SmartLess: "Jessica Chastain"

guys happy summer huh how's the summer going right so nice it's so summer it's

really summery we're doing we're doing a summer podcast yeah this this

podcast it's gonna be hot hot hot sorry about your mouth Sean Jesus fuck dude

somebody punch you in the mouth before oh no you're eating sorry silly me oh my

god look at my microphone yeah there's two and all over your microphone oh welcome to

smart let's

hi JB hi JB Sean hey wait let me just say let me just say this let me just say

this let me just say this JB it's 9 30 it's morning where you are Sean and I

are in the east coast yeah so what time are you up today to get prepared for your

day I got up at seven today you get up early every day I do well seven's not

early no it's usually six or six thirty today was a little bit later I'm still

battling I'm long hauling something it's not COVID it's some sort of a head

cold kind of sinus thing little coffee little sniffly like I beat it and then

48 hours later it came back what is that well you're not the first person in

your house to beat it let's be honest yeah yeah the first song over here the

that's true wait so but it's not COVID you're not sick I mean I'm sick but I'm

not I haven't tested but maybe I should you know it's so weird I just got back I

go do physical therapy and a friend of mine at that office he was trying to get

a tick out of his daughter's arm and he squeezed the tick and it busted open and

squirted in his eye and he got COVID from it I swear to God that's true story

wait he literally just told me like an hour ago hang on so COVID so ticks carry

COVID now to right next to their briefcase full of Lyme's disease yeah

no I don't know he he said he was he got home his wife nobody wanted to deal

with the tick on his daughter's arm so he squeezed it and it squirted in his

eye it well maybe he got COVID from his COVID infested daughter instead of the

tick the tick can't carry two two briefcases full of virus you know it sounds

like a pretty elaborate way to make an excuse for something that he's obviously

leading like a double life and so what he did was yeah exactly I squeezed the

tick and then the tick out of my eye honey anyway that's why I'm dating a

woman that's a long hauler yeah the tick squirted in his eye by the way it

should be noted also that the JB that Amanda you can't tell Amanda that story

she would look she's so tick nervous every time we talk about the east coast

off going to see friends she gets very ticked off she talks about going to

visit friends and Martha's Vineyard or coming to see us out here and she's all

about the ticks you guys talk amongst yourselves I need water okay

he just gets up and goes I know he's coughing up a storm out there he really

is well we're getting all of this this is good if you're a doctor and you're out

there please listen to the thing yeah boy you know you go eight million miles

like I do a little bit and you never get sick I never see you sick I say you

sick last year maybe one yeah I'm pretty good about I mean I don't want to I don't

want to tempt fate but but I am pretty good about yeah although Jason you

never really get sick you know Jason never get sick either ever no I really

don't I don't but you know I'm fired up guys I'm I'm I'm I'm excited to be

smart listening today are you guys are you guys ready to smart less introducing

it as a verb are you getting your smart list on I'm trying I'm trying to fire

up I'm trying to fire up here you know yeah hey I'm glad that you're really

excited to be here today and to be smart listening big and you mentioned

because we have a guest because we we don't just have a guest we have an

incredible guest today really yeah well cuz can we vote on that after the guest

is revealed sure sure but you know who has voted on this guest oh America America

