Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's Bruce, and thank you so much for
Speaker 1: pulling up a chair today on Table for two.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we can start. You can record from my entrance.
Speaker 3: We do, OK.
Speaker 1: We were like, it's just gotta say I've been really
Speaker 1: good today. I went to the gym, I had my
Speaker 1: green juice, I did my cold plunge, I did a
Speaker 1: long intermittent fast all because we're having lunch today with
Speaker 1: mister Matt Bomer, who is one of the most beautiful
Speaker 1: men in Hollywood, both inside and out.
Speaker 2: This is the dreamiest man one I could out for.
Speaker 1: He's having an incredible moment in his career. He's been
Speaker 1: nominated for a Golden Globe, He's been nominated for.
Speaker 3: A Screen Actors Guild Award.
Speaker 1: He's currently you can find him on Fellow Travelers, on
Speaker 1: Paramount Plus and in the movie Maestro with Bradley Cooper.
Speaker 2: I think I'm going to do the kale salad and
Speaker 2: I'm to add some add some chicken to it. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much.
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 1: So sit back, grab a salad, be healthy, and enjoy.
Speaker 3: I'm Bruce Bosi and this is my podcast Table for two.
Speaker 1: So everybody, if you've pulled up a chair, today, I'm
Speaker 1: sitting with, as I said earlier when you weren't in
Speaker 1: the room, one of the not one, the most handsome
Speaker 1: man in Hollywood, one of the most talented men in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: a very dear friend of mine, mister Matt Bomer.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to the table for two. I mean, thank
Speaker 2: you for that introduction. I'm going to slip you, slip
Speaker 2: you a couple of twenties under the table. Hold that
Speaker 2: thank you and you.
Speaker 1: Just said too, and congratulations today the Screen Actor.
Speaker 2: Guild Award nomination. Oh my gosh. This, yeah, this one
Speaker 2: means a lot to me. It really does. Peers. I
Speaker 2: you know this about me, and anyone who knows me
Speaker 2: knows this. I love actors, Yes, I really do. I
Speaker 2: love them all. I even sit it on social media.
Speaker 2: But I love the salty ones too, you know. I
Speaker 2: love the complicated ones too, And it's nice to feel
Speaker 2: that from your community, right. Yeah, it's a dream. I
Speaker 2: didn't feel like an actor until I was part of
Speaker 2: a union and I was able to get insurance and
Speaker 2: finally fix my tooth that have been aching for a year,
Speaker 2: you know, and that's sent to work done and all
Speaker 2: those things, you know. I mean, I felt like an actor,
Speaker 2: but I didn't. I think there was legitimacy to it.
Speaker 2: When I thought, oh, I can really make a living
Speaker 2: doing this and sustain to take care of myself and yeah,
Speaker 2: do all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And you say, you know, I've read and I know you.
Speaker 1: You know, when you hit New York, your family said, okay, kid, like.
Speaker 3: You're on your own. Do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like no, they weren't paying that in tribes
Speaker 1: brand just to get it.
Speaker 3: Was like, you're on your own.
Speaker 2: I was on my own.
Speaker 3: It's really important.
Speaker 2: I mean, I have to give it. It's a testament
Speaker 2: to my parents. I was fortunate enough that I got
Speaker 2: a little bit of financial assistance to go to college
Speaker 2: and then my parents foot the rest of the bill,
Speaker 2: and that I'm eternally indebted to them for that because
Speaker 2: I was fortunate to get out of college without student debt. Right,
Speaker 2: it's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a
Speaker 2: big deal. But yeah, once I got to New York.
Speaker 1: Here, you're like, all of a sudden, the non student debt,
Speaker 1: you're just in debt because it just sucks cash right
Speaker 1: out of you.
Speaker 2: I were two jobs to split a one bedroom apartment
Speaker 2: to live in the city you did, and and not
Speaker 2: and now a very desirable place, a place that's prohibitably expensive,
Speaker 2: but at the time was not.
Speaker 3: Is that interesting?
Speaker 1: It's like impossible now but it took two jobs plus yeah,
Speaker 1: you obviously having to go out on auditions. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: before I just also want to say to everybody who's listening,
Speaker 1: and to you specifically, congratulations on the Globe nomination.
Speaker 3: Travelers was amazing.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: It's like I told you I twice second time, even
Speaker 1: with just more powerful than the first. That hit me
Speaker 1: hard because you know, not only being able to see
Speaker 1: the representation of two men who fell in love and
Speaker 1: seeing the sexualization of it, which is not often been
Speaker 1: depicted as and to see the relationship.
Speaker 3: If you go back to the New York piece, and
Speaker 3: you were walking into.
Speaker 1: A room and you know, and you had, for lack
Speaker 1: of a better world, a secret, like you know, you
Speaker 1: just knew something about yourself that you just had to
Speaker 1: sort of put aside.
Speaker 3: Going into a room to an audition at a.
Speaker 1: Time when that would have that gotten the way, you know,
Speaker 1: how did that feel versus how does it? How does
Speaker 1: it feel now when you as you've become kind of
Speaker 1: I hate to even say the word like the the
Speaker 1: embodiment of what it's like to be a leading man,
Speaker 1: to be able to just be you.
Speaker 2: That's very nice for you to say. I don't know that.
Speaker 2: I felt at the beginning of my career that I
Speaker 2: was even keeping a secret because there's no PubL narrative
Speaker 2: about you. You're first starting out.
Speaker 3: What would you like coffee launch?
Speaker 2: I love a coffee for now. Yeah, I think I'll
Speaker 2: do some oat milk. Thank you so much. Cool haircut
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 3: I mean, we're talking about a mullet verse. It's just longer.
