"Emma Stone"

I had a dream last night that it was the best episode we've ever done. So I couldn't sleep the rest of the night, got in here, fired up the old machine, and I'm now waiting on these guys, and I am loose. I got a little bit of a sweat going. The hammies are pliable, flexible, and the jaw muscles are ready to really ask some tough questions and giggle at my funny little friends Sean and Will. Guys, welcome to Smartless.

Smart.

Less.

Smart.

Less.

Smart.

Less.

Hi, guys.

Shut up, Sean. Oh, my God.

I've never, I haven't laughed, laughed so hard as I did today when we were standing on the street, we'd just come out of a meeting, the three of us, like adults, like adults, and Sean, Sean starts to say something and he, like he's doing. right now, he, he, uh, undoes the top of a bottle of water and he's about to take his hip and, or no, he's going to do it, and Jason slaps it out of his hand, and it lands on the ground, and it lands on the ground.

Just a fun, a fun little hair pull.

Yeah, just a little fun, fun, fun.

Yeah, just a plastic bottle, nothing broke.

Plastic bottle. So I reach down to grab it, because it falls at my feet, and I hand it to Sean, and as he reaches for it, I just drop it right before he can grab it, like a child.

So now that's twice, that's twice in denied water.

And as it lands on the ground, Sean reaches down to get it, and Jason kicks it, and it goes flying, hits a curb, and goes under a parked, like, construction truck.

It explodes, the top of it comes flying off, the water's everywhere.

Fucking. funny, I was crying.

And I haven't laughed that hard, I fell to my knees.

Because it was so, it was high school. all over again, it was like, uh, it was a little bullying.

Or just, you know.

It made me laugh.

It was just fun, and stupid.

God, I laughed. Clean, fun.

Um, Jay, did you like my cheesecake last night?

Yeah. Cheese, now I, I would've, I would've liked it a little firmer, Sean.

A little. Yeah, it was a little too fluffed.

It wasn't as gooey as the last one, so I feel like we're making progress.

I liked the last one.

Now I say this as a person, I can't even boil water, so the fact that you cook anything is incredible.

No, no.

It's very impressive.

But also, I didn't know, Will, either, that, I didn't, I've never made whipped cream in my life. I didn't know that you just pour half and half, or whatever, in a bowl. And whip it. And you just start.

The special whipped cream.

You just start whipping it. I was, my mind was blown. I was like, oh.

Do you think it's a good idea that you've now learned how easy it is to make whipped cream?

I think so. I think so. I think you know what I'm doing tonight.

Yeah, you missed out on a good cheesecake last night, Will. I know. But then I found out, then Sean told me that the secret ingredient that he does drive an hour and a half for. Yeah. Was a, a, a British chocolate, Cadbury white chocolate bar.

No, not Cadbury, it was another brand, but yeah.

Another brand that we're not going to mention, I guess.

We can, if you want, it's called Milky Bar.

Well, we already mentioned Cadbury, so, I mean, we're kind of recommended.

But there's a, there's a, is that, is that a thing? Is that normal that there's a white chocolate candy bar in most cheesecakes?

Well, no, no. I just melted it to make kind of like the creamy part. It was one of many ingredients. Sorry, listener.

If you thought you tuned into Smart List, it's, it's cook-less this week.

Bake-less.

Bake-less.

Yeah, yeah, I know. And I, I was so obsessed with getting the ingredients right, I drove an hour and a half to get it, because they don't sell them in the United States.

And what did he do, Will, when he got there?

You drove to another country?

When he drove an hour and a half away to get this, what did he do while he was there? He's like, huh, well, look, here's a, here's a, a rare hamburger joint that we don't have near us. Yeah, Portillo's. Oh, that's why he went to Portillo's. Yeah, and he put a big burger in his face and a, and a shake too, I'll bet.

Yeah, I got a shake, a piece of cake, and I got fries and a hot dog.

Wait, a shake and a piece of cake?

Yeah. For lunch? Piece of cake, fries, and a hot dog.

And then, and then two beef sandwiches.

And what's that?

Two beef sandwiches, one biscotti.

