject to change. Hey, everybody. Welcome to Literally. I love it when I get my smart, funny people on the show. You know I love that. You know it goes off the rails. I hope you like it as much as I do. Ike Barinholtz. Yeah. Nobody funnier. Just a murderer. A comedy murderer. He's on The Studio.

on Apple TV, plays the vice president of production with Seth Rogen. He is, this is my favorite thing. He's the co-creator and executive producer of Running Point on Netflix, which is the genie bus Lakers sitcom starring Kate Hudson. You know, I love my Lakers. And, you know, eastbound and down? Come on. Mike Barinholtz. Let's get it. Now, I like you with your glasses on like that because

Cause you know, then you get to do glasses acting. How's your glasses acting? My glasses acting is pretty strong. I never wore glasses my whole life until the last few years. And, and, uh, but I've always, I've always, uh, uh, I love a good prop glasses. Give you this option.

I'm telling you right now, if you don't listen to me, the bomb is going to go off. That's right. You know what you never see people do, though? Is put them on. It's hard to look cool putting them on. Yeah. Yeah. Especially because this happens a lot to me where it kind of catches here where it's like, I don't care what you say. I'm the expert. You know what I mean? It's like it gives you like the jab and it doesn't, it takes away any power you have. How's your, how's your, um.

Here's the thing that fucked me big time about the digital age. A lot of people complain and there's a lot of reasons to complain about it. But remember when, like if you had an office and you'd go back in, they would hand you those little pink

things with messages. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And like that was my whole performance in the West Wing was based on that. Like I have, it's all I ever did was like I'd walk in and they go and then I'd be like shuffling very importantly a bunch of things and like now you don't, you don't do that. So like you're my, my paperwork acting

really suffered. In a paperless world, actors really, what you have to do is you have to do what Brando did on The Godfather, which is write down dialogue and tape it to Robert Duvall's forehead. And he would, on his coverage, that's how he remembered his lines, by having little pieces of tape all over his acting partner. I love watching Apocalypse Now when Brando is literally going, and I remember I, I,

I went like some and it's like he just like blatantly it broke my heart around the room when I found out that he in the in the, you know, arguably one of his greatest scenes in. Oh, my God. Waterfront on the waterfront. He he he didn't stick around for the coverage. He shot his side of it and left.

Yeah, Karl Malden, I think, is... No, Rod Steiger. Rod Steiger, yeah. That's tough. Because, like, you get... Like, if you're Rod Steiger, you're opposite Brando. He's, like, the guy. He's giving you this insane monologue. It's so from the heart. And it's like, okay, you know, you know, Charlie, my second team, he's gonna do this. I gotta go. Not even second team. It's script supervisor. So he gets, like, he gets...

I could have been somebody. I could have been a contender, but it was you, Charlie. It was you the whole time. You're like a bum, which is what I am now. A bum. That's tough. That's a tough one to take. That's rough. That's rough flooding. Have you ever worked with anybody who's getting their dialogue fed to them from an earwig? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have? No way. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I can't say who because I don't know if he if it's public but he's a famous actor and he's a great actor he's one of the best actors but it was like I think he was focusing on accent

And it was a lot of... Okay, that's fair. That's totally fair. No, no, that's totally fair. Yes. And insanely long monologues, a lot of which are procedural...

Kind of maybe if you were dealing with the FBI or the CIA, just giving more hints out there. Real, real literally heads can read between the lines and decode who it is and look on my Wikipedia. But it was crazy. And a friend of mine told me, he's like, hey, you're working with so-and-so. He goes, I would mess with him is crazy.

Because when you have the earwax in, you have to say whatever, you know, what's in the script because that's what they're feeding to you. That's right. And so if one of his lines, my friend decided to mess with him, and if one of his lines were like, we got to leave right now, my friend was supposed to say in the script,

Yeah, let me grab my gun. And he would go, we need to leave right now. My friend would be like, no, I'm not leaving. And he would just freeze and stare at him and go, we need to leave right now. Like, he just... My... When I worked with an actor who was getting his lines fed for an earwig off camera, it'd be very disconcerting because you'd be having a conversation. And then, like we are right now, if all of a sudden I went, no, no, the IV needs to be moved to three o'clock. Because you realize...

They're just talking to their assistants. Yeah. And also, you could say Amy Poehler. You don't have to hide her name. We know it's her. It was Amy. Amy is the king of the earwigs. It's something she picked up from Tina. She picked it up from Tina, and then Amy passed it along to Johnny Depp. Because most people know Amy, Tina, and Johnny Depp are famously three best friends. But Depp uses the earwig, get this.

Depp apparently uses the earwig not for his dialogue. It's he's listening to music while he's acting. Yes, that's OK. That's that's I mean, again, like if it works, sure. I just as you said that I just realized I need to use an earwig just for like going to a party.

