What Are You Watching?

8: Christopher McDonald

September 03, 2020 Alex Withrow & Nick Dostal
What Are You Watching?
8: Christopher McDonald
Show Notes Transcript

Alex and Nick look at the career of Alex's favorite character actor, the legendary Christopher McDonald. They talk about Chris Mac's roles (Shooter McGavin! Tappy Tibbons! Tommy J!), and Alex recounts the time he hung out with Chris Mac in NYC.
Watch Alex's work at http://alexwithrow.com/
Read Alex's full interview with Christopher McDonald from May 2013
Watch Nick's work at https://www.nicholasdostal.com/
Tell us what you're watching at whatareyouwatchingpodcast@gmail.com

Hey, everyone, welcome to. What are you watching? We really appreciate you tuning in to this episode specifically because. Wow. Am I excited? I am joined by my co-host Nick Dostal. So how you doing there, slick? Excited to be here. Damn right. I'm Alex Withrow, and today we're going to talk about my favorite character, actor, Christopher McDonald. Christopher McDonald is the ultimate that guy from I mean, Jesus Christ to Film in the Weeds, Requiem for a Dream, Boardwalk Empire, on and on and on. Little backstory about McDonald before I get into why he's so important to me. Because he really is like the bottom of my heart. I love this guy. You know this about me. We've been friends for a while, and I talked about this guy a lot. So it's really good to be jumping in. Yeah. Yeah. Chris Mac was born in New York, New York, and he trained in the theater with the great Stella Adler. And he did that by any means necessary. At times when he didn't have a lot of money or he, in fact, had none. Talk about that a little later. But he has spent the past 40 years as one of film and television's greatest and most recognizable character actors. He currently has 209 film and TV credits on IMDB That's insane. And he can work across any genre playing any type of character. If you're a kid of the eighties and grew up watching a lot of nineties movies, as you and I did, you undoubtedly know Chris Mac as Shooter McGavin from Happy Gilmore. Shooter Shooter. It's a legacy role for Macdonald One that follows him around everywhere and one that he's still OK with. But the great list, the list of great Macdonald performances is endless as far as I'm concerned, and we're going to go through a lot of them. But first it's you know, we take movies very seriously. They are our life. And from when I was a very little kid, I latched on to this guy and he became one of the most important figures in my film life. I thought he was hysterical, terrifying, I thought he could do anything. He could play farce. He could be really, really serious. He could be really heartfelt. And he's in a lot of things. He accepts a lot of roles, whether it's in huge movies or small micro-budget films. So he's been in our he's been in my life since I've been born, basically. And he's never really gone away. And I have a lot of respect for character actors. They don't get you know, we say a lot like, oh, it's that guy or that woman, and we don't necessarily know their names. This is one thing I will credit television with. In the past ten years, there have been a lot of great roles on TV for character actors, and we're starting to see them get recognized in a really good way, which is great. But character actors often will be on a movie for a week, two weeks, two days, and they do not have the luxury of messing up. Yeah, they can't flub takes, they can't flub lines. They have to get it right because they are well aware that they're not number one, two or three or four on the call sheet. You know, they're way down there and it does not mean that their work isn't important. In fact, to me it means it's invaluable because look, the truth is, Christopher Macdonald, you do your you do 209 movies and TV shows. Not all of them are going to be great. That's fair. But I love this guy. And even if he's in a mediocre movie or TV show, I show up and I'm there for him because I don't see him get bad performances. Well, that's the thing. He no matter what the quality of the material he's working on, he is always fantastic. He steals the scene and every single thing he does. Yeah. And that's a good point. About, you know, actors being brought in for shows where essentially you're a hired gun. You the work is important, but there's no time to prepare if you're on the set, like the director doesn't have time to do any of that stuff. So you kind of have to come in, adapt immediately and deliver. And a lot of actors can't really hang with that. Like that becomes a thing where you won't get work if you're taking too many takes. You just don't really quite hit it. You're taking up time, you're taking up energy. And, you know, people remember that this is a guy that just comes in no matter what and just knocks it out of the park every time. Absolutely. So the reason why I have a little more insight into some of his key roles is