And this is when you were on the mission to pick up-.

Were you driving a school bus?

White chocolate.

Yeah, well, I had, I picked up the white chocolate part.

Were you buying for all the kids in the school bus?

No, I never get it, so I bought like a little extra stuff and I put it, I put it in the fridge and I'll heat it up later.

Good for you.

Thank you. Guys.

Yeah.

Let's get started.

Oh, wow, I thought we had, but.

This is really exciting, guys, today. You're going to freak out.

Oh, it's your guest.

It's my guest today. I'm so excited. We got my favorite redheaded firecracker here today. She's a self-proclaimed computer nerd, and before becoming one of my all-time favorite full-fledged movie stars, she made people websites for free. In fact, at 14 years old, she performed a PowerPoint presentation titled Project Hollywood in order to convince her parents to let her drop out of high school and move to L.A.

Emma Stone! Emma Stone!

And Emma's a little under the weather.

I'm a little under the weather.

That's okay. I can't believe you showed up for us, though.

Did you get into a big pile of bad coke last night, Emma?

Listen, you know what? You've been there, right?

There's meetings for you. Yeah, listen, we're saving a seat for you.

I know. Thank you.

Are you at home or in a hotel?

I'm in a hotel.

I thought you said a rehab.

It's a home.

She's been live for our first ever Spotless.

Thanks for having me. What an opening. Emma's been up for four days, listener.

Emma, I don't think of you as a ginger, I guess, per se, when I think of gingers.

But you are. I'm blonde right now.

No, no, no, I'm not. I'm actually, I have blonde hair right now, and I was born blonde. Well, I was born hairless, but then I grew blonde hair. Okay. Hairless is my podcasting.

Sure. Give us the full rundown.

Bravo.

Yeah, but I died in red.

Yeah, you were red for a while there, yes?

For a long time.

So much so that people thought you were natch red.

Red natch. But I'm not red natch.

But wasn't it true that-?

My mother's red natch.

Yeah? You gotta be careful with that word, natch.

I have a son who's a natch ginge.

Oh.

Yeah.

We love a natch ginge.

Oh my gosh, do we ever love a natch ginge?

This has gotten so filthy from the very beginning.

I know.

Wait, Emma, didn't you-.

That natchy ginge?

Hey, man.

Take a nap.

I've been up for days. I'm so excited you're on the show with us, Emma.

Thanks for having me.

But wait, didn't you die originally when you moved here, and you felt like you weren't getting parts or something? I feel like I read something, and then you thought, maybe your talent, which your seeping talent, that that wasn't good enough.

And that's what I was telling everyone.

Yes.

And that's what I kept saying. And they went, no, no, no. That hair has got to go.

But you thought you had to dye your hair? Is that true?

Yeah, I was- Because I moved to L.A. when I was 15, and so all of the things that I was auditioning for at that time were kind of, you know, like roles for 15-year-old girls. at that time were a lot of girls that were- I guess what I was up for was a lot of very blonde, cheerleader-y kind of roles, and I didn't fit those very well. And so I thought if I dyed my hair brown, it would really set me apart.

Yeah. Yeah.

How'd that go?

You know, it went great, Jason. Yeah. You got some mascot parts.

It went really great.

I didn't get any parts after that either. But a couple years later, I auditioned for Superbad, and I was at the camera test for that. And Judd Apatow said, well, maybe she could have red hair, because the other girl in the movie, who's my best friend now, Martha McIsaac, had brown hair. And so we dyed my hair red, and the rest was, you know.

But was- Is Sean's incredible research accurate? Were you really doing websites for people? Like, are you a computer person?

I was in that kind of, you know, 90s computer format. I don't know if you guys know. You know, Angel Fire, GeoCities, that kind of world where you did very primitive HTML. This is not coding by any means. In fact, I don't have a computer now.

Wow. What are you looking for when you're out there? What are you looking for in a drop-down menu?

No, see, that's the thing. See, that's the thing.

When you want somebody to step-.

And this keeps me up at night.

If somebody's looking to step into a really elite drop-down menu.

