Seth Rogen Loves Watching 'The Valley' & Ted Danson Would Want to Be a Butler | Off Script Moment - video Dailymotion

The Hollywood Reporter

THR pulls our comedy actors aside for some "Off Script" moments ahead of their THR Roundtable interview. Find out how 'I Love Lucy' made John Mulaney want to work in show business or how Seth Rogen is a big fan of Bravo's 'The Valley.' Plus, Ted Danson reveals why he would want to be a butler and Julio Torres shares his real thoughts on having a trailer.

Transcript

00:00It's a really easy one for me. I'm gonna go with broadcast news. Both the writing,

00:15James L. Brooks in his prime, but also all three of those performances, William Hurt,

00:21Albert Brooks, Holly Hunter, are three of the best comic performances I've ever seen.

00:24I try to like steal it for forgetting Sarah Marshall, but one of the things that really

00:29struck me from that movie is that in a lesser movie, one of those guys turns out to be a

00:33villain. So the choice is really clear. But in that movie, everyone's just living in their

00:39full humanity and life is complicated. And so everything that we've tried to do writing-wise

00:44on shrinking and stuff I write is kind of that model.

00:47Oh, the thing that made me want to work in show business was I Love Lucy and watching

00:51Desi Arnaz's life as Ricky Ricardo, doing a show at night and having all day free before

00:58even considering comedy versus anything else or theater or film or whatever it was. I

01:02wanted to work at night in some kind of nightclub and not have anything to do during the day.

01:07And I accomplished that and then started this TV show where I have to work all day.

01:13For some reason, the movie Birth with Nicole, as in Kidman, was like incredibly captivating

01:21to me. And I weirdly reference it a lot. I feel like that era of American indie filmmaking

01:28was very seductive to me. For sure, Macaulay Culkin, Home Alone. River Phoenix, random

01:33movie, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. In Robocop 2, there is a kid about 12 years

01:38old that plays a drug kingpin that dies on a pile of money, Scarface style, and that

01:43performance as well.

01:44When I turned on the first TV I ever owned at age 21, and it was the Dick Van Dyke show.

01:52And Dick was literally tripping over the ottoman as I turned it on is what made me want to

01:58become an actor.

01:59Honestly, it's probably Home Alone. I think it's one of the first movies I saw where, like,

02:03a kid was the star. It almost seemed like it was written by a kid. And I remember after

02:07I saw Home Alone is when I first started trying to write a movie. I like movies with kids beating

02:12up adults. And so I think it was my take on a kid's beating up adults movie. Yeah.

02:18I have a little dog named Dash who's my perfect boy. He's about this big. And we would be hanging

02:23out and, you know, we'd be talking about just, like, how he's doing. And he'd lick my face.

02:29And then maybe we'd take a little walk.

02:30If I didn't do this today, I would probably be at Michael's in Mission Viejo buying art

02:41supplies. There's been a request to make a car out of cardboard. I'm not sure exactly

02:48what it's supposed to look like, but we have an arts and crafts request from our son to

02:52make a car out of cardboard. I asked him if it should have a steering wheel, and he said

02:55no. And he got quite upset at that.

02:58Weekends are mostly driven by the kids. So, yeah, that's, you know, that's going to be

03:04a play date. That's going to be a, if you can link up with kids your kids like, as well

03:09as parents you like, that's, yeah, that's a home run.

03:14When I have a day off, I am usually surrounded by Mary, at least three or four out of my four

03:23kids, and at least three or four out of my five grandchildren.

03:27So, you know, eat, drink, be happy with them.

03:31I would hang out with my wife and my dog, and we'd maybe do pottery in our garage and watch,

03:38you know, we were watching The Valley and The Valley After Show this morning, so we probably

03:44would have continued to do things like watch reality television throughout the day. Yeah,

03:49we would hang around our house and watch reality TV and then do pottery probably. I always bring

03:55a coffee maker to every set that I'm working on because I like to leave no trace. I like, I don't

04:01like to ask people for things. I like to show up, do acting, and disappear into the night like a phantom.

04:06What's the thing I ask for in my trailer? I'm more of a wallet, keys, phone kind of person. It's not

04:12that I'm not difficult. I just, that's not how it manifests. I ask for like one sugar-free Red Bull,

04:18and then after I'm done with whatever it is, I like to drink one non-alcoholic beer. So, you know,

04:25pretty rock and roll stuff. I don't like trailers, and I don't like the idea of trailers. I think this

04:29idea that actors are like exotic animals that need to be contained, and they need to be like kept

04:35away and like preserved. I don't like that. I feel like contractually they have to give me one,

04:40and then it ends up just being like storage. A dog would make me feel very comfortable.