Speaker 3: This is much more refined.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I don't know Kerry Mulligan, who I adore.
Speaker 2: She did a haircut for this guy on the Jimmy
Speaker 2: Kimmel Show. I don't know if you saw it or not,
Speaker 2: but it looked very similar to what you have going on,
Speaker 2: and I actually loved it. I thought she's kind of
Speaker 2: brilliant work.
Speaker 3: I have to say, you're the king of mullets.
Speaker 2: Tell your name again at nice time.
Speaker 3: Rick Eric's mullet gets a lot of attention during this show.
Speaker 3: It's running.
Speaker 2: It's a running bit. Yeah it's good.
Speaker 3: Okay, so oh you say that, but.
Speaker 2: You, so, yeah, you know, I didn't really feel like Yeah,
Speaker 2: of course, on some level you feel like you're holding
Speaker 2: a secret, but there was There wasn't anyone who cares
Speaker 2: to know anything about me. I was just a guy
Speaker 2: trying to get a job. And in many ways I
Speaker 2: still feel the same, you know, really well, yeah, I
Speaker 2: just think, you know, ultimately, you're just an actor or
Speaker 2: trying to get a job, and if you're fortunate enough
Speaker 2: to have a little bit of autonomy or choice, then
Speaker 2: and the right project comes along that you can give
Speaker 2: voice too. That's great, you know, you said. And what
Speaker 2: does it feel like now? I think one of the
Speaker 2: big differences now is that back then, I don't think
Speaker 2: I would have even gotten to audition for a role
Speaker 2: like Fellow Travelers. I think it probably would have just
Speaker 2: gone to a straight actor, right, I think, and you know,
Speaker 2: they would have done a great job with it. But
Speaker 2: it's in terms of opportunity, I don't know that I
Speaker 2: would have even had a chance to be at the table. Now.
Speaker 2: A lot of that's a testament to run Nice Wanner
Speaker 2: Robbie Rogers and wanting to bring that sort of authenticity
Speaker 2: in the storytelling to this piece.
Speaker 1: Do you say that in context, you wouldn't have been
Speaker 1: at the table if you were openly gay versus not
Speaker 1: or at a point of just you know no.
Speaker 2: So this is kind of a nuanced answer because what
Speaker 2: I'm it's not even about famously. I just think that
Speaker 2: that role wouldn't have been open to auditions, and if
Speaker 2: it were offered to somebody, it probably at that time
Speaker 2: would have been offered to a straight actor, right.
Speaker 3: You know, because you know the whole.
Speaker 2: Could have easily been today. You know, you think I.
Speaker 1: Do, well, I mean I guess because I mean I think,
Speaker 1: like if you just rewind not so long ago, when
Speaker 1: like something and we've referenced milk with Sean Pagne, who
Speaker 1: we reference broke Back with Heath and with Jake, and
Speaker 1: you have like actors that are not gay that are
Speaker 1: playing these parts, and you've experienced this as any gay
Speaker 1: actor has, like oh when you get the part, or
Speaker 1: like oh he's gay, Okay, you know what, I don't
Speaker 1: think we're gonna go there if or or.
Speaker 2: We'll do one of the characters gay but the other
Speaker 2: guy has to be straight exactly whatever. Look, these are
Speaker 2: all versions that work. All those actors gave their hearts
Speaker 2: and souls and minds to these stories at look at
Speaker 2: the incredible LGBTQ stories being bit or projects that have
Speaker 2: been produced and made and done so with love and
Speaker 2: respect by so many people across the spectrum. Whether it's
Speaker 2: people drinking people's bathwater or pushing the civil rights movement forward,
Speaker 2: it's been wherever you fall on that spectrum, it's been
Speaker 2: kind of an amazing year, told by all different kinds
Speaker 2: of people. And I think that's great. I think that.
Speaker 2: And actors are actors. We should play roles, you know,
Speaker 2: And so what I think is nice is that there
Speaker 2: are opportunities. Now, I think opportunity is the real word
Speaker 2: that you know, it's at least you get a shot
Speaker 2: to be in the room and audition or fight for
Speaker 2: the role.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think getting their role. And well,
Speaker 3: I mean as as a.
Speaker 1: Person who grew up at a time when you know
Speaker 1: there was no representation or no the only people you
Speaker 1: saw on television that kind of felt or looked like
Speaker 1: you were.
Speaker 2: Just say, am I supposed to focused on anything other
Speaker 2: than Eric Smellett.
Speaker 3: Now Today is about Eric law Today on Table.
Speaker 2: This episode brought to you by Eric's Matt and Eric Kentucky,
Speaker 2: Kentucky business in front, but it's a party in back, y'all.
Speaker 3: So tell me about your year. You went to Carnegie Mellon,
Speaker 3: which I.
Speaker 1: Did interesting because you also went with bevy of actors
Speaker 1: that are all that your friends that had success or
Speaker 1: having successful crews.
Speaker 3: What was Carnegie Mellon like for you?
Speaker 1: And in regard to like what did you really lean into,
Speaker 1: like the theater, the plays, like what were you?
Speaker 2: I was so excited to be there and just have
Speaker 2: It was a total reset for me in so many ways.
Speaker 2: And I didn't have I'd already worked professionally as an
Speaker 2: actor on stage. You had. Yeah, Well, my very first job,
Speaker 2: which I don't even know if I've ever talked about
Speaker 2: it in presses, I was a background artist in a
Speaker 2: Chuck Norris movie that shot in Houston when I was
Speaker 2: thirteen or twelve, twelve or thirteen, I swear to God
Speaker 2: now that you did you Yeah, it was in downtown Houston.