Yeah, if you're looking for great drop-down menus-.

What are some of the components of this? You're in the market.

No, okay. It needs to be clear, clear fonts. We're not using any Comic Sans on my drop-down menus. No, no. We're hitting Helvetica hard.

You now are completely- You don't have a computer at all?

I don't have a computer at all anymore.

Come on.

I really don't.

What about an iPhone?

I have an iPhone, but it's a very cracked-.

The incredible new iPhone 15.. I don't-. Oh, my God. Is this an ad for the iPhone 15?? Yeah, if you want to get rid of your old one.

It is now.

We're done with that. It cycles over. Thank God. We enjoyed our experience, but, oh, mama, was there a heavy rotation. Sorry about that, America.

Wait, so you do- But you do-. Do you do email off your phone, then?

I do email on my phone, and I, you know, just type it with my thumbs.

So, no social media, no, nothing else? No. I love that.

Come on. No.

That's refreshing.

Thanks so much.

You know, I was thinking yesterday. I said to a friend of ours- I says to him, I says-

You says friend?

I says friend, I says? Uh-huh. Yep. I said, we should-. Imagine the reset this planet would get if we had no social media for six months.

Globally. Yeah. Yeah, it'd be pretty wild.

The fucking reset would be incredible.

What do you think would happen?

Well, people would learn how to manage boredom, which I think is a lost talent. I know. I try to teach my kids, like, it's okay if you're bored. That's actually another word for relaxation. Like, enjoy it.

You know? Well, yeah. Do you ever do that thing, Emma, where you look at people? I've been doing it a lot lately. I don't know.

Yeah.

But when you wake up in the morning, you don't have, like, a loop that you have to or that you like to do on a computer.

Oh, this is good. Hang on.

What's your computer loop? Well, you know, you hit the New York Times and your email and your calendar, and you kind of get your shit together.

I just do all that on my phone.

Okay.

So I'm probably actually on my phone more than people that have a computer.

But see, what I'm picturing here is that you've got no reason or excuse to get up out of the pillows. Correct. You're still in the feathers. When you reach over, you grab your phone.

I'm just in a pile of feathers.

You sleep in a pile of feathers for real.

What an angel. What an angel.

Yeah. I'm down with that.

Well, what if, like, you, had a nice desktop, you could get out and into the living room and join the world? Get yourself a desktop. You're right.

This is a great opportunity for a new segment. I'm calling JB, Walk Us Through It.

No, you don't want to follow my morning. All right. So, Emma, which one of your rad projects are we going to talk about today?

There's so many. Okay. So you answer that first.

I don't know.

Which one would you like to talk about?

I want to talk about our childhood. I want to talk about all these good stuff. I want to talk about. it was your birthday last week. Happy birthday.

What? Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Can we guess the age?

Oh, this might be mean, but sure, go ahead. No, no, no, no.

How about I'm going to go with 24, 25. Will?

I'm going to get real.

Yeah, be real. Will and I worked together when I was, I think, 19..

Yes, that's true.

Really?

That was a long time ago.

That is true. Oh, she's going to win then. So wait, then, wait, then, Sean, you go next. Okay.

I was going to say late 20s.

That's very cute, Sean, and sweet.

True. I really don't know.

Are you truly north of 30??

I'm north of 30..

Oh, she is 37.. 35..

You're the closest by far.

Oh, really? Yeah, 35.. You give 35 a great name. That's so young.

You don't look 37.. I was just guessing based on the information.

Okay, Will. Sure, Will. Okay. No, no, no.

That's true. We did work. That was a long time ago. I know.

What was it? What was the job? Do you remember?

It was called?

The Rocker.

The Rocker. You didn't?

The Rocker.

Wait, The Rocker, I still need to see, and what was the other one I said I needed to see the other day? Hot Rod.

All right. Well, let's not go through mine. Emma, go tell everybody who is in The Rocker. Nobody's seen it. Who is in The Rocker?

It was Rainn Wilson, Jason Sudeikis.

Yep.

You, Bradley Cooper. Yep. Fred Armisen. Yep. You.

I need it. Who directed this?