the world the Academy Awards has nominated this person three times and

she's won tight enough for best actress stood up I stood up straight nominated

two other times I mean she's won Golden Globes so she's won for three she's

won I mean she's won everything she's won every possible award been nominated

multiple times for the do you like the Golden Globes or the you know theater

awards or Tony Awards or the theater awards but Academy Award winning Academy

Award she once I start listening her credits you're gonna go oh yeah and I

know exactly what this is because these are movies that you like their movies

like am I gonna go oh my god you're dark 30 or the eyes of Tammy Faye or this is

Jessica Chastain I know it's insane congratulations darling thank you I was

really congratulations I mean now I know you don't want to talk about a show but

it's a big deal congratulations thank you thank you I mean how amazing to be on

that journey with you the whole time it was so great we had one event where we

were just mouthing words to each other the whole time to try to save our voice

and then I left and then you left early so listener we have we're taping this at

a time that is just after Sean's win at the Tony Awards we're trying not to talk

about that because this is delayed but but yeah but since you guys are both

they're in the midst of it right now it just ended listener so we apologize

for being a little bit late so we can still talk about the experience that

because because it was weird not the experience of that but the theater

experience for people who are listening Jessica's theater was literally right

next to mine so every single day I got shot off I believe I like there's Jessica

Chastain starring in a doll's house and there's Sean's starring gonna it was

really cool could you guys ever hear each other's show while you're while you're

performing no but the line to get in was always make it's like you don't know

if people were in line for your show my show cuz always yeah mixed up yeah it

was really cool and people waiting outside afterwards so my stage door was

on 45th Street which is the back of the theater your stage door was on 44th but

so my car was on the other side every time I would leave I would I would see

all of you at the people waiting outside for you it was very crazy that's

fun right kind of you guys are like in this your own little sort of in that

world and feeling like you're really part of a community and kind of in the

trenches together in a way yeah and also yeah right it was also nice to just

have a comrade to go through it with right now do you guys have free tickets

to each other's show or do you have to pay right the thing is we can't see each

other's show because we're performing at the same time but now I close the same

days off you close the same day we had Mondays off I closed and so now I mean

I'm after a week and she'll be there tonight I'm gonna come see everything a

week and Tahiti that's so good I need a complete reversal of location

that's about the although that does sound like a play as well a week at Tahiti

that could the one act yeah Jessica's return to Broadway maybe that should just

be the title of my autobiography have you been there before to Tahiti I have

but I went I went a friend of mine invited me during COVID so who had any

had to both there so I basically was just in the water of Tahiti but we didn't

know you're gonna strike land this time I am I'm very excited are you exhausted

from doing it shows oh my god I don't know if you can tell my voice is like

yeah I'm done I've been taking all these immunity medicines and stuff because I

just feel like any second my body's gonna go all right now's the time I'm gonna

kick your ass well let let me ask you I'm gonna ask you that because we've been

going through this with Sean I feel like we're all on this journey but Jessica

tell me if you have the and this actually goes to both of you guys you know

that what you're gonna about to embark on when you're gonna do a play on

Broadway is gonna be really demanding in a lot of different ways but especially

physically and so you prep yourself I imagine like you get yourself up you're

like okay here we go we're gonna do this I'm gonna be fine and then what is the

point you when you start doing it you go like oh my god this is way worse is it

a week is it two weeks is it a month oh gosh I mean after the first week of

previews for me I think at one point I went to the director and I said I don't

think this is sustainable I don't understand this level of motion I don't

think it's sustainable and he's like no you can do it that's was just his

response to every time I was like are you sure you could do it okay how long

did you do your show we call God we did 137 performances but my show also it

was it was it was pretty emotional there's like there was heavy crying for

like an hour each show so it was it definitely is not something we're gonna

do it again somewhere I'll have another life next year but in very short much

shorter runs because otherwise I'll lose my mind can you can you flick the

switch on crying pretty easy or is it a big process for you some people it's

easy no I'm like you know the kids when they do I was think about this with my

kids is when I see them playing they absolutely believe what they're doing

they're so in it when they're like they call it at school they call it dramatic

play and I kind of feel like that just was what happens is I'm in the scene and

I just believe it's happening right and the tears sometimes sometimes if the

mood is right Scottie and I call it role-playing that's definitely for a

different definitely for a different show and then you believe it's happening

show you believe I do I didn't order this pizza well what do you mean are you

not hungry I didn't say you could just come into my apartment but you're here

this is a meat lover's pizza I'm confused I love me do you do you do you find

that like you spend all this emotion like you're on stage you're bawling for

an hour and then you get home into your life and stuff happens and you've got no

emotion left for anything else like no in fact I'm like the opposite which

probably my poor family and friends have been so sweet with me I just become so

kind of raw that I I'm like a little bit like a baby where like things that

shouldn't make me emotional make me emotional and it's just I start to feel

like I'm losing my mind which is why now I'm looking forward to another zero dark

30 like you know playing a character who really doesn't am I allowed to cuss on

this I mean I heard before yes it doesn't give a shit just like I'm you know

she's just walking through I need I need to play that next I love that you asked

if you could cuss you're the first respect respectful guest was it always

part of your life growing up to where you and as a kid were you it was my

grandma took me to see a play when I was seven I didn't have the easiest of you

know childhoods in some sense because we were you know I was raised by a single

mom and she really struggled a lot financially and and I was kind of an

angry kid a lot and so my grandma took me to the show at the music circus theater

in Sacramento California it was Joseph and the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

awesome your and there was a and she told me she because it was a big deal it

was a professional show she kept saying that they were these this was their job

these actors and then it started and there was a little girl on stage and I

was like oh this is what I am it wasn't a sense of like this is what I want to be

I was like oh this is what I'm gonna do and and I just spent like my poor mom was

like can you bring me to LA to audition for commercials from that moment on

well how how old were you when your grandma took you to that seven yeah

because I saw I saw a chorus line when I was ten and I always wish I'd seen it

earlier like when I was like I don't know five six seven eight oh my god wonderful

he can set himself up and hit it

he did that was really good

I got a one-man volleyball team

he spikes it himself but I do want to say you know what you know it's

interesting it occurs to me how many kids their first introduction to theater

is Joseph and the Technicolor coat I know right right yeah that's like this

one of one of one of them because it's like safe for high schools to do and

it's safe for like kids a lot of kids go and see they'll go see with their

family or they'll go see with their school or like in my question is do we

need to update what that is yeah I don't even remember what happens in the

show that's the sad thing I think that's the one and only time I ever saw it you

know what it was it was the first play I think I saw oh really the reason I

thought I saw it in black and white though what was the one with the roller

skating starlight express yes that one way back when yeah I think that was my

first one and then there was a lot of siblings Jess and your family or just

you yeah two boys and two girls oh wow and I was the only one of five yeah one

of five and your youngest my youngest brother is 24 oh so are you in the

middle I'm the oldest she's oldest oh you're the oldest sorry sorry now what

now so so so then the acting was it something that came because you started

so early did it was it something that came very naturally to you or did you

start training early on it's something because I went to public schools I just

remember like they would assign the plays and schools to the people who got

really good grades and I didn't get good grades so it's always like the person on

the side or holding the tree or whatever and then we got the tree not even the

tree just holding I know just like holding it up and then we got to middle

school and it was the first time we started like you know having a class the

elective where you could choose what class you want and I chose the drama class

and then you know that's when I really started doing stuff I actually won a

monologue competition and I have a little the little trophy for and I

actually had it's like that to me is one of the most is the sweetest things in my