because I'm going to share a little story right now. It's one of the great moments and nights of my life, but on my blog. And so it begins films. I still have a series and ongoing series called In Character in which I highlight a different character actor talk about my favorite roles. So I wrote one on Chris Mac in early 2013 and somehow his publicist found it emailed me I'm gonna make a really long story short and a few months later I was invited to hang with Chris Mac for like oh hang interview him for 30 minutes after a Broadway show. He was costarring in Lucky Guy on Broadway with Tom Hanks. It was a Nora Ephron play. Oh wow. It was really exciting. The publicist messed it up and thought I was going to be there for like a Wednesday matinee show and interview him after. But that was we always agreed that it was going to be the 8 p.m. show. So this poor guy, my favorite character actor, was like waiting for me at this Time Square Steakhouse, like, where the hell is this kid? So it got sorted out. So I'm walking into this interview. They invited me to the play, so I got to see the play, which was great. And I'm talking him directly after the play, like he's going to leave the theater and go straight to the steakhouse and I'm like, I'm nervous as I go, man. Is he going to be pissed at like he was sitting in here earlier after the matinee, and I see him just this big, big guy and I see him just tower out of the crowd signing autographs. Every fifth person he passes is calling him Shooter. I mean, we walked up half a block and he got called Shooter ten times. And he he starts walking toward me and I go, Hey, Mr. McDonald, I'm Alex. I think our, you know, your publicist got a little confused earlier, and he interrupts me as he, like, in one fell swoop, puts his arm around me. And he's like two things, Alex. One, it's Chris. It's always Chris. And two of publicists are on my team shitless. You want to get a drink? And I'm like, Yes, I do, sir. Yes, I do. So we sat down and I'm I mean, I think there are times in life to, like, be cool. Like, you're getting a raise at work. It's like, cool. Like, I'm going to take this with grace and dignity. And then there are times in life when you can't help it. And this is one where I couldn't help it. And as soon as we sat down, I said, I'm not a journalist. This is for my movie blog. I'm not out to, like, do a gotcha thing. What we do is on the record, and when the record is off, I will let you know. But if you say something that you're not comfortable with. So I'm basically just telling him, like, I am here as a fan, not as a journalist. And it's just great. I have a few prepared questions that I definitely approached him as a filmmaker. I wasn't asking like geeky questions like, you know, what is it like to work with blank? Blank. But he talks a lot about his technique which I was unaware of. And he studied with Stella Adler, who also taught Brando. So there's a lot of Brando influences in what Chris Mack does, and he said to the point of what we were talking about earlier, if you're only going to be on set for like two days, he doesn't have the luxury of going all crazy with a few lines and throwing the whole production off. However, if he's given the freedom to explore within a certain range, then that's when he delivers his best work and he kind of got that from Stella Adler, like, you have to make your space known, but you also can't step like stamp on everything. Let's be respectful of what's going on but he did say one really, really nice thing about Stella Adler, and he got a little emotional when he told me this, so I want to read it verbatim. He said, Stella taught imaginary circumstances of the character, which is limitless. She spoke to me in a way I never heard, and it changed my life. I followed her from coast to coast while she did these classes, and I was so broke that I offered her my services as a chauffeur or a bartender or whatever. I couldn't afford her classes, but I couldn't afford to not take them. She said she saw my passion and believed in me, which made for a really special thing. Wow. So he had a lot of respect for her, and that was great to talk about. And then we just got in the movies and we're going to as you and I go into his filmography, I will weave in some thoughts that he shared with me. But it was just it was a hell of a night and then I got this. This is kind of funny. You know, that scene in a movie when like, the important boss is taking a meeting, but then he tells his assistant, Hey, call me in 5 minutes. In case you need to, like, bail me out of this meeting. Well, Chris Mack had clearly done that because his nephew Jeff showed up like a half hour after we had been there, which was just the amount of time I had had reserved for my interview. So Jeff showed up and I think he had been at the play as well. And I think he showed up like if if I was a drag and the interview wasn't going well, you'd be