A guy named Peter Cattaneo who directed The Full Monty.

Peter Cattaneo.

Yeah, yeah.

And?

John Glazer. John Glazer. Oh, yeah. The great John Glazer.

Who did Hot Rod? Who directed Hot Rod? Was that? Akiva. That wasn't Yorma, was it?

Love Akiva. The cast was pretty...

It was pretty wild. Yeah, we were in Toronto.

We were in Toronto.

And I feel like you weren't there for that long. I was there for a couple months.

I was there for a week, maybe.

And what kind of part were you playing, Emma?

Well, I was playing the bass in a band that was fronted by... It was sort of a School of Rock, adjacent, would you say, Will?

Yeah, yeah, I would.

Kind of story.

Willie, what were you playing?

Oh, I played the lead singer of a hair band.

Yeah.

True story.

A hair band. You gotta check it out.

Bradley was the guitarist and Fred was the bassist. Yeah. But it was fun. But, yeah, I mean, you have not... I'm trying to think.

And rare.

You haven't done anything as shitty as The Rocker, since The Rocker, is what Will is saying.

I've done way worse movies than The Rocker since The Rocker.

That's subjective, I think, maybe.

It is good.

Let's not go too deep through the IMDB.

I met you once very briefly. You were so kind years and years ago, blah, blah, blah. You'd never remember. I think it was at SNL. But I was like, oh, my God, that's Emma Stone.

That's where I'm from.

I know.

That's why I was like, oh, my God. That's amazing. Well, my name was taken...

Have you noticed, like, there's been less dog poop around when you go home?

You know, now that you mention it...

Try to gauge how Sean's friends...

I mean, it used to be absolutely everywhere. Just piles of it.

But her gig is just, she's just a freelance. She just goes around town. Freelance poop. And she's looking for just spare poop that's unclaimed and unpicked up.

Yeah, that's what she does. You call her up if you don't want to pick up your dog poop. It's called Poop Troll. Sherry's Poop Troll.

Who's compensating her? The city?

Her clients.

People who don't want poop in their lawn, man.

Yeah. Wait, I'm confused. Wait. So you call her just to... So you just let your dogs kind of run free on your own lawn, like, all week, and then Poop Troll comes...

Oh, like a gardener.

...and picks everything up.

That's right.

A gardener comes over, picks up the poop. Yeah. Like, instead of blowing the leaves and stuff, there's just the poop.

Yeah, she picks up the poop.

Huh. Wow. Wow. I don't know, 30 jokes in there?

Well, that's kind of why I brought it up. It's such a funny job.

You take a tight five and gather them and then come back to us.

But wait, a dog bakery. You worked at a dog bakery when you were a teenager? Yeah, okay.

I worked at a dog bakery when I moved to L.A. when I was 15, called Three Dog Bakery at the Farmer's Market.

At the Grove?

At the Grove.

I used to go there. You worked there?

Yes. Oh, my God. I mean, not for long. For, like, maybe six months.

Wow.

So wait, Shani, this was pre-Ricky?

Yeah, this was years ago. Years and years ago.

This was when I was 15, 20 years ago.

Yeah, that's when I had my two other dogs and used to go there to shop for them.

Do you think that we ever ran into each other? then? Probably. Maybe.

Huh.

I think word would have gotten out that Will and Grace's Sean Hayes was there.

I think you're right. I think I would have told everybody.

Guaranteed. Guaranteed.

Oh, my God. Okay, so I must not have been working those hours.

We'll be right back.

It's all a lighthearted nightmare. on our podcast. Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart.

She was a romance mystery writer who happens to be married to a chef.

But this story didn't end with a happily. ever after. When I stepped into the kitchen, I could see that Chef Brophy was on the ground and I heard somebody say, Call 911.. As writers, we'd written our share of murder mysteries. So when suspicion turned to Dan's wife, Nancy, we weren't that surprised.

The first person they look at would be the spouse.

We understand that's usually the way they do it. But we began to wonder, had Nancy gotten so wrapped up in her own novels?