You know what I mean? If there was someone, you know, you go to like a big party and people come up to you sometimes. That's Ted Sarandos. That's Ted Sarandos. Exactly. Just for the record, just for the record, I'm saying this directly to the camera. Ted, I would know who you are, Ted. Yeah. You're my guy. Ted's my guy. But like, you know, yeah, if you just have,

You're an assistant or a spouse, perhaps just kind of post up in the corner watching. And yeah, they just come by and like this is Shawn Michelson. He's VP production of that would just be amazing. It really is the you know, I think it's also the reason for the younger wife. I see a lot of old dudes. They don't want to have an earwig.

So they just get a younger wife and the younger wife literally will go like, there are a couple of guys like world famous. One's a mogul, world, world, world, world famous mogul. And the other is world, world, world famous performer, singer, songwriter. Wow. And, and, and the young wife will be like, oh, you know, Rob Lowe. Yes. He's the one like, oh, it just, just completely props them up.

Yeah. I don't even need that. That's why I married a woman 46 years older than me. I, you know, a lot of people gave me grief for it and said, you're going to wish someone was a little younger, but I, I went the other way. I went the other way. And a lot of times I have to explain who people are, where we are even. Um, but, uh, I don't regret it. I don't regret it at all.

Hey, I got to tell you, I got to tell you, my daughters and I just, we're in like a little bit of a low essence for them because I showed them Tommy Boy not too long ago, which they loved. They loved it. They loved it. When you start kissing Bo Derek, they went, oh. But now we're also getting into Parks and Rec.

And so they are very, very excited. They would not treat you like a TMZ truck. They would know. They would not say, oh, that's John. No, they would be like, that is Rob Lowe. That's right. I mean, they would not have said, is that John? Who do you ever get? There must be somebody that people think you are that you're not. Yeah. Do you remember Buddy Epson? Yeah.

No, no, no. Barnaby Jones. Barnaby Jones, Jed Clampett. Barnaby Jones, by the way, not only used to have the greatest intro, remember intros in TV shows where it used to have like a moment? Yeah. It's just him swiveling in the chair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Barnaby Jones was a badass, dude. He was a badass.

Uh, that wasn't with the same time as streets of San Francisco. Yeah. Wow. Uh, I get often mistaken, not mistaken for, but people will tell me you look like Mark Wahlberg or you look like Donnie Wahlberg. That's been kind of a recurring thing. You're a Wahlberg Wahlberg adjacent. I can see that. I could easily be the fourth brother that no, they never talk about. Um,

There's another, there's a guy, there's a movie called Rat Race.

Oh, my God. Yeah. It came out like in the mid-90s. It was almost like an updated version of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World type of situation. And there's a guy in it. I'm kind of blanking on his name right now. But he's in it. And there's a bit in it where he, like, pierces his tongue. And we look a little bit alike. But I've had over the years.

Rob, honestly, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people come up to me like rat race. And I didn't know hundreds, hundreds and hundreds of people saw that movie thing. Uh, I, I, uh, for years I was like, no, no, that's not me. And now they still say it. And I go, thank you. Yeah, it was a fun one. Whoopi and I, we still talk. Um, love her. What, what, um,

So you're, so you have, have you ever spoken to Mark or Donnie about being officially, because the Baldwin's made me an honorary Baldwin years ago. You could definitely be a ball. You're Baldwinian. Have you ever been photographed in the same room as Rob Palenka?

I was just, I was at a, we have to go deep now, right now. I was going to get to this. Yeah. So not only, so Genie, who you obviously know and love, Genie bus owner Lakers, a couple of seasons ago, they always do an event for big benefactors and season ticket holders. Yeah, we did it this year. Okay. Okay.

I did it three years ago and it was all predicated on her coming out and saying, and you know, later in the, in the program, Rob's going to come out and talk about the deals and Rob's really excited about this thing. And Rob, and, and,

Then I come out. Yeah. And, and it was, the joke was completely lost on 90, 90% of the people. But it was like the notion that they thought it was Palenka and it was me. It's just, you guys look too much alike. Like if, if Will Ferrell came out, people are like, yeah, people are like, oh, that's right. Palenka. Hand me the mustard.

That is so funny. It is because we were at that event a few weeks ago or whatever. And he was there and I was there with Mindy Kaling. And we were talking to him and he walks away and she's like, it's like,

It looks exactly like Rob Lowe. They're like brothers. We do. He looks more like my brother than my actual brother does. Yes, he kind of does. He does. Wow. It's wild. It's nuts. I love this show. I love Running Point. Thank you, my friend. It's super great. I love Kate Hudson. First of all, she's just one of my favorite people. And so talented. How about her music career?

