Jeffrey Dean Morgan: Is A Real MF
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And I remember my dad and mom being real upset that I was going to drop out of school. Like, what, a little stabbing and you're done with college? Yeah, I am. Somebody going to cue me or do I cue myself? Cue yourself. Okay. Hey, everybody, guess what? We're back with another episode of Let's Talk Off Camera. So let's get talking.

Today we're going to be joined by talented actor, friend of the family, and farmer, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. And in a shocking twist, we have swapped our Ask Kelly questions for Jeffrey questions at the end of the show. So listen for your question to be answered. You are very vocal, very verbose.

And we aim to please here at Let's Talk Off Camera. So I always go back to JDM co-hosting with me so many times. Such a righteous, amazing person. He seems so cool. He is the kindest, lovingest.

most sincere. We keep talking about maybe having a family vacation. You guys get along in a way, like a very unique way. I feel like they are like the hot, cool version of us. The tall, hot, cool version of us. Plus, I want you to go see the land that he's on. I do. I want to see the farm. Everything. I think he's going to be zooming in from the farm. So we'll see. On the farm? I think so. Oh, my gosh. On a tractor, maybe? Albert's being all...

being all happy and nice right now but he came in hot and heavy this morning I'm just being honest with you wait tell me why yeah tell me why he was all upset well you know I've been watching live with Kelly and Mark the last few mornings and uh just the last few mornings you just discovered the show specifically the last few mornings and there's been this uh one of the co-hosts who has a very chiseled face

Okay. Who's been... Still not narrowing it down. Who's been... Go ahead. Kind of making some commentary on Sausage Fest that I thought was a very interesting thing to note as a viewer who's unable to speak back. Yes, well, that's who we like to focus on, people who can't speak back. And then it dawned on me this morning after the second time around that I might be in front of a hot mic today. Oh.

That's a great idea. What is your rebuttal? I think my rebuttal is that if someone is unhappy or feeling dissatisfied with the meat that they're served, I have a very easy answer and that is stay the fuck home. He would never stay the fuck home and here's why. It would give him nothing to complain about. And so you realize that Sausage Fest is,

has become his favorite slash least favorite holiday. And yes, we call it a holiday. We don't call it Memorial Day weekend. We call it Sausage Fest weekend. I have gotten a lot of text messages from people saying that Kelly's a genius for calling it the Met Gala of Long Island. Wait, wait, wait. So a lot of our listeners...

don't know what sausage fast is. Kelly, I think, coined it. It was years ago. We serve these sausages from Peconic Prime Meats every Memorial Day weekend. Right. And it started out, what, 10 of us? I'm going to specify it. It was 10 gay guys and me. And 10 of us.

And my children at this gathering at Albert's house in the freezing cold, icy, chilly rain of Memorial Day weekend of Long Island. And we ate sausages. Albert, on this particular day, serves nothing but foods I don't eat. It is a plethora of foods. No, the Claire's coleslaw from Cromer's. You love that. I eat the Claire's coleslaw if there's any left. Did you just...

Mark? Oh, 100%. So Mark is disinvited. I think he seems very dissatisfied. I'd hate to see him so troubled. I might go on since you've both pointed out that you have separate paperless post invites. We do have separate. I think I might retract his. Yeah. Oh, okay. You can do that. Yes, I can. You can do that. And I encourage you to do that.

He'll show up anyway. He will. He'll climb the fence. Is Jeffrey Dean Morgan invited to Sausage Fest? Oh, 100%. Yes. Is he on? Are you kidding? Wait, is he on right now? Should we invite him to Sausage Fest? Oh, we should absolutely. Does he like sausage is the question. Well, we're going to find out. We're going to find out if Jeffrey Dean Morgan likes sausage because if JDM and Hillary came to Sausage Fest, it would up the cool factor of Sausage Fest by 2 million percent. Wow.

I don't know what we're talking about or what a sausage fest is. We're talking about the Met Gala of Long Island. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado. Let's just introduce him into the sausage fest. We are because here's what.

My producing partner, love of my life, my brother from another mother, Albert Bianchini. There he is. So Albert has this event out on Long Island every Memorial Day weekend. Oh, fantastic. It started out small. Yes. But all he serves are different sausages from Peconic Prime Meats.

So if we could get you and Hillary to come, there would be another straight couple for us to... But they're actual sausages, Jeffrey, like really good ones. No, no. I'm in for both of them.

That's right. This is why you are so beloved, Jeffrey, because you know what? You are a man of the people. I am a man of the people. Now, this sausage party, is there a theme...