Speaker 2: There was this period where I was doing forensics in
Speaker 2: middle school and doing these tournaments and things and doing
Speaker 2: well at those, And so my friend's mom and some
Speaker 2: of our friends parents, what forensics is like? I would
Speaker 2: do like a ten minute humorous piece or a dramatic
Speaker 2: piece or duet acting piece or okay, yeah we're doing
Speaker 2: forensic files. Yeah you do, studying cadavers and being judged
Speaker 2: on how well we assessed what had transpired. It does
Speaker 2: it's it's a weird. It's a weird sharing shared name,
Speaker 2: isn't it?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Title anyway, So we had My parents could care less.
Speaker 2: I remember asking them for headshots and basically like laughed
Speaker 2: and I'm like, what are you talking about? Get out
Speaker 2: of here, go play outside, which I'm glad they did.
Speaker 2: But I had some friends parents who like let me
Speaker 2: tag along when their kids. So I went and I
Speaker 2: accompanied my friend to the Mickey Mouse Club audition. I
Speaker 2: didn't even I just went with her and I was like,
Speaker 2: I'll try this too, and I was such a jerk.
Speaker 2: I sang the same song. I was not prepared at
Speaker 2: all because I didn't even know what was going on.
Speaker 2: My friend was like ready to go, and I sang
Speaker 2: the same song the person in front of me sang
Speaker 2: because I didn't know what else to sing. And the
Speaker 2: song it was Eternal Flame by the Bengals. Okay, wow, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think I was twelve eleven maybe, and I ended
Speaker 2: up getting really close. And I remember the the casting
Speaker 2: director from Mickey. This is the same year that like
Speaker 2: Gosling and timber Lake Brittany Christina as people cast and
Speaker 2: I remember him calling my house and saying, you know,
Speaker 2: we're thinking about you out here to test for this,
Speaker 2: but you have to come to Florida, like would your
Speaker 2: parents come with you? And we were sitting at a
Speaker 2: dinner table and I was like, hey, mom, would you
Speaker 2: come with me to They're like, I don't know what
Speaker 2: are you talking. Come back and eat dinner. And I
Speaker 2: think the cast directors like, yeah, all right, peace. Not
Speaker 2: to say that I would have gotten it anyway, because
Speaker 2: I was nowhere prepared for that opportunity, but.
Speaker 1: Well it sounds like, you know, they saw something and
Speaker 1: you clearly sound thing.
Speaker 2: But so another one of the gigs that we did
Speaker 2: is we went there was a movie called Sidekicks with
Speaker 2: Chuck Norris and the late Jonathan Brandis May he Rest
Speaker 2: in peace? Who who They were filming in Houston and
Speaker 2: you could go and be a background artist of this
Speaker 2: big karate tournament that was kind of the finale of
Speaker 2: the movement. So we did every day and I got
Speaker 2: to meet Chuck Norris and uh yeah, that was my
Speaker 2: first gig. But then I did a play when I
Speaker 2: was right when I turned eighteen on stage my senior
Speaker 2: year at the Alley Theater in Houston. We did a
Speaker 2: street carnae Desire, and so I had some stage experience,
Speaker 2: but I had no formal training. This is a really
Speaker 2: long answered.
Speaker 3: I'm fascinated.
Speaker 2: So I was excited to just have some sense of
Speaker 2: a technique or some way of approaching the work that
Speaker 2: wasn't just intuitive or just happy, go lucky, you know.
Speaker 2: And so I was really excited to dig in. And
Speaker 2: it was a different program at the time it was
Speaker 2: it was every class is obviously very different. There were
Speaker 2: some hyper competitive classes. Ours was a pretty loving class.
Speaker 2: I have to say, we're all still really good friends.
Speaker 2: I have a text thread with all my classmates. But
Speaker 2: there was a cut program back then, and I think
Speaker 2: we started with twenty people in my class and ended
Speaker 2: with nine.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So you'd come back after the holiday and be like
Speaker 2: after the holiday, like after Chris, X, Y and Z
Speaker 2: is not back, did you hear? And you'd have to
Speaker 2: have these meetings with the faculty. This has all been
Speaker 2: taken away now, by the way, because it was, you know,
Speaker 2: sort of branded, you know as the little too cruel
Speaker 2: for school. Yeah, and you'd meet with the faculty and
Speaker 2: you'd have to sit in front of that and be
Speaker 2: in every single one of them would talk about how
Speaker 2: you did in a voice and speech, how you didn't singing,
Speaker 2: how you did a movement, how you did enacting, and
Speaker 2: sort of assess you in front of like a jury basically.
Speaker 1: So that like makes me think of an eat you
Speaker 1: have to eat, Matt needs nourishment.
Speaker 2: Is it okay that I'm just chewing a microphone?
Speaker 3: This is tabable to real lunch. Some people are like,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: What's it called? What's it called? When you do the tune?
Speaker 2: And people like the sound of it, what's it called?
Speaker 2: Like ASMR, this is a very special ASMR episode.
Speaker 3: I do that sometimes.
Speaker 2: I think, brought to you by Kentucky Waterfalls.
Speaker 3: How many times we're going to be able to say
Speaker 3: Kentucky Waterfalls.
Speaker 1: You bring up something that is I hear, which is
Speaker 1: like kind of horrible that this was, but kind of
Speaker 1: setting people up for the nature of your business of
Speaker 1: just rejection. Yeah, I mean that is really a brutal
Speaker 1: like what it be basically September through December, you did
Speaker 1: a play, you did this, and then you just weren't
Speaker 1: good enough.
