Noah Wyle

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Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, including ALS Lou Gehrig's disease, myasthenia gravis, or Lambert-Eaton syndrome, and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. Why wait? Ask your doctor. Visit BotoxChronicMigraine.com. Or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more. Like playing basketball with George Clooney. We're going to talk about a little show called ER that I've watched in its entirety three times through. We're going to talk about The Pit, a little show that's winning every Emmy, including 1,000 awards. Oh, and speaking of awards, we're going to talk about the fact that Noah Wiley announced here for the very first time is People Magazine's sexiest man alive. Yeah, baby. Okay, we're going to get into it. But before we do. We always try to talk to somebody who knows our guest or has a question for me to ask our guest. And we are talking to Sean Haddisey. Yes, Dr. Jack Abbott, the night crawler himself, the man from the night shift from The Pit. And you know Sean. He's an incredible actor, director. You know him from Animal Kingdom. You know him from Southland. He's just our favorite crazy doctor who's, you know, who's bringing us along for the ride. So let's see if we can get Sean on the Zoom. Hey, Sean. This episode of Good Hang is presented by PayPal. Brighten up the start to the festive season by getting ahead of the holiday rush. Shop your favorite online stores with PayPal this holiday, like Sephora for gift sets, Target for toys and electronics, and TikTok Shop for fashion, apparel, and gadgets. Check out with the flexibility to pay now. Or go to goodhang.com.com. Or go to goodhang.com. Or pay later and split your payments with Pay in 4, with no interest, no late fees. Shop now with PayPal. Pay in 4, subject to approval. Learn more at paypal.com slash pay in 4. PayPal, Inc., NMLS, 910457. Sean? Amy, how are you? Sean, it is good to see you. It is good to see you. You know, we just officially met in person just recently. The pre-Emmy party. And we were near the bar area. And you did this thing, which I often do, which is I put my head down and walk away. And I was like, she doesn't want to talk to us. And then your friend looked up and there was a moment of recognition. And my wife was like, he knows you were going to go talk to me right now. Your wonderful wife, Kelly. I got to talk to you both. And you're right. I mean, I. I get a little overwhelmed at parties. I understand. But we didn't give you that chance. We took you hostage for like 20 minutes and we threw up all over you. And thank you for indulging. I got right back at you. I'm very, very excited to talk to you today. I mean, Sean, I love your work and have for a very long time. And it's been awesome to watch what you do so naturally and so well coincide with this like huge hit show. Like, you know what it is to work in this business. And to be on shows that are really, really good and that don't have this kind of momentum behind them. Yeah. What's it like to be on a hit? You're on a hit, baby. You do so many shows. And at the beginning, you're like, this is going to go forever. And then it like gets canceled after five episodes. So when you're starting a show, you just sort of kind of go, I don't, you know, it feels like we're doing good work. I'm not sure. I got to say with the pit, you know, with all the elements in place. I, I've worked with John Wells, who was the executive producer on, on other shows and they didn't do as well, but there's something about this that felt really solid and obviously with Noah and, um, you know, his contributions to this type of show. And then the fact that it's, it's taking something that we're familiar with, but changing the concept by putting it in one day, it, it just, it, it gave a very like immersive quality to it. Like that just felt really, you know, exciting. Let's talk about John Wells for a second. Like what a giant of a producer. I've, I've never had the chance to meet him. He has done so much TV, incredible work. How did you guys first meet? I was a guest star on ER. My manager brought to me, he said, you're going to go audition for this. And I was like, I don't know if I want to do, like, I was doing a lot of movies at the time. And she was like, no, you need to do this one because John is directing it. And when he directs, you know, it's, it's a. Big episode. So I, I read it and it was of course, you know, multiple personalities, very like transformative characters. Very cool. And so it really was wonderful. And at the end of it, I looked at him and I was like, I really want to keep working with you if, if, if I'm so lucky. And, and, you know, then Southland came a couple of years later, ended and it just has worked out. You know, it's one thing to be able to write a show, but it's a, it's a whole other thing to be able to produce a show and know how to put the people in place to make a quality show. He's very loyal. He's. He's. He's. He's. You know, I'm fortunate to work on three shows shot in LA. I think people sometimes think that making television feels like, like, it's just like people dressed up in fancy, you know, clothes going to Emmy parties and talking to each other. But it's a weird factory where you're just in there with, you know, the same people every day and you're grinding. And a show like The Pit is very much that because we're in one location, which