A dress code kind of thing? Kelly's created it, yes. So we created a dress code years ago when Michael, who is now 25, I guess he was what, like 14 or 15 at the time, he came dressed as a hot dog. He wore a hot dog costume to Sausage Fest. All right, see, now that's where I was going. So now it's turned into sort of like a... Costume optional. Costume optional. You see a lot of caftans, a lot of sequins. Lots.

I think my question would be, what does Mark wear? I think that's what I need to know. Mark, as usual, wears a skin-tight black t-shirt. He's surely sitting there. Skin-tight black t-shirt, skin-tight white jeans. And then he wanders around bitching that the sausage is undercooked the entire time.

God bless him. You know, if I could wear a skin tight white pants, I'd do it too. A little birdie told me you could and you should. And some of those little birdies are right here at this table. You know, last time we last time we spoke, you revealed that you had a man crush on Mark and Mark revealed that he had a man crush on you.

Will we ever take this man crush to the next level? The sausage party. I think it's all going down there. It is the perfect place. You may meet guys you like better, Jeffrey, if I'm being honest. I don't know. Kelly and I are ordained. We could help officiate a lot of things. Yeah. We are both ordained ministers. It's a smoke show of a sausage fest. Do you and...

Hillary have this thing called a hall pass. Jan wants to know because Jan and Glenn have hall passes. That's my favorite. And I'd like to know. Do they really though? Because people that say they really have a hall pass, I don't buy. No, we do. You really do? Yeah. So who is your hall pass? He likes Liz Cho. Liz Cho. Oh, well, Liz Cho is everybody's hall pass. Yes, that is true. Do you know who Liz Cho is?

No, who is it? She's the evening newscaster on WABC here in New York City. Oh, yeah. She is fiendishly beautiful and brilliantly smart. I do know who you're talking about now. But yeah, I generally don't watch the local news. But Jan, I want to know who your hall pass is. I like myself a Bob Iger. That makes sense. Bob Iger makes sense. Bob Iger? Yes, I think he's super hot. Jan also wants to be financially taken care of.

I wouldn't have gone super hot, but I understand the financial security. I like the confidence. I like the whole thing. She likes that BDE, Big Disney Energy. So how do you feel about Taylor Swift saying that you were her celebrity crush? I'm flattered. I think when she said it, she was, you know, 14 years old, though. Yeah, but I'm pretty sure that you're still her celebrity crush, if I'm guessing. I don't know.

i don't know i remember there was once an award ceremony and she was getting an award for something and she had requested that i present her with the award and i wasn't available so i've never i've never met her i've i've seen the little internet clip of her saying have your kids seen it do they are they uh swifties no i don't think so i think i'm more of a swifty than um my kids you know like gus is like two years away

before that clip will become very important in his world? Well, maybe. I mean, Gus is into... I mean, the first concert that he went to was Metallica, so...

He skews a different direction than the Swifty, although he likes Billie Eilish. He likes her a lot. Now, George, I think, will have a Taylor Swift moment. Oh, yeah. So, Jeffrey, we got a lot of questions from your fan base. And I was telling Jan and Albert this earlier today when we were over at the live studio that I think you followed me on Instagram earlier.

And then like instantly 50,000 people also followed me, but they all have like Jeffrey Dean Morgan, number one fan in the title. And they'll ask me questions like, what's your favorite thing about Jeffrey Dean Morgan? I'll post a picture of my mom on her birthday. And they're like, tell me your top three things about Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Oh,

Oh, God bless him. I don't know what to say about it, but I saw that you had tweeted that I was going to be on the show and to ask a question, and I retweeted it, kind of knowing that you would get more responses than you probably wanted to deal with.

See, I won't tell them when they ask me, but they're thinking, because they know that I adore you, that if you ask, maybe I'll answer. That maybe you'll answer. So that's how we're going to play it. But I want to, before we get to their questions, I want to go back in time, back to Seattle, where you grew up. Oh, yeah.

Sure. You were the captain of the basketball team. I was. There are certain words that I associate with, wait for it, being popular. Were you popular, Jeffrey Dean Morgan? Yeah, but it was a different thing then. I mean, it wasn't clicky at all. You had the kids that...

maybe were smoking cigarettes in the upper parking lot and then there was everybody else so those kids were kind of like the dangerous ones and then everybody else kind of hung out like I talked to Gus now about how school is and how the lunchroom operates and all that the drama that goes with that for a 13 year old and it's crazy I don't we didn't have that so I mean people didn't hate me I don't think but um uh

I mean, maybe. Did you smoke cigarettes? Were you a smoker back then? I didn't then because I was a basketball player. Right. You couldn't do both. My coach would have killed me. Yeah, right. My coach, who I still talk to, by the way. We talk quite a bit, actually.

