Club Random with Bill Maher - Malcolm McDowell | Club Random with Bill Maher
Episode Date: July 21, 2024Bill Maher and legendary actor Malcolm McDowell discuss the impact of his film A Clockwork Orange, how some American cities are living in a Clockwork Orange simulation, the futility of Hollywood remak...es, gender roles for actors, Malcolm’s early inspiration from actor Albert Finney, working with renowned directors like Stanley Kubrick and Lindsay Anderson, the real story behind the set of the movie "Caligula" and its controversial nature, English humor and its differences from American humor, Malcolm’s recovery journey, the British monarchy and its cultural significance, stories about Richard Pryor and Garry Shandling, the difference between comedy and serious acting, and much, much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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My father ran a pub.
What, and you lived upstairs from the pub?
Yes, and I've never liked pubs ever since.
Club Randall.
He's the lead singer of ACDC.
One of the funniest men I've ever met.
Let's get him over here.
Welcome. Hey. Are you there? I'm here. Don't get up. Oh well, I'm actually I won't.
After all the entertainment you've given me, you deserve to stay seated.
Let me serve you.
How are you?
As a devoted fan.
Nice to see you.
I wrote that in my book.
I'm not here to plug my book,
although I guess it's in my hand.
I should have.
Let me see.
It's been on the bestseller list for seven weeks.
Yeah, man.
Got to be number one.
Can I see it?
I'm giving it to you.
Oh, it's my copy.
Christ, you're handsome.
We'll finish your thought, you know.
We didn't inscribe it, but hey.
You look good for your.
This is it.
What are you, early 50s now, Malcolm?
Yeah, early 50s, sure.
Wouldn't that be nice?
I'm 81.
81, you're the same age as Biden.
Yeah.
You seem very un-Biden-esque at this hour.
Yeah, well, you know, I'm just working my ass off, so.
Really?
I don't think I've ever been offered so much stuff
as I am right now.
Now, I put it down to the fact that maybe
my competition, I'm outgrowing them.
I'm outliving them.
Well, also you're iconic.
Yeah, I've been iconic.
For a while.
Since 1970, supposedly, when I did Clockwork Orange.
Right, I think that was 72, but I take it.
We made it in 70, it opened in 71.
Really?
I believe.
I thought it was 72, but anyway, long time ago.
OK, well, you may be right.
Right.
Yeah, I may be off.
I never think about in terms of dates, you know.
Well, you don't become iconic right away,
but the character does.
But you yourself now are.
But again, that's good, because when you're 81,
you have to be iconic.
And then you can work, but you go through phases, you know?
Yes, absolutely.
And that's the phase.
And it's great that you were able to work enough
along the way and do enough great work
and was respected enough that you then become iconic
because, you know, when they remake Titanic
and it's a guy who throws the necklace
off the edge of the bridge,
they're gonna need some 95-year-old
to, uh, fucking take the... bite the bullet.
Yeah.
Instead of Gloria Stewart?
Yeah, I'm just saying everything has to be redone
with different identities.
So, let's do Titanic,
and it's the chick who saves the guy.
Okay, let's have Titanic and it's the chick who saves the guy.
Okay, let's have that happen, alright? Why can't that happen?
Like J.Lo or something?
Yes, why can't it be the woman who disappears
under the icy waters of the Atlantic
while the guy is up on the board?
Yeah. Right?
So what's your...
Drug of choice?
No, what's your favorite movie of the last couple of years?
That's a great question.
Let's go through them because I forget movies.
So do I, so do I.
No, I like see them, but it's like, I don't like,
I know I've enjoyed some.
I'll tell you one I enjoyed a lot,
I thought was great was Marriage Story. lot, I thought was great, was Marriage Story.
Well, I didn't see it.
So that, that ends that conversation.
Do you know which one I'm talking about?
No, which, oh, wait a minute.
It was with Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson.
Oh, okay.
It really should be called Divorce Story.
But this is up for Oscars next time, right?
No, it was like two years ago.
Jesus, well, for some reason I didn't see it.
I don't know why, because I'm supposed to.
It was Netflix, I think.
Oh, okay.
I think it was, I may get this name wrong,
Noah Birnbach, I think he's married to Greta Gerwig,
who did Barbie. Oh yeah.
I think it was him, but I could be wrong.
I'm giving credit to somebody,
Chips Kalee had nothing to do with this movie.
But he's a good filmmaker and this was a good film.
I mean, it was just, there is a scene in there
that is as harrowing and I think is true to life,
although I'd never been married and divorced,
as I can imagine where, you know, it just starts out, they're married as I can imagine, where, you know, it's just,
starts out they're married and they're happy,
and then, you know, it unravels,
and it's just, it's the process of a divorce,
and how, at the beginning, the couple always wants
to do it civilly, but then the lawyers get involved,
and it's a...
Oh, it sounds good.
It's very good.
Yeah.
And, and, you know, it destroys,
in a way, both their lives.
He has to move out to California, has a little apartment, he wanted to be in New York, Very good. Yeah. And you know, it destroys in a way both their lives.
He has to move out to California,
has a little apartment, he wanted to be in New York,
he was a director, and she comes over
and it's like a year after their...
And it's a true story, right?
Based on a true story.
Well, it's based on a million true stories, is my guess.
But on the small apartment in California.
I bet you that's thousands of...
That kind of rings true.
With lots of people, that they are...
Yeah, you're looking at one.
Well, divorce economically can downsize you in a big way.
Ooh, at least half.
Right. Why, did that happen to you?
Oh, yeah.
Really?
But I think, honestly, my divorce was as civilized
as you could possibly get it.
Because there were children involved,
and you don't go into tirades when...
Right.
You try to keep all that.
Is it too personal to ask if the...
No, with Mary Steenburgen. Oh. And we are great friends. Did I know that, if you're ever in a relationship with a woman, and you're like, oh, I'm not married to a man,
and you're like, oh, I'm not married to a woman,
and you're like, oh, I'm not married to a man,
and you're like, oh, I'm not married to a woman,
and you're like, oh, I'm not married to a man,
and you're like, oh, I'm not married to a woman,
and you're like, oh, I'm not married to a man,
and you're like, oh, I'm not married to a woman,
and you're like, oh, I'm not married to a man,
and you're like, oh, I'm not married to a woman,
and you're like, oh, I'm not married to a man, and you're like, oh, I'm not married to a woman, and you're like, oh, I'm not married a room. And why would you even care about something like that? It's no big deal. Well, I've always thought it's very odd what you remember.
It seems to be completely arbitrary
that certain such inconsequential moments
from so many years ago stick out in your mind.
And you try to think, was there some significance to that?
And it's like, no, I just for some reason remembered that
and then a whole swaths of time will go by
with an important thing.
Like ask me like if I can remember losing my virginity,
I remember where I was, who I was with,
all the details are gone.
Oh, you don't remember, you know.
Well, I know my dick was out, you know. I mean, I've got the broad strokes.
And I know it was bad.
So you've never been married,
but you've had significant relations.
Very significant.
Yeah.
So I get the drill.
Yeah, sure.
And anyway, so what happens is,
the scene I'm talking about,
and it's worth the price of admission,
it's about a ten-minute scene,
but the way it builds so perfectly artfully,
it's about a year after they're apart.
So they're making it work.
They've got a co-parent, they've got a kid.
So she comes over and it's like,
hey, how you doing?
It's that level, you know.
But you can tell underneath there's so much suppressed.
And the way that comes out, because at the first it's just like, hey, could you take the kids next weekend so much suppressed. Of course. And the way that comes out.
Because at the first it's just like, hey,
could you take the kids next weekend?
I've got a thing.
And oh, no, I would, but I can't.
Because, you know, my new boyfriend and I are doing this.
Oh, but we said we would try.
So it starts severely, and it just builds to,
I want to fuck it!
You know, this rage of it just had to come out at some point.
And the way it builds to that is, this rage of, it just had to come out at some point, and the way it builds to that
and the performances, I have to say,
that stuck in my mind.
That was like, that was cinema and drama
and artistic acting at its very best, I thought.
Well, I think in terms of brilliance all around,
I don't think I ever saw a better film.
Certainly not an American film, better than Fargo.
That is, by far...
Fargo.
...for me, the greatest American film made
30 years ago now.
Oh, like from the 90s, yeah.
The original with Frances McDormand.
Yeah.
I mean, I liked it. Why was it that great?
Uh, I just thought it was the style of the film,
the horrendous things going on.
A bit like Tarantino before Tarantino was doing it.
You know, the...
The Coen brothers are brilliant.
They are.
They've done so many...
Did Miller's Crossing?
Yeah, geniuses. Absolutely.
Oh, so many.
And also can...
Was Albert Finney in that one?
Which, absolutely.
Albert Finney and...
What an actor. My favorite actor.
Gabriel Byrne.
Albert Finney. I saw him on screen in Liverpool
at the Odeon Lime Street, 19...
50...
58 or something. 58, something like that.
You are old. And I watched this... No, maybe it was later. It's gotta be 50s. 50? Eight or something. 58, something like that. You are old.
And I watched this...
No, maybe it was later. It's got to be 60s.
I watched it anyway. It was a movie called
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning,
directed by Carol Rice.
Great director.
And I saw this. I guess I was 17 or something like that.
I just said, I'm gonna do that.
Really, that's when you got the book?
That's when I knew I was going to be.
So Albert Finney is somebody you owe a great debt to.
Yes, and weirdly enough, who produced my first movie,
which was called If, directed by the great Lindsay Anderson. Hitler?
How did you know?
Well, you wanted me to guess.
I was like...
Albert Finney, of course.
Oh, Albert Finney, damn.
It was Memorial Enterprises.
I always guess Hitler for everything.
Yeah.
Because one of these times, you know...
You'll get it right.
Well, somebody's going,
and who invented the Volkswagen?
Hitler!
Yeah. Um, wow, so... Yeah. Well, somebody say, and who invented the Volkswagen? Hitler. Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
So what about Shoot the Moon?
That's a beautiful film.
That's Albert Finney.
Do you know who wrote that?
Who wrote that?
Bo Goldman.
Hitler.