feels like an office, right? That the lighting is the same. And yeah, I mean, but like, as you. You know, there's also an immense pressure. I watch your show, Parks and Rec, and it's funny every time, like you guys are presenting something that clearly works because it kept going and going. But at a certain point, you feel that that pressure to deliver, which also creates a special kind of environment when working together, if that makes sense. I'll tell you what works. The Nightcrawlers. Oh, Sean. OK, first of all, the the little pep talk, the Friday Night Lights pep talk that Dr. Abbott gives to the to the to the night shift. Yes. Fantastic. It takes a certain kind of person to work a night or to choose to work nights. You know what it feels like. Totally. I think that that's such an interesting and like it's it's investigated more in season two. And I hope it continues to be, which is what personality trait constitutes a night person and someone who wants to take a night shift. Like, you know, whatever the job is, I would just love to pitch that we take Nightcrawlers and we just develop Nightcrawlers as a separate show. I'm going to talk to Nova. All right. But I didn't tell you to do that. OK, so we're talking in today and I mean, I'm going to talk to him about all this stuff because I I think I'm really fascinated by how like our people, our age, we're about the same age. I'm a little older, but like how we like to work now. Like, I love. I love listening to people's systems of how they work, what works for them, you know, no matter what their job is, doesn't just have to be acting. But I think one of the nice things about being your 50s is you start realizing, oh, this kind of version of work works for me or I do better when I'm around these types of people, like all that stuff. I think there's a little bit of wisdom that comes with that. But I feel like he feels like a very serious guy and kind of private or either one of those things. True. I mean, I he is a serious guy. But he has a really good sense of humor about stuff. You know, he's like a big brother, you know, a much older big brother. Yeah, much older, much, much, much older. That's really nice to hear, because that is the vibe on that show is like there's just a lot of fraternal love between your characters. And look, we as viewers, we're just looking for like positive masculinity. We're just looking for examples. And I think that's the thing that I think is really important. Yeah. I think that's the thing that I think is really important. you just those are the guys you want if something is going wrong like there's nothing that can come through on a gurney that they can't fix um they have all the answers like right on the tip of their tongues but when it comes to their mental health yeah you know they just are are idiots and they they just don't have the tools and because of their position as leaders as men who are supposed to be counted on it's hard to raise your hand and say hey i'm struggling i need help you know and i think that the fact that we're tackling that and um in the way that we are is uh is incredibly positive um okay so do you have i ask all my uh my zoom guests if they can give me a question to ask my guests um big or small anything you might think no one wants to talk about or anything you want to know about him i was thinking about this and sort of what we were talking about like he's such a masterful performer when it comes to acting um his ability to to bring out the medical jargon i've seen it as an actor and also as a director his um his access to vulnerability his ability to uh play emotion heavy emotion and like the stamina that is required to do it over and over again he never changes um and the other thing i really think noah is good at is listening he's got these eyes that when he's he has to convey some sort of story point just from listening he does it brilliantly um and so all that aside it as somebody watching it it just seems very easy to him and i was curious is there something he reads as an actor that he's scared of is there an insecurity is there is there a uh something that he would read in a script that he's like oh man i'm afraid i wonder if i if i can do that because we all as actors have deep insecurities oh my god you know what i mean and it's so i'm just curious um what does he read and go fuck i don't know if i can do that that's a great question because he's had to do he's he's he's gotten a lot of scripts over the years where he's had to do things and they you know especially certainly on er it was like big physical comedy and big emotional moments and like romantic moments and like big breakdowns that you know are coming and just like what is the thing that you read on the page or you know you are in the room pitching that you're like oh no i'm going to eventually have to do this yeah and then my second question is yeah he's putting together a basketball team okay he can use anybody from the pit or er he's the point guard okay he needs to he needs to bring on four more players yep from the pit or er what is that team oh fantastic question and i gotta say don't tell him this but if he doesn't pick me we're gonna have to talk about that yeah he'll sense that in the question you might be hoping to be picked but i'll try not to deliver it that way i think he's definitely gonna pick george clooney right because he plays basketball still doesn't he i don't know i don't i think so i mean