Speaker 3: And no, it wasn't it really that.
Speaker 2: It was more about what was your work ethic like
Speaker 2: because you weren't allowed to be a part of Greek life.
Speaker 2: It was your sole focus was to be a part
Speaker 2: of this conservatory, right, And so we were in class
Speaker 2: and when you're freshman and sophomore, you're building the sets,
Speaker 2: you're building the costumes, you're running the lights, you're doing
Speaker 2: all the crew work for the junior and senior shows,
Speaker 2: which I think is a great thing too. I mean
Speaker 2: that really was a great entree into the creative process
Speaker 2: ensemble aspect. But yeah, it's more about, Okay, can you
Speaker 2: handle forty fifty hours of class a week and also
Speaker 2: all the rehearsals on top of that, and then doing
Speaker 2: crew at night and going from one class and doing
Speaker 2: a Shakespeare monologue and going to another class and doing
Speaker 2: a restoration piece, then going to another class doing it temporary.
Speaker 2: Do you have the work ethic, do you have the
Speaker 2: can you take direction? Do you work well with other people?
Speaker 2: It was more sometimes about those things. And by the way,
Speaker 2: a lot of the people who got cut have gone
Speaker 2: on to have great careers. So I don't know that
Speaker 2: it was you know, oftentimes it was a very subjective
Speaker 2: analysis from a very specific faculty.
Speaker 1: But what's so cool about it is it's such a
Speaker 1: moment in your life that you never have again, and
Speaker 1: to be able to do all of that and you
Speaker 1: don't even know really why you're in it, Like this
Speaker 1: is so special because once you get out of there
Speaker 1: and you're in the real world and you're hustling and
Speaker 1: you have two jobs and you live in a one
Speaker 1: bedroom apartment, it's like, that's done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, and that's and you got permission to fall
Speaker 2: on your face, yeah, and learn how to fail and
Speaker 2: find a rehearsal process where it was okay to fail,
Speaker 2: and to figure out how to connect to something emotionally
Speaker 2: for the first time, and you're doing it in front
Speaker 2: of a group of twenty people, it's the bond. And
Speaker 2: so if you can do that, when all of a
Speaker 2: sudden you're on set and someone's like, hey, we don't
Speaker 2: have time to rehearse this. I know it's a big
Speaker 2: emotional scene. We're probably only get one take before that
Speaker 2: we lose the sunset. So I'm so sorry about this.
Speaker 2: Let's just go for it. Everybody roll camera like it
Speaker 2: just makes it a little bit. It's not it's not
Speaker 2: the same thing, but it's warmed you up to that
Speaker 2: kind of preparation.
Speaker 3: That's a big deal. Thanks for pulling up a share today.
Speaker 1: On Table for two before the break, Matt was telling
Speaker 1: us about his time at Carnegie Mellon. However, unlike those
Speaker 1: actors who moved to LA right away, Matt started out
Speaker 1: his career in New York. And I'm curious about those
Speaker 1: early days pounding the pavement in Manhattan.
Speaker 3: To leave school.
Speaker 1: You come to New York, you know, you've said just
Speaker 1: you know your training on the shoaps, and everyone who's
Speaker 1: ever been on a shop says the training is just.
Speaker 3: You can't beat it. It's like you just really get used.
Speaker 1: To learning lines, fast, shifting, changing, and you know, kind
Speaker 1: of sets you up a foundation your New York years
Speaker 1: versus the LA years. Because what brought you to LA?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, Well, going back a little bit before I
Speaker 2: came to New York, I did right after as I
Speaker 2: was kind of finishing school. I got Sundance Theater Lab,
Speaker 2: which is kind of you know, the film lab where
Speaker 2: they work with new directors like Quinton Tarantino, a lot
Speaker 2: of big directors that come out of that, and they
Speaker 2: give them the chance to workshop their new material with
Speaker 2: actors in Sundance at Sundance Sunday, and they do the
Speaker 2: saying that with theater right, yeah, so uh in and
Speaker 2: that yes exactly. And so here I was, I just
Speaker 2: got and I was doing I was working with Craig
Speaker 2: Lucas and Miss Kaufman and all this, and I was
Speaker 2: doing the very first workshop of Spring Awakening Duncan Chic,
Speaker 2: where it was so robbed. He was like still figuring
Speaker 2: out what court it was on the guitar. And I
Speaker 2: was meeting all these idols who had just done their
Speaker 2: work when I was in school. Craig Lucas, I had
Speaker 2: done a scene of his to get an agent.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: And so it was a really studio.
Speaker 3: Great audition for that to get that.
Speaker 2: Casting director came to our school and I did a
Speaker 2: monologue and I sang for her, and she said, I
Speaker 2: used to be a singer. I wouldn't call myself a
Speaker 2: singer anymore, not a real singer, but not in eight
Speaker 2: shows a week like that would take me about a
Speaker 2: year to get back there.
Speaker 3: But you do it.
Speaker 2: But but she brought me in when I was in
Speaker 2: New York and I auditioned, and then from that, I
Speaker 2: also got an audition for a musical called Thoroughly Modern Millie,
Speaker 2: and then I got it had the same director both projects,
Speaker 2: and so I got a job offer for that project
Speaker 2: as well, and so that brought me to New York.
Speaker 2: That ended up nine to eleven happened, So we lost
Speaker 2: the Broadway house. I told the story a lot.
Speaker 3: Oh my gods, I had I would have been, I.