like, hey, you know, my nephew and I are going to have a bite to eat, but it was nice to meet you. Instead, Jeff sat with us and the three of us sat there for like hour and a half, 2 hours completely off the record, which to this day I will maintain. But I, I got a lot of good stories in that time, like, a lot of good stories nothing crazy, nothing criminal or salacious, nothing like that. Just a lot of people you wouldn't expect with huge egos, you know, have egos. And he was talking a lot about how important it is for a lot of A-listers to maintain kind of on brand. He was talking about hashtag on brand before. That was a thing. So a lot of fun stories that I'll take that I'll take with me. But one final note about it. I was asking him a lot of questions from the perspective of a director you know, what do you want from a director? How many takes do you want? Stuff like that. But my last recorded question with him was, what what do you want to play that you haven't yet? And he immediately goes, Oh, it'd be great if something if it was a character written specifically for me and I can maybe have some input and work closely with the writer and maybe I could produce it and have some control on it. And I did not remember that answer until researching this post like a week ago. But two years later, that's exactly what I did. The next feature length screenplay I wrote was that one that I wrote, like with him in mind that you've read, and I don't want to talk too much about this stuff because it can kind of be lame to talk about stuff you know, you haven't made. But it's just so funny how that was really in my head. And I don't know. Who knows? Maybe, maybe one day. There's always hope because he does smaller budget movies I mean, he he doesn't just do anything. And, you know, there's a vetting process and stuff, but I don't know, it's always been a dream in the back of my mind. Like, what if we could meet again and work together something I don't know. But that was it was a hell of a night of my life. I love it. And it just instilled a greater love of Christopher McDonald in me. Did he have any other like do you remember anything else that he might have said about his acting process, like when he first started or. Yes, a lot of how a main part of his process was like a workhorse. And he said shortly after he went out to L.A., he had had a little success. His manager said, Hey, I got some work pending for you. You know, why don't you go to the beach, I'll call you and I'll call you this afternoon. I'll call you in a few days. Go to the beach. Yeah. And McDonald was like, First of all, I burn. And second of all, I didn't move out here to sit at the beach like I'm here to work. Yeah. When you have that many credits, I mean, when it stacks up like that, his work ethic is impeccable, and he really tries to bring he tries to be lenient with the director. He seemed very aware of his role in things as a character actor, and he seemed aware of the fact that he was able to set himself a little apart. He had this great story about how Brando would give a director three takes, and one take was kind of like boring, that much going on. One take was what he thought the director might want, and another take was what Brando wanted. And if the director ever went with like the take or what the director wanted, then Brando knew he was an idiot. So Macdonald tries to do that. He always gives variations and takes. He always plays them to different levels. He will talk to the director about that beforehand. And if he's allowed that freedom, that's what I meant about that freedom, then he will play and he will play. As we've seen in his roles, he's in really serious movies, but can be hilarious in them and vice versa. He's in really funny movies and just playing like a straight man or a goof or you know, kind of a stuck up guy so. He knows how to serve the story. Yeah. So with that variation, it would just be great to sit down at an editing bay and watch all of his choices, or to work to be able to work with him and watch all the choices would be incredible. He definitely knows how to service who he's working with. If it's a you know, it's Kathy Bates, Gina Davis, Adam Sandler, and he knows how to service the overall story in a way that is kind of singular to him and unique to him. And I love that about him. Yeah, absolutely. And you can tell like he in his performances, he's having fun that in order to have that much fun, that takes a lot of preparation and that takes a lot of trust that you know what you're doing in this scene. So now I can kind of go anywhere or whatever you need me to do. Right? Right. So that's about as much as we got into it's like his process. We really only had a half hour, so I didn't have a lot of time to ask him on the record questions. And the stuff afterwards is more of like a free flowing discussion. But it was really informative and I was so I was on such like a natural high