Dude, it's so funny, you know, because we she came on to do the show, signed on to the show. We were talking to her and stuff and hanging out a little bit. And she's like, I'm doing music. You guys got to come and see this big show. And you never know with movie stars. You never know. You never know.

And we got there and it was packed, packed show. And she came out and came over as a first or second song, but she covered Voices Carry, which is one of my kind of, one of my all times. And she's just incredible, man. She's so, so great. And it's shocking. It's shocking. I mean, it shouldn't be shocking because she's like,

you know, whatever has very talented genes and, and whatnot. But, uh, she's just great. It's such a relief because if it was bad, you'd have to be like, uh, yeah, uh, the show's great. You know what I mean? She's just, she's amazing. Yeah. She's, and she's great. And Jeannie is such a great character, persona, icon, um,

You know, I've known the Buss family. I knew Dr. Buss really, really well. I would go up to Pickfair and hang. I've got a lot of, if these walls could talk Pickfair stories. Oh my God. And Jim Buss. I mean, it's like when you know, you know.

You know what I mean? If they would have kept doing the other Winning Time show, there would have been a Rob Lowe character in like season four or something. Played by John Stamos. No, 100%. I mean, like people go on and on about the Forum Club. Oh, yeah. I go, yeah, but you know where the real shit was going down? The Press Lounge. Oh, my God. Because the Press Lounge was where you actually had some...

Like that's where Nicholson and I were like, like it was, it was not pretty or, or really pretty. It was beautiful. It was beautiful. Man. I got to LA way too late. I got here in like 2000 where I was just like, it's just too late. Yeah. Too late. Yeah.

This is the time of year where you just want to donate all your old clothes and revamp your wardrobe, right? Spring cleaning means out with the old and in with the new. And that's where Macy's comes in. Yep.

spring fashion has officially landed at Macy's and they've got the perfect items for a serious wardrobe upgrade. Macy's knows what's hot this season, like lightweight knits that make you look effortlessly cool, matched sets that make you look as polished as a celebrity's photo filters, woven skirts, mini dresses, and red carpet ready maxi dresses. Macy's has got all the new arrivals. They'll

the latest colors, your favorite brands, and brands waiting to be your favorite brand. And just when you think it couldn't get any better, bam, they've got timeless jewelry, classic denim, and workwear that says, I'm here to work and look awesome doing it.

Find Macy's Spring Styles in linen, crochet, cotton gauze, all the perfect fabrics for when the heat kicks in and you still want to look like a million bucks. So what are you waiting for? Shop now at macys.com or in stores. Summertime's here. The sun is shining. You need powerful sun protection that feels light on your skin. Meet Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Sunscreen.

This is SPF 70 lotion. It absorbs fast with smooth, dry-touch finish, so you'll forget that you're even wearing it. It blocks 97% of burning UV rays and is water-resistant for up to 80 minutes. Lightweight, effective, and perfect for sunny days. It is just what your summer needs. Neutrogena Ultra Sheer. Sunscreen you can't feel. Shop now at Target.

Literally with Rob Lowe is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the Name Your Price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states. So season two.

Two, is it picked up? It's picked up. They picked it up. Uncle Ted, we love you. Uncle Ted, love him. They picked it up and it's, yeah, we're working on it right now. It's definitely a lot easier season two, I think, because like the season one, you're trying to figure it out and establish the characters. Is this person going to work and not?

But season two, it's just really exciting because you kind of know everyone. And we lucked out with this cast. I mean, Kate, the fact that we got her is one. I just assumed that she would just be too busy or doing a movie or something. But she really loved the script. She loves Genie. Like you, she's known Genie since she was very young. I think Genie, Buss, and Kate Hudson both...

are very evocative of southern california and the ocean yes and and and the vibe and so we were so excited to get her but then we get like justin thoreau to play her brother and drew tarver and scott macarthur and and uh jay ellis is the coach and max greenfield and brenda song it's like this wild west group so it's really really fun to write for those guys just does thoreau write anymore

He does. He does. Yeah. I mean, dude, I mean, people forget that Justin Theroux wrote Tropic Thunder. One of the all time, like probably a top five comedy of all time. Dude, he wrote it. He wrote it. And I think he wrote Zoolander. I think he wrote Zoolander. He also, he told me that there's like a, uh,

Back when they remember when they used to make movies and they really put money into them and they would be like, oh, OK, the movie's done. Here's another million dollars to shoot like DVD extras and commentary and all that stuff. Yes. They gave them a ton of money to shoot like a featurette for the Tropic Thunder DVD. That was basically like like like a version of Hearts of Darkness, like a documentary about the movie. That's I'm pretty sure. Don't quote me on this. The road directed.

Oh, I see this. It is. I think you can find it on the internet or maybe on YouTube. It is so funny because it was just him dicking around on set and like grabbing, you know, Robert Downey and being like, Hey, come here, shoot this. Terrorize this. Yeah. You might've seen it. I've seen the, the Downey in the hotel room sequence. That's where that's from. He's like holding a gun to his head in front of his son. He's like, I'm going to kill him. Oh, so good.