house because I think I was like 12 or 13 and it was a big deal it was first

I was like wow I actually people think I'm yeah I'm good right yeah you know

it's interesting though so you grew up in Sacramento not exactly like a hotbed

for theater and yeah right but but you go you see that play like how do you make

that leap from being a little girl in Sacramento who sees a play and is

super interesting that's me to I don't want to jump all the way to becoming an

Academy Award winning actress but like what's that first movie you're like in

Sacramento like I got to go from here to what yeah well I mean I was going I had

no idea because I don't know anyone in the industry yeah again you know it was

kind of a it was a tough situation you know at home and I was doing a lot of

community theater and working at Sac City College doing like their Shakespeare

I think I did Tammy the shrew and all of this stuff and then I I actually dropped

out of high school she's crazy I might I dropped out of high school I had to take

PE twice and I think I didn't graduate because I missed because I failed

because I had no interest in like doing collapse and like I just had like no

and I was reading you know Shakespeare in cutting class I was I was such a

nerd I'm probably yeah I can't even understand it but I dropped out and then

I started working and I did some regional theater I played Juliet at theater

works in Silicon Valley and and then the guy who was playing Romeo got into

Juilliard and I was like I don't think he's that much better than me

maybe I could go right so did you I I did oh great yeah that's amazing

change my life wait go going back to high school I remember I remember in my

high school there was a thing called like the debate team called that it was

called forensics I did that of course you did because like everybody I knew in

high school did I didn't do it and it freaked me out because what is it Sean

it's like a it's like when you are in a debate team and they teach you how to

debate like improv debate right right and no they don't people yes they do and

and I freaked me out was my first experience watching kids my age face a

wall and talk to the wall because they would be rehearsing yeah I was like yeah

are they crazy like it was like audition lobby it was like a mental

institution and also different voices because you play different characters

and they're near eight and yeah yeah it was wild how funny by the way for the

listener how funny and you guys can test this are and weird are Jason just said

audition lobby is like when you remember going to like into an audition into a

casting office and everybody's holding their sides and people are like find like

a little corner or they're sitting on the edge of a chair and they're just

going their faces yeah their faces their thing that they like their little angle

little beat that they've got on the thing that they're gonna do and then and then

you get older and you do it like on the four of us as a profession and then you

find yourself doing it and you're like oh well now it's not so weird cuz I'm

doing it I don't know yeah you know yeah and we will be right back

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and now back to the show so jessica so you are all in so you go to you go to julia there was no

other sort of like you didn't go to like a college where you had well i'll major in drama but i'll

minor in business or something but jb i'll interrupt i'll interrupt to say also not just that uh jessica

you got didn't you get the robin william scholarship at julia as well oh wow yeah so it was it that was

actually a huge deal financially for us because he went to julia art and um he was everyone you

know that talks about him such a generous human being and he gave the scholarship every two years

and it basically it paid for everything it didn't just pay for tuition it paid for my apartment it

paid for me to fly back and forth to go see my family at christmas it played for food it it was

it was a ginormous uh he was he was an incredibly generous guy you guys did you guys know robin a

little bit i met him when he shook his hand once yeah he was such a i had the pleasure of of spending

a little bit of time with them uh over the years a few times and he was an incredibly generous sweet

sweet guy i mean anytime you check in with anybody who knows him so it doesn't surprise me

that he did i mean that's so thoughtful and as a young person and going to do this thing and going

to new york those kinds of expenses are just tough to cover yeah for anybody yeah yeah and to have

somebody do that so then you get to go to julia art and then how do they assign that that scholarship

obviously those that that need the economic assistance uh are the candidates but i imagine

that there's some sort of a is there like a an act off to see who gets it for like gladiators

was there any sort of uh i've been acting off since i was like 12

i don't think so i mean the first two years uh it was a lot of you know loans you know like

those sally may loans i was just i had borrowed so much money to try to sustain it i was in the

dorm and then um so the scholarship went to your final two years gotcha and i think it just was

based on the work you had done your first two years so i played i don't know i played arcana

and the seagull my find as my final project my second year and and it went over well with the

teachers and maybe that might have had something to do with it i don't know but it was a big deal

so i'm sorry i may have missed this i apologize you're one of five kids yeah and was it a single mom

or single mom yeah same exact same situation no yeah five kids but in fairness did your mom

have two eyes jessica because this is where it's not orange is to orange is yeah please answer the

question if you mom had two eyes were you the um eldest in your family shon youngest youngest

yeah she had to keep an eye on five guys i got a lot it's been a year and a half wait jb did you

get that text i sent you about what my sister posted yeah did you get the one eye crying emoji

well Jessica my mom hit you go you go will shon shon's mom um had one eye um her whole life and

and we've talked about it extensively on the program but uh when shon won the tony is his

sister put on facebook my mom she'd be so happy she'd be crying her eye out yeah oh my

you know you either laugh or cry jessica yeah yeah it's really good yeah so that's interesting

though so you guys do have very similar experiences yeah in that way and then you both end up in the

theater yeah that's why why don't you go to juliar jesus what's the matter with you what's wrong with

because i can't spell it g you what what's that feeling like when you come out so you you go to

juliar which is you know arguably like the most you know sort of acclaimed certainly in america

theater school you come out of their art school you come out of there and is the feeling like