after and I just yeah, I'll never forget it. That was May 2013. Yeah, that's such a cool night. Yeah, I love it. I love it. But with all that noted, let's dove into some of his work. Let's do it. I would say his big break as a younger guy was Grease, to which he has a lot of fun, and he plays one of the he kind of plays like The Kid Mickey. It's it's kind of like the updated Kenickie from Grease one. And he just he has a lot of fun if he's in the background a bit. But if you pay attention to him, there's some stuff where like he's he's full of a lot of bravado and taking it like really serious and just like a kid on his big break like here I go now his big break as an adult and this is probably the movie I have the most thoughts on honestly but it's just early in his career but in 1991 he's in Thelma and Louise as Darryl Geena Davis as husband and there is no there are no amount of words I can express to tell you the importance of this this role on me. I mean it's so it is still to this day one of the top ten funniest performances I've ever seen. Much of it was improvised or just on accident. I definitely want to hear his thoughts on this, but one of the we talked about Chris Mac and I talked about Thelma Louise extensively and the first scene he shot is his first scene in the movie, which is when he's going out to the car and he slips because they're doing construction in the driveway and he just flips out and starts, you know, telling people, be gone when I get beyond my three, no, fuck, whatever. And that was all an accident. He didn't mean to slip. And that was take one day one. And Ridley Scott walked up to him and said, you can do another take. But that's in the movie. And that's who Daryl is now. So stepping in the pizza, making a Harvey Keitel laugh, it's all Christopher McDonald. Brad Pitt improvised. I like your wife and the police station. That was an improvised line. And Chris Mac was like, those guys, those cops, those dudes playing cops. Didn't know I was going to lunge after him. God knows what would have happened if I latched on to him because I was in it. I was locked in and we were just going for it. So you can tell. Yeah, that's a real rage moment. So Thelma Louise is I mean, we're this is early here. But it's definitely my favorite Chris Mac performance. I love it. I love the attention. Ridley Scott gave it that pathetic little look he has in his last shot in the end with the fish bowl. It's like it's great where you think. Oh, yeah, I'd have to say the same thing. I think it's my favorite performance from him. I mean, just from the start, he walks in into the scene, I think, with Gina Davis because she's on the phone with Susan Sarandon. Yeah, he's in the kitchen getting ready to go. To go to work. Yeah. Yeah. There's something to be said about. And it seems very elementary, but not surprisingly, not a lot of actors do it. But to show up with a point of view before you even are in the scene. So the way he walks on the camera, the way he looks at her, the way he starts to speak to her, it's all loaded, it's all there and it's all very, very alive. You know immediately who this guy is. Yeah, within like two sentences. You know exactly who he is. You know exactly who he is. And then the fall is incredible because he I mean, it's just a very funny moment, and especially because it wasn't planned. Those are always the best. But I did think of you when I when I watched it, because there are there's mannerisms that you have definitely developed that were just like him during the fall. And it was so funny. So so yeah, I definitely will talk about this because you were watching it and you're texting me and you're like, there's just some of some of your real life personality. Yeah. In Daryl or vice versa. And that is because this is one of those movies that just came out in 91. So when I was like seven or eight, I woke up really early one morning and like took my parents VHS and like watched Thelma and Louise at 6 a.m. because that's just what I did when I was young and right away. I was laughing hysterically at this guy. And I don't know, there's a lot of my if I'm in like a goofy mood, which is often I guess I can have Daryl mannerisms but I really was not aware of that until you pointed that out. And what can I say? Yeah, they come out. It's 100% sure, especially. When we're. Kids, like when we watch something at that age, we can't help but innately just sort of start to imitate it because it's had a reaction to us. It is connected with us on a level that we don't really understand as kids. Right? But we find it amusing, we find it meaningful, and then that kind of stays. It doesn't really go away. Another part of that movie that I love so much and it made so much sense when talking to you and really kind of gave him permission to kind of, you know, I trust you do what you want to do here. The phone call, one of the phone calls, I think it's one of the early phone