Speaker 2: Would have been on Broadway. First. I was a cover.
Speaker 2: I wasn't the lead.
Speaker 3: I was a cover.
Speaker 2: But I was also just out of school and it
Speaker 2: would have been such a different path. But so I
Speaker 2: was while I was waiting on that house, like we're
Speaker 2: there waiting for the right house to open up. Nine
Speaker 2: to eleven happened. I lost my day job and I
Speaker 2: ended up getting an audition for a soap, which is
Speaker 2: not like a future I had really envisioned for myself
Speaker 2: coming out of theater school. But I was like, whatever,
Speaker 2: let's go, and it was the best thing that ever
Speaker 2: could have happened to me. It was such a great years.
Speaker 2: A year, it was like a year and a half
Speaker 2: and I was terrified to be on camera. I would
Speaker 2: do anything on stage at that point. I was like,
Speaker 2: you know, primed for anything after Conservatory, but I hadn't
Speaker 2: done I'd never really been on camera.
Speaker 1: See, I think, you know, one of the biggest mistakes
Speaker 1: people make, especially when they're young and they're leading person material,
Speaker 1: they you know, shoot out to LA to try to
Speaker 1: be like on like the nine oh two one zero.
Speaker 1: Let's say I'm referring to my generation at that time,
Speaker 1: you know, as opposed to building the foundation of really
Speaker 1: the acting skill, because you'll get there if you got it.
Speaker 1: So like you doing that in Carnegie Mellon and then
Speaker 1: coming to New York and then everything happens for a reason. Yeah,
Speaker 1: to then find yourself so leaving the theater world forcing
Speaker 1: yourself to get a gig on the TV world. That
Speaker 1: teaches you the camera tech. Yeah, the camera acting, which
Speaker 1: is very different. How because like what's different if you
Speaker 1: can explain the different nuances between theater acting, TV acting
Speaker 1: and movie acting, because you kind of you know, you're
Speaker 1: you're like hit them all baby, because like the movie camera,
Speaker 1: I mean, the screen is so big and I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna let not say something here because you know, if
Speaker 1: you haven't seen ma Stroke, how you act with your
Speaker 1: eyes and your smile.
Speaker 3: You're very good in this movie.
Speaker 1: And there's a moment where Leonard Bernstein comes up to
Speaker 1: you with the woman that he's with, Alicia Felicia, and you,
Speaker 1: unprepared have to be gracious and welcoming and kind and
Speaker 1: everything that is being read from your face.
Speaker 3: Is pain and love and it was.
Speaker 1: It's really was a beautiful thing to do. So that
Speaker 1: to me is like incredible, thank you so.
Speaker 2: Much, thank you. That's very kind of you to say.
Speaker 2: I think we were all very fortunate to be in
Speaker 2: Bradley's hands. I think he brings out the best and
Speaker 2: everybody and sees what you want to bring in, tries
Speaker 2: to bring that out in you. But you know, I
Speaker 2: used to think there was this massive discrepancy between the two.
Speaker 2: I really did, And the more and more I'm working
Speaker 2: at the less I feel that discrepancy. Obviously, there are
Speaker 2: different aspects of your such an actory thing to say,
Speaker 2: but your instrument that you have to use when you're
Speaker 2: on stage because the people if it's a you know,
Speaker 2: fifteen hundred seat house, the people in the back row
Speaker 2: have to hear you, and depending on how your might
Speaker 2: you have to take all that into consideration. But in
Speaker 2: terms of connecting with the other actors and being present
Speaker 2: with them and trying to find something that's true to
Speaker 2: what you've rehearsed, but also that's alive in that moment,
Speaker 2: it's it's not terribly different than what's being unfilmed. Okay
Speaker 2: II In sumar ards, I always think too, there are
Speaker 2: some amazing things that can happen on stage that I
Speaker 2: don't think can happen in any other medium, because it's
Speaker 2: almost like it's the closest to that kind of collective
Speaker 2: tribal experience that that theater came out of of, like
Speaker 2: the guy around the fire and the cave talking about
Speaker 2: how the hunt went that day. You have that one
Speaker 2: audience for that one period of time, and it will
Speaker 2: never be exactly the same examen. So there's something that's
Speaker 2: so unique about every different show that is just incredible
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Because also I would imagine because anything can happen
Speaker 1: within those two hours that might whether it's a mistake,
Speaker 1: a drop a line, just a nuance of something a
Speaker 1: delivered line that you're going to respond and.
Speaker 2: Different actors work differently too. Some people really like to
Speaker 2: do the same thing every night, so have to learn
Speaker 2: how to do that work with that as well. And
Speaker 2: obviously you don't also don't want to go start doing cartwheels.
Speaker 2: H never heard that because then everything could go disastrously wrong.
Speaker 1: Now you're doing now he's doing, car So you know,
Speaker 1: I asked Sarah Jessica Parker on the show last season
Speaker 1: the you know when at what point? You know, when
Speaker 1: she was getting ready to shoot for Sex in the
Speaker 1: City and just like that did Carrie? Was there something
Speaker 1: that she did that all of a sudden Carrie Bradshaw
Speaker 1: was there because I had read earlier with Marilyn Monroe
Speaker 1: when she was walking down the stairs with Susan Strasbourg
Speaker 1: and all these press and she turns to Susan and says,
Speaker 1: are you ready? Do you want to see her? And
Speaker 1: as she walks down the stairs, it's like she shifts
Speaker 1: her whole thing and she greets it.
Speaker 2: And they do that in my week with Marylyn.
Speaker 3: I think that they did so, And Sir Jessica said,
Speaker 3: you know, you get ready.