does he have time with all that he probably has some guy play basketball for him at this point he's not having he's not playing his own basketball yeah he has a gentleman an italian gentleman who plays for him for sure no way right but you're right i mean basketball was a big thing in er it was just like they were always shooting hoops and you and you're a good basketball player you like basketball i played a lot of basketball and and like as a as a kid high school but i play tennis now i play pickleball so there's where they played basketball on the pit i mean on er that right next to the friends stage there's a basketball court but they've put pickleball there so sometimes at lunch we'll go not noah he has never made it out there but i'll drag some people out there and we'll play pickleball a lot of people don't know that the pit and er were not shot in pittsburgh and in chicago but right on the lot in los angeles thank you so much for doing this i'm i know noah will be thrilled that we talked and thank you so much for the time and it was so great to meet you in person i love your work i can't wait for the next season and all the good stuff ahead so thanks again thank you bye sean bye this episode is brought to you by allstate checking allstate first could save you hundreds on car insurance not checking which group chat you're typing in before hitting send next thing you know you sent a scalding hot take about the restaurant to the group with the person who picked it yikes yeah checking first is a good idea so check all state first for an auto quote it could save you hundreds you're in good hands with allstate potential savings vary subject to terms conditions and availability allstate north american insurance company and affiliates north brook illinois may i open this on the air please do yeah oh wait this is from your wife and daughter yeah they found these and they know that you have all this little stuff and they thought you would think this was cute come on first of all a time they called it eye joy just to look at these and get a little bit of this is really nice this is an anthropomorphic pretzel but like the one i asked for and same with a croissant with legs and then this is oh it's broccoli i had it upside i thought it was an octopus it's versatile broccoli um listeners um noah just came with presents and um beautifully crafted presents and i'm also going to read the card on air it won't be hard my daughter's got the most incredible penmanship how old is your daughter she's 11 this one is 11. oh come on i actually don't know what it says is there anything nicer than 11 year old girls dear amy my mom and i are big fans of your podcast and heard you collect fake food although this isn't realistic we thought you might love it love francis and sarah all i ever wanted was a good good hang and then she drew a picture come on she used her cursive oh she broke out the cursor for you too she's really showing off what a sweetie pie girls are the best that is so sweet francis thank you francis thank you sarah she's gonna be so tickled oh my god thanks for bringing that we'll put it on the shelf before we're done for continuity's sake though we gotta leave it off noah wiley is here noah wiley is here and also noah i just want you to know no presh but you were like one of the first people that i when people were like who do you want on your podcast you were somebody that i've been i've been trying to get you for a long time i haven't been playing hard to get i've just been working a lot i know i've been watching your work i'm really happy to be here and you've been very kind about my work through the years so get ready buckle up okay um i i heard from your people that you refused to come until you were voted sexiest man you said i will only be on this pod i need something legitimate to talk about people's sexiest man alive and i guess my first question is jonathan bailey was last year yeah how is your administration going to be different what are you going to do different than the bailey administration i'm really disappointed what he's done on the international front and with immigration so you're going to start with the heavy my administration is going to really crack down on the borders of beauty congratulations thank you i think that one goes to my mother and my father but yep thank you but i can almost remember chronologically the ones that came out during my formative years well don't you remember i mean people magazine was very big in my house and it was and you'd get it and you'd sit down you'd be like here we go not a problem cover to cover was it like that cumbersome time or you know people you just breeze through it pie charts yeah um but but i i have genuinely wanted you to be here for a very long time thank you for being here my pleasure entirely and thank you for being here on what is like a hundred and twenty degree california it is warm out there i was just in burbank where it was 108 in burbank today it felt like in you know fall yeah but you like had a la experience growing up and then kind of like a ranch horses california experience i had a very atypical upbringing for a city kid because my grandfather back in the late 50s he was um um a really brilliant guy and he went to a symposium on population explosion in 1959 at caltech and he came away thinking that water and land are going to be the two most precious resources in california and he was right and he was right and he was