calls. When Gina Davis first calls him back, I think he's like, well, you are in big trouble. Missy, or something like that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, you are in big trouble. Yeah. Because he's also watching the game. Right, right. You know, the fun thing about that scene and this is what I was picking up from an actor's point of view, was that if you look at the dialog in that scene, clearly the story is trying to say she doesn't want to call her husband because she's afraid of what he's going to say and have that type of like machismo husband, you know, thing and he could have played it like that as a complete asshole, complete, like, bully, you know, all of that. And he didn't he had his intention. He had his ideas. Like, I'm not happy that you're not home right now and you're going to get your buns back here. But he he's also really into the game and he's also so goofy about it. It's an actor who's having fun. And he's you can see that every moment is discovered in that moment. Like there's that one moment where he stops because she's saying no. And he's like, now, Thelma, like, that's just that's just a choice right there. And it's a beautiful choice because he's not losing it and he doesn't know what to do. That's really what it is, is that this is a guy who doesn't know really how to handle this. And he's in a situation where he doesn't know and he's like, well, that just didn't work, did it? And it is beautiful to watch. That's what I mean when when a performance is alive is that it's free and it's fun. And you can't help but take like your eyes are just glued. You can't take your eyes off of it. OK, burning through some other movies here. Personal favorite of mine as a kid. Terminal velocity with with Charlie Sheen. Chris Mack is a bleached blond badass. It's great. Nineties action, trash fun. It's is just a fun time quiz show the same year. These are actually three. I'm going to talk about more than three. This is 94, kind of a banner year quiz show and he plays TV host Jack Berry has a lot of fun doing it. And then he had three straight to TV sequels to Midnight Run, reprising the role Robert DeNiro played. We did talk a little bit about those when I interviewed him and he said they were a lot of fun to play. Kind of a bummer there. They were on TV's, so, you know, he couldn't curse and stuff, but he said he would have he would love the opportunity to have like a full either franchise or a series, you know, a long character, a dove into a very long period of time. 1996 is a big banner year for him unforgettable John tall movie he's some you know bullshitter cop that you're never quite sure about. It's just a nineties like Thriller that I don't know. I like those. The Rich Man's wife is an evil alcoholic husband who beats Halle Berry. Celtic pride as the coach and then of course 1996 his most famous role shooter McGavin. Happy Gilmore. And this is like I said, I was out in public with the guy on the street with a guy for 15 seconds and he got cold shooter ten times and he's a big dude. So he walks really fast and he's like, that's why I walk everywhere. Like every day of his life. He gets referred to a shooter and he said that it took a little while for him to accept that. And I understand that even though this is a thing that's brought you enormous success, it's like, that is not who he is. He's a person. It's not like and I can tell you, having hung out with him for 2 hours, we're talking about a hell of a nice guy here. He exhibited no shooter McGavin traits at all. But just to sit with him and watch him break into a shooter impression unprompted by me, he just did it. It was it was great. And I mean, what more is there to say about that performance? It's iconic. It's legendary. Yeah. It's one of the great just comedy movie villains. He absolutely is. And that's the thing is like there's really not much to be said about it because it's just that good. It speaks for itself. All I'll say is that if you've never seen Happy Gilmore, just go see it because not only is it McDonald just doing his thing and masterful level, but it's also a really funny movie. And a little inside inside baseball stuff that I didn't know about. He turned down the role twice, and then he was just golfing one day and called up his agent said, Is that golfing movie still available? And he said, A great perk of that was that his golf game had never been better during the filming of that movie. Next, of course, another big one for people of our generation, Requiem for a Dream. Too happy to it. You know, it's another iconic one. He had a few off the record comments about that, which sounds salacious. And it's not just wasn't things I couldn't share, but it was it was a really crazy set because he's on that. He was only on that actual set for one day when all the walls are collapsing. Yeah. And he's like doing the mambo with Ellen Burstyn and stuff. And it's that's another