I, when I did a show called The Grinder and I played like, great show. Oh, thanks, man. I'm friends with those guys, with the writers. Yeah, that's right. Cause you do, uh, friends, uh, the, the, the, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my,

Oh, Nick Stoller. Nick Stoller. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Stoller as well. I'm not friends with him though. I don't like him. Fuck him. Um, the, the, the, anyway, when I, when I played the grinder and I wanted to have certain cool wardrobe, my mood board was all Justin Theroux. Ah, he, all Justin Theroux. Nobody wears clothes like Justin Theroux. Nobody, nobody. Like,

His body type, like, compare... If I wore the things that he's wearing... That's his competitive... It's true. He's a tiny little Mick Jagger of a man. He's just incredibly ripped and sinewy, but, like, strangely broad. Like, it's wild. When I put that on, like...

People get really upset. When I wear clothes like that, when I wear, like, tight jeans, people are like, oh, God. You can feel it. You can see his balls. It's gross. It's gross. He's got the anatomy to pull it off. Yeah, yeah. I don't. I don't. So what season two, roughly, what do you think? Can you tell me any hint? Well, I think, you know, the one thing I could say is we definitely...

ended season one with a lot of cliffhangers. You know, she's going to break up with Lev, played by Max Greenfield. You know, is she going to follow through on the kiss she made with Jay Ellis? And then at the very end, Thoreau's back. So we set up all these kind of... threw a lot of balls in the air. So we'll see where those land. And

The great thing about telling a story about a sports team is you really get to use the season as a guide and touchdowns throughout the season. I know you're a huge sports fan. So for that, we're really lucky to have that as a structure. You're like Dodgers first, right? That's your thing. I got to be full disclosure. It was always...

Baseball was always my first love, but I grew up a Reds fan. So when I came to LA, I was like ambivalent about the Dodgers, but Laker, Laker, Laker, Laker. And I was super lucky. I got the Lakers through not only Showtime, where I had season four seats, really, and then Kobe and Shaq. Right. And then they kind of went through their lull. Right. Yeah.

And so I still love the Lakers, but the Dodgers have taken over that. I don't miss a game. I watch. I follow the stats. I mean, I'm still as Laker Nation, but the Dodgers right now. It's a good vibe. It's a really good vibe at the Dodgers. I'm a Cub fan. I'm from Chicago. Cubs are good. Cubs are really good. We got Pete Crowe Armstrong.

I love him. Do you know his dad? Have you ever worked with his dad? His dad's, yeah. I know his mom's an actress too, right? Mom's an actor. Dad's an actor. And now like, it's so crazy. I feel so old that like, oh yeah, that young guy from Heroes, his son is now like the best five tool player in like years. It's so good. You want to hear a crazy baseball stat I just heard? Yeah. Crazy stat.

Ichiro Suzuki, his 10th at-bat ever in the major leagues was a single. And that put him at 300 exactly. He had like roughly 10,500 more at-bats in his career, and he never went below 300. What? Well, that is, that's insane.

I'm going to steal that quote. Yeah. Double check it because if it's wrong, and delete this entire podcast, but I'm pretty sure. No credibility. Yeah, but that is amazing. I love him. He's amazing. We got to talk the studio. Everybody's talking about it. It's one of those... I would love to get under the hood and see who's watching that show because it's got to be everybody...

Is it possible? Is it possible? I'm just gonna say, and I'm not trying to be a dick. Is it possible that there are 5,000 people watching that show?

Anything's possible. I think it's more than 5,000. I will say this. I love when people in the business, people in New York and LA reach out and they're like, amazing. I love it. It's great. It's one for us. It's like, if you're a- It's one for you. If you're a chef at a restaurant- Let me ask you this. Let me put you this way. Yes. Okay. Look, because we, you've been around long enough. There's, I've never, I was on a show called 911 Lone Star. Sure.

I've never had one person, not one ever in Los Angeles mention it. Right. I get, I go and play in the Jack Nicklaus Memorial Tournament playing with Scotty Scheffler this year. Oh, nothing. Wow. Wow. And, and all the gallery is, Captain Strand! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Captain the 126 forever! Yeah. Right? So there's that. And then when I did, and it's not dissimilar, the Grindr,

Everybody in LA, everybody in New York, and then my own father's never heard of that show. That's, I think, what we're talking about here. I get extra excited when people...

who I know who don't live in New York, LA or people online who live randomly in other places love it. It's just, that's exciting. But it is, listen, it is a show that is, I think, I think the same thing was true for like

the Larry Sanders show. You know what I mean? But I remember living in Chicago being like 15 or 16 and watching it and having no idea some of the things they were talking about, but being like, I want to do this. I want to be a writer in this room. You know what I mean? So I think anytime you make something that's about the business, naturally it's going to be focused on

mostly on the coasts. And Chicago's a coast too. It has Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan, 100%. But nothing hits more than like a... It's weird. It's weird. There's like a difference. There's a difference. But Running Point is a show that hits everywhere. That hits both? I don't know. I mean, it's fun when you... It's rare when you get both, but I can see that Running Point would make perfect sense. So in...

