The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Eric Bana

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

Actor Eric Bana joins Andy Richter to discuss Eric’s early days in comedy, his performance as the Hulk, working with Steven Spielberg on “Munich,” why he loves actors who didn’t study at acting school, his choice to stay in Melbourne, and his new film, “Force of Nature: The Dry 2.”Hey there! Do you want to talk to Andy live on SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Radio? Leave a voicemail at 855-266-2604 or fill out this Google Form! 

Hi everybody, this is The Three Questions and I am your host Andy Richter. This week I am talking to the actor Eric Bana. You know Eric from films like Munich, Black Hawk Down, Troy, Star Trek, Chopper and Hulk. What you might not know is that Eric started his career as a comedian. We get into that, his new film Force of of Nature, The Dry 2, and much more. Eric joined me via Zoom from Australia. Pretty classy, huh? And before my chat with Eric, I just wanted to let you all know I'm working on an upcoming

call-in show for SiriusXM's Conan O'Brien Radio. And I want to hear from you. We've recorded two episodes so far, one with Andy Daly and one with Lori Kilmartin, and they were a lot of fun. If you wanna be a part of this new show, you can call 855-266-2604, 855-266-2604, or fill out the Google form in the description

for this podcast episode. And now, here's my conversation with the great Eric Bana. Well hello, Eric. What time is it there, by the way? Andy, it's 1130 in the morning. 1130. Okay. Because it's 630 p.m. here, which makes this the latest, the latest three questions I've

ever recorded. Andy, thank you for staying up. Oh, listen, it will have a decidedly sexy feel, you know, an after dark sort of feel, even though it's not really after dark here. But no, I appreciate you making the time and talking to me from across the globe. Are you at home now? I'm at home in Melbourne, yeah, I'm in-

In Melbourne, yeah, yeah. But yeah, in Melbourne, Australia. And yeah, it's great to see you, man. It's been quite a while. We've, we've met a few times on the couch at Conan and, uh, we finally got rid of the redhead here we are. Yeah, you know, he's around. I see him. He's still around.

Um, is Melbourne always been your home? Is that where you're from? Yeah. Yeah. So I was born here, grew up here and and I've managed to stay here all through my working life and raise our two kids here. So yeah, I've never really lived anywhere else. We spend a bit of time up in Sydney, but otherwise, yeah, just travel for work and spend the rest of the year here. It's fantastic.

Were you ever tempted? Were you ever tempted to relocate to Los Angeles? Because I imagine, especially starting out doing American films, there's probably pressure to do that. Well, it's funny because I mean, I went through the process of like thinking about it. And then it just never actually really became a reality. I guess, because I never did TV, so I was never required to be there for an extensive period of time and pretty much every movie I was doing

was being shot in either the UK or Europe. I think the only film I did stateside early on in my career was The Hulk and then I was just overseas all the time. So it never really made any, any actual practical sense. And I just figured I moved to LA. The next movie I make will be in Budapest. My wife's from Sydney. I'm from Melbourne. None of us are ever going to be at home.

It'll be a disaster. So yeah, yeah. Yeah. We just never, never thank God we'd never, never moved. Yeah. I had a, I had a TV show back, uh, in the early aughts and, uh, moved out of a rental house and bought a house that was seven minutes from the studio where I was working and the show was canceled within a month. Within a month. That's not funny.

I mean, it was a lovely house and we had a nice time there, but it was like, God damn it. Look them back. Do you think he would have been happy with that seven minute drive? Do you think that was a good idea? Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I had, I had about 10 ish minutes for 11 years on the Conan show on the one that we did on TBS.

I live very close to there in Burbank and, uh, and it was, no, it was a dream. And where I live too, there's this, there's a spot in Burbank that is zoned as an equestrian zone. So they're like little Burbank's houses, you know, like little sort of like, you know, bungalow kind of houses, cause they're very restrictive too in the zoning, like you kind of got to keep this Burbank, Tim Burton kind of, you know, Edward Scissorhands kind of aesthetic. But rather than like in their driveway, you'll see somebody just, oh, they're washing a horse.

Oh, that's fantastic. Oh, it was the best because it felt like it was an hour from LA, as opposed to 10 minutes from, from Warner Brothers studios. It was really nice. As they maintain that, that sort of zoning, is it still alive today? Oh, they protect it. Like when we moved in our house, we had a, we had a stable. I mean, our house, it was like, you know, it's like a normal house.

It didn't have like a big yard or it didn't yard, but in the back, there was a pool, just like a regular sized pool. And then next to it, a stable that nobody had ever done anything with. And that, you know, there was like 30 year old horse shit on the walls. So that was the requirement that you own a horse is a kind of like a hanger at an at an at an airfield where it's like you can only get the hanger if you own the aircraft? No, no, we moved in and the neighbors were like, Oh, do you have a horse? And when we said no, it was if we said like, Oh, and we're gonna cook meth, we're gonna cook meth while we're here. They were they were like, pissed. But I was like, how can you have a horse and a swimming pool? Like, you know, like next door to each other. That means horse shit in the swimming pool. And I don't think the filter can hold up with that. So rock and rock and horse didn't cut it.

No, no, no, it didn't. Well, you are a child of immigrants. And I, you know, there's a lot of them in Australia. And I think that's something that's very common. That's a commonality between the U S and Australia is, there's a lot of them in Australia. And I think that's something that's very common. That's a commonality between the US and Australia is that there's a lot of people that go to Australia just seeking a better life and, you know, raising kids.