great one that I love where he knew his place in it. He knew his role, like, OK, they're going to fill me with like handheld camcorders. And I'm doing some infomercial. And then my other day of shooting, I'm going to be like on the set dancing around. And he just went, OK, this is what it is like. Here we go. This is emerging talent. Like let's just go for it. Yeah. You just accept it and have fun. You know, I thought about that when I was watching that performance. And, you know, what's so great about is that he's a perfect host. Like, he looks the part, the face, the smugness. I think he's a master of smug. Oh, God. Totally agree. And the most positive way possible little things like we got a winner, we got a winner. We got he I. Wrote for him. He's a master at a lot of things. And one of the things that he is a master of is making something out of nothing. Yeah. A clear example of that. Yeah. And I totally agree. Same and then the same here he has another role where probably the same amount of screen time, but in a massive movie. And that's the perfect storm. Yes. I want you to share your thoughts on this because he's got a tricky job to do here. And would you take it away here. In the movie he plays the meteorologist and his role in this movie is exposition. He he is literally there to forward the information so that we understand that three storms are forming. Which is a really hard job in movies because it's a really it's an unenviable task because it's a boring thing to do. And a lot of people catch flak for it. You know, movies are too much exposition. So it's hard to do. He starts talking about the cold fronts coming in, using a lot of scientific language to describe what's happening and of course, the audiences know what these things are. But he is speaking about it with such passion, because if you are a meteorologist and you are seeing this, this is your life, you can't help but be unbelievably excited and compelled because of what is happening before you. And he says it. He goes, you could be a meteorologist all your life and never see something like this. So he is mesmerized by this. And you feel that as the audience, you are like oh my God, the these are three huge thing. This is oh my God, there's a lot of feelings going on. And then, of course, it ties into the title of the movie that, you know, but he says it in a way that's not over the top. It's not too dramatic either. It's perfectly in lines for this small character that is explaining what we need to know. And also we're understanding his passion. And that's a very, very cool, tricky thing to do. Big, big deal to say the title, especially in a blockbuster. It's given a lot. It's given like a big moment. He just eases it out, whispers it out. It's great. Yeah. I love that moment. A lot of other roles here. Matthew Lillard's goofy, rich, hipped, quote unquote dad and SLC punk Elijah Woods, that in the faculty big shout out to the faculty, that movie rocks. That movie does. A murdering Yale baddie in the Skulls, Frances Conroy's husband in Broken Flowers and a salesman and the man who wasn't there all over the place here. Great stuff. And again, like all of these movies, he is serving the role that needs to be served for the story and the perfect one I can think of. And that is the man who wasn't there because he's just it's a one scene thing. He is a salesman. 1950s he's a perfect salesman. He could he's so good. He could do any decade and be perfect for that decade. But it's the 1950s, so he's dressed in the garb he's got that certain vocal quality that lenses. He's very polite, you know, and it's making small talk. And then Frances McDormand comes in and basically just shut him down. Yeah. And only Frances McDormand fashion, you can see in his face that he's just trying to do his job and he was doing everything right that you should be doing in, you know, in his situation. And here comes this woman who just drives up and shut him down. And you can see it all. He doesn't say anything, but he walks away. There's just a reality to it. It's like, how would I be in this situation? And after I just tried to do my job, and it's like and you can see his face and he walks away. And the other thing I'll say about that movie is that the little comedy that he does, it's perfect for Coen brothers. Yeah. A funny thing about that little trivia about man who wasn't there. He was in a play at the same time, and Coen brothers called him and said, We want it for two days. And he went to the play director and he goes I, I can't say no to them like I have to. So they worked it out and he to was like, he didn't have to miss a performance. And that's what you just to do as a character actor, you have to kind of drop, suffer make some tough decisions really quick. Does he do a lot of theater because he seems like he's perfect for theater? Yeah. If you go on his Wikipedia, he has some theater credits there. I don't think it's as