Gourbles.
Bo Goldman.
Who's that?
Bo Goldman.
He's one of the greats. Never heard of him. Come on. Bo Goldman, who's that? Bo Goldman, he, one of the greats.
Never heard of him.
Come on.
Bo Goldman?
Bo Goldman wrote.
I don't even remember that name.
He won two Academy Awards for best script.
For what?
Cuckoo's Nest.
Cuckoo's Nest?
Yes.
Just rewatched it.
And, Scent of a Woman.
Scent of a Woman won best screenplay?
Yes.
Sorry, no, it didn't.
He didn't win for that.
He won for Melvin and Howard.
But he also wrote Sent of a Woman.
I remember the name Melvin and Howard.
Well, look, it was about, you know what it was about.
Gay men.
Melvin and Howard.
God, you have, sometimes, Bill.
What?
No, I mean. What's it mean, it was about Howard Hughes being picked up in a truck in the desert.
Yes, I got it.
And Melvin was played by...
Oh.
I don't remember, but I can see him.
Paul Lamatt.
Okay.
And my ex, Mary, won an Academy Award
for best supporting actress.
In that movie?
Yeah.
What did she play?
She played his girlfriend.
Which one?
Who was a stripper.
Howard Hughes' girlfriend?
No, Melvin.
Cause I would say Howard Hughes' girlfriend was like.
Yeah, well he had the pic.
Well, and some of them were, I mean, I loved the, when they made the movie, the Scorsese
movie about him.
Oh, yeah.
Kate Beckinsale played, is it Ava Gardner?
But she was, first of all, she was perfect for it.
She was sexy, gorgeous, of course, and also like she was...
Charismatic.
Charismatic, but also she had the right, she played it perfectly when she comes into that scene,
and he's like cowering in the bathroom,
and he's like, he tells her to look at the sink.
Does that look clean to you?
And she's like, not completely, Howard,
but we all do what we can.
You know, she's just like, he's a five-year-old.
It's just amazing how a person can be so brilliant
in some ways.
And then so retardedly, emotionally retarded in others.
Well, Melvin and Howard was brilliantly directed
by Jonathan Demme, one of his earlier movies.
I think it was maybe the third or fourth, third, maybe.
And it was a brilliant script by Bo Goldman.
And I'm hoping to make a Bo Goldman script that I have.
And he wanted me to make it.
Oh.
And he wrote it.
I think French script. Is he still with us?
I've still got it.
No, he's not. He's not.
He passed away not long ago.
So he won't be doing the rewrites.
No, there are no rewrites.
Perfect.
If it's a Bo Goldman script,
you don't touch it, you make it work.
So he wrote Shoot the Moon.
I believe he did.
Okay.
Now I may be wrong, but I think he did actually.
That was another, boy it's funny.
That was Albert, wasn't it?
Yes, Albert and...
And didn't it take place in Napa Valley
or something like that?
No, no, no, England.
England. So what was the story?
The story is, it's funny, it came up
right after we were talking about divorce story.
It would be a perfect companion film.
Albert Finney.
Oh, I've got, I'm getting it mixed up.
That wasn't good.
Okay, he's married to, I think, Diane Keaton.
Oh.
And it's in England, he's a professor and he's having an affair
with, I believe, Karen Allen.
Oh, really?
Yes. And so it's just the dilapidation
of that marriage. It's it's the.
Well, I think it is the same film.
And I have it in my imagination as it
was somewhere in Napa Valley.
No, no, no. I watched it fairly recently.
Oh, it's England. He's in England. Valley or something. No, no, no. I watched it fairly recently.
Oh, okay.
It's England.
He's English.
Oh, okay.
I think the wife is not.
I think she's American.
They're playing, you know.
Right, right.
But there's a great scene where she's in the bathtub crying and singing the Beatles,
If I fell in love with you, would you promise to be true?
And yeah.
Wow.
That's a great song.
Great song.
Well.
So you're Beatles, not anyway, aren't you?
You just love them.
I do love them.
And I can always...
You can always find out something.
If you have something that I don't know about them, I'd love to hear.
Oh, I'm sure you know everything.
I mean, listen, I was just dragged by a girlfriend
to the cavern.
1962, I guess.
And there they were.
And you know, the cavern was no bigger than this.
With a vaulted ceiling.
And they were on a stage, which was really a platform,
this big.
It was nine inches or something.
Yeah, they were amongst the people.
They were just slightly up.
And the place was jammed always.
And to dance, because you could not stop moving
to their singing and their playing,
was called the Liverpool Stomp,
which was literally, you would hop on one foot to the next,
because you couldn't move around. That was it.
You'd run. And...
I remember very distinctly being completely...
taken with John Lennon and his persona on stage.
Of course, it was before Ringo and all that,
but they were called the Silver Beetles.
And they... I don't remember them ever singing anything of their own,
but then they may have done and I didn't really know what it was.
But of course, all Little Richard and Chuck Berry,
you know, Fats Domino, and a lot of Buddy Holly.
But you know.
Well I surely don't have that in my memory.
To see them at the cavern.
No.
That's amazing.
So I went back a lot with this same girl, Patricia.
Langshaw, her name. And you thought that they, just seeing them, you thought they were gonna go places?
No.
No? Really?
Oh, Jesus. Do you think? I mean...
No?
I just thought they were a fantastic together band.
Then why wouldn't you think that they were gonna...
Because there were a lot of bands.
Right.
And I'm not really a clown, so...
But they didn't stick out?
Well, they stick out because of who they became.
Well, you're right. There were a lot of bands.
Yeah.
Just the way, in Jesus' time,
there were a lot of new religions.
Yeah, yeah.
And one of them was the Betamax,
and, you know, one of them was the Betamax, and, you know,
one of them...
That's right, that's right.
One of them was MySpace, and one of them was Facebook.
You know, every pub had a live band.
And the Beatles were voted by the...
the Mersey Beat, which was the local...
Yes, the Mersey River, which is Liverpool, right?
Yeah. And so the Mersey Beat was this rag,
this little newspaper about the scene.
Right.
And they were voted the second most popular band
on Mersey's side.
The first being a jazz group called the Mersey Sippies.
Oh, Jesus.
Well, I know, well, there was like bands like Jerry
and the Pacemakers. Yeah. In fact... Rory Storm and the Hurricane. Well, that know, well, there was like bands like Jerry and the Pacemakers.
Yeah.
In fact...
Rory Storm and the Hurricane.
Well, that was Ringo's band, right?
No, it wasn't. It was Rory Storm's band.
No, but Ringo was the drummer.
Yeah, yeah. And he was obviously, they knew amongst themselves,
he was by far the best drummer, you know, working in Liverpool.
But there was a book written about The Beatles called 150 Glimpses of the Beatles.
Yeah.
A couple of years ago. I did the book review for it
in the New York Times book review section.
Yeah.
And one of the quib...
You obviously loved it.
I loved it, but I also had quibbles with it.
And one of my quibbles was, uh, I could have done
with 99 or 100 glimpses of The Beatles.
Fifty of them were not interesting
to me, but you can't always get what you want. Oh wait, that's the stone. Okay. So one of
the quibbles was that they did a chapter, it was a chapter, very brief chapters, and
one of them was like, let's look at it in a, what would happen if there was an alternative universe
where Jerry and the Pacemakers became the big group
coming out of Liverpool,
and the Beatles were just an afterthought?
And I said, that's incredibly stupid
because that's a reason why the Beatles became what they did,
because they have 200 great songs
and Jerry and the Pacemakers have two.
Or one, right.
Well, didn't he write?
He didn't write any of them.
Jerry?
He didn't write any of them.
He was writing the coattails of the Pacemaker.
What he did, his claim to fame, for me,
is that they always play You'll Never Walk Alone
Before Liverpool kick off.
And 60,000 Scousers rise up and sing
You'll Never Walk Alone.
You know what the irony is, Malcolm?
Tell me.
Jerry Ngo is on at pacemaker.
Ha!
It's very sad.
Oh, god.
And I just say, this is what happens when
you sit down with a comedian.
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But you've known a lot of comedians, right?
Yeah, I do.
I've known a lot, absolutely.
Well, you know, Liverpool was a great place.
A lot of comedians, English comedians,
come out of Liverpool, a lot.
Like who? Ken Dodd.
Never heard of him.
Oh my God, well, Ken Dodd, he's,
if you see these old pictures of the...
Who is he?
New, oh yeah, newsreels of the Beatles.
Ken Dodd's there with great hair, you know, up here,
the Doddy Diddy man and all that.
I know they were friends with Peter Sellers and the,
was it the Goons? Is that the...
The...
Yeah, The Goons were a radio show.
Okay.
That was Peter Sellers...
Right. Dudley Moore...
No, no, that's way after. He came way after.
Okay, but American audiences know Dudley Moore.
Yeah, well, Dudley Moore's a different time phase.
You know, Peter Sellers was... Right, but I mean, Peter Sellers and Dudley Moore's a different time phase. Peter Sellers was...
Right, but I mean, Peter Sellers and Dudley Moore
came from that school, kind of like here in...
No, they didn't. You're wrong.
I'm sorry to tell you that, but...
No, tell me.
Dudley Moore wasn't a stand-up comedian.
No, but they were... Wasn't Dudley Moore...
But Peter was a vaudevillian.
He was in some trou troop like that with...
Yes, behind the fringe.
Behind the fringe.
Beyond the fringe, actually.
And I was saying, that's a little like our second city.
He did tell me a funny story, Ashley, of Dudley.
And he was a very sweet guy.
And then he said, you know, Malcolm, in the matinee,
we're doing Beyond the Fringe.
And there were two with came out,
you know, with our, you know, with dark glasses,
and they were following these two ladies and go,
oh, it's a very lovely show, Behind the Fringe.
So when they did the second one,
it was called Behind the Fringe.
Wow.
Yeah.
Okay, so they came out of that one.
I mean, Dudley Moore was as big a...
Peter Cook.
Peter Cook, right.
Peter Cook was the...
But Dudley Moore was a huge movie star in this country.
Yeah.
Arthur, 10.
10 was a big...
He had a 10-year run.