And, you know, rather than, you know, here it's always, you know, it's like to come here to be an American, but that's, you know, it's being Australian, you know? And did you, I mean, did you feel in any way like othered, you know what I mean? Like when you were a kid, because your folks, your dad's Croatian and your mom's German. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe a tiny bit, but then the school I went to had a lot of Greeks and Italians. The area where I grew up was very Australian. The suburb that I grew up in was very, was we say, Aussie. But the school I went to had a lot of migrant kids like myself. So I just felt like it was pretty normal. I felt like my

Pretty, pretty normal. I felt like my my upbringing was was kind of was kind of standard and my my parents, you know, very much, you know, engrossed the Australian way of life. It wasn't like we were going to, you know, various clubs that were ethnic related in my background. Only hanging out with Croats. Yeah, we'd occasionally go for a shit. Croats and Crouts, as they say. Yeah, yeah. My dad wasn't really into the soccer, so we didn't get into the whole Croatian soccer thing. And they loved our Australian rules football and Australian way of life. So it was, yeah, looking back was pretty, was pretty sad. But I always felt the connection

with the European roots for sure. Like every time I'd go to Europe, I'd feel something, you know, that is that, that is this, whether it be this. And I think it helped with accents because, you know, my grandparents didn't sound Australian. I grew up with German and Croatian heavy, heavy accents and language. And so your ears just kind of always hearing something different. And do you speak German and Croatian or can you just kind of understand it?

Oh, I can speak. I can speak a little bit of German. I can't speak much Croatian at all. Yeah. Unfortunately. But, um, and when I'm, I did a film in Berlin, uh, uh, a year and a half ago, and I really tried to talk German. And suddenly I go back to my comic roots and sell them a standup comedian.

Whenever I open my mouth, They just piss themselves laughing. I'm like, I'm not saying anything funny, but my grandmother was from a particular part of Germany that had a very, very heavy, heavy accent to dialect, which I of course didn't know. So when I speak German, it's like someone coming from some hick town in the South. With a hillbilly accent. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they just laugh. With a, with a hillbilly accent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they just laugh.

They just laugh and talk English back to me. Which is, yeah. That's always, you know, cause going to Europe and really wanting to, you know, both in France and in Italy were the two places that I really tried. And it's every time you speak, you speak English or you speak French or Italian to them, they just answer back in English. And it's like, cause they don't have time. They're just trying to sell you a sandwich, you know? And this is their opportunity to practice their English, you know? Right.

You're an English customer for the day. So allow me to, uh, we should just laugh back at them is what we should do. There was a Greek restaurant that I used to go to in Chicago and there was a, oh, you know, as an old man owned it and I would, and I like Spanish copita, the Spanish pie. And I would go in and if I said Spanish copita, he'd go, spinach pie. And if I said spinach pie, the next time he'd go, Spanish copita. Like he could never agree, you know? What, and is Richter, is that German? It's German, yeah.

German, yeah, yeah. It's German, but I'm just white. I'm all different kinds of Northern European, English, German, Swedish, you know, it's all. But you know a good Kartoffelsalat when you say it. I do, I do. No, I honestly, it's funny you say that because I do have, like, especially with German food, like with schnitzel, I, when I, it just feels like, ah, yes, the food of my people, you know, I, there's something about it that does feel like, and I don't know if it's probably completely a fantasy, but I do feel like, no, this is my genes

wanting, you know, wanting this Zauerbraten and wanting this Rouladen and Spetzl and you know. It's so true. I've always pictured if I was ever to be executed, that there would be a plate with the schnitzel and some mashed potato. Like that's just what I'm going to be eating. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Now you mentioned it. You started out in comedy, which is like, I don't think Americans really know that. Yeah. And they don't need to know Andy.

They don't need to know. Well, why? I mean, I think it's kind of like, well, first of all, what I like about it is that I maintain that you can do I maintain that comedians can do drama, but drama, dramatarians, they have a hard time. Think like Robert De Niro. He's not a knee slapper. And so I always love it when somebody like you or like a Jim Carrey or even like, you know, Steve Martin, you can do these things. Because I think that, I don't know, there's, I just, well, I think being funny first of all, is just something you have or you don't, you know, and I think it's hard to fake that they can be done.

And I've seen it done. Cause I've been in things that star people that are not very funny people, but you know, they get they get used in a way or edited in a way that it ends up working basically. Yeah, it's kind of like it's kind of like when you when when you go to stand up comedy venues and you see that comic who is not naturally funny, but he's working so, so hard on their material and the material is improving, but they never are quite there. They're never quite as funny as the people who just have some kind of a knack. And I agree. I know what you're talking about. And I was very lucky man that I got to cross the bridge.

I did it in a very bizarre way. And then I got to kind of, in some ways, kind of like reinvent myself. But the people that I was reinventing for had no idea of my comic past. There was like, there was not a stain. There was no dirty dishes lying around to affect their mind that this guy was once a comedian. It was opposite. It was like, what do you mean? He used to be a comic, you know, it was almost an affront to read about the comic background. And in Australia, it was the opposite. It was like, who are you trying to kid? You're the idiot off the

television. Like what are you trying to be now so is this between the two two audiences in the two countries that it was a kind of a weird time that making that adjustment but. I always feel very lucky because I think it would be much harder for the American to have made that transition if I was a regular on Saturday night live and people absolutely three or four or five different characters that were on their screens all the time. Much harder, much harder to reprogram the synapses, you know? Yeah, that's that's something I was I was curious about. I was curious about whether or not the fact that America doesn't know you're funny. So it's easy for them to go, Oh, yeah, that guy can be in Troy, you know, like, sure. No problem. That guy, you know, absolutely put him in some leather shorts and give him a sword. You know, I know.