prominent. And we did talk about this a lot Peter as you very well know is very draining. Yeah and he can't really do theater and this is what I'm going to talk about next and be a prominent figure on HBO. Ballers like you just you can't you can't be doing both at the same time. If you want to do theater and do a two day role in a Coen Brothers movie, you can make that happen. But because he's had good success on TV, Family Law, good cameo in The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, and then a really substantial role on Ballers as the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. So he's definitely done theater and that's how he started. So he holds a lot of stock in theater. Classy guy. Yeah. And then another thing he liked a lot, which was his most prominent TV show. And when we talked, the show had just been canceled. This is Harry's Law it was a short lived David Kelly, David Kelly, law office slash sitcom style type show ran on NBC for two seasons in 20, 11, 20, 12 starred Kathy Bates. Madonna was Tommy Jay Wise, US lawyer who refers to himself in the third person. He's huge over the top character, but it really does represent some of his best work. He has a devastating episode where he's trying to get a soldier a purple heart. It really just it kind of rips your heart out. It's a it's a really good it's a really good performance and it's something it's very big. It's perfect for a sitcom. But he just nails the tone of it. And when we were talking, it was the only time he got a little melancholic when we talked is a very positive guy. And he said, you know, a lot of people his age asked him about Harry's Law. A lot of men and women his age liked that show and watched it. And it's just it's a shame that it didn't get a wider audience those, to be perfectly honest, aren't the types of shows I go in for. And I wouldn't watch it unless I only watch it because he was on it. But I really enjoyed my time with it and I really enjoyed his scenes. And he had a lot of reverence for the show, for David Kelly, for Kathy Bates, and it would have been nice that could have a slightly longer run. So he said that was one of his top five favorite roles he's ever played. Yeah, it definitely. It definitely was. And that'll kind of lead into another section I want to do when we go over our character actors here awards contender. You know, should Chris Mac have ever gotten you go on as I am to be? And he's never he doesn't he's never nominated for any major award, which is insane to me. I mean, Oscar nomination. Sure. In my dream wish lists he gets nominated supporting actor Thelma Louise, but absolutely should have gotten a Golden Globe and or Emmy nomination for Harry's Law. Kathy Bates was nominated. He I mean supporting actor, guest actor, whatever it is. It just would have been really nice to have like have your career kind of capped when his career is by no means over. But just to get that after four decades in the business and I'm really bummed for him that he didn't that's that's kind of the only glaring awards omission I can think of for him. He's the type of guy that he will be working for the rest of his life. He he will always and who knows what could happen in the coming years, you know. Yep. You know, that Oscar, that that type of role might come his way. He's the type of actor that'll be ready for it and sees it for everything that it is. And it'll be great. I there's a movie that I was watching clips from called A Smile Like Yours from 1997. It's a movie with Lauren Holly and Joan Cusack. Who are these two women who are selling this perfume and one of the businesses that they're trying to sell it to is run by Chris Mack. Really what an artist is, is someone who can make something out of nothing. And you know, however you color that but color is the key word. It's like everything that he does is color. There's not one frame that even if he's not the focus and he doesn't still focus like he's not being over the top if there's dialog going on and he's, you know, trying to steal the scene. Very important distinction. Yeah. Because a lot of people stand in the background and mug, you know, do dumb shit to try to take away. He doesn't. Yeah, that's that's a really good point to bring up. If you do if your eyes end up on him, he is alive in that moment in a way that's alive for the character but not stealing from the focus. So when I say that he colors everything that he does is that there's just no wasted motion, there is no wasted thought. Everything's interesting. Everything's alive to create that when you don't have much to work with, that's an artist. Hell, yeah. Chris Mack, a man. I'm so glad we did this to close out. What are you watching? I'm going to go first today. I'm going to do something a little different, and that is double down on a movie we just talked about. And then it's Thelma and Louise Noble shit. I want people to go watch it. If you had if