04:44Other than that, no, just don't make it so cold. That's what I would say. Everyone,

04:48and that goes for hotel rooms too. It doesn't have to be 66. At the moment, what's in my trailer

04:53at work is my wife Mary Steenburgen, which is pretty cool. No one else has that in their trailer,

05:01so it makes me kind of special. I don't spend a lot of time in my trailer in general,

05:06and I sometimes go into other actors' trailers. I'm like, whoa, you've got a whole thing in here.

05:10I put an espresso, I have an espresso machine in my trailer because I drink a lot of caffeine

05:15throughout the day. A little speaker where I listen to music sometimes, and that's sparkling water.

05:21Literally, I don't have much in my trailer at all. I spend no time in my trailer. I wouldn't even

05:25get changed in my trailer. I had a little tent on set where I got changed, so I don't need much in

05:29my trailer. If I could switch jobs for a day, I would probably teach kids acting. I think over

05:36like the past 25 years, I've actually acquired some skills and a way to prep and some things that I

05:42didn't know when I was a kid because I started so young, and so I would like to teach kids like

05:47simple prep that I've learned that has been really helpful to me over the past decade. I always find

05:53excuses to do other things that interest me within what I do, and actually I have a problem where I

05:59can't seem to find a hobby that is just a hobby, that I don't turn into something work-related.

06:06I think I'd be a producer and just do the same, a lot of the same stuff I do, but from a chair.

06:11Voice my opinion and not have to dance, you know? If I could no longer act, I would want to be a

06:16butler for people I like. I love serving things that make people happy. I love making sure that

06:24the space they're in is kind of perfect in some sort of aesthetic way. I once went on a police ride

06:30along and it was the worst, most terrifying night of my life, so not be a cop. I can tell you that much

06:35for sure. I hated it more than anything in my life. I would maybe work in like a comic book shop,

06:42that's something I've always been drawn to, a video game shop, sort of cave-like nerdy domains.

06:48If I could somehow be imbued with all the skills of an architect, I would love to be an architect.

06:53The studio, the TV show, cast. Because we're going to be seeing everybody and talking about each other's

06:59shows, and so I wanted to be as ready as possible. Besides my name, best books about Ireland.

07:05And I did it while driving. The last thing I googled was converting Vietnam currency to dollars,

07:14because I was just in Vietnam. Someone told me how much something was, and I was like, yeah. And then

07:19I was like, wait, is that expensive? It wasn't. It'd be restaurants. It's always food. I googled myself

07:27this morning. I'm cutting back on that, but I googled myself this morning just for a little pick-me-up.

07:33This is going to be the most boring answer, but on the way over here, I was listening to my lines for

07:38next week, because I record them. When I get the scripts, I record the entire script, so I can

07:43listen to it like a play. And then I do the entire script doing everybody's lines except my own,

07:47so then I can run it, like leaving gaps, so then I can run the whole show. So by the time I arrive on

07:53set, I've done the episode like a bunch of times. I started doing that on a movie I was really afraid of,

07:57called The End of the Tour. I played What Would Edward Norton Do? Because I had no way to prep,

08:03like I had no training. So I just tried to imagine what a good actor would do, and I like made up a

08:07prep system. And I still use it to this day. And that's what I teach those fucking kids.

08:11If my co-stars ever heard my recordings, I think they would probably be offended, because I have to

08:16do like, basically impressions of everybody on the show, so I know who's who. So yes, I've gotten,

08:21I've gotten actually pretty accurate, I think, at everybody. But I'm not going to do them now, don't ask.

08:24Music I listened to on the way here, I did listen to some music. Some of it that really spoke to me

08:31on the drive here, Vashti Bunyan is her name, and she's like, I think it's 60s. It's pretty eclectic

08:37and folky, but kind of mystical almost. And it's very cool. My ride over here was less than five

08:45minutes. So I listened to traffic for a little bit, and then I was here. I listened to an audio book about

08:52Ireland. Just blasting it, driving in the HOV lane. My podcast, where everybody knows your name,

09:01starring myself and Woody Harrelson, is the only thing I listened to pretty much all day.

09:07I was listening to the podcast, How Did This Get Made, with my friends, Jason Matsoukas, Paul Scheer,

09:12and Jude David Rayfield. And I listened to it a lot. And it's funny, because I'm good friends with them,

09:16but I don't think, I don't even think they know to the extent to which I like have their voices in

09:21my head. It's pretty weird. Yeah.

09:23Music

09:25Music

Seth Rogen Loves Watching 'The Valley' & Ted Danson Would Want to Be a Butler | Off Script Moment

Category

Transcript

Recommended