"Don Cheadle"

Hi everybody, how was your day today?

Are you asking us or the audience, and you're expecting an answer from the audience?

You know, the audience is not mic'd. You guys.

Sorry. Well, no, I was asking... Oh, they're not?

Well, since when do you call me and JB everybody?

Yeah.

No, I call you guys the audience.

Because you think that's the only people listening to you, it's just us two? Yeah. You've got higher responsibilities than that. Let's come with the good stuff.

Well, judging by this opening, we're up to, it's going to be a great smart list. Welcome to it.

Sean, what's on your cap there? Is that a college?

It's ISU, Illinois State University, where I have an honorary doctorate and a scholarship fund set up for people who want to go into music, or the arts, and, sorry, acting.

Are they still accredited? I mean, after you got a diploma, I heard that after they give you a diploma, that they were stripped of their power.

That sounds like a real, is that an online university?

I still wear my sash to bed.

Once they did an assessment of your intellect, they're like, we gave this guy a fucking diploma.

Did you really go to ISU?

I went to Illinois State University, yeah, it's one of the greatest colleges ever.

Okay.

Well, hang on, let's quickly Google that, because I don't think you're going to like the results.

For a theater, for a theater. By the way, you know who went there? Me, Jane Lynch, Craig Robinson, and I were music majors together. I know. I know.

We've had them on the podcast.

I know. We talked about that.

We talked about it for like half an hour.

Hey, Arnett, where'd you go to school?

I didn't. I dropped out, man.

No, but you did go.

You went to boarding school.

You know where I went? I went to fucking Hard Knocks, dude.

Oh, bro.

The streets. The Hard Knock Life with Annie? Of Toronto.

Yeah. The streets of Toronto.

Did you go, you went to- Excuse me. Excuse me. You went to additional voluntary school?

I did for half a year, half a year. I know. I love that you go to additional voluntary.

No, actually, I should invert that. Voluntary additional school.

Well, yeah.

I mean- I now have an option to not go, so taking that option.

Sure. Is that a good joke?

Yeah, sure. I'd love one. I ask you-.

Sure, just jump in. I didn't realize that you were grabbing the reins here. We were just merely going down a path, but-.

Let's talk more about your school.

Let's just go fucking- Okay.

Let's talk more about your school.

I didn't go.

No, let's not.

Here we go. Ready? The best gift I ever received was a broken drum. You can't beat it.

Okay. That's all right. That's okay. He doesn't claim these to be great jokes. Dad jokes.

I got a couple laughs in the background there.

You should say, do you want to hear a dad joke?

If you say you want to hear a joke, people are ready for something good.

Dad, joke means it's not going to be good.

I don't like the joke. I don't like the dad joke. I don't like the dad joke. I don't like the term dad joke. I think that's lazy to call it a dad joke.

How about bad joke? Just say bad joke, so people aren't expecting to laugh. Or like a pun.

Yeah. That's okay to say.

I got one more. You got one more.

Are there any mom jokes?

Here's a mom joke. What's faster, hot or cold? Hot. You can always catch a cold.

That's good. That's good. Not bad. That's pretty good. I guarantee you at least one of our listeners will be using that today after they get out of their car- Of course.

I love- I love just- No, hang on, Sean. I love Jason, trying to imagine what regular people do. Isn't that-.

It's so fun. I know.

They get on the subway and then they jog. And then they kiss their kids goodbye, walk out door, go to job, say hi, boss, office.

Want to hear a joke?

Oh, dear. Want to hear a joke?

What are you watching?

I'm also watching Succession. Are you watching it? I am also worried about saying that I don't like it. You're worried that you're saying it? I do like it.

Real good opening patter, everybody.

Did everybody sleep well? I slept really well.

Patter's over. Let's get to our high-level guest.

I slept. really good, though.

Did you? For the first- Actually, that is worth it.

Do you want to talk to us about your sleep? The guest is not going to wait for your sleep.

Well, it's very rare that he has good sleep. Before we get into it, it is true, Sean, and I'm happy for you, and there's nobody- Thank you. We talk about it all the time.