There are murders in all of the books.

that she was playing them out in real life? Follow Happily Never After Dan and Nancy on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Happily, Never After Dan and Nancy early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

All right, back to the show.

Tell these guys why you changed your name from Emily to Emma.

Well, it was... Originally, my name was taken at Screen Actors Guild. Right. When I got my card, when I was 16..

So it was an Emily Stone.

Wow.

And so I originally changed it to Riley, because when you tell a 16-year-old that they can just change their name...

Right.

You pick a cool name. And so I was like, I'll be Riley.

You could have changed it to Emma Middle Name Lee.

Emma Lee Stone.

Right? Oh.

I don't know if I could pull off being a three-namer.

Fuck, is there any way you could call her 20 years ago?

Could you call me 20 years ago really quick?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, real quick. Hold on.

Just one second, we'll pause. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then we'll just...

That is a real thing, though, right? That is a real thing, though, all people who change their names because of... Sack. Right. Because there's already somebody...

Yeah.

Michael J. Fox, I think, was because there was already a Michael Fox, right?

One of the great ones isn't... I feel like Michael Keaton is Michael Douglas.

Oh, wow. Oh, really?

Oh, yes.

And he changed his last name to Keaton because Michael Douglas was Michael Douglas.

Wait, and I just learned Albert Brooks' real name is Albert Einstein. I did not know that.

No.

Swear to God. Swear to God.

That's unbelievable.

His brother was Bob Einstein, you know, Super Dave Osborne. That was Bob Einstein, and that's Albert's brother. Wow.

But anyway, Emily to Emma.

Emily to Emma.

You should have changed your name to Albert Einstein because that was free.

That's true. That one's free now.

Not being used anymore.

Wait, so you went to Emma.

I went to Emma because growing up, I was an enormous... I mean, still to this day. I am, but an enormous, an enormous... Sorry, I'm slurring from all of the... I've been up for four days.

You need to take a nap.

Yeah, I got to take a nap.

No way.

Crazy about her. Yeah. I love that. When I was in second or third grade, I asked the teacher to call me Emma, but it didn't ever stick, but then I had the chance to do it permanently, and here I am. I love that.

Have you met the Spice Girls since?

I have.

Does she know that?

I've met the Spice Girls now. I think she does, because she gave me a really special T-shirt that she had signed. It was like, from one, Emma to another kind of thing. It was pretty cool.

Did you keep it together?

I did not keep it together at all, at all. But I will say, the night before I met them, we were going to their concert in England when they did a reunion tour a couple years ago, in 2019, and the night before, I went to a party at somebody's house, and the magician, David Blaine, was there, and he did just an astounding trick. He did this card trick, and then it was this whole thing, and it was an illusion, an illusion, if you will, and he pulled up his phone, and the card was reflected in a picture on someone's foot, in the glasses of someone on a boat, and it was this crazy thing, and I got so excited. Now this is a tale as old as time, because I'm about to tell you a story from yesterday as well. I got so excited that I ran.

When was this?

No, Blaine was responsible for that.

2019, the summer of 2019.. So the next day, I'm supposed to go to the Spice Girls concert, and I was like, there is no way on earth. I'm missing this. So we got in England one of these things from Boots, the drugstore, this little sling, and I hadn't even gotten an x-ray yet, and I went, and I was in so much pain that actually meeting the Spice Girls under those circumstances was probably better, so I couldn't do that in front of them instead.

And your excitement was so tempered by the pain you were in.

It was so tempered by the pain that I was like, it's amazing to meet you guys. Oh my God. It was so brutal. It was broken in two places, and then yesterday, I have bone density issues. That's clear, because I broke my toe yesterday.

No. Kicking, something? I did.

Doing what?

On what?

Getting out of the shower.

Yeah.

Well, you shouldn't be lying down in the shower. What do you mean, getting out? I know.

You accidentally, you stubbed it on something?

I slammed it into something, and now it's completely black and blue and like all messed up, and so I've been icing it all day.

And you're sick, and you showed up for us today. God bless you.

Yeah, how did you not cancel?

It's a dream. This is incredible. Are you kidding? I'm sitting on a computer with headphones. This is lovely.