But yeah, I mean, I guess I was okay popular. I wasn't dating like the head cheerleader or anything like that. Did basketball lead you to college? Did you go like to college on an athletic scholarship? I did. I did. But I blew out my knee right away. And then I got stabbed. I got...

It's a, it's a crazy story. I went to this little school in Northern Washington. So I wanted to stay close to home and I hated the school part. I wasn't great at the school part, but I always wore my hair slick back and we're talking 1985 and I wore a leather coat. I dress like I do now. And one day I was walking home from practice and where I was going to school was kind of country.

and these guys pulled over and in my head i'm thinking oh they're gonna ask for directions which is not good because i don't know where the i am um and uh they just beat the crap out of me and i got stabbed in my side and i remember i got the knife somehow and i stabbed it through a guy's forearm and then they left but i remember i went back and my whole team got in cars and they're driving around all over this small town looking to kick people's asses

But for me, that was it. When that happened, I was like, I am not meant for this school stuff. And with my knee being hurt, I knew I was going to sit out that first year anyway. That was it. And then I moved to downtown Seattle with some friends of mine that I'm still really good friends with. A guy named Billy Burke, who's on a show right now called Fire Country. And

And we lived together in Seattle and we eventually all migrated down to L.A. That's really traumatic, though. That's like a really scary thing. How long did it take you to feel safe again? Is that something that always sort of resides in your mind somewhere?

I was really able to kind of shake it off at the time. Yes, it was traumatic. And because of it, I did make some changes in my life, which, you know, thankfully have worked out. Otherwise, you know, I may have stayed in school. That was just kind of the straw that broke the camel's back. Funny, though, that now that I have kids, that kind of stuff is something that I do think about. If that happened to my kid, he would handle it.

a thousand percent differently than I certainly handled it, you know, in 1985. My relationship with my parents is so much different than what Gus's is with, you know, Hillary and I. I just don't think that he would be able to shake something like that off. And it's just a different generation, I guess. I agree with you, yeah. Like my dad, if I had gotten jumped like that in a car, my dad's primary question would have been, did you get the first shot in? Yeah.

You never let them, you know, why did you let them stab you first? Why didn't you stab, you know? Yeah. How did you not see that coming? Yeah.

And to make sure that next time you always carry the knife in your hand in case, because you want to stab first. Yeah. And you're exactly right. I mean, a very similar conversation was had. And I remember, you know, my dad and mom being real upset that I was going to drop out of school. Like, what, a little stabbing and you're done with college? LAUGHTER

Yeah, I am. But, you know, I'm glad I did because I don't know what I would have...

I wonder what my life choices would have been had I stayed in school and waited for the next year to play ball again or whatever would have happened. I can't imagine that I'd be sitting here talking to you. But you had something in you. You had like an intestinal fortitude that gave you like a self-assurance or a self-belief because our kids, right, your kids, my kids,

We do not have kids together. I didn't mean to imply that by saying our kids. No hall pass. Exactly. But our kids, if they said, oh, I want to drop out of college, we would like navigate them through.

back into the path of safety. We'll get your education so that you have a backup plan and blah, blah, blah. But like, I didn't go to college. I didn't have a backup plan. I got on a Greyhound bus. I went to New York. My parents were like, you know, good luck. You're not getting a loan from us. If you can't make it there-

You're going to come home and, you know. Yeah. You're going to have to go back to college, but you have to figure that out. You're going to have to do something. You're going to have to figure something out. Same thing. Same deal. I remember how disappointed everyone was for years, by the way. I think they just now are realizing, oh, he's done okay for himself. You know, they've been waiting for the fall on my face. Once you give them grandchildren, they become forgiving people. It's really weird. Not.

Not only forgiving, but I mean, just how my father is with my kids. I'm like, who the fuck is this guy? And I love it. Nothing makes me happier than seeing him with Gus and George. But I still remember what it was like when I was 13 and my dad was not like that. We're always trying to tell the kids that we're like,

Pop, Pop and No No were the scariest men alive. Like we don't recognize these genteel. These aren't the people that we knew. No, these are not the people we knew. I get a big freaking kick out of it, I'll tell you. But there's times I look at my dad and I'm like, who are you trying to fucking kid? Yeah.