Well, you know, that was interesting
because he wasn't cast in that movie.
It was George Segal supposed to do it.
Supposed to do Arthur?
Yeah, no, 10.
10. 10.
I could see George Segal in that.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah.
But Dudley Moore was just, he was charming.
For some reason, I don't know why,
but he couldn't do it at the last second.
And I think,
it wasn't like Blake Edwards directed it.
I think it was.
But I'm just saying American audiences just fell in love
with this sort of club-footed diminutive, homunculus.
Because he was fun, he was very erudite,
and he also could play a hell of a mean piano.
Yes, but he was also self-deprecating,
and he was just different and charming.
And, you know, in England, he became part of a duo
with Peter Cook in a show called Not Only, But Also.
Okay, I've heard of that.
Yeah. And so they'd be sitting there in the pub,
you know, doing exactly what we're doing.
Now he go, you know,
well, you've been a malle-balle bum-bum,
and pulled, you've pulled lobs out of Jay Manfield's ass.
Is that it?
He go, yeah, yeah.
I've been watching Tottenham this week.
Oh, yeah. All that, you know.
It's so funny, English humor...
I know.
...to an American, or at least this American,
it's just, it's so.
You don't get it, you don't like it?
No, no, no.
It's fucking brilliant.
It's just, it's, it goes from,
I would characterize it by saying,
it goes from like the best to the worst.
I mean, when it's great Monty Python,
and I mean, the Beatles themselves were very funny.
But lots of it, and then there's stuff that,
yeah, you just go...
But I mean, people like...
Benny Hill.
Benny Hill, that's...
Yeah.
No, but it's like...
Very broad kind of...
But that goes back to Shakespeare,
where there would be a very high-brow joke
followed by a fart joke.
Yeah, yeah.
And...
That's totally true, actually.
Yeah. So, yeah. And...
That's totally true, actually.
Yeah.
So, some of it I love, yeah.
But you have, there was an incredible television sitcom
called Hancock's Half Hour.
And it starred this comedian called Tony Hancock.
And he was always fucking everything up and it was
Hancock's half hour and it was actually groundbreaking and quite brilliant in
black and white and we all watched it and you know he pulled in like 20
million viewers a week. God knows it couldn't get that much.
When did you move to America? In 1979.
79, that far back.
Yeah.
And became a citizen right away?
No.
Never?
No, I am a citizen now.
Because it's the 4th of July tomorrow, Mr.
And I don't want any bullsh.
It's the 4th of July tomorrow.
I know.
And you're an American now.
I don't want any bullshit about it.
Hey, don't give me that.
The mother country or the queen or any of that.
The queen, excuse me, she passed away a year ago.
It's the king now.
Well, whatever, well, in my view, the king usually is a queen, so...
Well, he's not a queen.
No, no, I like Prince Charles, always did.
Yeah, he's a good guy, he's a very good guy.
Yes, I mean, he is what he is.
They all are. I mean, but for being in that royal family
and being the hand he was dealt with the mother
who would never go away, and he like, he was up on like,
real issues, he was a big environmentalist.
I mean, you know...
And he was dear to his heart. And he loved good, interesting architecture,
and bemoaned some of these awful buildings.
The selfless thing to do would be for someone
to have the guts to completely renounce the monarchy
and say, we should just retire this, it's antiquated.
But it also, I get it, serves a purpose.
Wait a minute, would you say that about
the Declaration of Independence? Let's forget it. Oh, let it, serves a purpose. Oh, wait a minute. Would you say that about the Declaration of Independence?
Let's forget it. Oh, let's not even go there.
But...
No, because there are two completely different categories.
No, they're not, actually. They're not.
No, I'll tell you why. The Declaration of Independence
is a collection of ideas.
Yes, but so is the monarchy.
And the monarchy's been around a lot longer
than America itself.
It goes back thousands of years.
And you can keep a corpse in the attic if you want.
No, but look, they've actually made it work.
And the monarchy, of course, has no political clout
and really doesn't mean much,
but it means a lot to the populace.
Because it's outside of party political politics.
I see the point that there is an argument for it, and I can make that argument.
I can make, by the way, arguments against too.
So waste of fucking money.
I agree, because it's part of both.
But what I will not countenance is that it's anything like
the Declaration of Independence.
Again, one is a set of ideas.
One provides an emotional solace for a population
and a rallying point.
And that is important.
Maybe we should have a royal family,
other than the Kardashians, of course,
who could like take all the gossip, because that's the thing.
The royal family like takes all the gossip.
Not that there isn't gossip with the regular politicians too, but like they take a lot
of that.
And there is an argument for, no, you need someone to just do the ceremonial stuff.
Well, you do, actually.
And then free up the pride. And don't forget, it's only in times of real trouble and stress.
Like a World War, for instance.
Like a blitz, for instance.
When the royal family's true worth comes into being.
Right.
It's that rallying, as you said, this optimism about...
Although in World War II, I mean,
I'm sure the royal family did their part,
but it was Winston Churchill who rallied the people
and inspired the people.
Winston Churchill would probably disagree with you.
Oh, please.
Because, well, of course he was a great orator,
he's a great man, the greatest man of that sort.
They also knew he was the actual leader.
So during a time of crisis, it's nice to know
that the guy who's the actual head of the government...
Yes, he's the head of the government,
and he would bow his head when King George VI
came into the room.
I get it, that you English have a fucking hard-on
for these old crones and people
and these inbreds from centuries ago.
And...
I get it. I've had this with so many people.
Sharon Osborne, Piers Morgan.
You all take umbrage, and I'm not trying to insult.
No, no. Listen, I'll tell you this, Bill.
The biggest fans of the royal family are the American public.
You're so right.
Which just blows my mind. What the hell?
Which speaks to the point that maybe we need one The American public. You're so right. And which blows my mind. What the hell?
Which speaks to the point that maybe we need one
because they yearn for it.
They yearn for it so much.
You're right.
Well, we'll lend you ours.
You don't have to do anything.
You don't even have to pay for it.
Well, Trump will take over, never give up the post,
and then we'll have it.
So I don't know what we're worrying about.
This problem is going to take care of itself.
Yeah, right.
And then he'll pass the crown on to Don Jr.
That'll be great.
And then it'll, or Ivanka probably.
So why even get rid of George III?
I mean, you've got your own monarch now.
Yeah, Ivanka would be a good queen
and she's actually very nice and she's not dumb at all.
So maybe that would certainly be better than him.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
She could do a Nixon to China kind of thing
and just be, you know, she travels in like liberal circles,
like she knows lots of people from.
She grew up in New York City.
And then, of course, it'll go to Barron. I don't know if that's a great thing.
He kind of looks like the kid from The Omen.
I don't know much about him, you know,
except that he's very tall.
He's very tall.
Very tall.
Good looking kid.
Yeah, very.
But you know, there's something about the male gene
in the Trump family that I'm a little distrustful of,
considering the father. Ooh, the father, Fred was... Fred was, you know that I'm a little distrustful of, considering the father.
Ooh, the father Fred was...
Fred was, you know, I'm not going to say he's a Nazi.
I'm going to say adjacent.
I just, you know, and not, definitely not going to get the NAACP award of the year at
any time posthumously.
And then of course there's Trump himself.
And so I just-
Well it all stems from the father, doesn't it?
I mean isn't that the theme of so much-
Yes.
It's your experience, isn't it?
I think it goes back to the Greeks.
Very much so.
When what is the Oedipus complex?
Yeah.
The Oedipus complex based-
The Greeks invented drama of course.
Did you ever do a Greek play like that?
No, I've been in a play called Andromarch.
But it was part... I was a very young actor, maybe 20.
And I was asked if I wanted to be a soldier
in the world theater season,
and the French were coming over with this Greek play called Andromarque.
And it starred Jean-Louis Barlow and his wife,
and I can't remember who she was,
but she was the most famous actress in France.
And I had to stand there, you know,
and listen to this in French.
It was quite amusing, actually.
And I was told one performance that,
as soon as the curtain comes down,
you're to leave the stage immediately.
And I went, well, why? Don't ask, just leave.
And I thought, I'm gonna hang around a bit.
And of course, I came from behind the curtain
and stood and suddenly, I stood to attention.
Her Majesty walked in.
Really?
Yeah.
And I met Her Majesty.
Wow.
And they were like, who is this?
Don't you have to, like, memorize a whole list
of things that you're not supposed to?
Just mom.
No, like you can't turn your back on her and you're...
There's a whole list of, like, do's and don'ts.
She's really cool.
She really was.
Really?
Yeah, it wasn't her.
She... The one that really demanded
the rigmarole of all that was Princess Margaret.
Fred Armisen used to do a genius sketch on SNL
where it was the queen and there...
And you see them with like the press or something
are in their room and they, or some people from outside
and they're talking in their upper crust accents
and they're acting like the queen and king as we know.
And as soon as the strangers leave the room,
they've got completely, you know, what's called,
a scouse, is that the, that accent.
And they're like truck driving.
By the way, did you see those two little girls from Burnley
going, I've just been to ice cream, nine pound!
Nine pound for two ice cream!
She was like this big, nine pounds!
I mean, oh well, I don't care if he does hear me.
And they marched off. It's hilarious. Is this like a TikTok? No, it was, I don't care if he does hear me. And they marched off. It's hilarious.
Is this like a TikTok?
No, it was, I don't know whether it was TikTok,
one of those things.
It was going the rounds and I saw it.
Do you use TikTok?
No.
What about Instagram?
Instagram, yeah.
You do?
Yeah.
You scroll through?
Occasionally, and my wife does a lot of it.
I say, can we post something?
Please, can we post this?
And she goes, I'll find you a great picture or photograph.
Instagram seems to think that the only thing
I'm interested in seeing is dogs
doing goofy things that make me laugh.
Well, I love that too.
That's because that is the only thing I'm interested in.
Is that the only thing that makes you laugh?
Well, cats are funny too.
Thank God I'm a person of discipline,
because I absolutely could look at dogs
like doing goofy shit.
But that's YouTube.
That's YouTube.
No, no, no.
That's Instagram.
That's all I watch, by the way.