Speaker 1: Some days it could be twenty two degrees out, you're outside,
Speaker 1: you know, you take you down jacket off, you have
Speaker 1: the poofy skirt on.
Speaker 2: She straps on us Manolo.
Speaker 3: Or you know, now that's Jessica Collectibles.
Speaker 1: And you say, she said, when the word action action
Speaker 1: Carrie came alive because she was like, because I didn't know,
Speaker 1: I couldn't tell you who Carrie was going to be
Speaker 1: at that moment, Carrie was going to be happy, said like,
Speaker 1: I didn't know, And I thought that was also interesting.
Speaker 2: It's a really exciting way to work.
Speaker 3: Right to your craft. So you know you got you guys.
Speaker 3: Did you know you did the revival of Boys in
Speaker 3: the band Billy Freaking who we Love? Who directed the
Speaker 3: movie making recipes? Joe Mantello.
Speaker 1: I remember going to the rehearsal and watching you guys
Speaker 1: do it, and I was so nervous watching you guys
Speaker 1: like here in La but.
Speaker 4: Yeah, right, it was when we were really on the stage. Yes,
Speaker 4: it was just like freaking Yes, Joe is like, what
Speaker 4: is wrong with you? I'm like, it is intense. I
Speaker 4: was freaked out too.
Speaker 1: So you do this show and you're amazing in it,
Speaker 1: and the cast is amazing in it, and I just
Speaker 1: feel like wow, and Joe is such a great director.
Speaker 1: And then you also then bring it to the screen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what same cast with the same director r which
Speaker 2: is kind of unheard of.
Speaker 3: Crazy. Was there a difference in the character or the development,
Speaker 3: or in.
Speaker 1: The process of because now it's not that hour and
Speaker 1: a half show that's live that all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you know, somebody does you're like doing the take.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think the real challenge in that regard was giving
Speaker 2: yourself permission in a new medium to not just rely
Speaker 2: on what you knew worked on stage, not just to
Speaker 2: rely what you knew would get a laugh on stage
Speaker 2: right as you've done it one hundred and fifty times
Speaker 2: or whatever it was. But I think it was less
Speaker 2: than that. But but to keep exploring and keep find
Speaker 2: new things, and then Joe could get in and fine
Speaker 2: tune certain moments, just one moment in particular, because the
Speaker 2: play ends with this sort of me holding Jim Parson's
Speaker 2: character in this piazza, and we used had this whole
Speaker 2: meltdown and my characters trying to comfort him, and on
Speaker 2: stage it could be any number of ways. Wherever we
Speaker 2: were that night is just wherever we were that night, right,
Speaker 2: Sometimes wherever we were that night depending on what had
Speaker 2: just happened. The hour and a half before.
Speaker 5: And how vicious it got or how crazy it got,
Speaker 5: or which must mean also like how you enter the
Speaker 5: room that day, like what was your day, like what
Speaker 5: was the audience's daylight? What's all the energy that's got
Speaker 5: into the room collectively that you then go out and
Speaker 5: do this thing.
Speaker 3: It's just going to be different when.
Speaker 2: I feel like that's one thing I've learned more and
Speaker 2: more about the work. Not that this is so no
Speaker 2: one wants to hear this, but to rather than trying
Speaker 2: to drown things out and make it what you want
Speaker 2: it to be, to bring everything into what's happening right
Speaker 2: then and there. You know, it's like this in your
Speaker 2: day to the work and if we're doing a scene,
Speaker 2: rather than you know, making X person feel or look like,
Speaker 2: I want to use what he's actually doing, what's going
Speaker 2: on in his eye, what happened to his hair that day,
Speaker 2: or whatever, like really use that.
Speaker 3: Which makes it must that makes it interesting.
Speaker 2: Way that something I remember I was watching a rough
Speaker 2: cut of my astro with Bradley, and the biggest might
Speaker 2: have been the biggest lesson I learned from him on
Speaker 2: this film. I can't believe I'm giving it away for
Speaker 2: free on your podcast.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Well it's me, but it's just us.
Speaker 2: And he said to me, in the scene he tripped
Speaker 2: as he was going up the stairs, I don't even
Speaker 2: know if the scenes in the movie anymore. And I
Speaker 2: said and something about him doing that. It was in
Speaker 2: an early scene in the movie at the time, and
Speaker 2: it just as an audience, Remember, I relaxed because it
Speaker 2: took a sense of preciousness out of it, because something
Speaker 2: real and human and in the moment and a live
Speaker 2: happened in that scene. And I said, were there takes
Speaker 2: where you didn't trip? And do you care that you
Speaker 2: tripped or whatever? And he was like, oh, no, I'm
Speaker 2: hoping that I trip because then something's gonna happen. That's real, right,
Speaker 2: And I think you know it doesn't happen every take.
Speaker 2: It doesn't happen every scene, but no, you're always hoping
Speaker 2: for that. If you've been doing it for a while,
Speaker 2: that's kind of the moment you're hoping for. Even on stage,
Speaker 2: that can be what is the most electric if you
Speaker 2: seem like Mary Leise Parker do a play and you
Speaker 2: get that sense that like it's never the same.
Speaker 3: Even in her like right, it's just whatever is going on,
Speaker 3: and it's.
Speaker 2: Electric to watch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, welcome back to Table for two. Matt's big screen
Speaker 1: debut was in two thousand and fives The Flight Plan
Speaker 1: with Jody Foster. Someone who has always loved and been
Speaker 1: in awe of Jody Foster, I'm curious what it was
Speaker 1: like to work with such an iconic actor. You know,
Speaker 1: I am obsessed for years with Jody Foster. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, and you know, she is of my generation,
Speaker 1: and I just and she and Nayan, I just I
Speaker 1: was like, Wow, how good are the two of them?