Right.

Sean, yesterday morning, JB- Mm-hmm. Sean, I said to him, hey, you got a second. Let me know when you got a second, like 7.. I'm up at 6.. I said, let me know when you got a second.

It was like 7.

It was at 7.

So, I slept all through the night. I got up to pee, and I went right back to sleep.

Why do you think that is? Did you load up on a bunch of sugar before you went to bed?

I did a little bit, but because of yesterday, I think, that what Will's talking about. I think I ran myself around in circles like a little child being up at 3.30, and then I just crashed, and it made me sleep all night long. It was awesome.

You nabbed it.

Boy, what a fucking story.

I'll nap like- I'll nap like-.

Good that we stopped. for that. You were right, Will. Silly me.

We're going to see Bateman's face. What a fucking story.

God, who else slept through the whole night? Make sure you call in. Our lines are open, and love to hear about it. So, our next guest is so accomplished and so universally loved, okay? He's done everything.

Oh, okay.

Okay? We met online, and he is also a Capricorn. No, he is a new friend that I'm very excited about. He swings a mean golf club.

I thought we were going to say both. The way that started was he swings.

I know. I know. I was like, uh-oh, what?

He'll take you where you want to go on the weekends, okay? Will, that's what I'm saying. But listen, I love him. He's here. Very kind of him to say yes, because this is a big shot.

Hello, Don.

Oh, I love Don Cheadle. People.

What's happening?

Good morning.

Mr. Don.

Don Cheadle's done everything.

I was trying to remember, Don, what is that great nickname that you were given? because you're so smooth? I couldn't remember it. You told me this on the golf course. What was it?

I think Kelly Slater said that was very Don Chalant.

Yeah. Don Chalant.

I'm trying to put it out there. I was going to try to trademark it, but I was unsuccessful.

Don Chalant is out there now, just FYI. It's fully out there. And if you happen to run into Don Cheadle on the streets, just immediately, Don Chalant. Yeah. Let him know.

Mr. Chalant.

You can single gun it or double gun it. Wow.

Okay.

Don.

Don Cheadle. Hi.

Good morning. What's up, gang?

I love Don Cheadle.

You know, the team was like, you've got to do these guys' podcast. You're going to love them. I love all of you individually and collectively. Not as much when I sat through the banter.

The early banter. It's like, remember the joy that Regis and Kathie Lee used to give you with that first ten minutes of coffee powder? That's what we're reaching for, Don. You know?

No. It was a strong six minutes.

Don, where are we finding you right now? The reason, I ask, is because you look like you're either coming from or going to the golf course because you're wearing a zip up. But I want to say, which is surprising, because you are such – you're so busy and rightfully so, because you're always – you fit in that category, for me, too, of people who are always good, no matter what the project is. You're so consistently awesome all the time.

Wait until you see this one. Who's going to take that down?

I don't know.

You know what, Scotty?

I appreciate that.

Yeah, Scotty, and I just watched just last week, not even knowing, obviously, that we were going to be on, because you're Jason's guest. We watched Mission to Mars. I was in that. And I was like, there's Don again. And you're brilliant in it.

Always.

Yeah, because you don't watch anything sci-fi.

I am picking up on surprise in Sean's voice, though. Right? When he says, and you're brilliant.

It was like –.

No, no.

You were pretty good.

No, I meant to Will's point. I didn't know you were an actor.

And that you could grow facial hair. I thought it was only Jason who could do that.

This is not really facial hair. This is disgusting.

No, it was great.

I'm in Atlanta, Will, to answer your question. I'm in Atlanta.

You're in Atlanta. Okay. And what's happening there in Atlanta? Working on something, no doubt?

I am working on something. It's a project called Fight Night. And I am in this wonderful project with who you guys had on the show. Kevin Hart. Sam Jackson.

You can still be fired. They can still easily reshoot one day.

It's early enough.

So watch it.

I've been replaced before. It wouldn't be the first time.

No. Have you? No. I've been replaced before.

Oh. I have.

I didn't mean to bring up something pink.