I can just scroll, and it's mostly what it is.
I guess it's also this podcast and my show and that.
Wow, well your education is somewhat limited then.
That's true.
Well, I mean, I'm not going to say that I'm technologically savvy.
No, I'm not.
I do my best.
But you know, when you're not native to this thing, as people in our generations are not. Yeah.
It's like always doing it left-handed.
I know.
And they do not make it easy.
They purposely...
I know.
It looks like...
Well, where's...
My kids go, it's on a story, on Instagram story.
No, I just mean like they're...
And I go, what do you mean story?
I see the picture.
Where's the story?
They're constantly changing shit.
Yeah.
Are they? Like how things work in the computer.
You know, and on your phone and shit.
And it's like suddenly something doesn't work streaming.
And it's like, okay, you know, passwords.
And it's just...
I know, but isn't it amazing though, really,
that on this tiny phone...
Yeah, I know. It is. Your whole life...
Oh, it is. It's...
I mean, it's just insane.
We take for granted.
We immediately get used to all these amazing things.
Until you lose it.
And then you go, I can't remember anybody's number.
But then, you know, you bitch about the stuff that doesn't work.
And the truth is that all of it is glitchy.
But that's just where we are.
Someday, I guess they'll make it unglitchy.
Or, you know, a lot of it is that there, but that's just where we are. Someday, I guess they'll make it unglitchy.
Or a lot of it is that there's so many predators
on the internet of all sites.
I'm talking about...
Oh, by the way, I'm in this movie called Thelma
with June Squibb, who is the lead in the movie.
She was 93, and it's about this very thing.
She's being scammed.
Right.
And gets talked into giving 10... Oh, sorry. And it's about this very thing. She's being scammed. Right. And...
Yes.
Gets talked into giving ten...
Ooh, sorry.
...giving 10,000 bucks.
No, Apple is like, um, infuriating to deal with,
but I only blame them half for half of it,
because they do really try hard, I'll give them that.
Who, Apple?
To protect your privacy
Yeah, so therefore this is like so many firewalls to try to keep out the fucking leeches out there
Who I mean because it's so easy
Hackers and so forth I know to make money
You don't even have to scam people half the time you can just steal it by being it by writing
You know what they steal most of it is from the government.
And the government, of course.
They steal everything from the government.
Oh, of course, because they have the worst possible...
Because they're completely inept.
I mean, this whole COVID payments and everything.
People made billions just by filling in forms.
I mean, it's staggering.
There's a piece about it in that book.
Is there? Oh, okay.
Absolutely. You'll see it. Absolutely.
Is that mine to take home?
Absolutely.
Wow.
Cabili-free, Malcolm.
Scam America is what we call...
Scamerica.
It's so easy to scam America.
But, you know, you would be good in, you know,
all these Greek plays.
They always need, because the Greeks were not ages.
There's always the Nestor character, like in the Odyssey, Nestor, the old wise person.
I've seen Anthony Hopkins play it.
Yeah.
And all that, like in Achilles and all these things.
That's...
By the way, do you know Brian Johnson?
No. Who is that?
He should come to this club.
Right.
He's the lead singer of ACDC.
Oh, ACDC.
One of the funniest men I've ever met.
Let's get him over here. Right now.
He is brilliant.
And I was going to do a musical of Helen of Troy.
It was called Troy. Oh, Helen, one of the other.
I can't remember now.
A musical of Helen of Troy?
Yes, and he goes,
Mellem, you're fucking Zeus, man.
You're gonna be flying over the fucking stage,
and there's gonna be sparks coming out of your ass.
I went, wow, that sounds pretty good.
He wrote me this great song, It's Good to be God.
Wait, but why would you need to be flying first?
Because it's Zeus, flying above it.
Oh, you're Zeus?
Yeah.
See, that's what I'm saying is,
this is the age of playing God.
And like, or you know, like,
superhero movies always need like the old dude who's in the fortress of birth or whatever,
and he tells them muscle-bound.
Well, the best one was Alec Guinness, no?
What?
Alec Guinness.
Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Brando did it in Superman.
Yeah.
There's always the old dude who gives wisdom to the guy
that the girls want to fuck.
That's right. that's right.
Well, hey, you know, you go through the stages
and you end up.
Right, seven ages of men.
That's right, that's where you end up.
I mean.
And embrace it and love it.
Well.
That's what I try to do.
You're, that's a great attitude.
I only half believe you.
I am, I believe the embrace part. Love it?
I totally... I would not... I don't have to do it.
Do what?
Act.
Oh, I thought you meant live.
No, but acting is... I love...
I love it still, as much as I think I did way back when.
Right. Well, you know why? Because you get better at it.
You do.
I'm saying this just as a fan of you and acting in general.
It's so obvious to me that when I'm watching a movie
and there's somebody in the scene
who's in their 20s or 30s,
and they're acting with someone
who's in their 50s or 60s,
it's like watching a split screen.
It just is.
I mean, not that the people who are younger are bad,
it's just you get better.
You just get, because you get better as a person
and you're more comfortable in your skin.
You don't really realize it.
Of course not, it's an evolution.
Yeah.
But it's true.
I mean, I just, you asked me,
great movies I've seen, okay.
I'm gonna tell you about one I just saw.
We will not be, it was fine,
but we will not be filing under the category of great.
Okay. Okay.
So, it was, it's on Netflix,
I can't remember the name of it.
And by the way, it was the second movie of a genre,
which I will only call Mom Fucks a Rockstar,
because this is the second one I've seen.
Anne Hathaway just did one where Mom Fucks the Rockstar.
Like her, she...
Oh yeah, I've read about her.
Yeah, what's it called?
It called Mom Fucks a Rockstar.
No, it's not, but it should be.
And because like the, the daughter...
But I feel like that one...
I love Anne Hathaway, though.
Me, too. And I think...
And she's very attractive at...
Yeah, but I think she's a good actress.
Really interesting.
She's playing someone with a teenage daughter
who she takes to a concert.
She's got a teenage daughter?
Well, in the movie, and stumbles backstage
looking for her daughter or the bathroom or something,
and meets the rock star, cut to their fucking now.
Who does she meet? Who's the rock star?
I don't remember his name. He's new.
He was very, very good in the part.
I mean, they all...
He's an actor, though.
Well, yeah.
Not a rock star.
No, no, no. He's playing a rock star.
It's a movie.
No, I know.
So then, now, there's one, uh, no, he's playing a rockstar, it's a movie. No, I know. So then, now, there's one, Nicole Kidman.
Oh, that's the other one.
And Zac Efron.
That's right, that's the one I read about.
Okay, and again, mom fucks the, well, he's a movie star.
And I'm just wondering why, like, this genre
has reared its head at this moment.
It just struck me as...
Because people of a certain age,
the ladies, they need these parts.
So, hey, so let's put her in the...
Okay, so let's...
Oh, I see. You're saying it's star-driven.
Yeah, of course.
You think most parts are that way?
No. A lot aren't. The good ones aren't.
Really, good ones are organic stories.
But William Goldman, you're familiar,
he wrote the book.
Yes, of course. Unlike Bo Goldman,
that's a totally different Goldman.
Right. But another great screenwriter,
William Goldman.
Oh, one of the greats, yeah.
Right. And probably wrote the best book
about screenwriting, Adventures in the Screenplay.
Yeah, brilliant.
All his, and you know.
Didn't he do?
Butch Cassidy.
Network.
No, that's Paddy Chayefsky.
Chayefsky, that's right, that's right.
But he said, Goldman said, like, if you wanna get,
you know, first of all, you're writing a script,
you might as well just throw it in the garbage if you can't get a star
attached to it. So you have to have that in mind. So we said, and you want to get the star to do it,
write him a great opening speech when he first walks in or, you know, make him look fucking,
it's not rocket science to get on the good side of movie people.
Make them look really interesting.
We're all egomaniacs to them. Why are we in this business?
It's all about, mom, look at me, I'm doing it.
Look. You know, so...
Oh, yeah. Sort of true.
I mean, yeah, it's funny.
That's totally different from my experience,
which was, you know, with a very great director.
I just got plucked out of a crowd.
Kubrick.
No, Lindsay Anderson.
Oh, yeah. Who's that?
Wow. I thought you were a cinephile.
No, I really thought you were.
Oh, I guess not to your degree.
No, I mean, look, you should know who Lindsay Anderson is.
Well, he made, he didn't make that many films,
but they were great ones.
He made a film called This Sporting Life
with Richard Harris.
Richard Harris' best performance, I think, ever on a movie.
And he did my first film, If, Oh Lucky Man,
which I wrote with him.
I know that.
And David Sherwin.
And he did a lot of theater in London.
In 30 years, he would have a play always in production.
Well, I'll put it on the top of my to-do list
to catch up with this dude.
Oh, come on.
Have you ever seen If?
I mean, I just asked that question.
Uh, if.
It doesn't matter if you haven't.
I must not have.
Oh, you would love the film.
I'm telling you now, knowing you as I do,
not very well, but I know that you appreciate really good.
Good, I'm always looking for...
It's a masterpiece, I'll tell you.
I think I want wanna watch the third version
of Mom Fucks the Rockstar.
Well, if you can put up with that.
That was pretty amazing.
No, this is an amazing movie that was written in.
It's funny, I'm always saying to myself,
I'm gonna write out a list of movies
that I need to catch up to. Yeah, I mean, there are thousands of movies
that are worthy of seeing.
And no, I think I've seen a lot of them.
No, not all of them.
So make a list.
And then when I get into bed at night,
instead of, like, looking at whatever is...
Right, looking for...
Whatever they're putting out in the buffet,
happened to be a lot of mom folks, the rock star lately, I could just dial up the one that I wrote on the list that's worthy.
Well, you've obviously...
And then I never do it.
You've seen movies like, I don't know, Maltese Falk and...
Of course.
Yes.
Go ahead.
Keep testing me.
I'll see if I redeem myself.
No, I mean, that's a great movie.
Anything with Jimmy Cagney, of course.
Not any... Yankee Doodle Dandy. Don't remember it if I saw it. White with Jimmy Cagney, of course. Not any.
Yankee Doodle Dandy.