And there was so many times early on in my career when I, you know, when I get these incredible roles, I'm like, it wasn't that long ago, we were taking the piss out of these kinds of films on my sketch comedy show. And I would always on the day in costume be thinking about the funny line that would be said that would be sending up this film right now. It's like, should I just shoot the sketch comedy version of this while we're here? And I can thank it for a later episode. Throw it on Instagram later. Yeah. Achilles, get the hell out here. I mean was it a funny household? Was there a lot of laughter in the household? And you know I've read that you were sort of a natural mimic. Yeah I did

a lot of mimicry when I was a kid. There was some brutal humor in my household from the German side. I had three uncles who were pretty rude to each other, and it was pretty aggressive humor back in the 70s. And so I grew up, it was a lot of sparring, there was a lot of kind of ripping into each other and minding verbal abuse and so forth,

and arguments over card games and stuff. So there's a lot of color, a lot of color around the table, a lot of interesting language. So I think I didn't have many relatives on the Croatian side. So the German side, yeah, they were all pretty out there. And I had a grandfather, my opera, who adored me doing impersonations and we'd watch TV together. And so I always sort of grew up thinking it was a fun thing to do, but there were no comedians in the family. There were no artists, there were no performers or anything like that on either side. So it always felt a bit of a stretch. Yeah. Yeah. Because I mean, I imagine you sort of did plays in school.

Did they have plays in school for you to do? I did nothing at school. I did no comedy. I did no drama at school. I just did sport. And then one day we had a at the end of every year, we'd have this kind of like variety performance. And I got up and I did impersonations of teachers. And I won the award. And I remember, I remember thinking, it's a pretty amazing feeling. It's like, it's like 800 boys and they're eating out of the palm of your hand and the teachers are lapping it up. Like this is, this is true power, Andy. Yeah. You can have your, your, your brains, you can have your, your math scores.

This is where it's at. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And also the fact that you won too, that's because no, seriously, because I do think that as much as a, you know, I mean, I think awards are silly, like, and so much of the awards, it's just, it's just an industry unto itself. It's about a money making thing. 100%.

And, you know, but there is something, cause like early on in my improv career, we had, we had like our own little, in this little theater, we had our own awards and I won best male improviser. And it was really like, like, Oh, wow, I guess I am like, I guess I am good at this. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but you would have known that you would have known that right. Even if you didn't win that award, you obviously had a great response from the audience. So the award wouldn't really have mattered.

But I know it was, well, it was, it was from like, it was from my peers. It was from everybody else at the theater, and I think I was still new enough to all of it to not really have a good sense of myself yet. Right. Because I think you start, well, you go on stage and you're just like, I don't know, is this funny? I hope it's funny. You know, I hope they think it's funny. I hope I'm funny. Um, and then after a while you get to know the difference, you know, you get to know like, Oh no, this is good, you know, or this is bad.

So did you, did you prefer doing improv or stand up? I never really did stand up until later, you know, in Chicago, there's enough of an improv scene and still is that you didn't, you didn't have to do both. You know, you could just, and there were some people that did both, but they were kind of separate camps, you know? And I did stand up a little bit, but that was at like in the last 20 years, I did it because I thought, oh, it'd be a good thing to do and something to fall back on. And, uh, cause like, you know, I have friends who've worked in television and when they're not working, they'll go do standup and it's a, you know, it's, it's a living.

And I've thought about that, but I just, I have come to the conclusion that I don't like being on stage by myself very much. Like I, that's not where the fun is for me. It's for, the fun is, is being up there with other funny people. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I can relate to that. I, I, I still, I still miss that feeling. What I don't miss is being on the road alone. Oh, yeah. That's awful. That is the thing that every time I get I get tempted or I think, Oh, could I go back? Could I could I do it? Could I write the material and I still come up with ideas and I you

know, I, I run them through my head and I do gigs in my head and all that sort of stuff. But I know the reality I know myself well enough that one of the reasons that I was happy to move from stand up to sketch and then sort of move away was that I knew how, how much I wasn't built for a different hotel room every night. Yeah. Yeah. And, and that, that whole thing, and oddly enough, that becomes more an issue as you become more successful as a standup. You know, like when I first started out, I was touring with Big AX and it was kind of fun

because I was, I'd be on the road supporting them and you'd be in the Trago van, there'd be two or three of you and you'd go and you'd sort of be on tour. And then as my career progressed, I started like headlining shows and doing things around the country suddenly was like you were traveling on your own and you were doing a show on your own. And it was like, yeah, it was less fun. It's not fun. Yeah. Yeah, and I, I, yeah, I can, I have a very little experience of touring for a little while Conan and I and I did a road show in between shows. And just waking up in the middle of the night and not knowing where the bathroom was.

You know, like, oh shit, like you start walking and like, oh no, this is the front door, you know? And waking up and not being sure what city you're in. I just did not find that exciting or sexy at all. I found it depressing. What about, the thing I hated the most was the two hours before the gig. Yeah.

The two hour slot. It was like, I could almost like meditate my way through most of the day listening to music and stuff. And then there would be that transition period of that like two hours where you'd be making small talk with people and you'd be hanging out at the venue. And it was just, I can, my stomach turns now if I like, I can take myself in no, no problem. You know, all that small talk backstage and where you going next and what are you up to at the moment?

And it's all you want to do is you want to be transported from your hotel room onto the stage to do the gig. Yeah. It's like, can I just transport myself from, from my pillow to the microphone? Yeah. And then, and see, yeah. And that's when you're doing that alone, then it's, you don't have anybody to, there's no buffer.

You can't like, you know, start, start the ball rolling backstage by having fun with somebody. You know, you're just kind of sitting there. Uh, like you said, just small talk and getting nervous, you know, it sucks. This is not a great ad for people, you know, taking up standup comedy, isn't it? Here's what you can look forward to if you happen to be successful. Yeah. Yeah. Are you a miserable fuck? Here's what you can look forward to if you happen to be successful. Are you a miserable fuck? Well, here's the job for you.