right and he was right and he was right and he was right and he was right and he was right and he was right and he was right and so he went looking for both and he found this piece of property about an hour north of fresno in the exact geographical center of california north to south east to west in this little town outside of north fork and he bought this cattle ranch that's been in our family forever now and we all grew up kind of playing huck finn there you know getting dirty and riding horses and hurting ourselves and each other and uh so i had a kind of country upbringing and a city upbringing i had both oh that's so cool what a like great place to be at california and i've been there for a kid and running around and that's awesome yeah you don't realize how special it is until you compare your childhood to other people and you know i was very fortunate do you have an animal that like a do you have like a farm animal that you love i've had pigs at my place i think pigs are really great and full of character and personality i mean you know not i've had emus they are different i've seen emus on tiktok and i'm i don't want to they're a little scary and they don't they're not very social what happened well i was trying to feed them and they got really aggressive after they had babies and they were like oh my god i'm gonna have a baby and i'm gonna i had a three-walled enclosure for them and i had a trash can with their food in it and they both came in and they fight by kicking up their big taloned feet at like velociraptors and all I had to defend myself was the lid of the trash can. So I was holding it like a shield. You were like Captain America. Not quite, more like Coward America. And I was, you know, crouched down thinking about all the headlines I would not want to read about how I was killed by an emu. So I kind of bum rushed them and got past them and thought, that's it, that's it, they're out of here. Yeah, you were like, I'm getting you out of here. Their poop is extremely rich in nitrogen, so it makes great fertilizer for pot. And their feathers are what fly fishermen like to make flies out of. So I found a pot-smoking fly fisherman who came down and took them all away. He was like jackpot. Did you have, when you were on the ranch as a kid, little Noah, were you a funny kid? Were you performing as a young person? I was a very moody kid. I was a very temperamental kid. And occasionally one of those temperaments would be funny. And I figured out early that I could get attention by being a storyteller and a badger. I was a bit of a comedian, so I kind of latched onto that. But I was, you know, always trying to find my tribe, always trying to find my rhythm, you know, always feeling a slightly step out of my class and my group. But I'm surprised to hear you say that, because I know you made some like big choices very young about what you wanted to do with your life. You decided, I'm not going to go to college, I'm going to be an actor. That's true. And that's a big swing for somebody who made it. Well, that was after I found my job. I went away to do this theater program that's sponsored by Northwestern University in the summer program called the Cherub Program, kind of an all-star program for theater kids from all over the country. And I went and was like, oh, here you are, my people. Let's play. And I came back just committed that college knowledge, you know, I want to start, I'm going to get an apartment with my best friend, and we're going to hustle. Did you wait tables during that time? I did. I worked for a man named Dimitri Dimitrov at the Bellage Hotel. Dimitri is now gone. He went on to become a rather famous connector in this town. But when I was 17, he hired me to bus tables for him. Is this the Dimitri that I. Yeah, of his pleasure, of his pleasure. Okay, people should know he is very famous. Dimitri is like an incredible character. He's in my A&E biography. Talking about how he molded me from a scruffy young street urchin into a rather accomplished busboy. He's kind of like, you don't make him like that anymore, Dimitri. Like he was a maitre, well, and I met him, he was a maitre d'. And he was like the epitome of what you would imagine fancy service would be. He drilled into us this wonderful phrase, the nobility and humility, that you're not subservient because you're serving. And if you want to be an actor, think of this as putting on a show for these people. Give them the most incredible dining experience and play that part and pay attention to detail. And his work ethic was so intense that one night, my job at the end of the shift was to make him an espresso, with four sugars while he counted all the money and tipped us out. And one night he was just sweating profusely. He'd been really aggressive all night, telling us to change ashtrays and give more bread. And it was because he was working with a burst appendix. And he, once he paid us out, he went to the emergency room and had it operated on and showed up the next night for the shift. So do you know how painful that is to work with a burst appendix? I do because I've watched a lot of your medical shows. Yes. I do. Well, he's an absolute soldier. When it comes to work. Whoa, that's wild. And do you, like, do you feel like you were a good waiter? Cause I think there is something about waiting tables and being in the service industry in general, that when, especially when you're a young person, where you get very good or