I don't remember it if I saw it.
White Heat.
Yankee Doodle Dandy.
If I saw it, I don't remember it.
Jimmy Cagney, no, that's before...
No, you would love this.
You would love this movie.
Okay.
I mean, come on, sometimes these movies are so old that...
That's creaky?
The style is so different.
Yes, true.
It only survives really as a historical piece.
Yes, there's moments in it that are great.
I totally disagree with you.
Well, yeah.
Because there's great artistry.
Just, you may... The styles may change.
Of course styles change.
But look, you're gonna say that about John Ford's movies?
You know what? You're right. I'm not that much of a cinephile.
And I don't wanna be. You know, I don't wanna be a snob
about what's entertaining me. I just wanna be entertained.
Just suck my dick and go home. I don't wanna have to...
And a cinephile is somebody that's not...
That does a critique. They either love it or they don't, you know?
But you have to open yourself up to things
that are not just, you know, the normal thing.
Oh, I am. I love it.
Because they're pretty much just...
I'm always looking to be...
...green screen, you know?
Oh, yeah. No, no. I'm...
Trust me, there are nights when I'm very entertained by what they're offering,
and then there's nights where I really need that list. And I'm gonna start it now.
Well, I'm at the point where I'm sort of just doing things that are really outside my supposed
range and just for the hell have it go, you know. I don't know if I don't care. Have you always used the same criteria for deciding
whether to do a script or not?
Or has that changed?
No, that's never really changed.
Never?
I read it, and I know within 10 pages
whether I'm going to do it or not.
So you never do anything just for the money?
Oh, yeah.
Of course.
What do you think? I'm a professional actor, for Christ's? Oh yeah. Of course. Of course. What do you think I'm,
I'm a professional actor for Christ's sake.
Yeah.
What are they offering?
Jesus, okay.
Yeah, well I can make that work.
Like what?
I'm talking.
What'd you do just for the money?
I did a,
I did this thing called,
what was it called?
It was this French comedy thing.
It was actually very successful in France.
They tried to remake it here in America,
and it was, what was it called?
Christ, I've had a complete block,
because I just hated it so much.
Jean Reno was in it.
It was called, it'll come to me,
but you know, names, I'm losing it with names a lot.
So long as you remembered the money.
The money was, I couldn't believe it.
And that was lovely.
What did you get for Caligula?
You know, I didn't get paid that much.
I think by the time-
Oh, I'm guessing you didn't.
No, I-
That's why I'm asking.
I'm guessing it's shockingly low. Or would be...
No, it wasn't shockingly low.
I think I got as an upfront pay was $300,000.
But it went over.
And over, I got another $200,000.
But it was out of the country, so it was tax-free.
I remember seeing it in a theater the country, so it was tax free.
I remember seeing it in a theater in Washington, D.C.
And it's not on your top 10 list?
I was making the movie DC Cab at the time.
Oh really?
And I had a day off and I went, yeah.
And I was practically masturbating
before I got into the theater.
I just thought this was gonna be, and it was.
I mean, there was lots of whacking material to take home.
Yeah, but you know, look.
Well, you know, they've re-edited the whole thing.
It's about to open.
I have to see that again.
No, but listen, this is, what they did was amazing
because Guccione had controlled the movie.
Stuck in 40, 50 minutes of hardcore porn.
Drop to the whole last hour of the movie,
so it made no sense whatsoever.
He could care less. He had his A-list actors,
and he had the pornography, and he had all the... And he also, he four-walled it,
which means he bought out the cinema.
He didn't have a distribution deal, he did it himself.
So instead of charging the, I think the average price
of a ticket was three dollars then, he charged seven.
And there were lines around the block, you know.
But it was absolutely a piece of absolute garbage.
But it could have been good if they had edited differently,
you're saying? You actually made a good movie
that just got cut out? Wow.
And so what happened?
What's the theme?
Well, it's about the rise and fall of this emperor.
Yeah, but what's the theme? Like, what, I mean, it's...
You know, he was supposed to be mad.
And when I... And Gore Vidal wrote the script,
the original script, which was terrible, by the way.
Really? Gore Vidal's script was terrible?
Yes. Yes.
Okay.
And I had lots of discussions with him and said,
Gore, we can't shoot this.
You're gonna have to do some rewrites. And he was like, I can't shoot this, you're gonna have to
do some rewrites.
And he was like, I don't need to do rewrites.
I was like.
What did you find lacking in it?
It just didn't, it was just a sort of tableau,
one tableau after the other, without connecting
or flowing or have any reason for it.
That's what I'm asking you. What is the theme?
I mean, if you ask me what's the theme of Hamlet,
I would say when Laurence Olivier made it,
he put a tag at the beginning that said,
this is the story of a man who could not make up his mind.
Okay, so now I know what his tragic flaw was.
What was that for Caligula?
Um, Caligula was, um...
thrust into a position of absolute power. What was that for Caligula? Um, Caligula was, um...
thrust into a position of absolute power.
Um, he had absolute power over life and death.
Nothing like the sort of power, the even, you know,
the sort of putan power, you know.
And at a very young age,
and he, listen, went through Tiberius's...
all the money that Tiberius had made
in 14 years of reign.
He went through it in 18 months, a whole lot.
And he was very popular, collegially,
because he was always giving the Roman citizens
five gold pieces.
Um, and they loved him. You know, why not?
It's like getting a big bonus at the end.
Why was he like that? Because he was an epaulet?
Well, the way I played it, I didn't want to play him
as a madman.
Because you can't spend two and a half hours
just being mad.
Right.
I mean, there has to be some, so I- What is this arc?
My arc was that he was one of the original anarchists
and was bringing down the whole Roman Empire from the top.
He wanted to do that?
Yes.
But he didn't.
He saw all the corruption and all the...
I thought he was the corruption.
He's part of it, but he saw all the corruption
in all the things around him, the Senate, the this, the that.
And he railed against it and brought it down from the top.
And that's the way I chose to do it,
whether it was right or wrong. Well, he certainly didn't bring it down because the top. And that's the way I chose to do it, whether it was right or wrong.
Well, he certainly didn't bring it down
because it was, I mean.
No, he was murdered, of course.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the Roman Empire thrived for over another century.
I mean, the Pax Romana did not end until 180 AD.
That's right.
You know, so, okay.
Well.
But it was absolutely beautifully shot,
beautifully designed by Fellini's designer, Danilo Donati.
He did the costumes as well.
And huge sets, massive.
I mean, I walk onto these sets and go,
"'Fuck.'" So you couldn't do any small acting.
You had to move around the sets,
because otherwise you couldn't be seen.
Right.
You'd have to, I mean, I was running everywhere.
I mean, it was just ridiculous.
But I knew that's the only way to do it,
with those sets, you know, that, um...
Movie making is so ridiculous, in a way.
But it's fun. Oh, sure, of course. I know, that... Movie making is so ridiculous in a way. But it's fun.
Oh, sure, of course.
I know, I did it.
It's a wonderful sleight of hand.
It is an odd way to live, though, because you are so intensely interwoven with a group
of people for three or six or nine months.
Yeah.
Like, because movies take all day and all night.
So you really only do the movie and sleep.
So the people that you're with, it's like your left hand.
You know, you're just, and then it all go,
and then you all go away.
And it just ends like in a day, and it's very weird.
It's just psychologically very weird.
It's sort of very, yeah, it's,
well, it's really strange too, performance-wise.
For instance, in the theater, if you want to...
have the audience look at you in close-up...
in the theater so that you become very still...
and don't move hardly at all, then the audience come in.
Sure.
If you want them to move out to a mid shot, you do this.
And suddenly, it's to here.
If you want a long shot, or the whole thing,
you move around the set.
Right.
And so you're literally editing your own performance
in a theater.
You can't do that.
But you can help the editor by saying something and then looking over.
And they're going, what the fuck is he looking at?
And then they'll come back.
So you've got to know what's important in a scene.
That's a considerate actor.
You're thinking along with the director
so that you're giving him the choices.
But you're not saying anything.
No, no, you don't have to say it.
You don't want to intimidate him.
Well, I'm sure that's one reason why you never stop working,
is, you know, people want to work with people who make work easy,
as opposed to many actors who have...
Won't come out of the trailer?
Well, I mean, and many other things.
I haven't worked with many of those.
Well, I mean, there's many videos of blow-ups on sets.
There's the famous one with David O'Russell.
There's a famous one with Kristen Bale.
But I don't know if people realize that you could have one
from every movie that was ever made.
Movie sets are, by their nature, tense places.
And a lot of that tension is just right below the surface.
And actors use that as their instrument, of course.
Oh, it's brilliant to have edge.
But it also can just, I mean, I've had it done at me
on a sitcom once.
Oh, tell me.
What happened?
I'll tell you a few of mine.
What happened?
Well, I was on a sitcom, and one of the actors
was on heroin.
So he didn't show up a lot.
But the show was sort of like centered around him.
So there was a lot of tension when we couldn't shoot
and he wasn't there.
And then one of the other actors,
because they couldn't really take it out on him
because he was the star of the show,
kind of like exploded at me.
Like, you know, so I...
Yeah, but we've all had been on sets
where somebody exploded. Like, you know, so I... Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But we've all had been on sets
where somebody exploded.
It just is sort of built into the system.
Yeah. I mean, I don't kind of mind that.
I don't do a lot of that.
No, I'm gonna say you, but you've seen it.
Yeah. I mean, sometimes I felt like it,
but I know that it tends to get people...
Yes, an actor is like having trouble getting the scene right.
Or he's having trouble remembering the lines.
Yeah. Oh, my God.
And then somebody like moves in his eyeline, and he's...
You'll blame that. Hey! How the hell am I supposed to do that?
Get out of my... I can't... Sorry, what was the line?
Yeah, come on!
Let me tell you, people in your eyeline is legitimately a fuck up.
See, I love it. I don't mind at all.
People in your eyeline?
I don't mind at all, because I'm not seeing them.
Wow.
I'm not focusing on them.
I'm somewhere else, so, you know...
No, I really like when I'm, like,
doing my monologue on my show.
Like, don't have people scurrying around,
but, like, with cameras and stuff.