When did you get the nerve to start going out and, I mean, was there like a moment, was there one of those sort of classic, your friends goaded you to get up at an open mic, or did you start writing material? It was literally that I was working at a bar as a glass boy barman and a mate of mine who was there who was a promotions manager, I used to muck around after work and he'd say, you should just be doing this stuff on stage, you idiot. You know, I was like, I can't do stand up. And he took me to a few shows and I watched bad stand up and I went, I can at least be as good as these guys, you know? Yeah.

So that's literally what, because I just assumed everyone was as good as Richard Pryor, you know, in my head. Right. How hard can it be? He makes it look so easy. And then you go and you watch people and you realize, oh, there's really varying degrees of standard of stand up and not all of it's great. And so that, yeah. So then I did my first couple of gigs, which, as you mentioned before, like, luckily for me, they went well. I don't know. I, to this day, I don't know what I would have done if the first three were deaths, would I have stuck it out? Right. Would I have just gone,

I knew that was a stupid idea, but I got a good run early and, and I just felt really confident. And I just went away and I just wrote material and wrote material and standup was really healthy at that time in Melbourne and Australia. So I was very lucky with my timing in terms of riding that wave in the 90s. So I was 21 when I started. Was it like successful in terms of financially viable and popular, but was it also kind of artistically? Were there a lot of people kicking it around that were exciting artistically?

Yeah, there was a lot of that. A, we had a lot of rooms. There were a lot of stand-up specific rooms. Then we had rooms at pubs and hotels that would have one specific night where it'd be big stand up night and I would get a big crowd. So you could do the Melbourne circuit. You could do stuff in Sydney. Melbourne was bigger at the time. And then you could go on the road and there were enough big acts that when you were starting out, there was always room to

support those bigger acts and go out and cut your teeth on the road. There was enough corporate stuff going around that would just be absolutely slaughter you when you were trying to find your way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember, I remember a mentor of mine early on said, you don't learn stand up at a stand up comedy venue. You learn stand up doing corporates. Yeah. Yeah. Which is kind of true and kind of not, but I remember my first few corporates like, wow, this really is different. So it was, it was really healthy. And we also, we had, we had some, you know, late night TV that would, would get comedians on so you'd get a little bit of TV exposure as well. And now there's kind of nothing similar. I guess everyone's just doing stuff on YouTube and promoting themselves in different ways,

but it was very healthy. And, and it was before poker machines took over a lot of the venues in, in, in the state that I live in. So people spend a lot of money on entertainment, live bands and stand up was the kind of go to, you got to have a couple of those on your, on your, on your boards, you know, and, and really poker machines have taken the place of entertainment slot machines. Wow. That's crazy. Well, I mean, I get that. have taken the place of entertainment. Slot machines. Wow. That's crazy. Well, I mean, I get that.

It's the same thing here. There's casinos everywhere where they're, you know, you used to have to go to Atlantic city or Las Vegas and now, you know, I have family members that almost ruined themselves on river boats, which were basically, were basically in a manmade pond. And they would, they would like, you know, roll up the deck and just idle in a pond for 50 minutes out of the hour. And you, and then you'd have 10 minutes to go on. And because at Illinois, in Illinois at that time, you had

to be on water when you were really gambling. Oh, that's hilarious. It's, it was so, and hilarious and a bummer. And when you go there and you're, you know, like, cause going to the riverboat casino is like, Oh God, this is. So now I'm picturing doing a gig on the riverboat. Yeah. Yeah.

Lucky you. Yeah, yeah. Lucky you. Now you, you, you ended up, you, you did stand up for, how long did you do it before you started doing the sketch show? What was it? I cracked into the sketch show. Yeah. I cracked into the sketch show in probably my third or fourth year of doing standup, I think. Okay. And then I just kept the standup going, you know, while I was doing the sketch comedy. So I'd say, yeah, I'd say third or fourth year of standup, I switched and got the job on a full frontal, which is, you know, the best description would be like a Saturday night live kind of thing. Sure.

Yeah, sure. And how long were you there before, because then you got your own sketch show. Yeah, I was on that show for four years and then I did my own thing for a couple of years after that. Yeah. Are your peers supportive of you when you're, when you're making that transition from being a stand up? Like is the Melbourne scene behind you? Are they like, fuck you, Banna?

No, that was so cool. No, I've still got some stand-up mates from back in the day. And there were a lot of them are successful in their own way in radio, still gigging and stuff and made different sort of moves in different areas. But yeah, we always reflect on the fact that we were lucky that we started and we got to ride that wave of the early 90s. Yeah. Was doing drama in your head at this time at all? that we were lucky that we started and we got to ride that, that wave of the, of the early nineties. Yeah.

Was doing drama in your head at this time at all? It was, it was kind of always in my head, but it was not something that I had any idea of how it could happen or that it wasn't, it was an idea. It wasn't necessarily an ambition. I put it that, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So it was like, I always felt like it will be something

that I would be game for. And I didn't say like, you know, naivety is a wonderful thing, I think, in the business. Sure. I didn't say you make it. Yeah. Well, you're either doing impressions and you're making people laugh or you're just pretending to be another person and you're in a drama. Like, yeah, either you can become someone else or you can't. That's how I feel. I was like, right, right. So to me, acting was always about like just becoming someone else. Right.

So that's, that's how I sort of viewed it. And I, yeah, I didn't go to any acting school. I was intimidated at the thought of going to one of those places and they seemed foreign. Any sort of tertiary education seemed foreign to me. So yeah, it wasn't like a this is how it's going to happen. So I was lucky that I kind of stumbled into it. RG So how does that happen? How does it, how does it stumble? Does the show end, your own show end and then you, you know, you're, what was that like, having, because I know the pain of cancellation.