I love that Don's like, no, I haven't. Sorry, I was just kidding you.

Of course not.

I need to go on your show.

Mine was the cruelest, though, because I worked my nards off on this pilot. We shot the pilot. It went well, so I thought. And then, like, a couple of days before the big announcements happen about whether pilots are going to get picked up to go to series, I get a call from my agent saying, you are going to –, good news, bad news. Good news is.

I agree with Don.

I could have been spared all of it by just them saying, well, we're not picking up the show. Basically, we're all fired, you know?

Are you still with this agent?

Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, exactly. No, no, no. That's three or four ago.

But it's good to know. Like, it is personal a little bit, because they were like, hey, we know the show's not getting picked up, but let's let Bateman know that even if it did, he wasn't coming with.

Yeah.

In the event that this is going forward, not you.

I've been fired, too. I got fired off a pilot that went to series the year before we started Arrested Development.

Oh, God bless.

And had I not been, I would have been stuck on that show. Don, wait a second. So you're in Atlanta. You're doing this thing with Sam Jackson. Yeah.

You know, Sam has been on IR for a minute. I hope he comes off because I would love to. You know, we used to play a lot, but he's nursing an injury or two. So fingers crossed.

How's his game?

Sam was like a four.

What? Wow. Yeah. Damn it. Wow.

Well, you know, Sam, famously, you know, whenever he would get a gig, a part of his contract was they had to get him a membership to whatever local course there was. because he's such a freak about it.

Oh, really? No shit?

Yeah. He played everywhere. I was like, you can do that? Sam also was, you know, Mr. If you force me, you're bringing me $900 in cash in an envelope the next day, like a drug deal.

Yeah.

By the way, Jason, you could. Jason. right now. You see, look down. He's, he's got, he's just gone on his phone.

What are you guys?

About 12 country clubs. short. Damn it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right. Now, how do you like, how do you like Atlanta? I, you know, I've worked there a lot and, and I always, I always thought that it was not going to be a place for me. And every time I worked there, I just love it more and more and more. Do you enjoy yourself there?

I've worked here a bunch because a lot of the Marvel stuff was here.

Right. Oh, right.

And I've kind of been around it a little bit more, but this is probably the longest stretch that I'm going to be here. So I'm looking forward to like getting up to the mountains and the lakes and just checking it all out.

So, so I did a movie there a long time ago in Atlanta during the summer. Did you guys shoot those, all those Marvel movies in like the summertime, because you can't breathe. It's so hot. Hot land. Hot land.

And you're in space.

Yeah. I mean, I think that was the, oh, I, there's a callback.

Yeah. Good one. No, but I mean, isn't that brutal?

Yeah. It's brutal. I mean, I was, you know, I'm from Kansas city, Missouri, where, you know, 98 degrees and 98% humidity. So I was, I was, I was born for this, you know? But yeah, it's not, it's not fun, but right now it's very cold actually.

Yeah. It gets cold. I like it. I like it too. I like JB.

You gotta find a zone.

But I was down in like, uh, I was down like, um, right near sort of little five points, like all in there. Like that's where I was staying. It was awesome. A lot of great, like restaurants and.

Okay. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So, um, Jason, if you had enough.

Yeah. You opened it.

You opened it. This is like, this is like the court case.

Good sleep last night, Don.

You know, What's hilarious with Sean was talking about. that is, I was very jealous because I did not sleep well last night.

That's what I'm saying.

Every episode we've ever recorded. Right. We're right.

Now. Somebody told me the other day that Kansas.

Here we go.

Kansas.

Is actually split right down the middle. The border between Kansas and Missouri.

You still don't have it. JB. You still don't have it. You still haven't got it.

That's a whiff. No, no.

Help me. People.

No, no, no. You're there. There's one in Kansas and there's a Kansas city in Missouri. Two different. I mean, they're close.

Wait, there's two different places called Kansas city.

No.

I know. John's about to leave.

John, this is, this is every day, by the way. This is how it goes.

54 years old. And this is, this is, I'm just now getting clarity. On this. Let's, let's, let's do it publicly. There are two.