all right i'm just ready to go and everything's just gonna yeah offers are gonna fly at me like i

was wondering what that experience is like coming out of an acting school in that way um well i was

very lucky i got a um deal so my class was the first one to do a la showcase and actually i'm i

brought it to the administration because i had come to los angeles december before the fourth year and

found out that other schools were doing it and then i really really pushed for it and um we got it

so by coming out here and doing the showcase i got from that i got a deal with john wells

and so it was very helpful it was like right out of the bat uh i had someone kind of in my corner

and then i could you know do plays in new york like i i worked at playwrights horizon um and i'd

fly back and forth to los angeles to audition for his shows and and whatnot but i made that money

last for like four years that's amazing because i think will like what you what you're kind of

saying is like and to me too growing up you think juliar is the pinnacle of all is the best of the

best and you just like me it just assumes every single person that graduates from juliar whether

it's music or art or theater or you know whatever gets a job you know and it's like so it's it's

wild to um yeah like graduation day they're like all right here are the parts that we're

going to be handing out today right that's what you're doing this thing for paramount you're

you're going to be shooting it right yeah so so jessica i mean like is it you you seem like

you're still very aware of your upbringings in your journey and that you're you're fully appreciative

of where you are and like it thank god it doesn't seem like it's lost on you that your whole life you

have seen this path you've wanted this path you've trained for it you've you've respected what it's

going to take to get there you've done everything that you should and you you've done it i mean

you're there you've got an oscar you're like the most respected actors in the world like that's gotta

feel fantastic and i don't want to embarrass you and i don't expect you to sort of say yeah yeah

it's awesome but how about like is your mom still with us are your siblings like and my grandma i took

my grandma to the tony's the other night no way that's awesome i'm sweltering tony she's like when's

joseph coming out are they uh do they do they help you take your your your very very deserving um

smell the roses every once in a while because it's just amazing but also too i think because it

doesn't feel that far away and you know a lot of my life was a little bit of like okay i know what

i'm going to do i don't know how i'm gonna get there exactly but i'm very aware of the people

who show me a lot of kindness and actually jason i don't even think you remember uh oh you took me

i'm sorry let me just start with i'm sorry no no i'm gonna talk about how kind you were i have

addiction issues jessie no no no jason don't admit too much okay sorry sorry until you know the

charge of yeah my boyfriend was net benson net benson so you do remember i love you took me to

a dodger's game with ned yes it was the first time i was like sitting there and i was like

i have net i mean i was so close to the players and i'd never experienced anything like that

before when when was this so kind just 20 years ago yeah a long time ago before anyone even cared

anything about or me or net jason didn't care he didn't even bring it up he's been talking to you

for half an hour and you had to bring it up how embarrassing you wonder if people remember things

because i try to talk to you for one second you don't know what the guest wants to talk about

it's her show by the way you he just did us a favor because he did that is shows a sign of respect

out of jason that he didn't just bring the dodgers up and talk about them for 20 minutes because he

would love to do that or net or net or net love net so jessica because because of because of we had

we had similar backgrounds to you is that part of um you know some people think it's not cool to

talk about drive or ambition but everybody has it who has any even the smallest amount of success

you have to have some drive yeah so why does that why does that get a bad rap like you're supposed

to want things in this life yeah and then you're supposed then you get mocked for actually pursuing

them and then if you don't then you're called lazy and unmotivated and entitled yeah i wonder if

it's that people mistake drive ambition for ego for like narcissism when in reality like my

driving ambition comes from i mean this we're going to get real deep here maybe it's come

comes from a sense of like wanting to be better and maybe that also comes from my upbringing

a sense of like i want to be better than i you know i just want to get better every day just to

see how much better you can get it's just challenging yourself right yeah and it's not like i want it

all it's just i want to do a good job see if i can do more or take on more or yeah i mean this

all falls under the heading of challenge yourself probably right i mean and and if you're not i

suspect everybody here is is the same in this way that for instance i constantly like you know i'm

just gonna retire i'm just too tired and stuff and then i think like i couldn't do it for six hours

because i just it's not that i get bored but i just want to that's the whole purpose of life is to

engage and to challenge yourself and to be constant right i mean yeah and hopefully you're

constantly in a in a state of having the courage to ask for more because i oftentimes i've been in

a place of oh my god i can't thank god i'm not being asked to bear any responsibility because

i just don't have the ego or the confidence to take it on right now like i've been i've been in

that in that place a lot of times in my life and if you find yourself in a place of like no please

let the phone ring i i want the ball yeah that's a great place to be that's a that's a gift and

that's a positive shon you want the do you want the ball for both i hate this couple of them

jessica would let me ask you this because i've been going through this lately which is you know

i'm 53 and i think you look great you that was i was kind of illicit thank you i was thinking

t-shirt there is a play a day i mean you can tell that you hang out a lot you work out a lot

yeah it's real the tan is real that hair piece that's not a cheap one you know this is this one's

new by the way i think it works i can tell it it looks really high i think i rotate it i forget

how i get this one but but but i've been having this thing lately where i'm where i'm working on

stuff for doing things and i've been able to say i think i was saying to you jay maybe the other day

that um uh i can admit that i'm like scared and because i'm about to do something you know that

is maybe out of my comfort zone a little bit right and i think when i was a younger man i had a

tougher time admitting that or i wasn't involved enough or i wasn't mature enough and i wonder if