So take me through the pivot then. I leave school. I move to downtown Seattle. I have a string of jobs doing everything and anything because, you know, I'm having to pay rent. And so, you know, I live with my friend Billy and then we end up getting an apartment. He was a busboy. I worked at a hat store in Pike Place Market. And then I worked at a shoe store selling shoes. And it was me and a woman named Susan Silver. Okay.

who ended up marrying Chris Cornell and was the manager for every band in that period of time. So my friends were all these bands that then became the biggest bands in the world. But, you know, to me, they were just dudes like me who dropped out of college and didn't have a life. I was doing art and I actually started a graphic art company at like the age of 19 or 20.

And that's just because I was sick of selling shoes and hats. I like that he covered the top and the bottom. Yeah, exactly. Nothing in the middle. It'd been great for the sausage party, by the way. Perfectly dressed.

Just a fedora and boots, my friend. And so I was doing that and we would design logos for little local companies. And that company that I helped found is still in existence today in Seattle. The guy that I started with is still doing it. But my friends, my closest friends were musicians and actors.

People would try to put me in their bands because I had the look. I had, you know, I'd crimp my hair and I wore eyeliner and a kimono. And, you know, back in those days, it was great. And they'd put me on like the synthesizer and I would play lead wind. I just I didn't have the talent. And when I had a friend of mine move to L.A. and he'd done a couple of movies in Seattle and had an agent and all the shit waiting for him down in Los Angeles.

So I drove the U-Haul down and I met a casting director, this woman named Eliza Simons, who

is now married to Eric Robertson, has been my friend for a jillion years. And she was like, you should try this. And I remember the first thing I read for her my whole life was General Hospital, the role of Blackie that John Stamos ended up getting. Yep. But I got a movie right away. Like, I had been in L.A. for like a month, maybe two. And I remember I got the lead of a killer pimp in a Roger Corman movie.

driving down Hollywood Boulevard with a camera mounted to a convertible Cadillac that was purple and thinking, I got it. I got this wired. You know, I'm never not going to work again. You know, this is great. This is destiny. And then it took me, you know, 20 years to really have any kind of career. But that's kind of how I didn't have any training, nothing. And,

And that started that life of auditioning and all that. Struggled for years and would do just enough to kind of keep a roof over my head. And then I met you. I

I met you and your husband, and I know I've told you this story, but it still is one of my favorite stories. I had tested for all my children, and I remember they flew me in from L.A., and I remember you and your husband both pulled me aside and said, you don't want to do this. You've got to get out of here. This place is... Yeah, and I just remember, I remember like, I just need a job, you know? ♪

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And I know I've told you this story, but it still is one of my favorite stories. I had tested for all my children and I remember they flew me in from L.A. And I remember you and your husband both pulled me aside and said, you don't want to do this. You've got to get out of here. I mean, I sat there all day. There was like three of us.

And you and Mark were so kind. I mean, you guys like took me on a tour. You didn't have to do any of that shit. No, we liked you because you were very, you were kind. And, you know, you are like how we were. We didn't know anything. Like we had no skill set. We did not have particularly parents that were supportive of us going into show business. They didn't even know it. My parents assumed it would be like porn or at a peep shop or something. And they were like, please, Kelly, no nudity. And so...

I feel like when you meet your own people, like you were just a good example.

I think soap operas have always scared the hell out of me. The amount of dialogue that you have to do. I know now that I could never have done it. Oh, yeah, you could have. It's like a muscle memory. Well, it was the first time anyone had ever told me. And Mark said it. It was the golden handcuffs. Golden handcuffs. Yeah, something like that. And I'd never heard that before. And.

Anyway, I went in finally after, you know, just kind of sitting around all day and meeting you guys. And I went in and I just...

I just was like, I don't know that I want to be here. And I, you know, the one thing is I wanted to move to New York, which, you know, I eventually did. I'm glad you did. I'm sorry if we thwarted your effort beforehand. No, it's still one of the coolest and kindest things anyone has ever done for me that didn't know me from Adam. And I never forgot it. And by the way, it still took me another seven years, I think, before I

I got Grey's Anatomy and then everything kind of snowballed from there. It was Grey's Anatomy, right? That was the first big thing that put you on the map? I did Grey's Anatomy and a show called Supernatural at the same time. Supernatural, yeah. So I was doing both of those. It was...

It was year two of Grey's Anatomy, but it's why Zack Snyder cast me in Watchmen. Now, how he could look at a character like Denny and say, oh, that should be this nihilistic, crazy superhero, I'll never know. But...