Well, no, scurrying around.
Well, sometimes, you know, people want to, like...
I mean, God, the director's gotta be in the eyeline.
I mean, somebody's gotta be in the eyeline.
The director's in the booth.
It's television.
Oh, you're television. Okay.
In the booth. Wow.
Well, they don't...
Hi, Bill Moore. I don't know if we've met.
How are you?
Nice to meet you.
Oh, that's television, that's old school stuff.
Oh yeah.
Now it's all film, they don't.
Oh no, you know they make them flat now.
Oh no.
Yeah, oh my God.
Yeah, I've had a few, just a couple of.
I mean you got TV late in England, you got TV late in England.
You got TV late in England.
I remember being in England in the 80s, and there was still only like two channels.
Oh.
I mean, it was... Now it's just like American TV, but...
Yeah, they have all the same stuff now, satellite stuff.
And stupid stuff.
Yeah.
Like I used to be able to think, oh...
I like some stupid stuff.
Well, I do too, but but I used to think of Britain,
and maybe it still is to a degree,
like more erudite, more mature.
No, no.
No, I think that we.
Once in a while.
America Americanized a lot of the world,
and I'm not saying that as a compliment.
You know?
It's not bad though.
I know, some of it is. Listen, it gave me great that as a compliment. You know? It's not bad, though.
Some of it is.
Listen, it gave me great hope as a young man to see American movies.
To see Westerns, Saturday morning, newsreel.
Why did you want to move here?
I didn't particularly want to move here, but...
But you did.
I fell in love.
And had a child. You moved for the wife? Yeah, of course. you did. I fell in love and had a child.
You moved for the wife?
Yeah, of course.
For Mary.
Yeah.
But then you stayed.
Well, when we split up, I wasn't gonna be,
you know, an absentee father.
Right.
So, I really didn't have a choice, you know,
about, and I didn't mind.
I kind of had to start again, but it was fine. It was okay.
And I still worked in Italy.
Are you missing England?
Still after all these years?
There's a lot I love about my home country, of course.
And I feel very patriotic about it in some respects.
But do I miss it? No. feel very patriotic about it in some respects.
But do I miss it? No, but I'm not the kind of person that looks back.
Me neither.
I never look at my old stuff, I never look at the work.
In fact, I very rarely see any of it.
But I am.
Because I'm always thinking about the next thing.
And people go, what's your favorite part?
You have to do that.
And I always go, my next one.
Next, exactly.
That's it.
You know, and I'm really excited,
because I'm gonna do this film of Death in Venice,
with Davey Porter.
And I'm really, he wrote it, he's directing it.
But it's really interesting, because I don't know,
did you see the Visconti movie?
No, I'm not a cinephile.
Oh, fuck you see the Visconti movie? No, I'm not a cinephile. Oh, fuck you.
Um...
You are such a prick.
I'm the prick?
Yeah, come on, come on.
Um, no, but, uh, I think this is gonna be great.
Uh, but it's a little egg-heady. I think you should do it.
No, no, no, it's not egg-heady.
Because it's Thomas Mann?
I knew it's Thomas Mann?
I knew it was Thomas Mann.
OK.
Maybe I'm a bibliophile.
But no, but I'm just saying it's not a popcorn movie.
I'm just saying don't be snobby if Aquaman needs an old dude
to like teach him like the ways of the sea or something.
Like just if Superman.
Are you my agent now? I'm a great.
You're advising me.
I'm a manager.
I would be a great manager.
I always have good ideas for people on this show.
I'm just telling you.
Okay.
This is, if your agent isn't working on this right now,
every superhero needs this mentor, this wise mentor.
And it helps if the,
Yeah, you're right. helps if the person playing the part
also is seen by the audience as sort of this eminence
of many years who we've come to respect and like,
and he's iconic.
So you kind of want to blend those.
That's why I'm sure Brando got a fortune.
And I'm sure it took him one day to shoot that part.
I'm Jor-El, and I'm gonna send you to Earth, and...
And you know he was reading it off the guy's head,
first of all. But who cares?
No, I know. It's what you see.
And, you know, let's be...
That's why I love Marlon, many reasons.
I mean, Marlon Brando gave some of probably the greatest performances
ever on Celluloid.
But the reason I love him more than any of the others
is because he did it while not taking it seriously at all.
I mean, imagine writing it...
You think he didn't take... I mean...
He did not?
On the waterfront seriously?
Oh, on the waterfront. Back then, yes.
I'm talking about, like, even as a...
That's him absolutely at his top of his power.
Well, I would say that was The Godfather,
but, you know, he's great in every...
Oh, my God, no.
No, The Godfather, it's a great movie, of course,
and he's brilliant in it, but the range he had
on the waterfront is staggering.
And the vulnerability and the...
Just look at the wonderful vulnerability
in that taxicab scene, the famous scene with Stygur.
There could have been somebody.
There you go, you see.
It's kind of a bum.
And then you're telling me you're not a cinephile, right?
Is that it?
Oh, I've seen that one.
It's been a while.
I mean, a great film.
Elia Kazan, of course.
Yeah, I mean, I feel like I watched it,
I'm sure I watched it more than once.
I'm sure I watched it once when I was young
and oh boy, on the waterfront.
And then I probably watched it one other time
and I think I thought, yeah, it's good, but like a lot of those, it's like, yeah,
it's kind of of its era.
First of all, just the pacing is often slower
than we have come to.
Our brains have gotten used to something a little quicker.
I mean, Hitchcock is painstakingly slow.
It's very hard to get through a Hitchcock movie.
Very little happens, it's very-
Turned one down.
It's very, really?
Yeah, stupidly.
I mean, I should have done it.
It was a terrible script,
and I didn't like the film at all,
but I should have done it.
You know, he- Just to work with him.
You know, I bet you I know which one it was.
Okay, tell me.
Well, I remember seeing, in the theater, I was 16, it was know, I bet you I know which one it was. Okay, tell me. Well, I remember seeing in the theater,
I was 16, it was 72, I believe.
Yeah.
May have been his last movie.
No, it wasn't the last, but close to.
What was it called?
I think it was Frenzy.
Frenzy, maybe.
And it was, it took place in Covent Garden.
It was in color, which I remember thinking was new.
And the one great scene in it, the one great scene in color, which I remember thinking was new for Hitch.
The one great scene in it was that it was a body
in a truck full of potatoes.
And this hand comes out of all these potatoes,
the bodies buried under it, and when it goes round a corner,
a lot of potatoes slide and you see a hand.
Yeah.
And that's pretty cool. Yeah, I mean, potatoes slide, and you see a hand. Yeah.
And that's pretty cool.
Yeah, I mean, Hitch, I feel like,
was really made for compilation reels.
Like when they show great moments,
and it's like, oh, the hand coming out,
or the shower thing, and then you watch the movie,
and it's like, wow, there's just few and far between.
You know, we were listening.
It's just very subtle.
My sons and I, on the way down here,
we're listening to, um, Eleanor Rigby.
Yeah.
And it's such a great song.
Oh.
But you know that, that stabbing...
Yes.
...stabbing, stabbing violin that's in that...
Yes.
...is, you know where that, the inspiration for that is Hitchcock.
Hmm.
Psycho.
Really?
The stabbing scene in the shower.
Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh.
Yeah, of course. Right. And how do we...
That's in, that in, exactly.
I believe you, but how do we know this?
I think Paul talked about it.
Oh, we did.
If it wasn't Paul, it was George Martin.
No, I know exactly what you're talking about,
and it makes sense.
Yeah. Isn't it weird, though, how these things cross over?
Yes.
You know...
Or the inspiration. I mean...
I know. It's just amazing.
You know, like, I mean, look, I don't think I'm talking
out of school to say Paul McCartney was always
a giant pothead. I don't know if that continues
to this very day, but for a lot of, certainly the 70s, 60s, I think after they got into pot, he'd like me.
He's like, you know, some people just really like pot.
And like when you think about,
oh, it was probably he was high,
he just watched that movie, it became the song, you know.
I just think pot.
No, I don't think it was that way around,
but who knows, Maybe it was.
No, that came after the song was written.
And I think he was talking to George Martin
and saying he wanted something,
and then it was like Psycho, you know, in the curtain,
when...
I know exactly what you're talking about.
And it's on Elna Rigby, and we were...
Yeah. Psycho's on El No Rigby. And we were... Yeah.
Psycho's another one that's slow to develop.
Yeah.
And you know, there are...
But to see this is what television has done to us.
Television, well, not just television.
I don't think it's mostly television.
That's partly what it is, but it's also, I think,
even more the internet and social media.
I guess, yeah.
I mean, the attention span, I've said this many times,
of Americans baffles me.
It's either seven seconds or two hours.
Like, I used to just do one hour.
You know, it's really weird, because Kubrick used to go
above and beyond to make sure that every screen that played A Clockwork Orange,
because I'm speaking from personal experience,
is that he had a guy go into Cinema One
on Third Avenue in New York,
and tell Ruegoff, who owned it,
to paint the surround to the screen matte black.
Because?
Because he wanted... He didn't want any distractions.
He wanted it perfectly floating.
Yeah, directors are like that.
Martin Scorsese is like that.
But I'm laughing because how do we see it now?
On our phones.
Oh yes, I mean look, I watch movies in the kitchen.
I watch movies in the bathroom.
When I really wanna watch something, I watch movies in the kitchen. I watch movies in the bathroom. When I really wanna watch something,
I watch it in my bed on a big screen
and just really watch it.
But not every movie makes the cut that way.
No, no, no, of course not.
Sometimes, especially if I've seen one before.
Do you vote for the Academy?
I vote against it, wherever they are
and whatever Academy they are. I think it's a joke they gave me.
But look, they send all the things, so you have to watch as many as you can.
Well, first of all, I'm not in the movie industry, so I don't...
Well, you've done movies?
I have done a long time ago, yes.
So how many movies did you do?
Let's see.
There's some fake posters.
Is that what it was?
Yeah, there's one in the bathroom.
Next to Elvis with Nixon.
That's a great photograph.
Yeah, that is.
Yeah, I know.
It's great.