you have those things because you you do a lot of things that are very challenging certainly when

it comes to your work do you have those moments now as you get older where you go like yeah i'm

scared about this or i'm nervous not that you're it's you're not going to do it but that you

recognize that do you have that at all are you asking me yeah yes i i i don't care what they

have i mean it's also the sense of because i don't feel far away from how i grew up i always

want to feel like i'm grateful and thankful so i don't i i find laziness the in my who i am i

find it to be the worst trait and i also have difficulty with lazy you know if someone's super

lazy i have difficulty being around it because i feel like wow you know you could do so much you

could do you know there's all these incredible things out there that you could be a part of if you

just showed up show up for yourself and show you know for others and so i have that in me where

it's it's like even if i'm really scared if there's someone that believes that i can do it i don't

want to let them down and i really want to push myself and i don't want to allow my any kind of

nerves or fear and especially especially with tammy fei i had so much fear of like oh my god

this is such a swing like and i'm gonna get made fun of so but this idea of like crushed it i i can't

like allow and that's ego actually if you allow your ego to stop you from doing something right

because it's all about how you're perceived but do you think yeah it's interesting but but at the

same time but is it ego is it ego i'm asking i'm actually like wondering maybe you guys jump in

if is it ego to acknowledge that fear meaning a good a good thing or a bad yeah like just to go like

hey this is something that's really challenging and i need and i'm and just recognizing it maybe

i think it would take i think it would take a healthy ego to admit that something is presenting

a challenge to you and i think but it is also that same ego that's going to be the fuel to push

you through it and that the and that you shouldn't be nervous about the fact that you're not feeling

the confidence to run into the situation because the confidence lives on the backside of the

accomplishment it's like no the confidence will be there once i get through it you know that's

what i'm going to earn so don't don't take it as a false negative it would be a false negative to

think oh god i can't handle this because i'm not feeling confident going into it the confidence

lives after it i think yeah for sure for totally very well if you're confident while you're doing

it i if i am i find that the work is probably bad it's not it's not it's not it's not it's not

anxiety is a good good gas yeah when you're like yeah i got this man

i really know yeah exactly i get i am petrified before every single performance is that true

petrified that makes you great well i don't know about that but i just like the tony

tony winner no no no i'm being thanks makes you great but well thanks but i'm just saying it's

it's a true i don't know if it does so i'm agreeing with you shon we've seen the show

but wait i want to so jessica like back back to like when i was a kid i was just i'm asking you

if you felt the same thing when i was a kid i had you know my dad laughed at my mom was always

working she was great but you you were kind of left to parent yourself and so you kind of

are given this option of figuring this life out on your own or kind of just taking a back seat to

it and i think that decision at some point was like wait a minute no one's i have to figure i have

to take care of myself and figure this out for myself so and i and i've taken that up into adulthood

where it's just like and i think for better or worse sometimes worse i i don't stop like i i've

i gotta get food on the table i gotta eat i gotta because i've been so there's been so many times

when i didn't have food and i didn't have you know so it's a it's a fear as much as it is a drive

wow we have very similar upbringing shon is crazy it should be noted shon you feed yourself the

same way you did when you were 11 which is just tuna salad potato chips and so don't forget about

the mac and cheese by the way on the on my corner of my building there is an ice cream truck every

single day in a fruit stand i passed that fruit stand yeah don't even look at the poor guy yeah

do you do you guys find jessica and shon that that you're not at that you're not great at asking for

help that you're not great at sort of deferring or delegating because you've had to sort of be

self-sufficient for so long yeah i do i tend to do everything and to the point where then i get

completely overwhelmed and i think because i was the oldest child too right there was a sense of

having to take care of my my i want to almost send my kids yeah my siblings you know my mom would

bartend and it would be like us there you know so it was really a sense of um trying to figure out

you know how everyone was going to be okay um so i i think i also have that now even as

like this is too much and my friends are like okay settle down chastain but i try to like

someone has an issue i'm like okay let's solve it let's figure it out let's you know and i've

had to understand that everyone has the dignity of their own process yes and i allow them to have

i'm so similar and these guys can attest to it i'm like they're like hey should we i'm on it

i'm like i'll get it i'll take care of it shon shon we'll get it we'll get an email about some work

thing and and it'll be like a long email that'll have maybe 12 points to it that most people would

be like let's talk about it and think about it maybe for 24 hours yo i'm not even gonna read this

email yet yeah shon within within five minutes is like yes and no and yes and we should do this

and i'm like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa yeah i know and right shon and i and i do say to shon

shon and i'm talking i go it's okay you can just take a beat yeah i know let's think about it yeah

but do you have to learn that do you no don't because it is so helpful that you it is the best

no i love the greatest yeah we'll be right back

smartlers is sponsored by better help so you know if you listened to ads ago you know that scottie