In the studio, what is your single favorite most inside baseball? I'm sure you put in stuff that makes, that's more than inside. It makes only three of you on the set. Yeah, yeah, yes, yes. You must have those, right? Yeah, yeah. I, I, I,

When I did, when Fred Armisen and I were doing Unstable for Uncle Ted at Netflix. Oh, yes. And the conceit was he was staying in my basement because I had a good movie collection. But I was finally kicking him out. And as I kicked him out, I whispered in his ear, please promise me you'll watch. And the alts on what I wanted him to watch. Right, right. Were just as I was. Give me a couple. August Osage County. See, that killed that. See.

That killed me too. And I promise you, no one in America laughed at that joke, except maybe you, me, and Fred Armisen. Tracy Letts is a genius.

First of all, I think Fred Armisen, I think he might be the funniest person ever. I don't know. He's definitely like, if you told me Fred Armisen's the funniest man of all time, I would, I can't. I think it's. Yeah, I agree. And the studio. Yeah, there's, there's, there's like. Give me your face. You get hit me with some, hit me with some baby. Okay. I'm trying to remember. I'm trying to remember. Oh God. I mean, okay. Give me a second. Give me a second.

All right. I'm trying to think of everyone who was on there. There was a whole thing about parking spaces was pretty amazing.

the runner about the politics of where you park in a studio lot was pretty great. Oh, you know, I think definitely, uh, okay, here's one that's very inside baseball, just because I do hear a lot of executives say that is in that episode, their director, I'm trying to woo Parker Finn, who's actually the director of the movie smile and smile too. I'm trying to get him to remake his own movie for the studio. And, uh,

I keep, he keeps showing up and Seth won't talk to him or he shows up and I blow him off. And I'm like, listen, man, give me one more chance tomorrow. Come tomorrow. I'm bringing the courage bagels. And I had as a line that I've had like a couple of different executives be like, we got to get courage bagels next time. So that's one that like, that's it. It's amazing. It's so few, few people are going to hear a lot of the stuff that, um, David Krumholz is saying to Seth, I feel like is, um,

super insidery. Um, but listen, you know, like if you're a cook at a cooler restaurant, South Carolina, you love the bear. You know what I mean? You're watching the bear and that one for you, this one's for us. Yeah. I love the, um, like when entourage was obsessed with remaking Aquaman, the Kool-Aid movie is the, by the way, here's the, because what's great about it

And I would love to, again, those are the things that go, I want to be in the writer's room and know the ones that didn't make it. Oh, yeah. Because the Kool-Aid one is so genius because A,

It's so ridiculous, but it's also a great idea. Like I, I would, I would listen. I, the Lego movie is great. I'm down for a Kool-Aid movie. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Uh, the, the, like the, the, the, the fictional slate that the continental has is so funny because like, I, I kept trying to wonder which movie would actually get made first. And I, I did think like,

If Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, like, I could see them calling me and being like, hey, we're making this movie called The Apocalypse. It's about a bunch of zombies that shoot diarrhea. Johnny Knoxville said, do you want to come and play? I would be like, yeah, that's totally a normal thing. I'd be like, you had me at diarrhea. You had me at diarrhea. You had me at diarrhea and Johnny Knoxville. But it was like, and watching those scenes, like the episode with the one-er with Sarah Polly, like,

the kind of pretentious arthouse movie she's directing with Greta Lee. Like, we're shooting the show, we're being funny, but then you watch and like, oh, they're making an actual, like, movie here. It's crazy. It's crazy what those boys did. I can't believe...

the amount of night shoots, I would be like Ricky Gervais. Like Ricky Gervais, we did a film together and Ricky co-directed it. And the first thing Ricky does whenever he gets a script is cuts the night shoots. Yeah. I'm not doing them. I'm like, I'm like,

I'm not doing those night shoots. And that's there's one fucking old thing takes place at night. I'm like, man, Seth, good for you, brah. Yeah. Lost any of your edge. They there was a couple late nights. My friend did a movie one time with Danny Glover. And it was it was all nights. It was all nighttime exterior. And like the first day, like they're in the makeup chair. And Danny Glover's like nights, nights when it really happens. Nights is when you get to be an actor.