So I'm wondering, like, was it canceled or? Yes, the first one I did was called The Castle, was a comedy. And I did that while I was still working in television. And then I. I'm trying to think of the timing. Then I auditioned for Chopper. I'm trying to think if I had, if I, I got to the end of this, my six year straight of sketch comedy and I was pretty cooked. I was pretty done.

Yeah. It has a, it's hard. It's a hard. It's a hard, you know, like SNL, like it's, it's not, it's weird when people go beyond three or four years. Right. Because it's a grind. Yeah. And then, and then in the final year of my sketch career, I got to fulfill all my fantasies and make the show that I'd always wanted to with the people I love the most and work the best with. I had nothing left after that. So then I was, I was, you know, I was really keen to try and transfer across into into drama. And then luckily for me, the my first dramatic film did well. And then so that door was chopper. And that was chopper. Yeah, that was chopper and that was chopper yeah that was chopper which is a crime movie right and based on a you know like a real-life

lunatic real life very very violent famous criminal here in Australia who not that many people outside of Melbourne really knew much about at the time so I thought this film would just be this tiny, tiny little crime film that some people in Melbourne would see, you know, of local interest, of local interest, really local interest. I didn't think anyone in Sydney would turn out to watch it, you know? Yeah. And it's sort of rustled a lot of feathers and, and garnered a lot of viewers over time. It

wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't a, it wasn't like a massive, massive, massive hit when it came out. It was a decent hit, but it sort of grew legs over time. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it is, it's a definite, I mean, it's a movie that's appreciated here in a cult kind of way. Um, and when you get that job, are you intimidated about, oh, shit, now I really gotta, like, I gotta really do this real acting kind of thing, as opposed to just, you know, a Schwarzenegger impersonation?

Yeah. It's a great question. I remember when we were in rehearsals, the actors that I was working with who were just the best, they were just so much more experienced and a lot of them had come out of drama schools, but they were visceral, tough, experienced actors, young and old. And I remember looking at their scripts and they had all these notes on them. Yeah.

And I'm like, I haven't done my homework. Yeah. I don't know what to write on my script. homework. I don't know what to write on my script. I don't know what to put down. I don't wanna write anything down that's gonna lock me into an idea. That was the first thought I had. Luckily for me, when I was doing sketch comedy,

my co-stars, a lot of them were actors. We had some comedians like myself and the others were straight actors who had done a lot of theater. And so I got to watch how they worked and how they approached the sketches differently to myself and the others. So I had some experience at that mixture between the serious and the funny, if that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely.

So then it was just a case of, I felt by the time we actually made the film, I felt like I knew the character so well, I wasn't intimidated because I just felt like my job was just a case of I felt by the time we actually made the film. I felt like I knew the character so well I wasn't intimidated because I just thought my job was just to to serve him And I felt like I knew how to do that. I didn't know how to make a movie I didn't know how to act in a movie. I just yeah Be that guy be that guy. Yeah What was what was the hardest part? about Be that guy. Yeah. What was the hardest part about being on a movie set? I mean, you'd made a comedy, so you'd kind of had an idea just how it worked. But were there things... Because I

remember my first movie role was just one you know, ripped from the headlines movie about a woman that hired somebody to kill her, the heist, her, her daughter was a cheerleader and it was to kill the mother of her rival on the cheerleading team, which really happened in Texas. Wow. And, and I just had a part and I just remember being like not knowing like, oh, no, you should. And I've been to film schools, you know, but it was like when they were like,

let's come around and get the other. And I was like, what does that mean? You know, like, let's get the other side of this. The other side of what? You know, I didn't even know. And was there stuff like that where you kind of needed to be helped? I think maybe the continuity was probably the biggest hurdle for me because in sketch comedy we just run and gun so fast.

Sure. And we're multi-camera and we'd shoot a lot of stuff live. So that was, I remember thinking, oh, so if I take a drag of a cigarette in between that line, I've got to do it again every time, every time. And I can't change it. I remember butting up against that, you know, because I felt really restricted. I felt like the continuity was like getting in the way of things. And then that was probably my biggest thing was working out

how to still be true to what I wanted to do and incorporate all this business that seemed non-negotiable. Yeah. All the chores. Yeah. We'll take a drink after you say, you know, we'll see you tomorrow. You know, drink, drink down, look to the left.

I want to look to the left. I want to look to the right this time. You know, yeah, I want to mix it up. I want to give you choices. I want to shoot him in the stomach. I'm going to shoot him in the knee. I want to shoot him in the stomach. Well, so after that, you know, I'm going to go to the bathroom.

I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I want to shoot him in the stomach. I'm going to shoot him in the nae. I want to shoot him in the stomach. Well, so after you're done with Chopper, did you get Black Hawk down before Chopper came out or had Chopper... because it sounds really nice that all these things kind of were concurrent. Like things were happening While the other things were winding down Yeah, I'm trying to remember the chronal chronology I think chopper had done a couple of film festivals in America, but hadn't been released maybe and then I got black walk down I

Think that's how it went. After Chopper, do you think like, okay, now I'm a dramatic actor or do you not know, or are you still just kind of remaining open to whatever happens next? I've never thought of that. Yeah. I couldn't have at the time got my head around

how much the door was gonna be open because I just didn't allow myself to go there. Yeah. So in my mind, I was just thrilled that I had that one opportunity. I was thrilled with that. And I felt like, well, I should at least be able to get one more gig as a straight actor. Yeah, that right. I felt like I'll at least get another job. So I was always, you know, like, I was always just so bloody appreciative. Yeah, like, like, literally, as each job came up, it was just like, this is amazing. It wasn't like I was looking so far down the road, always up, up, up, up. I was just like, this is amazing. And then yeah, this is amazing. You

know, I was doing stand up two years ago. I was doing I was in a Tarago van three years ago. This is a mate like always always felt that you know, yeah. kind of job to job. And then once I got a sniff that things were going well, my main priority then just became about working with the best possible people, as in directors. That was very much my focus. That's a good focus to have. ["Can't You Tell My Love's A-Growing"] At any point do you start thinking, oh, I should take an acting class. I should learn technique.