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and now back to the show now what about um i i i like to ask actors that have had the

pleasure of working with so many incredible directors if there's any desire to direct

because you've been exposed to so much great directing and and and perhaps has armed you

with sort of cherry picking a bunch of different techniques uh that you would want to see what

you could do yeah i mean i've had thoughts about doing it especially when i've met there's certain

actors that i've met i was like oh i really want to do something for this person and i've thought

about or like i've never seen a story about this before and i would love to tell that story

and then i think about well wait a minute when you're directing you got it's going to take you

a year and a half of your life uh where i usually make like five films in that time you know and

and so it's a pay cut yeah uh yeah and not even necessarily just that it's also that

maybe i have a sense of and in the same way of my personal i feel like i have to do everything i

want to do everything wow what's it going to be when i really have to be like i'm only allowed to

do this one thing for so long yeah jay actually i'm this goes to both you at jessica and jason

do you because day you do that when you take a year to go in and work on a film and direct it

do you miss getting that variety and jessica on the the backside of that is do you you say you

would do five films is that something you like you like that constant change and that kind of

that you're working on a film for three months and then you're working on something completely

different for another three months do you is that's something that's your cognizant of you go jessica

i would i mean i trained i i trained in repertory theater so i love the idea and i would be amazing

also in theater to be able to do this where you're one night you're one part and the next

night you're another part maybe not see my husband and yeah i remember jesse riley for um yeah you

saw that too we are theater nerds um even like doing different plays like having an ensemble

and then like every night you get to do something um else i feel like that was the hard part for me

of of being on being on this run for so long it was the constant sense of like this is the journey

this i'm on this journey every day and it would be it would be nice to kind of go on the flip side

to say like okay now maybe on tuesdays i get to do this kind of thing and explore something else

well for you and for shon did you guys ever get and shon you're still in the midst of it

you ever get to the point where it's feeling so monotonous that you are very deliberate about

making tonight different like i'm gonna play this scene jealous instead of insecure or i'm gonna

like a completely different energy and not tell any of the other actors but just pace and intention

and everything just is still works well i think the actors would really appreciate that well i mean

it doesn't have to be a 180 but something that is that that is just change the look from your

fellow actor like i was just like what are you doing you're painting me in a corner here man

but jay do you miss that do i i mean do you miss the variety do you miss that change when you're

working on a film for a year no because i just i geek out on all the good processes of directing

you know crap and post and all that stuff but but uh i i feel like if i was on stage doing

the same part for months on end i would i would probably screw things up a little bit on purpose

or start to get excited about oh who's going to forget a line tonight you know yeah because you

miss that like you miss getting that like you could say it here if you want the code you like to get

strange like to like to get some strange yeah yeah yeah strange when it comes to work we got

about yes don't be an animal dude what about jessica what about that what jason was saying

uh i've worked with someone who is like that it's frustrating to work with someone i mean on film

it's great yeah it's great do you know i've like with actors we're like every it's still the same

scene but there's all these we're discovering new paths through the scene and who knows where the

takes gonna go that's exciting but i feel like when the show is set yeah it's set and disruptive

yeah i would sometimes when someone's done it's it feels kind of almost self-serving because it's

like well wait a minute there's still a whole other journey we have to go on and now you've kind

of taken out this marker how are we gonna get there that would be a fun war to watch if you were

privy to it by being another cast member and you can watch two like oh it happens a lot yeah she

just saw that he's trying to do a 180 on this thing oh now she's gonna double that 180 yeah yeah

and then who's who who chastises an actor the stage manager yeah usually they're sort of the

cop it's ongoing right because if you i don't think the listener knows this but if you start messing

around with the dialogue you get like reported to equity and equity can find you if you start

messing around with with changing lines and stuff like that i don't know about that isn't there

i think stage managers like obligated to report you if you start going rogue and and changing

stuff it sounds like you snitched before just you know the thing about snitches you know what they

get what happened what stitches get stitches bro oh sorry go ahead jessica you what happened you

found out no i found out and i was talking to the director and he said that every night he gets a

report he got a report because where it was like even like when an actor coughs it said when the

actor coughs i know they write down every single thing that happens in every show yeah yeah and the

producers get to read it yeah yeah so you're very aware i mean it's tough sometimes like i do find

like in in there's a misconception about acting where someone's like okay the more different they

are each take the better actor they are because they're so alive you know and so i think people are

trying to be sometimes make things alive and exciting and and but they don't realize in in

theater that that can be disrupted yeah well yeah and in film two and jay you've been through this

i've certainly been through this in in um in post where you're like hey did this guy ever do one

fucking take where he held the thing the same way two times oh yeah i'm killing me i can't get

out i can't fucking edit this scene what is he doing but it's okay like jay to what you were

saying i think it's okay in a play to play within the choices that are locked yes you know um within

the play that is locked you can experiment but not enough to think like there's this great um there's

this um john jujewski who plays george gershwin or plays brilliant everybody's brilliant in the show

but he's so great at playing within the locked thing he's brilliant and one night it almost made me

laugh he goes aki you know oscar who wants to hear your music right and i say he's a he's a vision

in my head he's a ghost the ghost of gershwin and i say lots of folks that's who and he goes

and the line is who your wife the kid in the lab coat right and one night he goes out of nowhere

he go i go he goes who wants to hear that your your own music i go lots of folks that's who and he

goes who you got your wife you got your kid in the lab coat and then he just goes like this

right and almost it almost made me die laughing oh my god but it was it was good because it was

within the realm of of the character but like he was listening and you go okay your wife

in the lab coat and i was yeah you know michael shannon's really good at that too yeah you know i've

worked with him a lot and i'm mostly on on camera so he doesn't go he's in working with him is like

it's like kind of working with an animal because you're like what's he gonna do but it's always

within the structure and he comes from theater as well yeah and it's really like it's it's amazing

when you when you're working with an actor who knows where the story has to be the most important