you haven't seen it, it holds up incredibly well. It could have been really made it like any time. And if you haven't seen it, then there's never really a bad time to watch it. There's a lot of people in it who are just really early in their careers, who had huge careers after. And you can see them young but specifically for our purposes here, give it a rewatch, pay particular attention to Darrell. Great performance and a great film might be my favorite. Ridley Scott certainly the one I've seen the most, but that's what I'm recommending. And you're laughing. So I have a feeling where this is going. Yes, yes. I am laughing because for the first and this will be interesting this if this ever happens again because I am doubling down on movie we just talked about and it is the same movie. But it's so tough for listeners. We this is one of the few things sometimes if we're doing lists, will withhold our selections from each other to be surprised. We always hold these from each other, so we genuinely have no idea what the other person's going to pick. So this is this is great. That means everyone has to watch it. Everyone is they got to stop right now. And I believe. And I have to say why I'm picking it is because I had never seen it. That was one of the movies that got away from me because we all have those. Like, there's all like you can't see everything I rewatch. I watched it for the first time and outside of Chris Mac, this movie is just phenomenal. It's perfect. It's incredible. In a time where women don't get a lot of stories told, this movie really, really dives into two women who are dealing with their own stuff, and we really get to see female bonding. We really get to see the struggles that women go through and it's just a great, great movie like top to bottom. So yes, Thelma and Louise, watch it, rewatch it. And one final thing, and if anyone for some reason hasn't seen Thelma Louise, you can turn it off. Now, I'm going to give away the ending, which is kind of famous anyway. But I asked Chris, her daughter, what was going through your mind during your final scene. And he's like, Well, I've read the script and if you remember, he's just staring off into space with like the fishbowl. Yeah. He goes, Well, I read the script and I knew that this woman would rather drive off a fucking cliff and come back to me. OK, how do you represent that in your face? Chris back. We love you. Thanks, everyone, for listening. Enjoy watching and we'll see you next time. Hey, everyone, thanks again for listening. You can check out my flicks and my movie blog at Alex Witherow dot com. Nicholas Docile dot com is where you find all of Nick's film work. Nicholas Ali does the music for our show. I've made a few music videos with Nick. He's a great guy and we love his tunes. Big thank you to him. If you have any questions or comments, please email us at What are you watching podcast at gmail.com. Next time, we're going to dedicate the whole show to Nick's favorite character, actor Michael Bean. Guy is largely responsible for who Nick is as a man, so don't miss it. Yeah, it's interesting that you bring that up because I'm a movie fanatic and I like watching lots of commentaries on. I just got done watching Ridley Scott comes in and he mentions right at your first thing, he goes, I have no idea what to do with Sarah Blue. I like the script. Chris Macdonald came in first day. First day, and you were there. I mean, you you're off the wall. You who? You are. So how did you even know to do that? What made you go? You know, it's a little bit of it's a little bit of kismet. A little bit of, you know, that lucky accident. My very first scene in that movie, imagine I've got a brand new wardrobe. I walked three feet in these shoes, yet they're not scored on the bottom. And where am I? You know, pompadour hair. Do I get this mustache? And he said, no, I like keeping a lemon. And I just kind of like, felt it. I to go out of the house, get in my car and drive away. That was the scene, you know, get out of here today by five or so. I said, the guy's a construction worker. Yes. And I fall in the very first take and I pull up in my head but a little guy in my closet. Keep going, keep going. Don't stop. Keep it real. I was in that moment. And that's what you love as an actor. You want to be so focused and so in that moment that, you know, magic, happy, etc. really laughed so hard. He said, we can do it again and we probably will for safety. But that's in the movie. That is so great. But I just had a great freedom in that working with Harvey, all that stuff with Harvey, you made the title Tatum Land, and they left it in the. Movie doesn't Ridley Scott. Sounds like that's not his top laughing. That's the party. Yeah, because he just the whole pizza subplot. But now but oh my God, it was just a delightful movie to be a part of and that's great. That was a tremendous experience and a really kick started my career to write.