Correct. Yeah.

Now, which one's got the order? Which one's got the Royals?

Missouri. Missouri.

Missouri's got what?

Let me just say this. Don, take a look at JB's face. Now, JB walked on through the gummy routine. This is going to explain a lot. Welcome through the timing, and the guys are still up.

I'm still up from last night's. No.

Now we talked about this a little bit on the golf course. I don't remember. I don't know if you remember. I'm sure you don't remember because your gummy program.

Never, never when I'm golfing, golfing, serious business.

You said that.

Now, wait a second. What, but what sports team does Kansas city, Kansas have? The Royals?

He's still, he's here.

Is it the Royals?

It's crazy.

No, no, honestly. Is it? the Royals are in Kansas city and Missouri?

Do we want to just ask, go to like the, the interwebs?

So Kansas city, Kansas has nothing. Is that correct?

Yeah.

No sports teams, no professional sports teams. Yeah, man. I'll let it rest now.

Okay.

Honestly, honestly, they're all looking it up. America.

I've never looked into it this deeply. You might be absolutely right. I just know.

He's not right. He's not right. No. You're right.

Kansas has the Royals.

Are there any sports teams in Kansas city?

I'm so sorry, America.

And specifically, Kansas city has had teams in all five of the major professional sports leagues. Three major leagues remain today.

Is that Missouri or is that Kansas?

That's Kansas city, Kansas.

Okay. Wait, who's in Kansas city, Kansas?

I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know. Boy, this is, again, this is Kansas city. We're going to pick this up. Hey, Don, how'd you get started in the business?

Yeah, I know.

I want to know.

JB, fuck you. You have Abbott ears.

I want to know that.

He's in a little porn called Don Chilantes.

No,

I was born on screen.

Yeah. Other than we run into each other a few times and had lovely conversations. But tell me, how did you get, like, you were in theater in high school?

Well, sidebar, we almost, we played around with doing a movie together at one point. I know. I don't know if you ever got that off.

I did. Did you get it off? Yeah, it didn't do well. But thank you for your consideration.

Next subject, next subject.

Way to dodge a bullet, Don.

I was trying to give a compliment and went right in the trash bin.

You ducked one there.

No, but did you, were you interested in high school? Like, what age, how early did you get the bug?

So, I kind of got the early acting bug. I think I was in sixth grade. I was Templeton the Rat in a production of Charlotte's Web that was written about extensively in the Denver, Colorado periodicals. You can look it up. I'm sure it's still there.

Sure, no. I don't have to look it up.

Templeton, the Rat.

And I was singled out. I'm just saying I was singled out.

The standout was the rat.

Yeah. And when Cheadle hits the stage, hold on to your, yeah. So, I did that. But I was also doing music kind of at the same time. That's when I got involved in playing my saxophone and instrumental jazz.

For acting or music or both?

Both. I had both. Wow. But I kind of made not only a weather choice, but I think I made a choice based on what I believed I was going to be able to actually do. Because I grew up with musicians now who are like professional musicians and who are hugely successful and incredible.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I think I'm probably going to spend my time more being out of the house, being with other people and pursuing acting. And I loved it equally. So, I kind of went up that road.

Yeah, there's definitely science and math to music that you have to want to….

And I think it kind of…. I was intimidated by it a little bit, to be honest. I think I was a little…. You know, I'd gotten by. I had really good ear and I'd gotten by on really being able to hear music rather than understanding how it broke down.

But, Don, did you ever…. And Sean, forgive me for taking your question. But did you ever think about, you know, kind of like when that guy dropped the chocolate in the tub of peanut butter and they came up with the Reese's. Did you ever think of taking the music and dumping that into the theater and going into musical theater, Sean? Five, six, seven, eight.

Seven, eight.

Did you ever get into that stuff?

Oh, he sure did. Let's talk about the Tonys. Go ahead.

Well, I've never gotten one. But I did produce the Tonys, an award-winning show called Strange Loop.

Yes, oh my God. That's right. With Barbara Whitman. Yes. Right?

Thank you. Thank you. Crazy, great show.