it's not yourself that's what it is it's about whether or not you're selfish because if you're

changing it for yourself because you want to feel something new or you're bored that's not

appropriate but if you're telling you have to tell the story that everyone's there to tell

exactly i killed uh i killed michael shannon in a movie in a movie once yeah with a gun

no no no i stabbed him in the throat oh michael shannon in the throat in the throat in uh let's go

to prison uh 20 years ago with the michael ship bob odin kirk bob odin kirk how did he take that

like a man took it pretty well i remember bob being like okay so michael oh my god so you're

just gonna grab i'm like wait how are we gonna do this like michael is so scary is the best act

he's such a great guy but i was like i have to stab him in the throat and he just he did all the work

i just kind of did the motion he was just a bunch of apologizing before he was the best um i feel

like we'll be remiss if we don't ask it i'm gonna ask usually shon at this point is already asked

you've done so much theater oh yes it's your favorite nightmare theater how did you not ask

jessica how have i not asked that question oh god my favorite nightmare story that happened to me on

stage yeah all right i can say it now because we're close this is really gross great when i

will tell you guys through the better i threw up wow in a doll's house i threw up and i swallowed it

no god at a girl no way and no one knew and then because of what because the acid reflex or

something knows a bad performance from your coaster what's what's your name i think i and then from

then on i was like i'm not eating within three hours of the show i'm not drinking water yeah it's

crazy i wait what happened i don't know if i was nervous i was like it's kind of like sobbing i like

leaned over and it happened and then for the rest and i was like oh my god you know you can't let it

out of your mouth and then um for the rest of the show i couldn't tell anyone because i'm i was on

a chair facing the audience so you have any intimate scenes after that i had to kiss someone

sure no no yes yes it was a nightmare and i couldn't explain and in the second we had the curtain

call and the curtain came down i said you god i'm so sorry i vomited that that's so crazy because

jason didn't you ever think for a long time that that women would barf after they kissed you

right yeah yeah which is better yeah but Jessica that's insane was it uh can i ask was it an open

mouth kiss that you had to do on stage no that night it was a definitely a closed mouth kiss

well oh so but you know it was supposed to be kind of like it wasn't a sensual it wasn't like a

really sexy like right we're about to sleep you know yeah but it was you know a sensual kiss that

was and that night i was like oh i mean even talking to anyone i was just so i um i have to in the

in the show i have to uh scream in front of this guy uh peter gross who's a brilliant also brilliant

in the show yeah and we get in a screaming match and we're literally nose to nose and one night

i don't know what happened it was just like a couple weeks ago so much saliva came spewing from my

mouth it was all over his face as i'm screaming and then that night after he goes he was so sweet

about it he goes hey can i talk to you about that one and i go yeah he goes is there any way that you

could spit just a little less when we argued i was like absolutely absolutely he was so sweet

about it it was like a tick explosion right but it's really funny because it's obviously not something

you had control over it wasn't like you thought like oh i'm gonna really go to town and no was that

saliva all over his face tonight no no but he was right i i i actually can control it now

now that he's brought it up i actually figured it out let me ask you if he hadn't brought it up

yeah would you have continued doing it great well spitting that much yeah probably not i probably i

know what he meant i know what he meant it was like oh my god poor guy's covered in sloppy joe

and shinshin

shonny you get shinshin flown out sorry go ahead jason yeah absolutely i was just gonna ask jessica

now that the show is done you're gonna take some time off i would assume you're gonna start doing

the thing your second best at which is probably as good probably a lot of parenting but like what

about the what is there a hobby is there something that we would be surprised to learn that you're

almost at as good a backstage no i'm not good at anything else that's a come on that's not true

i mean i have a production company and and that doesn't count and we're talking about

something that's outside the industry we're talking about pickleball um painting cooking baking okay i

went to cooking school what yes yeah i went to school so after zero dark 30 i was like i wanted

to do something completely different i went to cooking school and so i'm good i'm a good cook

what kind of cooking what kind of kind of like sauce and stuff i love the kind of i like roasting

and um i like the kind of cooking that the whole house it's like a slow cook situation

so for hours it'll be like the smell of of something like like i love poached pears with

sweet potato ice cream and and you know that kind of sounds good yeah you make the ice cream

yeah really like the fall cooking you know that kind of like it's starting to get cold outside

yeah and then the house remember that yeah i know wait a minute um wait you make ice cream

i'm always fascinated i kind of an ice cream maker i mean it's very easy i gotta get one of those

oh you do it's so easy it takes 30 minutes i wouldn't that sounds like a real slippery

yeah it sounds kind of i mean legitimately yeah we're gonna have to cut you out of your house at

some point hey hey uh jessica i think that you should do like a food line i think or like cookbooks

or something i think would be pretty massive you think so sure yeah i do fall cooking yeah with

with with jesse boo jesse boo yeah that's your title okay um i don't know that it would be super

interesting to watch especially if it's like it's be like a four hour show where you're just like

let's look at it in the oven you know but if you did but if you did if you did like a book if you

did like a cookbook and did some stuff and did a line of food i think it would do real real well

all right all right well maybe maybe that's my second chapter and you can call it like juke

right j-o-o-c kind of like goop but you know juke after talking about vomiting uh on the stage

i could open with that and then say listen it's so good you could snow i don't know

oh my god it's so good you can eat it twice there you go we've got it oh my god listen