When you get to actually do the shit because of all the police down, it's about nighttime. And that night at like 815, he's sitting in his director's chair, just what, what? Oh, sorry. I love Danny Glover. I worked with him as well. And that man, one of the greatest, he literally, first of all, we were doing a scene that was one of those eating scenes, like a family eating thing. He ate every piece of prop food. By the way, the guy is,

And he's. Yes. He ate everything that wasn't nailed down. And then and then he came up to me. The corn dogs over crafting. Do you know? Do you know the great who is? I think it's Bobby Lee tells this has this bit.

I'm going to butcher this. Well, here's the thing. As long as I don't take credit for the story, I'm good. I'll tell you this. You'll definitely tell it better than Bobby did. So go ahead. My man. I love him so much. I don't know if it's Bob, but someone tells the story of them seeing, fuck, who is this? God damn it. But anyway, but it's, it's Danny going up to Morgan Freeman and saying,

Oh, this is in the mid-90s. Oh, I mean, oh, that's the Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrimp Shrim

It is. It also sounds like a recipe at a restaurant in New Orleans. It's a shrimp stamp production. It's a bubblegum shrimp. Bubblegum shrimp production. So amazing. Okay, what else we got? We got all kinds of shit. We got all kinds of shit. We got all kinds of shit, man. So you have these two shows at once. At once. How do you work together?

that out. I mean, I mean, that's a great thing about Netflix is they give you, they're like, Hey, do it when you want to do like, they don't, you know, you, you're not on any real schedule. Right. That said, how do you, how do you run your life?

You know, luckily, we had a long lead time of writing season one of Running Point. And then we got about six weeks of shooting done before the studio started filming. So there were some days where there was overlap and I would be kind of shuttling back and forth between Warner Brothers and L.A. Center Studios where we shoot Running Point. I thought you shot all these in Budapest.

Yeah. Well, we do the, we do the, uh, exteriors in Budapest because the show takes place in Budapest. It's a Budapest and LA. There's, if you know, you know, that tax credit. I mean, Hey, real quick. If I could just, uh, thank, uh, Victor Orban for all of his hospitality with my cast and crew. And, uh, I love you that you're the, you're the, one of the few actors that would throw me a Victor Orban reference. Yeah.

Peace out to you, bro. Bobby Lee would definitely know who Victor Orvani is. What was I saying? Oh, yeah. Anyway, so, you know, that and I think the most important thing, and you know how important this is, is to have great partners. You know, like Mindy and the showrunner of Running Point is Dave Stassen, who's been like my best friend for like 40 years. And so...

them and having Seth and Evan also guys I've known for a long time just being helpful and patient and being respectful of your time. And, you know...

it's always the balance of when you're shooting, when you're really, really, really busy. Um, how do you make time for family? And that is why I, uh, uh, rent out my family. That's why you're alone. I do. I have, if I have a business, if you're kind of someone who doesn't have a family, your family curious, uh, I offer, you can rent mine out, uh, for, for, uh, for as long as my production is lasting. So,

So that I don't have to worry about because someone else is kind of watching over them. Yeah, look, it's another passive income stream. Yeah, it's just always be making money is kind of my acting motto. Even when you're not always be closing, always be making money. Always be closing, always be making money. Coffee's for closers. Drink coffee if you want to close, drink coffee.

Or if you want to drink coffee, close. It's funny. I obviously were referencing the great Alec Baldwin and Glengarry Glen Ross, which is now a play right now, which I think how many people at night do you think go to that play and don't see that scene? Because that seems not in the play. Not in the play. Not as written for the movie. People are mad. I'm willing to bet that half of the audience, at least half,

waiting for that. Yes. Well, maybe they, I remember it at the beginning, but well, maybe I miss from remembering. Maybe it's, it must be after the intermission. It must be after that. And then the curtain comes down like, where the fuck? What happened? When I went to the bathroom, did they do the monologue? Yeah.

I was just in New York with my family and it was my daughter's birthday. And so she's wanted to go see a show and we're just, it's so funny. We're walking down Broadway, you know, we're seeing like Glenn, Gary, Glenn Ross and portrait of Dorian gray and Macbeth and a good night and good luck and just all these amazing plays. And we just went to go see Aladdin. Yeah.

It was her seventh birthday. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. By the way, the Aladdin was great. Princess Jasmine was fantastic. And the genie was, she was funny. I saw Portrait of Dorian Gray. Insane. Oh, wow. Yeah, I heard it's wild. Sarah Snook plays 27 parts. 27 parts. She really, she clumped it up.

It's very Tyler Perry. It's Tyler Perry. It's Eddie Murphy. It's Eddie Murphy. I'm here for this. I'm here for more of Meet the Klumps-style Broadway shows. Yeah, and how they do it is...