But did you yourself…. Were you yourself at like, in high school or afterwards in college?

Absolutely. Yes. 100%. I mean, when I graduated high school, the choice I made was to go to…. I came to California and I studied at California Institute of the Arts.

Get ready, because I love horrible theater stories. Things that go wrong. So just get one ready.

Oh, yeah. They're the best. You can't….

Before we get to one of those, can you guys extend your tolerance for my lack of intelligence again?

Is Kansas City…. Are you going to go to the Chiefs and the Royals again?

It's worn pretty thin. at this point. It's very, very thin.

Yeah, don't bring that back. So if I'm on the border between… No.

And now back to the show.

So jazz. Talk to me about jazz. Now, I'm a big music fan and specifically classical music. And so I feel like if I love classical music, I could really love jazz because it's a little easier to love. It's a little bit more toe-tappy.

That is a component of it. And I think the umbrella of jazz under that are many, many subdivisions and categories. It's a huge sort of a blanket term, especially by now. You know, if you think of somebody like Robert Glasper, who I won a Grammy with for producing the album Miles Ahead. Anyway.

Sorry, your cough sounds terrible. Your cough sounds really bad.

It's my second Grammy. Sorry.

You've got a really terrible cough.

Yeah. Thanks, Bill. Let me get a little water here.

Wait, are you close to an EGOT?

Two Grammys.

Oh, now you've got it clear.

Your throat's clear now.

I want to get that looked at. Okay, that's good now.

Do you have a nomination EGOT? I think you do. Yes?

I have a nomination EGOT, yes. Wow. I don't have them all.

That's pretty, fucking good.

Wow. But like Rob Glasper, you look at his music and he spans the globe of what his musical knowledge is and his experience. And he does popular stuff, black radio, which is sort of, I think you would think of more as like R&B influenced. And then he does straight ahead jazz and standards, and he does everything in between. So I think, if you were to ask a musician like that what jazz is, or even if you were going to go back and ask Miles Davis what jazz was, he hated that word.

Yeah.

I hate it.

I'm the same.

Don, you have to forgive Jason, because they don't do explanations of jazz on the Hollywood Reporter homepage. So he wouldn't read it. But let me just say this. We did this bit in our show Flake. Nothing, huh?

Yeah, yeah.

Me too. Like, I just feel like, you know, everyone says you should go to New Orleans for the jazz festival.

And that's a very specific kind of jazz. Yeah. Right?

I'm more, like, I'm open to it. if there's a melody that I can hum back, like a song. I'm not open to the jazz. that's just people just playing.

Sort of fusion-y, improvised fusion.

Yeah, because I can't latch on to anything.

You can't whack off to anything?

What? What did he say?

I love it all, because if you're really, you know, if you're –.

Jazz, you can whack too.

Sorry.

No, latch on to it.

Grab your thing and have some fun.

JB, you heard it too, right?

I think I might have. So, Don, so you're learning the saxophone at an early age. That gets you into music. Eventually, you find an appreciation for Miles Davis. And then that project comes about.

No, no. No, no. A movie. A film.

And you played him? Yes? Yes. We're not good journalists.

Brilliantly. And I remember you telling me when I ran into you, you were working on that.

Nominations or even some wins. for that, I believe.

Well, that was the Grammy that we got for the soundtrack, which is really cool. That one we put together with Rob Glasper. He and I put that together.

So that was really cool.

But, yeah, I think it's a big category. You talk about jokes on shows. We had one on Black Monday where I'm talking to – thank you very much. I'm talking to Regina. Dawn, her name, the character is Dawn, about it.

Yeah.

Now, in my incredible research, did you really work on The Fresh Prince?

Funny enough, I did. I was on one of the first episodes of Fresh Prince. And I have a funny pilot firing story, too. I love it. About a pilot that didn't go.

Yeah, he's mouthing it. That's such a thing.

We've all worked with people who do that. It's such an actor thing, right? Yeah, yeah. Where you're like, are you mouthing my dialogue to me as I'm saying it?

Yeah.