I love that you're laughing because these are all leading questions because it's like, I've never had an acting class in my life. And I just feel like, you know, you just do it. And I just kind of feel like, didn't you just do it? You know, I did, I did consider it. And I thought to myself, well, what would I get out of it? And what I, it always came to me that the people I'd worked with who were the, I thought did the most interesting work were people who got

kicked out of acting programs. Yeah. For programs. Yeah. For real. Yeah. Some of the actors that I worked with, who I thought were the most interesting and the least predictable and, and just had the best approach. What were people that, that, that program didn't really suit them. They sort of, I think they probably gave me the confidence that, that, that

may not necessarily be a good thing for me. Yeah. And then my laziness really very much agree. Well, I just feel like I don't get, I've been around people that do technique kind of stuff, but I mean, I've done mostly comedy. So there's not a lot of that kind of, you know, method sort of, you know, stuff. But I mean, I've done mostly comedy, so there's not a lot of that kind of, you know, Method-y sort of, you know, stuff. But I've been around people that like really have received a tremendous amount of training. And I just feel like, well, I mean, maybe if we were doing Shakespeare, that might matter, but it's like, I just kind of feel like you're, you know, your guy is a

corrupt politician, you know, and you you know what the person is just act like that guy. Like, what do you, what did they teach you in school that, that is a different than just having an imagination to go on, I'll just be that guy. A hundred percent. Yeah. I think you've, I think you've nailed it. And I think intrinsically, that's probably the thought that I, that I had. So that's probably the thought that I had.

So that's why the school thing didn't make sense. Because I agree with exactly what you're saying. Like, okay, so what would technique and craft be on top of that? And then I think if you're lucky enough to keep working, it's just, well, then it really just comes down to hours and experience. And you do learn something on every production and you learn something from every actor and every director and every character that you're playing, you know, to best school. Every time, you know, when I've been, because my, you know, I've acted on and off, you know, and I did, you know, I was, for 11 years, I was doing the Conan show and raising kids.

You know, my kids were young too. So it was like really nice to have a steady gig that was close to home while my kids went through grade school and high school. But it really kind of, I stopped acting a lot. And when I would do acting, I always felt like the first two or three days were just, just, and you know, when I had shows that I had recurring roles in, it, I just, it was, it was so frustrating because when it was, when I come back and I'd be like, I would feel like, oh, I'm getting like, okay, this, I'm being much better.

I'm acting much better than I was when I started doing this show. And then it would end and it'd be like, well, another six months to wait for another, no, I'll go be on TV and be funny on TV, but like, I don't get to act again. And I, and that's what I think is so important. And what I think you've been, you know,

kind of blessed with is you just got to keep busy. Well, it's the weirdest thing because it's kind of like, I have, I have big periods of downtime in between jobs. I don't, I don't, I don't work back to back. It's, it's, it's one of the weird professions that you kind of don't get to practice. Yeah. How do you practice in between gigs? Sometimes you can practice accent stuff.

You can practice, you can do, I mean, research and stuff. That's different. Sure. How do you practice? It's not like a musician. Yeah. See, you can't do scene work, you know. A writer or a photographer or like any other craft.

I guess maybe a sound recordist is probably sound. She walked down the street with a boom, with a boom. Yeah. Right. Right. Just getting my eyes. But bug your house and record your kids, you know. Honey in three, two, one clap.

Thank you. No, go ahead. Keep eating. Take two. What was that? What was that about leaving me? So it is weird in that way. I've always been very envious of musicians for two reasons.

A they can, they can pick up that instrument anytime they like. Yeah. And B they can create an album out of nowhere by themselves. Yeah. Yeah. We can't create a film out of dust. No. Yeah.

Yeah. Right. And it's, yeah, and there's not a lot in between their brain and instrument and getting it recorded. Yeah. Yes. The collaborative nature of doing film and television is wonderful and also, like, so, like, clunky. And it just gets in the way of, yeah, it just gets in the way of like a, I mean,

that was like when I doing the, you know, I did the late night with Conan O'Brien in the nineties and then to go back and work with him again, it was mainly just because I wanted to do TV that went out that night. I was gonna say that idea of you come up with an idea that you intrinsically know is funny between the two of you.

You workshop it on the spot. You know it's going to be good and then you perform it and it works and it's done and it's out there. Exactly. You, I always would say I, I will have, I can have an idea on my drive to work and it's on TV that night. Like that's crazy. It's crazy to be able and to, you know, to enjoy that for year upon year upon year, you know, and to be also in an environment where,

like they basically let me do whatever I wanted to do. You know, I had, you know, gained enough trust that if I wanted something on the air, you know, I, I, I would listen if somebody was like, well, there's a problem, you know, like, cause you, whenever you think of something funny, it often, you're like, is this funny or is this dumb? And you just need someone, your trust to say, no, it's funny, you know, or cause everyone can be wrong. What was your, what was your feel to them? Was it always a writer's room or would it just be you and Conan?

Like in that instance, who would be the gatekeeper? Well, the gatekeeper would be sort of like the head writer and Conan. But like I say, I kind of was, I was, you know, I functioned as a producer on the show too. So I was like, like I always would say I was the head of my one man department, which was, you know, side kickery. Uh, and, but I, you know, if I, I could, like I said, I could kind of do, as the show went on and Conan came to trust me more and more to just kind of, because it, I was the guy that he could go, does that work? And then I would be able to say, and he, and he let me into

that process, which is the greatest gift he ever gave me because I learned how to produce comedy sketches and I could diagnose them and go with it needs a new ending or it's too long or, you know, just, just do quick fixes on the fly to get it out the door. And not necessarily even to make it the, you know, genius level funny, just get it out the door, you know, make it good enough so that it was up to our standards, but get it out the door. Having that, um, that voice, having that person to potentially say, no, that's not a great idea is, is, would be awesome.