It's unbelievable. It's right across the street from The Outsiders, which I still haven't seen, but I want to go see. Oh, wow. And that's a whole other generation. That was the first time I saw you. They showed The Outsiders on TV one day. I was, God, I was a kid, but I remember watching that movie. And then I remember all the girls loving you. Oh, come on now. And they loved you and they loved Patrick Swayze.

Very much. Sways. Throwing it down for the sways. Yeah, they love the sways. What about when I came out of the shower in that little towel drop? Did that give you a little, did it feel funny down below for you at all? It was, you know, I was young, but maybe it made me question kind of my identity. Okay, good. You know, but I figured it out. I figured it out. Yeah, I was just trying to pull focus. That's great.

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for Mission Impossible? Are you following any of this? I've seen snippets here and there. I already have my tickets for opening week, and I'm obsessed with those movies.

I am obsessed with those movies. And I got like two summers ago, I just said to my kids, hey, we're going to watch this movie. I made them watch Mission Impossible 1. And they've seen all of them except for two and three. And they love Tom Cruise. They love Ethan Hunt. They're all in. And we're all going to go next weekend. What's the press for? What's the vibe? What's his vibe right now? I cannot wait.

I am such a huge Tom fan on every, I mean, in these movies, I mean, I think they blow James Bond out of the water.

Right? I'm a big Bond fan. Same. I thought the last Bond was great. I love Jason Bourne. But the Mission Impossible movies are just, they're so, they're just so rewatchable and they're just, they're great. So here's my pit. So, and I called Fred, I cold called Fred Armisen. I said, are you doing the new season of Documentary Now yet? And he goes, no. And I go, here's my pitch.

Because I just seen their umpteen behind the scenes things of Tom talking about. So I basically, there's a thing where he's talking about being underwater. He's like, we're underwater. And it's really hard to be underwater. And we had to have a new way to communicate because we're underwater. And he keeps talking about being underwater. And while it clearly shows him

Underwater. Sure. And so I was like, this needs to be documentary now. I want to play like... A behind the scenes, yeah. A behind the scenes and I'm playing like a gnarly, like maybe lost the plot, you know, over like super earnest, like earnest beyond the level of earnest. Yeah. Intense. And talking about underwater. What's hard is you...

You don't use your lungs in the way that you would normally use your lungs. A whole new way of breathing needs to be. Because it's a compound of hydrogen and oxygen. It's different. There's two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. I did see a clip of him.

like at video village with Christopher McQuarrie and all the crew. And he's just in like a little like briefs and he looks, he looks amazed. Like it's crazy. And I was like, he's gotta be so, I'm just so happy for him. You know what I mean? I don't know the guy at all, but I'm just like, Oh my God, he is just, he still gets to do these movies for 30 years. He's in his little underwear on set. He's jacked. Everyone's like staring at him and he's just, he's just, he's so happy. Yeah.

And he like does some insane stunt and then goes, thanks everybody. And shakes every person's hand like they're in a rope line and then gets on a bell Sikorsky. Yes. And flies off the set to a castle. Yes. Yeah. I mean, he makes his list of coconut cakes. Cakes. Cakes.

Mindy Kaling got one. She gets them because I guess she knows Tom. And one year she brought it over and she's like, I can't. She had like a bite of it. And I ate like the entire cake. It's like the best coconut cake I've ever had. I mean, the man knows how to live. He knows how to live, dude. Listen, he's the man. I love him. I love TC. A little TC action. Okay, so what is your next... What are you doing for the summer?

I'm working. We're, uh, we're going to go, we are going to go away. We're going to go to, uh, Amsterdam with the family. Oh yeah. How did you end up in Amsterdam forming your comedy troop in Amsterdam? Cause the way I see it was in Amsterdam. It took you going to Amsterdam to meet everybody and form a troop.

No, a little bit in a way. So I go to Boston University for one year. Doesn't work out. I hate it. They don't like me. I go back home to Chicago and I know I want to act a little bit. I don't know how to apply it. I don't know what.

sector I want to act in, but I go and I see the Improv Olympics like 10th anniversary show and I'd never seen like improv like that before. And looking back, it was like Polar and Adam McKay and Tim Meadows specifically was so, so funny that I was like, okay, so I want to do this. And this was a big time, like the mid to late 90s

New York with the UCB and Chicago with ImprovOlympic and the Annoying Second City. A lot of just really funny people around. A lot of cool things were happening. So I was there for a few years. And I had heard about this theater that these three American bros founded in Amsterdam. And I knew that this guy, Seth Meyers, had just left our theater to go do it.

And, uh, my roommate auditioned and I auditioned and when I went out there, I was like 21 or 22. I'd never been to Europe before. And it's, it's a real theater. It's a theater with hundreds of seats and then they do like a second city style comedy show. And so I went there and, um,

The kind of group we were there with, you know, it was just our friends for many years, but, you know, now it was like, you know, Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly, the Ted Lasso boys and Jordan Peele and Seth and Kay Cannon, who directed me in Blockers and Liz Kikowski and Amber Ruffin and Josh and Seth Meyers. All these people were there. So, yeah.