So he was so studious. You know, he knew everybody's lines, and then he would, like, mouth everybody's lines. So we did that one, and by the third or fourth show, the creators, Susan and Andy Borowitz, who were the head writers on the show, they said, we want to do a show around you.

Uh-oh.

Not necessarily based on the character that you're playing on this, but we just want to do a show around you. And I was like, okay, that's cool. So they wrote this show.

How old were you?

I don't know. When I did Fresh Prince?

Yeah, early 20s?

Is that really germane to the story? I think it is.

When you get offered your own show, it's like, what?

I was six. Okay?

I was fucking six.

No, he's just jealous. He's just jealous because he's like, when are you getting offers for your own show? And he's like, I worked my whole life. Michael Landon didn't create a show for me. Sorry, JB.

Michael Landon.

Heavy saxophone.

Super, super heavy saxophone. It was on the schedule.

Yeah.

I'm ready. And the next day, I got a call. And they said, it's off the schedule.

Okay, we're late 80s.

I don't know if people are listening now.

Brandon, yeah.

But when he stepped down and Warren Littlefield came in, he killed all the shows that were under Brandon. Oh, wow. That was one of the catch.

You know, Sean, you told me a story. And correct me if I'm wrong about where you shot the pilot because they had Minionette sauce instead of cocktail sauce for your oysters. Is that true? And you guys were about to leave, Van Nuys. You were so mad.

But I spared the co-pilot.

As a lesson, so he could live to tell the story to other pilots about how to get the sauces right.

Now, all right. So now, Don, could you imagine if that show had taken off, became a big success, you would have been a big sitcom star. I wonder where your career would have gone.

I was thinking the same thing.

So, going back before that, was there another significant fork in the road, either where you grew up, like a fateful move to a certain city, or what your parents were doing or saying, or sibling, where you could have easily seen, oh, if I'd just simply gone right instead of left, I would be a veterinarian today or I would be an architect today. Or was there a fork?

That's such a good question.

Thank you.

I mean, you know, it's crazy that my fallback was music. Like, if this acting thing doesn't work out, I'll be a jazz musician. That'll get me there.

Really? Really?

That's, to me, the highest.

I love that goal.

It really is. I think, because of, as you were talking about, improvisation, that you're creating things spontaneously. I don't know what it's doing biochemically to you, but I'm sure if you have electrodes on and, you know, they were testing you, you're getting dopamine hits that are just through the roof because it's just so alive.

Yeah. And it necessitates this connection with these fellow, pardon the term, artists that you're kind of communicating without speaking and there's a hand-off and a yes-and thing. You get that also in acting. Yeah, you do.

And there's also that thing you do when you perform live, when you also get that feedback from an audience, when you're on stage and you get that thing and it starts to inform you a little bit. They become part of your creative process, because you get juice from that, I think.

Yeah, yeah, I agree. Absolutely, you do. And it transcends language and it transcends, you know, English, Spanish. We can all speak this language.

Yeah, yeah.

There's a big unifying thing that it does. that's just like beyond.

I had the same thing, Don. You know, I always had music to fall back on and I still have the music to fall back on if the acting thing doesn't work out. But I always thought my fallback was going to be, oh, I'll just be a pop star.

Well, you can sit your ass off, so you had a shot.

Well, no, but when I was younger.

Can we just play him a little bit of it right now? We do this every once in a while, Don.

Sean?

Yeah, no. Now, Don, do you?

Bennett's going to find it for us. He's going to play it before Don leaves. Bennett or Rob are going to play it.

Drop that needle, Bennett.

Hey, Don, do you have a place where you go, like Woody Allen famously took his clarinet out, I don't know, once a week or whatever, and that's not a euphemism.

Oh, nice.

Not a euphemism. Right in there, Will. You're the best.

You're my new favorite guy on the podcast.

Do you have a place where you go whip out your sax and go play it?

Rocket, hang on, man.

I just said Will got that one. You don't have to jump on top of Will's thing.

I'm trying to piggyback on that. Hey, did you hear what I did?

Jump on top of Will's thing? Your turn, Sean. Get in there.