I imagine it, cause it also means there's some that can make you freer because you're now free to come up with some crazy stuff that may not be an idea that you know, you have that kind of safety of someone's going to catch it. Right. Right. Absolutely. Yeah. No, you, it, yeah, you, you don't have to edit yourself as

much because you're not afraid of looking stupid. Um, well now you, you did Hulk. You did Ang Lee's Hulk and it was, I mean, how do you, how is that film viewed today because you're not the Hulk anymore? Like I don't even, you know, I don't know. I don't know how that all, I'm not a big superhero guy. Like I don't even, you know, I don't know. I don't know how that all I'm not a big superhero guy. So I don't know. Either of my is the irony. I never really, never really was. So it was always a, a funny fit. I don't really, I have no way of really tracking it. Yeah. I just, I just know what I knew at the time was that it was very different. It felt different to everything else.

And it obviously has held up as being very different and it's not everyone's cup of tea, it's some people's cup of tea. Um, but it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I kind of knew that going in. Yeah. Well, it's, it also just, it's been, it's been a number of years since I've seen it, but it definitely felt like way more sensitive than your standard sort of superhero stuff. Like it's an Ang Lee movie. It's not, you know.

It's also really early. It was like, when we made that, I think the first Tobey Maguire Spider-Man had come out. Like it predates Marvel Studios. You're right. Yeah. Because it didn't always, it wasn't always like this. It wasn't a thing back then. Like there was no thought that you would do another one.

Like there was that world didn't really exist. So, yeah, it was just kind of like, yeah, you're going to do an Ang Lee movie. Exactly. As you said. Yeah. Did I mean, how, how kind of like, yeah, you're going to do an Ang Lee movie. Exactly. As you said. Yeah. Did, I mean, how, how did you like doing? Cause it's a big effects movie too. So there's all that technical. Yeah.

I'm consuming. Oddly not for me though, because Oh really? Yeah. It was kind of weird. Right. Cause you turn into the Hulk and then you go, you go home. Yeah.

Yeah. So it was kind of, it was weirdly a kind of small movie for me. It was kind of like, you know, all interiors, mainly interiors on on this in the studio. And then all the big set pieces I wasn't there for. So it was actually felt it was always just me and Sam Elliott, or Nick Nolte, or Jennifer Connelly, I was always acting with one of those guys. Yeah. Mano Amo, you know, and then for all the other stuff, it was, yeah, ILM and green screen

and crazy stuff that I would come in and watch sometimes. But yeah, so for me, it wasn't that movie. It was a different, it wasn't that movie. It was a different movie. How was it headline, you know, being number one on the call sheet for a big studio movie? Like, did you feel a tremendous amount of pressure because of that? Cause you'd been the star at Chopper, yeah.

You know, so you'd sort of been number one, but not at this, you know, ILM wasn't involved before this, I don't think. It was, I'm trying to remember how, how that in particular felt again. I think it never felt like that because Ang was the star really. Yeah. Yeah. The green guy was the other star. really. Yeah. Yeah. The green guy was the other star. Right. The other actors were, were far better known than I was. So I didn't, I didn't, I never really, I didn't really feel that, that pressure. Yeah. Because I knew the pressure was elsewhere. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. I'm thinking, you know, Munich is so fantastic. It's such a great, great movie.

And it's one that I wonder, and if you do this with other things, because that's a heavy movie too. Like, do you end up taking that home at night when you're working on it? Yeah. Yeah, but I love that though. I don't shy away from that. And they some of them just hang around and hang around afterwards and take a toll in different ways. But that's, that's great. You know, I love you. yes, you definitely feel the pressure on something like that. Yeah.

It's like, yeah, you that stage kind of realized what this one's, this is, this is a biggie. This is serious. Um, and I just had the time of my life. Seriously, like we had so much fun on that film, even though it was very serious. Steven has an amazing sense of humor. So did all the cast that I was working with. It was Daniel Pre, Pre-Bond. He's hilarious.

Well, he was then. He's not funny anymore. I haven't seen him for quite some time. Bond beat it out of him. Great sense of humor. All the cast actually. So it was just, yeah, it was a lot of fun, even though it was very, very heavy and serious and stuff, but it was so amazing to work on, my guy.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I love, I love just those kinds of international kind of spy thrillers. And then, and then also to have it be true, like that's always my God. Just, it's just,, it's like I don't, you know, I'll read a novel and it's okay, but it's like, but if it really happened, then I'm like, okay, now it matters, you know? That really means something. And talk about yourself, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Every day, every day.

Now the thing you're promoting now is Force of Nature, The Dry 2, which is coming out May 10th. Tell the people what it's about. Yeah, so it's the second film we did. We made a film called The Dry, which was based on a massive novel here that Jane Harper wrote was her first novel, which is a detective thriller, basically. Yeah. active thriller basically set in the outback of Victoria in a remote little country town. And that movie was incredibly successful and gave us the opportunity to do her second novel with my character, Aaron Falk, who's a federal cop. And so this is our follow-up. It's called

Force of Nature. And it's about a group of women who go on a corporate retreat, team-building exercise in the bush again, but in a very cold, wet Australian bush, one of whom is an informant of mine, and they all go missing. They all go missing in the bush. So it's a drama thriller, again, set in nature, here in Australia, a kind of big landscape Australian film, but essentially a thriller with five incredible actors at the center of it. Are you shooting out in a kind of a rural area when you do it? Yeah, we were pretty much, we needed to be winter rain forest, which we did, which we did. And the cast were amazing. Did you shoot in winter or did you make it?