we have monopolized i've just realized we could have just we could just keep talking but we're

crushing you in time and you need to go on vacation yeah um thank you for visiting with us jessica

yeah jessica thank you so much i was so happy to to um when i got asked to do this i of course

listened to the uh kate blanchett one and oh yeah i love how much y'all tease shawn for being as

equally as as theater nerdy is such a good guy i love it with a big smile he's not just theater

nerdy he's everything nerdy is it turns out yeah so if you have any star wars questions for him

yeah i love it or star travel or battle star galactica any of the stars although i will i will

say this this is what i wanted to ask you before i let you go spring up star wars and stuff you've

done a few i'm gonna say science fiction not really but in that realm i mean you interstellar

martian some of the bigger ones that fall right i mean i know me too we were just saying yesterday

how much my it's my 14 year old's favorite film he's seen it 30 times do you like that genre because

you've done a bunch on the highest level yeah i mean in fact after i did interstellar i got to

work with kip thorn on that um which is was amazing and like even trying to the end like writing the

equation and all that stuff that was obviously a lot of work to try to look like that was

believable at all but then when i finished that and rid um ridley scott came up to me uh and

approached me about doing the martian i said yeah here's my thing though if i sign on i want to go

to space camp and he goes there's no really adult space camp and i was like well we'll have we can

make one so i went to um houston i want to do this it's an asset in houston and i went to jpl

and i saw like the rovers i've been there yes it's amazing amazing and i did like the whole

virtual reality where you're on mars on mars you can walk yes yeah i did the same thing yeah and so

i was really like i'm excited to do things but who knows what what the film or the project's going

to be when it finishes but i just want to know that the experience of making something is going

to be enriching in some way um to my life and so so that was really yeah i mean if someone wants to

give me another sci-fi space movie i don't know i'm into what i'm into are you a fan of the genre

like are you a like star wars star trek uh um no no okay oh jessica thank you so much for being

i am one of space in reality i am one it's you know shon are you crying sorry shon sorry get it

i know i did my very good friend oscar isaac did all the star and i i you know i'm not i like it when

it's um when it feels like it could it's happening or it's tangible well don't worry jessica i'm

i'm not a huge fan i'm i'm with you yeah but i like game of thrones and there's dragons there so

i'm all over the place that works for me sure that works for me uh the great jessica chesney thank

you so much for joining us thanks guys what a wonderful surprise great to see you again yeah

thank you jessica all right what do i do do i cover my mic do i get out of here

just slam it shut if you want whatever you want bye guys congratulations shon thank you so much for

this bye jessica thanks wow well well i know class classed it up a little bit classed it up yeah

yeah i mean how what a surprise i mean i just literally saw her yesterday or two days ago two

months ago two months ago shon this is still late it's wild i just started how many times do i need

to do this you're gonna love show business i know how funny right shon that we had jessica

could you guys spend so much time you saw her all the time so much time back in the day over on

broadway always saw her always she was always so pleasant always so sweet and uh you know i fanned

out she's so i i get it who wouldn't fanned out she's so accomplished and she's so good at what she

does yeah there's not a lot of you know back to that julia thing you do always think i always you

know i always just think you're set if you go to julia you're set and like she's one of those

people that made that happen what a talent i know and and have you seen um uh uh sorry i just want

to cut you off but did you see um george and tammy no the the thing we were talking with with

her and michael shannon yeah incredible i know it's about it's about uh tammy winet and george

johns yeah and she is i want to see it she they're both so good in it so so so good and so

such unbelievable talent and uh yeah it's really really really good yeah and the season

one already happened i think it's season two is coming out or something and i want to catch up i

don't know it's it's amazing and just i don't know um anyway she's she what a delight yeah easy

she seems like easy to hang out with shon and i loved how much you you and she have sort of a

similar trajectories in that wild yeah i had no idea we didn't really get into it

i'm not when i saw her like it was there's never time to like how was your childhood you know until

you mean when you were doing like press stuff for your plays you weren't like hey i would did you

also have five brothers and sisters and did you go up with a single like yeah we didn't get into that

no well that would have been weird dude i know maybe if you just done the small effort of walking

across the street or next door and seen her fucking show i wish i could but i'm you could have

because you had well now she can see you're you had tuesday nights and you could i did it tuesday

nights but i want you could have gone yeah what we did on tuesday nights aside from just

warming donuts in your toaster oven one of the one of the last time you weren't be honest

warmed donut when's the last time you cut a donut open right you just butterflyed it scooped it

and toasted it in your toaster oven by the way how good is that sometimes there's donuts at work

sometimes people bring donuts and you do the half thing we just i'm just gonna be i'm just gonna eat

half and then a half hour later oh when they when they're flipped open and there's like a

there's a plastic knife left in there and people just cut little pieces off it yeah and there's

the same person comes back and just finishes it comes like five times that's why in canada we got

the tim bits hey oh yeah yeah if you're gonna go to timmy horton he's just got great donuts i used to

get a tim hortons all the time oh they're so good hey so good i can get some um yeah i honestly the

thing is what's great about the timbit here comes about here comes it's just you don't have to eat

the whole thing it's just one bye smart smart smart smart smart smart smart smart is 100 organic

and artisanally handcrafted by michael grant terry rub arm jarv and bennett barbaco

smart loss this episode was recorded on june 13th our next episode will be out in a week

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Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.