You know, P.S. I love you, Watchmen. All this stuff just happened from that. I think since Grey's Anatomy, I've had to go in and audition one time in my whole life. That's incredible. Just flip that in there. That's incredible. Listeners, if you know anything about show business, Jeffrey is in a rarefied world where

you don't have to audition. I mean, everybody has to audition. Major movie stars have to audition. But you transcended that from that one job. And I think it's because you are so...

You're super talented. I only know you as kind and loving. I'm always shocked when I see you as these diabolical monsters that you've been able to ever... But I watch it and I, like, chuckle and I'm like, look at JDM. He's so mean. He's so scary. Yeah, somehow it's just... It's kind of turned into a thing now of being a villain, which, by the way, I do love and I like finding... Yeah, it's trickier in that...

I think the goal for me is always to take the worst person in the world and humanize that person somehow. Because usually villains are written very kind of one-dimensional. And that changed with, well, I think Nicholson had done it a few times, Shining in particular, but what Heath Ledger did with the Joker. Because on paper, you know, I know how that read. I know how that script read. And yet what he was able to do with that character

It was amazing. And so I get a big kick out of taking a role that there shouldn't be anything that we like or want to even pay attention to and not make him likable, but make him someone that is relatable. Well, I mean, we found ourselves rooting for Negan in a very, I mean, I kept saying, why, how am I rooting for Negan? Yeah.

Putting aside you, how am I rooting for this man? So take me into 2009 and Hillary comes into your life.

Were you working together or was it, were you set up on a blind date? We were set up on a blind date. I had just was coming out of a pretty long relationship and it was, you know, very off and on, very dramatic. I had been living in New York, had done like some back-to-back films. And so I'd kind of been here and I had just gone back to LA and the guy who played my son on Supernatural, Jensen Ackles, called me one night and he's like, Hey,

I got this girl that's staying at our house right now and we're going to go out tonight and have a drink and I told her about you and I think you should come and say hi. And I was like, oh God, he told me he told me that she was an actor and I'm like, oh, we just did that. I can't do it. There's no way. And I remember sitting at my house and just like, oh, fuck, I should go. I should go. What am I doing? I'm just sitting here by myself.

And I went and I, soon as I walked in, he tells a story and it's hilarious, you know, slow motion and wind blowing through pieces of hair. But I rode my motorcycle over and- Well, first of all, that is a baller motorcycle.

I mean, anytime you're pulling up on a motorcycle, a girl is going to pay attention to that. That's what they both said, too. Although Hillary's not a big biker girl. I've gotten her to go on a bike maybe five times in our whole life together. But I got off that motorcycle, and I saw her, and that was it. I mean, it was...

It was just that. Love at first sight. Love at first sight. And she was leaving the next morning to go back to North Carolina because I find out later that she had a date. She was going home to break up with the date. And that's what she did. But I was leaving in like two days to go to New Mexico to start filming a movie.

And she was going to Paris. She wanted to write a book and I just rented a flat in Paris for like three months. And by the way, she's a great writer. She's a, she's a fantastic writer. Yeah. And, and has a new book coming out in October. I actually,

I haven't read it yet, but I didn't read the last one either until it came to us in galley form. And I was like, holy shit, she just told the world our whole life. Oh, so you didn't read any of it before? Oh, wow. No.

i didn't read any of it before and said i'm gonna wait until you're done and she never told me what it was gonna be about i thought she was writing like a fiction you know she's a bit of a storyteller she's a great storyteller and so she had gone to bed and she had given me the galley earlier in the day and

I sat in front of my fire and I read it in one sitting. Like the sun was coming up, uh, when I put the book down and I was just in tears and I just remember thinking, Oh God, there's no mystery left to us at all anymore. Uh,

You've told the most intimate details about some very hard stuff that we went through. That being said, I think her needing to tell the story that she told was very therapeutic for her. I think she thought I was going to be upset and it was the opposite. I couldn't have been more proud of her.

And so I will see what this next one is. Wait, I have to go back because we left off. Hillary went to Paris. Oh, shit. Yeah. And I derailed you by talking about what a brilliant writer she is. Okay. So she's on her way to Paris. I am on my way to New Mexico. And I tell her that Albuquerque is so much more romantic. Than Paris. Yeah.

And she believed it. Yeah. Well, because the penis, the penis was in Albuquerque. The sausage party. The sausage fest was happening in Albuquerque. So we'd only met that one night. And the next time I met her was at the airport in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She never went to Paris.

We were pregnant with Gus, oh God, within like three weeks.