Half of one of those excuses would have made me cancel this thing. Really?

I was just thinking, I would give-.

I was so excited for this.

I would give anything for improved bone density.

Yeah, right.

Sorry, just sidebar. Sidebar.

Wait, we need to take,

what is it, Boniva or something? Yeah, Boniva. There's some pill to help our bone density, but I've broken seven bones. Before I was 30, I broke seven bones.

Emma.

Isn't that crazy?

Wow. Something's wrong with me. So then you seriously looked into this. You seriously do have bone density issues?

Yeah, I have a, an endocrinologist was like, we gotta talk about this. Like, something's up with you.

Right. And? Did he come up with anything?

Just that I need to take a lot of vitamin D and calcium and do. apparently, weight-bearing exercises like heavy lifting is what creates more bone density.

Well, you could just drink milk and eat like dumplings from Chin Chin, like Sean.

Jesus.

He has a glass of milk four times a day?

No, I have a glass of milk with dinner every night.

No, you don't.

I really do.

You're joking. Why not?

It's good for you.

That's Chris.

Glass of milk. It's good for you. It's vitamin C.

Wait, you sit at dinner, drinking a glass of milk? Yeah.

Yeah, whatever it is. I saw it a week ago. I just, I had to stop.

Are you just doing it to be adorable or you really enjoy it?

No, this is what he does. No, I, I. Like, leave the beaver. You know why?

Sean lives, he lives like he's in the 50s. It's incredible. 12-year-old in the 50s.

Because water's too boring and soda has too much sugar, so I just drink milk.

Well, you know, they have zero sugar soda now.

I'm not into it. So, listen, uh, I wanted to say, by the way, since we're on medical stuff.

I wish this was just a gallon of milk when I said that. That would be so good. That's so fascinating.

That's creative. But is it true, because you have one of those cool, like, million, billion dollar voices too. Is it true that you, first of all, didn't know you had asthma until you had an asthma attack while filming Easy A, which I read. Yes. And the other thing is, did you really have a condition when you were a baby, because you cried too much and it made your voice, is that true?

Yeah.

Because you were colicky? I was, like,

extremely colicky for five months. What's colicky? Can you imagine? Now, having a kid, I cannot imagine having a colicky baby to that extent.

What does that mean, colicky?

Colic is, apparently, a condition where your stomach is killing you. Like, there's, you're in a lot of pain. I,

like,

everything I can talk about is just my medical.

No, I know. It's fascinating.

But here's what I think it is. It is, it is the, it is the intestines, or, part of the GI tract, that is still developing and unkinking itself, and there is a kink in the hose that is not, it still needs to grow, to release itself, and it takes a couple of weeks and the babies are miserable.

Miserable. Yeah. So it was like, if I was awake, I was screaming myself hoarse every day, and I think it was very, very traumatizing for my parents.

I see. You know, you know. what's good for bone density. is those, those, the astronauts, you know that thing, the power plate thing that vibrates, that's supposed to be good for bone density.

Oh, thanks, Will.

Isn't that kind of a 50s thing too? Yeah.

I don't know, man. A little belt around you that shakes.

I read it once over a glass of milk.

I want to know, let's get to the career stuff, because it's really interesting.

Okay, great.

How old's your, no, hang on, how old's your baby? Let's just do a quick, how old's your baby?

Two and a half. Two and a half.

Sweet. Boy or girl?

Girl.

Girl. Oh, sweet.

I didn't know that. That's so fantastic. Congratulations.

Thank you so much.

Yeah.

Thanks. With your husband, who you met at SNL, did you meet him at SNL? Truly. Dave McCary? Yeah.

And is he, what does he do with SNL?

He was a writer, director there for about five years. Oh, nice. Doing digital shorts.

And you met him there?

I met him there, yeah. Oh, that's great. But we had a bunch of mutual friends, so, yeah.

So great. I love that.

I feel like I was there that week too, although you probably hosted a few times. I remember being there once when you were hosting, and I was just like,

oh, she's rushing. Guys, wait, hold on. I'm gonna host on December 2nd. I get to get my five-timers jacket. No way.