Oh, I don't know.
It was the 80s.
When you were doing stand-up?
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. I mean, that first decade of your career,
when you're doing whatever they're offering.
Of course.
And you're, you know, you're young and you're having a good time.
Yeah, look at Chevy Chase.
I mean, it's like, what, I'm in the avocado jungle with the Piranha women?
Oh, this is way better than working at Kenny's shoes.
Oh, yeah.
So, you know, I enjoyed it.
But I was never meant to be an actor.
I was always meant to almost do the exact opposite.
And I never would have gotten to,
well certainly not your level, but even that,
I mean I could do comic acting and got parts.
But what is comic acting?
It's not really any different.
Like sitcom acting, Nothing too heavy.
But it's really in the writing. It's still telling the truth.
If they write something that's funny, then...
Well, it's getting... sitcoms, it's not as...
Timing and all.
It's not all the... timing, yes. It's all timing.
Well, I'm doing a comedy at the moment. This is my fourth season.
Right.
And called Son of a Critch, and I love it.
I just love it.
Great show.
Well, a lot of times, great actors
do great with comedy because they play the reality
of the situation.
If it's written well, that's enough to get the laugh.
That's right.
And you're not trying.
If it's written well.
Right.
Because you're not trying to get the laugh. No. But. If it's written well. Right, because you're not trying to get the laugh,
but if you play the reality, then you do.
Again, this is better than what I was.
I was just a guy who knew how to get a laugh,
as a comic does.
So I could do sitcoms and light comedy.
So somebody like, for instance, Seinfeld and all that.
And that's brilliantly written, of course.
But he was even worse than me.
I mean, he would fucking crack up in his own scenes,
and you could see it on his face.
Of course. Well, that's why we loved him.
Yes, it was part of the charm of it was,
this guy is like, I'm not even gonna pretend
to try to be an actor.
But what about Gary Shanley?
Oh, I loved him.
Did you know him?
Of course, very well.
But how well did you know?
Very well. He's been in this room
before we were using it to film many times.
He's a genius to me.
And I only met him once, and I adored him.
Yeah, Gary was a great guy.
I mean, look, you could only get so close.
Yeah, sure.
I guess a few other people got a little closer.
But isn't that the same with you, though?
Same with me?
No, not me.
Oh no, I mean, I let lots of people in as far as you go.
Now women are always going to think,
I've said this many times too, they're always going to think
there's another level.
Like just, it's like no honey, that's all there is to me.
I swear to God, you keep digging and you're not gonna find anything.
You're gonna go one level down and two level.
It's still the same thing.
And then there's public parking.
Wow, yeah, okay.
I never get tired of that joke.
Yeah, that's good.
Hey, I'll be at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway,
Boston, Massachusetts, July 26th, July 27th,
at Toyota Oakdale Theater in Wallingford, Connecticut.
And September 7th, the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
And the 28th of September, the Orpheum in Memphis, Tennessee.
And the 29th, the Taft Theater in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Milwaukee, September 8th.
I was supposed to be there.
The convention was there.
There were plane problems.
I never made it.
I'm so sorry.
But I will come back. I want to come back.
I will want to... I play the state so badly.
So, Milwaukee, forgive me for making you come out twice
and take a shower twice and pick out a new shirt twice.
But September 8th, Milwaukee.
I don't really want to give up wine, you know.
It's like.
Why should you?
Why should I?
It's what I said.
How much do you drink?
Well, I don't drink any.
Do I, I mean, I've got nothing.
Well, we would have given you whatever you want.
I know, but I don't drink.
So.
I thought you said you drank water.
Well, this is, just to finish this story,
is that the last person I was to see
was a religious person. I'm not really a religious kind of person,
so I don't go in for, you know, organized religion.
I do believe in God, but, you know, so I met with this guy,
and I thought, nothing he's gonna tell me, you know,
is, because I really wanna do why.
I said, look, and he goes, if you drink alcohol,
the chances are that you will be back
doing your drug of choice, which is cocaine.
Is that right?
And I went, I don't think so.
I really don't.
I know you say this and...
I know what he mean.
This is what he said to me.
This is what made such an impression on me.
He said, why take the chance?
Yeah.
That's all.
And it reverberated with me.
And when I came out, and that's the,
I never had another drink, so that's 42 years ago.
Oh, wow.
And that's it.
Done.
Can I offer you one?
You can offer it, but I will not take it.
Oh, that's a shame. I love to leave people off the beach.
This is all fake booze anyway, for Christ's sake.
Oh yeah, totally.
Take a swig, go ahead.
What can, what, so what?
42 years.
What is this?
Don't be such a prick.
What is this, a trick fucking?
Don't be such a prick about it, you know.
42 years, so what?
You have a drink.
What's the worst that can happen?
Okay, well enjoy your 80s. Come on, you pussy.
Have a fucking drink with me. I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying it.
Have a drink, Christ. Oh, God. You do the drinking.
I'm talking with you. I know.
But it is interesting the way people think that there is always a gateway drug. That's a big
thing. That was always a big argument against marijuana legalization.
It's a gateway drug.
Truly, for most kids, at least in our era, the gateway drug was beer.
Yeah, that's right.
But the whole point is that you're going to do something, whether it's pot or beer or
whatever it is, even coffee, you're probably going to do something in your life that tells your brain, oh, there's an alternative
kind of way, wavelength, that we can be on.
And once you realize that, then you're gonna try every drug.
Because every drug is just good or bad pot, to me.
Now maybe your drug is a different one,
but every drug is just another,
a variation of like, I'm sober or I'm fucked
up. Like for me, mostly pot, but like pot plus having a drink is also different.
Yeah. Oh yeah, very different. Yeah. One's up, one's down, right? A little bit.
And together they make a beautiful combination.
Okay. Well, I'm so happy for you.
No, it's very Rogers and Havard-like.
But you know, look, in England, growing up, I mean, I lived in a pub.
And I loathed beer.
Lived in a pub?
My father ran a pub.
Exactly.
And a hotel.
What, and you lived upstairs from the pub?
Yes.
So you lived over a pub as a child?
I went to sleep as a child listening to sort of distant laughter and chinking of glasses.
And I've never ever liked pubs ever since.
And also my father was an alcoholic.
Oh well that'll do it.
But you made it sound actually kind of soothing.
The clinking of glasses and light laughter.
What do you mean? A bit like the sea waves...
You made it sound...
...lapping in Malibu or something.
You made it sound nice.
Yeah, well, this was Ormskirk outside Liverpool.
It wasn't very romantic.
It could have been to the sound of people fighting and, you know...
Oh, well, that was occasionally too.
And not loud music, right? It was...
Yeah, there was distant music.
Distant, perfect.
But, you know, I was a kid, so...
Yeah.
But, and the whole thing of drugs was so alien.
You know, you just didn't get much.
But the...
There wasn't much going on.
The only drugs that were happening
were the occasional guys coming back from Nepal. Much. There wasn't much going on. The only drugs that were happening
were the occasional guys coming back from Nepal.
Nepal, wow.
And they would bring in, I knew these couple of rug guys,
John and John-John.
Just to confuse.
Where's John? John-John.
Oh, yeah, they'd put him in these rugs, you know,
and they'd bring back hashish.
And you know, you would crumble it
and put it in a, with tobacco and smoke it,
but I never liked that much.
Should we tell the people where Nepal is
in case they are people who have not studied the map?
It's between China and India?
Yeah. Really between Tibet and India? Well, it's actually- It's between China and India. Yeah.
Really between Tibet and India?
Well, it's actually...
It's where Mount Everest is.
Yes, well, yeah, it is indeed.
And it's a very beautiful country.
So you lived above a pub. Was it also a whorehouse?
No.
Oh, no.
But it did have a taproom where there was entertainment.
So there'd be very bad comics.
Comics? At the pub?
Yeah.
Wow.
I worked in bars.
I worked on-
I tell you, if you've done bars and you've had-
Yes, but no stage.
You talked, the Beatles had a little riser.
Yeah, nothing.
I remember, I can see the sawdust on my shoes.
Sawdust on the floor.
Yeah.
Why did they even do that?
And it held you in very good stead.
Why was this?
Because there's nothing you can do after that that's ever
going to be as bad as that.
Oh, I did.
I did workings of that.
Really?
Yeah.
Opening for a rock band when they were throwing things
at you, that's worse.
Getting stuff thrown at you.
Oh, I'd love to have seen you do that.
Yeah.
I would have been throwing, of course.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, music audiences do not want to hear.
And first, the funny guy, that is not what they, no.
They wanted to see you go.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's cool.
I mean, you know, you're right.
It's great that you have that experience. Yeah, oh, God, yeah. I mean, you know, you're right. It's great that you have that experience. Yeah. Oh god
I wanted to do it again. Well, I was brought up in weekly rep where you had four plays in your mind at any one time
You know you were playing a week you were rehearsing the next week
You were trying to get trying to forget the one that you just done, right?
And then you were trying to look ahead to see if you could just catch.
And it was crazy.
My hat is off to anybody who has to memorize
and that's singers too.
Yeah.
Like how do singers?
They have a little.
Now they do.
Most of the Beatles certainly didn't.
Oh no.
People.
Oh they were amazing.
How many songs that they covered were staggering,
and then all their own songs.
And by the way, just because you wrote it,
doesn't mean to say you can remember it.
Exactly.
Sting told me that.
Yeah, of course.
No, it comes like any other song.
But, I mean, the Beatles didn't actually,
I mean, in their early repertoire,
yes, they did do a lot of covers of other people's songs,
but they only recorded 18. They recorded 18 covers. in their early repertoire, yes, they did do a lot of covers of other people's songs,
but they only recorded 18. They recorded 18 covers on the first three albums.
Oh, yeah.
Six on each of them. The first of the three albums, there was eight originals and six covers.
And which is your favorite cover?
I love that one, Anna.
What?
Oh my God!
What? I have a story about that. Anna! What? Oh, my God! What?
I have a story about that.
Anna?
Yes.
That's a great record.
All right. So, I get the stage,
which is the actor's newspaper.
I'm out of work.
I'm working as a messenger boy
on Victoria Street in London.