I would not encourage anyone to have a relationship move that fast ever, but there was never a doubt. Ever, ever, ever. We just knew. I mean, that was the beginning of it all, and we haven't left each other's side since then. But yeah, one hell of a blind date. I'm so glad that you two met because I literally cannot picture either one of you without the other person. And, you know,

Gus and George and your wild animal farm and the life that you've built. And I'm just so happy for you. Mark and I are always like, how are they doing? Do you think they miss us? Because we've always talked about going on a vacation someday together. I know we, we talk about you guys the same way. And, and,

And just so you know, we feel the same way about you guys and your relationship and your family and what you've built together. That's the one thing about how our relationship moved at Mach 5 speed is we never really got to woo each other. You know what I mean? There's been a kid around since day one. We thought we moved fast, too, because we got married a year after we met, and we

We didn't want anybody at work to know we were dating. Meanwhile, we were married. Okay. And didn't you get married like we did? We got married in Vegas. We did. We eloped. That's awesome. Our entire wedding cost $179, including airfare. Did you have another wedding when you told everyone you were married? Did you do something? No. Very superstitious. I was like, it took the first time. Let's not fuck it up by trying to do it twice. Yeah.

We were very nervous about, like, somehow the second wedding would be tainted. But anyway, so you've got this... God, you've got so many businesses going on. You have a spirit business? That's my wife. This is all Hillary. She's just... She's industrious. Yeah, I can't slow her down. It's just like, if I'll...

I'll mention, and I did, because a company had come to me when I started The Walking Dead. They're like, hey, we would like to do like a vodka with you. And by that, it just means that I would endorse it and they would put like a baseball bat or something on the vodka bottle. Who knew? But I knew that I wouldn't have a say in any of it. And I was like, no. But I remember telling Hillary about it. I

I said, you know, sometime we ought to think about doing something like that. It might be kind of fun. We thought that we could have something potentially with, you know, the mischief farm brand and all that. There was ideas that we kind of threw around. But, you know, the thing is, if you throw around an idea with Hillary...

It becomes a reality. The next thing you know, I've got 10 meetings that I have to have with distillers. And I'm like, whoa, what just happened? So she took that. And then during the pandemic, Hillary was sewing masks for hospitals. I remember.

And I was delivering them. So I would load up all these masks that she would make and I would deliver them to hospitals around Dutchess County and sometimes outside of with George. People forget there was a total mask shortage and hospital workers had no masks.

She figured out how to make them. Four layers of, you know, whatever it was that was totally legit. And anyway, so the distiller here in the Hudson Valley heard that she was doing these masks and he had turned his distillery into a thing making... Hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer. Yeah. And they talked because he needed to know how to, you know, send out the sanitizer, who to send it to, blah, blah, blah. And Hillary, of course, knew all the answers. Yeah.

And before long, they're like, hey, would you ever consider...

you know, doing a libation of some sort. There it is. So thank you, Hillary. And we went and met with this local distiller and we came up with two liquors. One is a gin and it's got blackberries from our farm. Albert just started salivating, by the way. It's really a gin drinker. It's really all this gin. See, I am not a big gin drinker and I love this gin.

And the other is a bonfire whiskey. And that's because I've got a fire burning at this farm, at least one at any given moment. And are you the whiskey drinker? Yeah, I like a good sipping whiskey. And this is a good sipping whiskey. And it's got a kind of a smoky aftertaste to it.

And that's our deal, MF Libations, which is Mischief Farm, but everybody thinks it's motherfuckers. I like MF Libations. Yeah, there it is. Oh my gosh, that's cool. You've got, oh, merch. This is actually just our farm. This is just, you know, again, Hillary. It was like, oh, we should, you know, we've got fans and everybody wants something to do with the farm. And so we had hats and sweatshirts made years ago and I still wear them every day.

Guys, we have to do a road trip. We'll do a remote. Absolutely. And then you can come to the farm. You've been threatening to do that for a while. Albert wants to come to Shearing Day. Oh, yeah.

Shearing day is a frigging hoot. Oh, my God. Because all of our animals are rescues. And so they already have problems. You know, they've already. They're psychologically not right. And now you're taking their fur off and they don't like it. To do it, you got to lay them down. And alpaca love to spit. But.

But they make a sound that's like the worst sound you've ever heard in your life. Can you imitate it? Can you imitate it? I can't because it's so high pitched and screamy, but also almost a bellow. And at the same time, they're trying to spit at you. There's so much stuff going on and limbs are trying to kick you.

It's a blast. We are going. I'm in. You let us know when that is. It cracks me up. And then the minute you let them go, they prance around like, oh, I look good. Yeah. Oh, check me out. But while it's going on, they are lethal weapons. They want to kill you. It's really a funny deal. We're going to get to the viewer questions. But before we do, The Boys season four.