You're so good at it.

That's really, really cool. Wait, so Emma, you and Dave married in the pandemic. and was that just because it was planned that way and you just kept it? or you're like, you know what, let's just do this now?

You were waiting for a pandemic, weren't you? Didn't? you guys say you wanted to get married, but let's wait for a pandemic to hit? I read that somewhere.

Did you just trim the fat a little bit on the invite list?

Yeah.

Smart.

the week that I got married, I did open a refrigerator and the handle broke off and I got a black eye.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. You need a helmet. And that's where it stops.

You know, I do need a helmet. Oh, my God. I need a helmet.

and extensive therapy.

You got this new show with Nathan Fielder. I want to skip ahead. I know she's your guest. Oh, yes. But that looks really...

I know she's your guest, but I'll take this one.

It looks really fun. First of all, he's great, and not just because he's Canadian. He's super funny. You're super funny, and when I first saw the ad for it, I was like, these motherfuckers, and then they got one of those safties in there.

Yeah, they sure did. Put a wig on him. Took the boom out of his hand and said, go.

This is like a fucking... This is like a fucking talent explosion happening in one thing. What happened? I'm so goddamn excited for this thing.

Yeah, me too.

I'm so excited for this.

It's a wild ride,

that one.

Tell us about... How did that come to you, to your orbit?

So, Nathan and I have known each other through Dave and Dave's best friend, Kyle Mooney, have been good friends. I love Kyle Mooney.

Huge fan of Kyle Mooney.

And they've been best friends since they were nine years old. Oh, wow. Yeah. And so, Nathan knew Dave and Kyle well, and I got to know Nathan for a couple years. And then, I think in 2020, 2019 maybe, Nathan called me and said that he and Benny Safdie had come up with this kind of loose idea for a show, based on something that Nathan had really experienced, where someone had said that they curse him in a moment.

Sure.

And they started coming up with this sort of premise of what would happen if you're kind of going about your life, and they had this idea for this couple who is trying to create their own HGTV show. But early on, the husband, a little girl, says, I curse you. And if that hangs over the premise of this whole show and how that evolves and kind of makes them go crazy, whether it's real or not. And it just sort of spiraled out from there and became this very intense show. It's really, it is a comedy, but it's kind of not a comedy.

Kind of dark.

It's very, yeah, there's a lot going on there. So it was, no, it was a blast. And we were in New Mexico for like half of last year shooting that.

And say the title again.

The Curse.

Yeah, The Curse. I see posters for it everywhere.

And say the title one more time.

And just one more, the third time.

So, The Curse.

I want to talk about. I want to talk about Poor Things too,

which is a movie.

that you have coming out.

The brilliant Yorgos Lanthimos.

I'm going to go see it this week.

You are?

Yeah.

Where are you going to see it?

I'm seeing it.

At one of the screenings. because I'm going, I'm going to be at those. I'll see you there.

I just got a text for it. Yeah.

Oh, great. Was it me texting you to come to the screenings?

Oh, it was you.

Do you go by Emma Stone? No. Oh, shit. Yeah, interesting.

This is the second project with Yorgos? Yes?

It was technically the third, because we made a short film at the beginning of 2020.. And then, so, but it was, yes, it was the second film.

This guy is just so brilliant. Amazing.

We made another one in the meantime. We made another one in New Orleans last year.

No, really?

Yeah. With Willem. With Willem.

Yeah, Willem's in Poor Things.

Yeah, yeah. So, we've done two together. And so, for my sister, Tracy, Yorgos did The Favorite, The Lobster, just a bunch of great movies.

How to Kill a Sacred Deer.

Incredible.

Dogtooth, which is one.

Yeah.

So, Poor Things. So, did you develop it? Did you find it? Like, did you just get an offer? Like, how did that come to you?

So, Yorgos and I did The Favorite in 2017.. And right as we were wrapping up The Favorite, he told me about this book that he and Tony McNamara, who was the writer of The Favorite,

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so, for the next few years, we worked on things and started kind of putting it all together.

Yeah, I don't know.