Speaker 1: And Nia They're incredible. They're incredible.
Speaker 2: I told them both. I want them. I want to
Speaker 2: see them take it on the road. I want to
Speaker 2: see those two characters in everything.
Speaker 3: Everything tell me about what I'm working with.
Speaker 2: Beautiful lesbian friendship, not even that beautiful friendship between these
Speaker 2: women both stunningly beautiful, but have not given themselves over
Speaker 2: to vanity in a way takes you out of the story, you.
Speaker 3: Know, not at all. It's like, there's so yeah, and
Speaker 3: they're such Joy.
Speaker 2: Is one of the most beautiful humans to ever exist,
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 3: Completely, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting to me because in the early nineties,
Speaker 1: sort of being in la there was just a little
Speaker 1: bit of a world. She's obviously a very private person
Speaker 1: and she so I know a couple of people that
Speaker 1: were close in her circle but did not know her
Speaker 1: but would see her occasionally.
Speaker 3: And how much the world has changed for being.
Speaker 1: Able to share you know, her life and you worked
Speaker 1: with her, And when you work with someone like that,
Speaker 1: how did how do you at that point in your
Speaker 1: career and age like walk onto a set and be
Speaker 1: like like I'm about.
Speaker 2: To Oh, I was dying right, dying. It was because
Speaker 2: it was the first film I ever did ail yeah,
Speaker 2: holy can and I didn't have a ton to do
Speaker 2: in it, but it all took place on an airplane, right,
Speaker 2: so we all had to be there all the time.
Speaker 2: And you just never knew what this director when you
Speaker 2: were going to be in a shot and it was
Speaker 2: going to feature you, when you're going to have a
Speaker 2: lot line, you know, whenever it was he would just
Speaker 2: call audibles. Robert Schwuink got a great director and Jody
Speaker 2: was so it was like the nice boon of the
Speaker 2: job was that the director of said you can sit
Speaker 2: in on all the rehearsals with Jody Foster and Peter
Speaker 2: Sarsguard and watch Sean Bean, watch how they work, watch
Speaker 2: what their process is like, and watch them on set.
Speaker 2: And I was like, wait, I'm getting paid to have
Speaker 2: a masterclass, right, let's go. So And one of the
Speaker 2: things I learned the most about Jody was just how
Speaker 2: to handle yourself on a set. She is a consummate professional.
Speaker 2: She knows the whole cruise name, she knows the whole
Speaker 2: cast name. And that was a big cast, it was
Speaker 2: a big movie. And she just was so gracious and kind.
Speaker 2: And Jody is somebody that wherever my career was after that,
Speaker 2: if I saw in public, she would treat me the same,
Speaker 2: like a human. And I think, I look at someone
Speaker 2: like her, I look at someone like Jason Bateman, and
Speaker 2: I think one of the hardest things to do is
Speaker 2: to come up in this industry, Drew Barrymore, and to
Speaker 2: come out the other end of it a healthy, saying
Speaker 2: human being, because there's just so many trappings along the way.
Speaker 2: And Jody is the height of sanity in this industry,
Speaker 2: the height of humanity in this industries. So what she's
Speaker 2: achieved and what she has maintained for herself is so commendable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like we went to the Hollywood Bowl and
Speaker 1: unbeknownst to me, we were in a box with Jody
Speaker 1: and her wife several months ago, and it was I
Speaker 1: almost couldn't talk because of the effect that her work
Speaker 1: had at the time when I was in my twenties,
Speaker 1: and you know, I mean, I think Jody's like two
Speaker 1: or three years older than me, so we're really I
Speaker 1: just felt.
Speaker 2: Like, Wow, she's great. Though it also kind of she's
Speaker 2: like Julia Roberts. She's great at kind of taking away
Speaker 2: that veneer as well and completely immediately having a human
Speaker 2: connection with you. And I think there's a real art
Speaker 2: to that, and I think it's an unfortunate responsibility of
Speaker 2: people who are huge stars who then have to do
Speaker 2: a scene with you to suddenly break it all down
Speaker 2: and go, right, hey, we're just in the scene together
Speaker 2: and yeah, we're just two human beings having an interaction.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, okay, so missedable. You know, one of
Speaker 1: the things is it responsibility. Do you feel it's a responsibility.
Speaker 1: I mean that you now carry this torch of being
Speaker 1: sort of this like leading man at a time that
Speaker 1: it didn't exist publicly, you know, you've done. You've made choices,
Speaker 1: many different choices. You've played, you know, from all your
Speaker 1: you know, your movies and TV. A lot of what
Speaker 1: you're not playing gay characters. You're just you're playing. But
Speaker 1: you know you you know, we talk about boys in
Speaker 1: the band, We talked about fellow travelers. You know, we
Speaker 1: didn't talk about the normal heart. But my god, what
Speaker 1: a heartbreaking. I remember running into on the street in
Speaker 1: New York City and you were like six pounds.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: Do you feel there's like a responsibility that you carry me?
Speaker 1: You got a beautiful award this year last year by
Speaker 1: HRC that the President of the United States gave you,
Speaker 1: which is was a big deal.
Speaker 3: Like you've you've really created a life for yourself where
Speaker 3: there's a responsibility to How does that feel?
Speaker 2: Do you feel that? It's interesting? I worked with Diane,
Speaker 2: the lovely Diane Carroll. Maybe she rest in peace. I
Speaker 2: miss her for six years and I was so curious.