Are you coming on to this show? I am. You are. I am indeed. How will they make this show even? It is so filthy and good and amazing and diabolical and everything. And you are a perfect addition to that. Thank you. It's one of my favorite shows. But the showrunner who...

you know, took it from comic book form to TV is the same creator that did Supernatural. And so Eric and I, the guy who runs the show, the boys, have been trying to figure out how to get me on the show for the last two or three years. And just with my Walking Dead schedule, it was impossible. Yeah, it's not possible.

And so this year we were doing dead city and the boys had started and we had been talking. And what he did was he took the episodes that I was still working on dead city. And he, he, we shot all my stuff when I was available. That's incredible. The directors came back into town and so they were going backwards for me, which was awesome. Well, if you are a JDM fan,

You want to make sure that you watch all of the seasons of The Boys leading up to the fourth season, which I'm assuming will be even filthier and more diabolical. It just gets better and better. Yeah, there's some stuff. There's some stuff. Yeah. Are you ready for your fan questions? Don't know. We'll say that I am.

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Fiji water's electrolytes are 100% naturally occurring. Visit your local retailer to pick up some today for your next backyard party, beach, or pool day, hike, or even your home office. It's not just water. It's Fiji water. Are you ready for your fan questions? We've got a sound effect for you, too, because Albert's boyfriend, Kyle, made you your own sound effect. Are you ready? What? Here we go.

Questions for Jeffrey. Bravo.

Can I have that for my ringtone? Yes, we'll send it to you. Yes, you may. Because it's always somebody that wants something, and I think that would be great. Here we go. From Sylvia. Sylvia wants to know, which character have you enjoyed playing the most? That's hard. Negan, for sure, is right up there. Denny...

on Grey's Anatomy. I loved playing. That was lightning in a bottle for a lot of different reasons. Um, but that was incredibly special. From Lindy. Lindy says during the pandemic, your stunningly beautiful wife, let her gray hair flag fly, which gave me the courage to do the same. Did that affect or change the way you saw her? And was there a conversation about it? Uh, no, there wasn't. Uh,

I thought she just became better looking and sexier. She'd always dyed her hair and we met, she was like in her twenties and she just always had like, she called it her skunk stripe that she, you know, had to do over and over again. And, and I think during the pandemic, she was like, it's just you. She also has the right amount of, I like to call it like the salt and pepper effect. Like it's mostly dark with like shocks of gray and,

And what I discovered during the pandemic is that I am Mrs. Claus. So as my roots grew in, I was like, oh, there's nothing dark in there. There is nothing at all dark. It's just white on white. You're talking to a guy who's, you know, Santa. So I get it. Yeah.

I get it. Yeah, she pulls it off. She's just a sexy lady. And it just makes her happy that she doesn't have to worry about it. You know what I mean? I think it's just has given her like a sense of freedom and happiness. Yeah, it's my ongoing quest to get off camera is so that I never have to dye my hair again and I never have to wear makeup again. That is my quest. And by the way, Hillary has the same goal, not to be on camera. This podcast is phase one. Oh.

Phase one of never having to be seen again. You and Hillary are very similar. We're very similar. I know. We've had this. When I hear her talk, it's like I'm listening to myself. Okay. We've got another question from Scarface. Scarface. I know her. She doesn't really have a scar. Yeah, I'm sure not. Will we see any fan favorite characters from The Walking Dead, such as Princess on Dead City?

I probably am not allowed to answer that, but I'm going to say there'll be one character that you'll recognize. That's it, Scarface. So take that answer and appreciate it. From M, if you could choose an ending for Negan, what would it be?

That he would just walk off into the sunset. You know, I don't know that he would have gotten married again and they had Negan get married at the end of The Walking Dead. But we never saw the story of

how he met this person and why, why he would have married her, which always kind of bummed me out because I think he was so in love with his wife, Lucille, and it had made such a production out of the whole Lucille of it all. Having him show up with a wife without telling the story of why and how was always like a, a,

a problem, an issue I had. But, you know, that's what happens when you're doing a show with 30 main characters. You're not able to service each character as well as you may want to. And I think with now, with Dead City, we'll get some answers. Okay, B. Hanson says, spill the tea. You hinted that on some of the shows you've been involved in, the cast didn't get along. Which ones?

Isn't it amazing how people assume that every cast has to always be enjoying each other's company all the time? And I'm like, what office do these people work in where everybody gets along 100% of the time? Well, I think partly we're at fault because when we go out and do press, we're like, yeah, we're one big happy family and all that schnazz.