That was a good one, too. I'll take it all.

I'll take it all.

There it is. Do you have a band that you play with or a jazz club that you go to every once in a while?

No, and I've been, like, bouncing around. So I played the sax, and then I didn't do that. You know, when I went to Cal Arts, it was kind of like a conservatory, the amount of time that you had to spend on all that. There was no time, really, to do anything but theater and voice and movement and dance and all that stuff. So I just kind of dropped it.

Yeah. It's just like acting.

God, I wish I could find that.

Yeah.

People who lift me up.

It's fucking unbelievable. I'm just dragging these two.

You're just stuck with these guys. Don, you seem to be, like, so great at surrounding your life with the things that mean, you know, have great value to you. Music, acting, family. You always seem to be in a great mood, too. Golf.

This is a question. This is an interviewer, Will. This is somebody who knows how to shape a question. Sorry. Go ahead, Don.

I love the commentary.

I'm just here for the pot shots from the sideline, man. You know that.

Will's killing it, and you're killing the pot shots from the sideline, by the way.

I appreciate it, man.

Don't encourage him.

I honestly have to attribute a lot of it to my upbringing. I was very fortunate to have, and people get to it, however they get to it. I was very fortunate to have really solid parents,

Did you have an older sibling that knocked the crap out of you when you got too big?

Well, she's a girl, so I took advantage of the different muscles. I was stronger than her, and then we moved into weapons, and that's when it was like, oh, she's leveled the playing field, so we got to chill out, and that's when we stopped fighting.

I don't keep those people around because people can't breathe the air up here the way I can.

Yeah, you're one of those people we were talking about.

The air is so thin up here. It's so rarefied that I can barely, I'm handing out masks to these two, because I'm like, guys, we're going on a ride. We're going somewhere.

Or we're going down.

No, it's so important. I love that. It is a measure of somebody, by the way, how many old friends they have from back in the day, and I'm with you on that. I think it's really great. I've got a lot of my old buddies too.

Now, Don, I've got a question here. You've been a part of so many incredible projects. I want to know if any of them felt or smelt like turds right in the middle of it, and you were shocked at the end of it that it turned out so well. Projects like Crash,

I think I've had the opposite. where I'm like, this thing's going to crush, and then it comes out and I'm like, boom.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Not so much.

Not so much. Right.

I mean, we don't know, right? You just go in with your best. You've made the best decision you could, and you go in and throw everything into it, and then sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. But I've never – I've always believed that the thing I've said yes to has value and it's going to be good. and the experiences, and then it turns into being what it's going to be.

You've clearly got a nice connection going with Steven Soderbergh, yeah?

Yeah.

I heard the set of Chernobyl was toxic.

Nice, Will.

That's a great show, by the way.

But you and Soderbergh have a great rhythm going. Yeah. You see, working with him again in the future? probably? Yes.

I mean, we have stuff – we're trying to develop things as we speak.

There's a couple things. I love – Out of Sight is such a great fucking movie, man.

Isn't it good? So underrated and overlooked.

It's such a good movie.

Yeah. God damn it.

Despite Clooney's looks, it's so good.

No, I know. Tough to get around. But Soderbergh's just –. Soderbergh's such a beast. He's such a good guy, too.

Are you trying to dovetail into you? No, no.

No, no. That's what I'd like to do.

But can I take a minute to honestly actually –.

Oh, yeah. There we go. Spike it. Spike it. He served it up.

You might as well spike it. Guys, take a second.

I do want to spike it. I'm a big Jason Bateman fan. I'm just going to say I'm a big Jason Bateman fan. Okay. And I'm really – I love everything that I'm seeing you do.

Yeah, it's really fun, because he lives his personal life like an editor, too. So he's always talking about the results.

He's trying to cut you off. Fuck off. Trimming you. Well, now, Will, what Don's doing here is he's dovetailing into his accomplishments as a director as well. That he has – No.

I'll never do it again.

Come on. I'll never do it again. Why not?

I don't anticipate ever doing it again.

Why? Come on. You've done it a handful of times at least.