Was it last year?
I look at the back of the stage and it says,
Arnold Rose, pop tuition.
Um, and they named one, some pop singer that is Johnny Layton.
Never heard of him? Anyway, hey there, Wild Wind.
Johnny Layton.
So I go to see this guy.
My aunt paid for it. I said, look, I could do,
I could do, you know, do a Beatles number or something. I think I could...
If I got some, make a record, I think I could make it.
So I went to see this guy and he goes,
oh, you know, what do you want to sing?
And I went, well, look, I've got this Beatles album
and I'd like to do this song, Anna.
Oh.
He goes, oh, okay, well, let me hear a bit of...
Let me just hear the scales. And I went, oh, okay, well, let me hear a bit of... Let me just hear the scales.
And I went, oh, okay, okay, you're kind of...
Yeah, you're in tune, yeah.
He goes, well, listen, I want you to do this.
Get up on the stage, you had a little stage.
And he said, what I'm gonna do is record you,
and we're gonna play the Beatles,
but I'm gonna cut their vocals,
and we'll just have them backing you.
And I went, you can do that?
He went, oh yeah.
Yeah, because it's a great harmony.
Yeah, so I start,
and I do the whole thing and he goes,
wow, well that's pretty good.
Now, next week, I want you to come back,
we're gonna cut a record
and I want you to bring 150 pounds to do that.
I mean, 150 pounds?
I mean, that to me was like $10,000, you know?
It's like, it was huge money in those days.
So I had to go to my aunt, you know,
and take her out for a cup of tea
and try and tap her for a little more money.
So I said to myself, I was sharing a place with my sister,
and I went, you know, this guy thinks I'm a bit like John Lennon,
you know, she goes, oh, really?
Well, play it for me.
And I got the reel to reel, played it.
And she goes, wow, that is, that's great.
Now play the original.
I went, oh, yeah, okay. Play the original.
She went, there's no difference.
I went, what?
She goes, there's no difference.
You are John Lennon.
I mean, he didn't cut, he didn't cut the vocals.
He goes, that's John Lennon.
You think it's you?
I went, well yeah. She went, no, that's John Lennon. You think it's you? I went, well yeah.
She went, no, it's not.
Do not go back and do not give him 150 pounds.
I went, ugh.
So that's the end of my pop career.
I don't get it.
Jesus Christ.
I don't get it, I don't, sorry.
You don't get it?
No, you.
I'm sorry, I think I made that clear.
Not to me.
Okay.
What's not clear?
You recorded this.
I went to the guy.
It sounded just, wait, let me do it.
It sounded just like John Lennon, yes?
He had me stand and told me
that he was cutting the vocals.
I get it.
When he wasn't. Oh.
So he lied to me.
Oh.
And I thought because I was a young wannabe.
Okay, I see.
And completely naive and stupid.
So it was a scam.
I really thought it was me.
It was a scam.
It was a scam.
Well, once again, I gotta say, stupid.
Wow.
Come on, come on, man.
You've hit me twice now.
What can I say?
I mean, because John Lennon's voice was so good, I gotta say, stupid. Wow. Come on, come on man. You've hit me twice now.
I know, but what can I say?
I mean, because John Lennon's voice is so distinctive
and how could it, I mean I can hear it in my head.
And, oh it's so great.
You come and ask me girl, to set you free girl.
Yeah. Go with him. It's a beautiful song, and it's a cover.
But I think that's a great song.
You know what else is a great cover?
Mr. Moonlight?
That's great, but the best has to be the best.
What?
We've missed.
The absolute best is John Lennon
as his genius best, Twist and Shout.
Yes. Yes, you're right. You're right.
Every time you hear that song, which is a million times,
you cannot help but...
Well, first of all, you think of, I do anyway,
the fact that they cut that whole album in one day.
Of course. But we didn't know that.
It was their, no, of course not.
It was their repertoire, and he purposely sang it last
because his voice would have been shredded.
Exactly.
But the fact that the voice is a little shredded
is what gives it...
Brilliant.
Exactly.
It makes it genius.
It's just...
It's just...
It's one of my favorite.
Same here.
I remember in the old days of making mixtapes on cassettes,
I remember when they'd won as a Christmas gift one year,
because I couldn't afford anything more,
a mixtape called Singing,
and it was just great vocal performances,
and I think that was probably the first one.
And I think Mr. Moonlight was on there too,
because that's another...
That's beautiful too. But Twisted.
Yes, you're right. You're right.
I mean, John, that is one of the greatest performances
of a rock and roll.
I mean, he had the greatest rock and roll voice.
He really did. He really did.
I mean, Paul had a beautiful...
Well, the thing about Paul was, it was amazing,
that Paul could sing either raw.
Absolutely.
He could do the raw, you know, Little Richard.
I mean, he had a... I don't think...
I'm not sure about the voice now, I think...
If you didn't know much about the Beatles, like kids,
you know, you can't blame them.
They didn't live through it like we did.
But they just know the basic reputation.
And you say to them,
which Beatle do you think sang and wrote,
why don't we do it in the road?
They would say, oh, of course, John Lennon.
I mean, it's a rebellious kind of song.
No, but it's not.
It's not.
And yeah, I mean, Paul McCartney could do that.
Oh, darling, you know, he was still doing that.
That's a beautiful song, but you know,
I love songs like Girl.
Yeah.
Girl is a beautiful song.
Yeah.
Beautiful, beautiful song.
Oh, there's...
I mean, listen, honestly, you can't...
Literally hundreds.
Hundreds. Especially when you add in the...
I mean, hundreds.
All right. Well, if you add in the...
I think the genius of Paul, besides the fact
that he was obviously a great songwriter,
but the genius of him is that John would,
I don't think, done half the stuff he did.
Of course. Not at all.
If Paul wasn't producing them,
moving them, whipping them into shape.
That's by John's own admission.
I think he said every time the phone went off,
he wants us back in.
Yeah, time to make a new album.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, John Lennon was definitely the guiding spirit
of the early Beatles and the foundation of the band.
And then halfway through, it switched up,
which was kind of poetic justice.
Yeah.
But I would love to get Paul McCartney here
just to like talk only about the post Beatles period
because I feel like we all know about the Beatles
and how great they were.
I mean, the Hamburgs.
But I feel like I know that period just as well.
Like all the great, just even in this century,
and a lot of the rock heroes of my youth
have disappointed in this century.
Not him, not every single song, but like you could put
together a really great compilation.
And I saw this video of some guy still believing,
oh my God, that Paul McCartney was replaced.
You know, people love their conspiracy theories.
In 1960.
Although Elvis is not dead.
And I would like to tell them like, OK, for this to be true,
it would mean that the guy who replaced Paul McCartney
would have had to come up also with that solo career.
Because he's got amazing records that he
made all through the decades.
And of course, once you get a little older
and the audience moves on, they don't sample them as much.
Which is your favorite album of his?
Oh, I mean, Flowers in the Dirt
is absolutely a Beatles album.
I mean, it's every bit like one of the,
and I mean, there's...
Yeah, my favorite, those.
I mean, the one with...
Well, what about George Harrison's?
Yeah, he, less material, and John had way less.
John, Paul just lived longer, but he was also more prolific.
I mean, All Things Must Pass is great.
He did another one after that.
Brilliant. Now, that is one of the great double albums of all time.
It's a triple album, actually.
Is it?
All Things Must Pass is a triple album.
There's three, wow.
And then he did Concert for Band.
My favorite is Plastic Ono Band.
Boom, that's it.
Well, that's not my...
Imagine, oh, my absolute...
Oh, the album, I thought you meant the actual band.
The album, it is, that's what the album's called.
You're right.
It is the absolute greatest John Lennon stuff.
I don't think so, but I do like it.
I mean, that has God, right, on it?
Yeah, that's a... God is a concept by which we measure our pain.
Measure our pain. I'll say it again. Yes. And then the end.
Because it rhymes. It's the three parts. It's that thing,
God is a concept by which we measure our pain. That, when I first said that, I saw him crying.
Remember, I don't believe in Beatles, I don't believe in Dylan, I don't believe in Elvis.
No, Zennerman.
Zennerman.
Yeah, he goes through this whole...
I just believe in me, Yoko and me.
It's fucking brilliant!
And that's reality.
The dream is over.
It's great because he's telling the audience,
the dream is over, what can you do? All right.
It's because the Beatles split up.
Yeah, yeah, of course. It's nice.
And by the way...
I don't think it's the greatest song up. Yeah, yeah, of course. It's nice. And by the way...
I don't think it's the greatest song ever.
Or the one on his credit.
But in context of where that... where his hit...
Here he was, the band was, what happened to them,
and where everything was at, it was...
I mean, it was dynamite.
No, I think he's... Like, I'm the biggest John Lennon fan.
There's a picture of him right over there.
But he also was a little full of shit about some stuff.
Like, he wasn't the working class.
There's a song on that album called Working Class Heroes.
Oh, it's a great song.
And he wrote it in the back of his rolls.
But he wasn't...
-♪ Hahahaha! -♪ Hahahaha!
Working Class Heroes, something to be.
All right, that was good.
I'm glad to give you a pound on that.
All right, I gotta go back to my day job.
Yeah, I gotta pee. Hey, listen, can I say one thing?
Yeah?
I wanna mention that I have a movie coming out.
It's a Western.
Yes, please, plug away.
It's called Last Train to Fortune.
A Western?
And Beckett McDowell did the music.
Oh. And, um...
Is that your boy?
My other two boys are in it.
Wow.
And it's a brilliant performance from James Paxton.
And I wanted to mention that because it's dear to my heart.
I love the picture.
And thank you.
I always say, there's one thing we need.
We've been talking a long time, haven't we?
I do apologize.
There's one thing we need more of.
It's Nepo Baby.
Yeah.
You know that.
I'm kidding.
Give me a hug.
Yes, I had a.
Give me this fucking box.
I had a.
OK.
I had a good time. Great to meet you.
Bill.
Clem.
Thank you.
Now you're gonna have to get out.
I feel like I do know you a little more.
I'm looking a little bright.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Thanks, buddy.
Thank you.