I will say that The Walking Dead, because we shot in this little bubble of Georgia, a lot of us were super duper close. Not to say that there weren't a couple of little non-peaches in the group, because there were. That's always, with every job, anywhere, anytime. That's right. There's always going to be some bad apples. And if we can't kill them off, then we're stuck with them. And we were stuck with a couple.

But mostly that cast was a family. And I think every show is like that. There's always a couple of people that you really get along with. And then there's some people that you don't and you're not going to get along with everyone. So I'm not going to be specific with the beans spilling or the teas spilling because I don't want to get in too much trouble. B. Hanson, you get what you get and you don't get upset. That's right. All right. We have time for two more questions. First,

From Laura Giglio, if you had a choice to play any role, what would your dream role be? I don't know. That's hard. Those independent films that are super character driven, we're not seeing anymore. We're getting a lot of really good stuff on television.

But those films that you could kind of lose yourself into a character-driven piece and do a couple a year if you were really lucky and really good, they don't exist anymore. So you're doing one character now for a couple years if you're lucky enough to get a TV show or you're a superhero because those are the movies that they're making. Do you think there'll be a pendulum swing back to the really interesting independent films?

I hope so. I mean, I really do. That's why I fell in love with film. My favorite genre is and will always probably be a Western. I can name a film that I would like to have been in, something like Unforgiven. They don't make those anymore. Westerns, for whatever reason, don't make money, and so they don't make them.

which is weird because I don't know one person who doesn't love a good Western. Both my kids are named after characters in Westerns, for God's sake. Okay, is this the last question, Jack? Last question. Okay, this one is from, are you ready? Jeffrey the Dog Morgan. Do you know Jeffrey the Dog Morgan? I, I, I, yes. A lot of JDMs out there. Oh my gosh, you know all your fans. Yeah. If you had one do-over in life, what would it be?

You know what? I don't do those. I think that the life that I've led up to this moment needed to be exactly what it was for me to be where I am. So I don't live with regrets. Aw.

You know what? We love you. JDM, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, an actual in-show business, a rarity, a really, really kind, good guy with all the talent in the world and a beautiful life that you deserve. We are so happy for you. Oh, I love you, Kelly.

We love you too. You're one of the greatest. Mark and I both love you and Hillary so much. Thank you. Thank you. JDM, The Walking Dead, Dead City on AMC. Don't forget to watch. And we appreciate you so much for doing our little podcast. Oh, anytime. Anything for you. And this is awesome. It's been great. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Love you so much. Love you too. Bye. Love you too.

Well, Albert and Jan, I don't know what else you want from me. I can't wait to see what character he plays on The Boys because it's going to be demented. Do you watch that show? My boys do. I haven't seen it yet. Oh, Jan. Yeah. You have to watch it. You should really know what they're getting into, your boys. What about you, Albert? I haven't watched it, no. Oh, my gosh. Let's watch it this weekend. You would love it. It's

It is diabolical. It is diabolical and it is filthy. It's absolute filth. I read there was like a headline that said, how do you make the boys even filthier? Add Jeffrey Dean Morgan. It's incredible. He's perfect for that show. You should do something on that show too, Mark. Tan Man. Tan Man? No, that's not enough. You need like a kink or a fetish. You need something wacky that you're into. Power Washing.

Yeah, but he would do it with his penis. Like that's what these people do. Yes, there it is. Diabolical superpowers. He power washes things with his penis. You have no idea. I mean...

It's so dirty. The show is so dirty, but it's really funny. Speaking of dirty and funny, don't forget to tell your friends to listen and follow the latest episode of Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa wherever you get your podcasts. And if they don't know how to follow, there is a tutorial of my dad teaching people on my Instagram. So check it out. You've never seen anything quite as scintillating as Joe Ripa talking tech before.

on my Instagram page. Can't wait to talk off camera with y'all next week. Bye everybody. Let's talk off camera with Kelly Ripa is a co-production of Melojo Productions and PRX Productions with help from Goat Rodeo. Our theme song is Follow Me from APM Music.

From Melojo, our team is Kelly Ripa, Mark Hensuelos, Albert Bianchini, Jan Chalet, Devin Schneider, Michael Halpern, Jacob Small, Roz Therrien, Seth Gronquist, and Julia Desch.

From PRX Productions, our team is Cara Shillen, Genevieve Sponsler, Megan Nadolsky, Edwin Ochoa. Additional sound design by Terrence Bernardo. The executive producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzalez. This show is powered by Stitcher. From PRX.

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