We did. Okay. We just froze. Yeah. Frozen guy. And it rains too, we just froze. Yeah. Frozen guy. And it rains too, right? Doesn't. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that was, that was where, that was where the book was set. And so, yeah, so we, we, um, we're thrilled to the drive, you know,

traveled incredibly well overseas and get a chance. It's so rare to, to, to do sequels or follow-ups in Australia that are, that are original material. I mean, in any country, right? I mean, in Australia that are original material. I mean, in any country, right? I mean, that's more a massive property like a Marvel film or something to get the opportunity to bring something to life and then do another one is amazing. So we're thrilled to be releasing this, the second one in America, the dry was very well received. So we're thrilled to bring this one to him. I haven't seen the dry and which is like,

it's right up my alley. I certainly should have by now. Yeah, yeah. It's, I thoroughly recommend it. It will give you a really great slice of what Australia is actually like, as opposed to a kind of cliched Australian representation. That's one of the reasons why the film is such a huge hit here, I think.

Yeah, I think I worked in New Zealand, but only last year I went to Australia for the first time and it was a very unique, I was doing a reality show called Stars on Mars. Uh, in, and I was in Coober Pedy, uh, in the Outback and I, and it was just, it was amazing to be like, Oh, this is the Australian Outback and fly in and a little plane and look around 360 and see nothing. Yeah. You know, just nothing. and see nothing. Yeah. You know, just nothing.

It's amazing. Incredible. I can't believe you got to go to Coober Pedy. I haven't been there yet. Damn. Yeah. It was, well, it's like, you know, it's interesting. It's like, well, they're known for Opals

and building their homes into the side of hills because it's so goddamn hot. Yeah. Yeah. It was a great time. I had a great time. I mean, it was a silly show, and I get pissed when I get voted off. And, you know, I mean, it was like me and Lance Armstrong

and McLovin, you know, supposedly living on Mars and putting on spacesuits and going out and doing, Oh my God. doing like, you know, space chores and stuff. It was very silly, but very fun. Well, what are you, where are you headed now? What do you want to, you know, are, do you have, do you have some unscratched itches that you, that you have going forward in life? Yeah, maybe, maybe a couple.

There's a couple of things I've been working on for a while that I'd like to get around to it, but I don't I'm really always open. Yeah, I think it's the best way to be because otherwise you just feel like everything's in your control when it's not and you're constantly disappointed. Yeah, I've always just been open to different projects, different size roles, different type of roles. I'd still love to do comedy again. I had a great time working with Ricky Gervais on a film we did some years ago. It was just so much.

I just forgot that you could have that much fun at work. It was kind of depressing. Yeah. So I'd love to do more of that stuff. But I like just being, being open to, to stuff and just seeing where it, where it, where it goes. Yeah. I was going to ask that.

Does it, does it like, do you have times where you're like, God damn it. I wish I could be in just a big silly comedy, you know, and kind of do more of that again. Maybe. Yeah. If it was a thing, if I may not, it mean, there's not that many movies that I watch and I go, oh, I wish I was in that. Like as you just mentioned, I'm trying to think, well, what's an example of that?

Well, there's actually not many anymore, is there? Right, right, yeah, no, it's true. So it's hard to get FOMO for them when there's not that many out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, you have to go back to like the classics, you know? Well, what do you, you have to go back to like the classics, you know? Well, what do you, you know, I'm sure that people ask you for advice or if, you know, you've learned lessons and can you, I mean, you've had a really fun,

like a fun, enviable career. Like it just, like it just sounds fun. And like you've really gotten to without, you've, and you said it, you've been open, you've been ready, you didn't have like a master plan and a 10-year plan and where you were going to be. You just were ready for opportunity to strike and I think that's just such a great way to be. And I wondered like, what, how do you, what lessons have you learned that you can pass on from that? I think not only being open to the ideas, but being open to the process as well. I mean, it's, I think it's an amazing job that you have a different boss

every time you go to work. Yeah. Right. Really work with the same director twice. Very, unless you're Leonardo DiCaprio. Right. Or Tom Hanks. You know, you're pretty much going to work for someone different every time. Yeah. And I think that's amazing. Yeah. And it's one of the things that I love.

Working with different people all the time. Although I'm sort of envious of people that get to work with with a regular crew and regular people. I think that's what keeps it fresh for me. Yeah, keeps it keeps it. Keep learning different things from different people. Yeah, I think being open to that, not just the kind of projects, but like being open to the different processes, no rehearsal, lots of rehearsal.

We do this. We do it that way. We don't whatever. How do you, we do it that way, whatever. How do you like to work? I don't care. Like, let's just go, let's just do it. Makes it more fun. Yeah, yeah, working freelance.

I learned that out of college, out of film school. Like I liked freelance, you know, different faces, different places, it keeps it fresh and it, you know, yeah. And I, you know, I got, I got ADD. I need things to be changing all the time. I can't, you know, and then I was on, you know, I was on with the same guy for 30 years. It didn't work out exactly with the ADD, but,

well, thank you so much for taking the time. It's been so good to talk to you. Yeah, it's been great talking to you too. And I hope our paths cross soon and good luck. Everybody go check out the dry two, Force of Nature. Force of Nature, yeah. All right, Andy. Well, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you, Eric. And thank all of you out there for listening. And I'll be back next week with more The Three Questions. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rich Garcia.

Additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel. Executive produced by Nick Leow, Adam Sachs, and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Battista with assistance from Maddy Ogden. Research by Alyssa Grahl. Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to The Three Questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts. And do you have a favorite question you always like to ask people? Let us know in the review section. Can't you tell my love's a-growing? Can't you feel it ain't a-showin'? Oh, you must be a-knowin'

I've got a big, big love