The comedy and the work, in addition to the insane amount of fun that I had, just like being a 20, whatever, two year old kid from Chicago living in Amsterdam in like the 90s. So it was like, oh, my God, it was the closest I'll get to like your life in the 80s.

But it was really, really, really fun. And we all kept in touch. And now, years later, we all still work together and talk. And it's a nice little community. So we're going to go there with the family for a little vacay.

That sounds amazing. It sounds amazing, but it's a little weird because it is like you're bringing your children to like... Amsterdam. Tim Meadows had a character on SNL that was one of my all-time favorite reoccurring sketches where he hosted an early access... Oh, yeah. What... Dude. What was that? You're watching... It's 5... It's 4.45 in the morning.

The joke was that nobody would put that show on. And he was, what the fuck was the name? That is my favorite Tim Meadow joke.

character ever. Tim Meadows is an all-timer. Do you ever, ever, you ever watched, uh, Tim Robinson? I think you should leave. Have you ever watched any of that? Oh yeah. He's in an, I think you should leave sketch, which is like one of the funniest sketches on that whole show where it's like, it's his daughter's getting married and there's a photographer and he's like, all right, I got a table full of props. Everyone grab a prop, grab a prop for a fun photo. Uh,

Come on, hurry. Three, two, one. And Tim tries to grab a glasses and someone grabs him and all that's left is like a big purple feather. And he goes, okay, one, two, three. And Tim Meadows panics and just shoves the feather down his throat and just starts vomiting. He's a legend, man. He's a legend. Absolute legend. Yeah, yeah. Well, dude, this is great. This is so fun to catch up with you, man. I love it. Dude.

I hear the show and you're just, I loved watching your show too with your son. The Ugly Guys should be the name of that show. Two Ugly Dudes. I like that. Boom. Boom. One man in need of a facelift, another 30 years away from it. How about that? If you play a version of Tom Cruise in a documentary now, I would like to play the McQuarrie.

Totally. Yeah, I'll play like the director who you're like telling me something crazy. Like, I'm going to go underwater. I'm going to hold my breath for 14 minutes. And I'm like, okay. This is the thing, right? Well, yeah, yeah. Okay, let's talk to Fred. LA tech avail. I just used that word today too. No, no, no. I wanted to talk to somebody and I realized that they had, God forbid, they were no longer living. And I said, they're technically unavailable.

He's L.A., Forest Lawn, tech unavailable. Tech unavailable. Won't do network. Won't do network. He's dead, but he would love to be on a Netflix show. That's right. Streaming only, tech unavailable, Forest Lawn. See, these will be the pitches on the studio. Yeah, this is basically like... That's what it is.

You know, you're just like fucking hitting up the writers. Yeah. And that's why this one, this podcast will only be listened to in LA and New York. That's a joke. Everyone across the country better listen to this goddamn thing. And everybody's going to be watching the studio and everybody's going to be watching running point. And, um, and when Palenka makes an appearance, we got to, you know, Oh my God, we got to get you on there. Should we Palenka this up? Yeah.

We got to Palenka this bitch up, dude. I think we might. We've never really, I mean, it's, we've been, you know, we've sort of test run it and people like it, but we've never really rolled out the Palenka. We got to really go full, full Palenka on this one. Never go full Palenka. He went full Palenka. Never go full Palenka. Never go full Palenka. I mean, I, I think, I think Palenka, you know, he could, he could do some stuff. I think so. I kind of like this.

season two, you know, I'm around, you know where to find me. We know where to find you. You'll be this. This is your home, right? The studio is where you live. This is it. I got an air mattress right over there and that's as good as it gets for me. That's my life.

All right, brother. You're the best. You're the best. This is really fun. Really fun talking to you. I hope I see you on campus, as they say. Oh, I'm taking that, Rob Lowe. I'm taking that line. Isn't that a good one? I'll see you on campus. Yeah, I'm taking that one. I think Hanks hit me up with that one years ago. Doesn't that sound very Hanksian? Oh, yeah. I'm loving that. I'll see you on campus. So good. Yeah, see you on campus.

You're the best, man. Thanks, man. Thank you. You heard it here first, folks. Documentary now. The two of us. He's playing Christopher McQuarrie and I'm playing Tom Cruise. LFG. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next week right here on Literally.

You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Sean Doherty, with help from associate producer Sarah Begar and research by Alyssa Growl. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel. Our executive producers are Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Nick Liao, Adam Sachs, and Jeff Ross for Team Coco, and Colin Anderson for Stitcher. Booking by Deirdre Dodd. Music by Devin Bryant.

Special thanks to Hidden City Studios. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally.

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