Speaker 2: I remember talking to her early on, but she was
Speaker 2: the first African American woman to have her own hour
Speaker 2: long trimetime show. Anyway, I asked her, I was like,
Speaker 2: what was that like did you feel? And she and
Speaker 2: she said I just thought of myself as an actor, right,
Speaker 2: and who had a great role and I was playing
Speaker 2: that and that gave me such a sense of perspective
Speaker 2: at all, because she had had a whole the lifetime
Speaker 2: to look back on that moment, you know. So I
Speaker 2: was fortunate to be with her in that moment and
Speaker 2: and have that answer. But you know, my biggest thing
Speaker 2: if I'm if I'm able to be in a piece
Speaker 2: where has LGBTQ themes or characters, and I'm fortunate enough
Speaker 2: to be, you know, whether it's just an actor or
Speaker 2: I'm producing, I just don't want to drop the ball, right,
Speaker 2: That's the only responsibility I feel, because there is this
Speaker 2: sense of like.
Speaker 3: Which you never will because you take it.
Speaker 2: So you know, there are so many factors that go
Speaker 2: into something like that, but you just know that it's
Speaker 2: a rare opportunity just to even get to be at
Speaker 2: that table. So I want to make sure other people
Speaker 2: get to be there too, And so that's that's I
Speaker 2: think that's it's not at the forefront of my mind,
Speaker 2: but I think that's somewhere in the back of my right.
Speaker 2: Outside of that, it's so funny that people ask me
Speaker 2: all these giant social questions and where I fit into
Speaker 2: the schemes, and there are all questions that I can't
Speaker 2: answer it right right, you know, they think that I
Speaker 2: have some grand answer that's going to be the definitive,
Speaker 2: and it's just not the way the world works, not
Speaker 2: where the zeitgeist works, and not the way our culture
Speaker 2: shapes and shifts.
Speaker 1: I've had such a great time today at lunch with
Speaker 1: my friend Matt Bomer, and I just need to know
Speaker 1: what life.
Speaker 2: Is like for such a busy actor.
Speaker 1: Mattie, you have, first of all, this is like your
Speaker 1: this is a true one of many and you've had
Speaker 1: them happened before. But it's really been fascinating, amazing to
Speaker 1: watch as your friend, this moment in time that your
Speaker 1: career has brought you. I think it's also interesting that
Speaker 1: there was that strike that God made everything weight, so everything.
Speaker 2: It was like getting pulled back on a sling shot,
Speaker 2: I bet because there was so it was such a
Speaker 2: you know, the one thing I was bummed about. And
Speaker 2: it's all, it's fine, it's all panned out fine, But
Speaker 2: I really wanted to go to the Venice Film Festival
Speaker 2: because you just don't get to do that every day.
Speaker 2: And this show Bradley and Carrie and Steve would have
Speaker 2: just been so cool, assuming they would have even invited me.
Speaker 2: Who knows, but if they had. But other than that,
Speaker 2: I had really kind of made this weird piece that
Speaker 2: the work was just out in the world and it
Speaker 2: was going to be what it was. Hopefully folks would
Speaker 2: find the show, and the social media people from the
Speaker 2: studios and networks would do their job and create awareness
Speaker 2: however they do. And then all of a sudden, we
Speaker 2: were unleashed, you know, we were unleashed. I mean, so
Speaker 2: I just it was like, literally this strike ended. There
Speaker 2: was a phone call the next hour. I was on
Speaker 2: a plane the next day, and I have not stopped
Speaker 2: since stop. It's been pretty wild.
Speaker 1: So I just need to like acknowledge as we, I believe,
Speaker 1: come to an end to our launch and we have
Speaker 1: a big weekend ahead of us. To say, the fact
Speaker 1: that you the generosity of Matt Bomer, if you've pulled
Speaker 1: up a chair today, the fact that he's sitting with
Speaker 1: me in a week where he we are celebrating a
Speaker 1: milestone birthday for his husband, in a week where you
Speaker 1: just had the Golden Globe weekend, which is prest Press
Speaker 1: brass in a week where you're does not go unnoticed, unappreciated,
Speaker 1: and really means the world to me that you would
Speaker 1: take the time to sit and have just a sort
Speaker 1: of quiet little lunch in a nook corner of La Bruce.
Speaker 2: We could be in the middle of that Julia Roberts
Speaker 2: movie and I would make the time for you. That's that, miss,
Speaker 2: how deep my love for you and Brian and your
Speaker 2: family goes.
Speaker 3: Thanks so I love you, Matt, I love you too,
Speaker 3: and thank you everyone for listening and you talk.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: You got it.
Speaker 1: Table for two with Bruce Bossi is produced by iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: seven three seven Park and Airmail. Our executive producers are
Speaker 1: Bruce Bosi Nathan King. Our supervising producer and editor is
Speaker 1: Dylan Fagan. Table for two is researched and written by
Speaker 1: Jack Sullivan. Our sound engineers are Meil B. Klein, Jess Krainich,
Speaker 1: Evan Taylor, and Jesse Funk. Our music supervisor is Randall Poster.
Speaker 1: Our talent booking is done by Jane Sarkin. Table for
Speaker 1: two Social media manager is Gracie Wiener. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Amy Sugarman, Uni Scherer, Kevin Yuvane, Bobby Bauer, Alison Kanter Graber,
Speaker 1: Barbara Jen, Jeff Klein, and the staff at the Tower
Speaker 1: Bar in the world famous Sunset Tower Hotel in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.