you get practice anyway, at figuring out how to deal with a lot of different people fast. Oh, absolutely. I think that's really true. In fact, I've recommended it to my kids. I say, you know, working, you'll, you'll understand why you won't want to do it for the rest of your life really quickly, but you'll get this commercial. This camaraderie, this bond with your fellow workers that you'll never forget. And it will battle test you for all sorts of different kinds of people. Yeah. The, the idea that you have to very quickly make an impression is really. Well, you're so good at impressions. Oh, thanks. Why? Thanks. No, I'm learning. Okay. I'm too excited. Let's take a drink of water. I did not know that you were auditioning. At 20, 18, 19, 20, 21, like really young and auditioning. Did you ever do commercials during that time? No, I was really cocky and I was really, I thought I only wanted to do theater and film. That was my whole thing when I started out. And, uh, I signed with a wonderful agent, a woman named Eileen Feldman signed me basically with a list of plays on the back of an envelope that I'd done in high school and on the recommendation of a casting director named Gretchen Ronell, who I'd met at a party and she said, "Hey, I want to audition for a play. And she said, OK, that's what you want to do. And then eventually when that didn't pan out, she sent me the pilot script for ER, which had been written as a feature script. And at that point, I was ready to do whatever. did you feel like you nailed it when you like did you feel good about your audition it's gonna date it so specifically let's talk about faxes and pagers well i had just gone through a rather tumultuous breakup my first big love had broken my heart and i was trying to rebuild my life and i was so good for the audition though and i'd gone back into therapy and i was reading the celestine prophecy do you remember that book yes and so i was i was so very into this like idea of controlled dramas and recognizing what someone's trying to do to you and being neutral and all that shit. And so I remember sitting in the hallway thinking about not letting the other actors that were auditioning around me's energy affect me and what I wanted to do. And I went in and the first one went very well and they called me back for the producers. And then I tested against one other actor, a gentleman named Raphael Sabard. She was very talented. Wow. You know, changed my life. Yeah. I mean that, I just don't think I really understood how young you were when you were on that show i turned 22 while we made the pilot so i was 21 when i was auditioning for it yeah wow which is my daughter's age which is crazy i know and that age is such an interesting age because it is that middle feeling where you're just you're like i'm not a kid anymore i'm a i'm an adult but you've you're just just stepping into that it's so so tender that age i had great big brothers on that one though. I had George, Tony, and Eric, who were all 10 years older than me, who had already been down those roads before. And I had a huge crush on Sherry. So it felt very comfortable to be part of that ensemble. I didn't know that. I can't, I can't wait. I'm sorry, but no. Everybody had a crush on Sherry. You're going to have to bear with me because I'm going to ask you a lot of ER questions. Okay, I'm ready. Where do I start? I think you, you share a similar love for television than I do. And I think there's something about television that is so personal. And we revisit these people and these shows and these characters, like if we're lucky enough to get to do that over and over again. When I first watched ER, like everyone else, I was, you know, in the nineties, I was, I had just graduated from college. Then cut to, I'm watching ER at seven o'clock every night on TNT and reruns when I'm like ripping bongs and going away, you know, with not a care in the world, but I'm 20, you know, whatever it is, 26. Oh, maybe, maybe that's a little old to be doing that. And then I watched it again when in my thirties, I rewatched it again during the pandemic. I have rewatched that series a lot. It is my, one of my comfort shows. My first question is have you rewatched it not in its entirety not start to finish i've caught episodes over the years and kind of you know caught up on it um do you watch it when you see when i first started dating my wife sarah uh she wanted to watch it from the beginning and i had the dvds so i gave them to her every once in a while i had to walk past and go what are you up to oh yeah oh that's a good one or i have no memory of this whatsoever who is that kid uh yeah so but i'll go back to say that When I said I wanted to do only theater and film, it's so ironic that I've made my entire career in television. And it's been the most rewarding career you could want because it is a family that you build up over a long period of time. There is a culture that's within the show that you're making that's just as fun to be part of that nobody else really gets to know about because it's so insular to the just the environment of the work. And then this relationship that you build up with audiences who are attending you in their moments of their life that are important. And you kind of are an anchoring point for that. It's really, it's been astonishing to have people grow up with me and have me grow up with them and have these shared experiences and times. It's been wonderful. Well, I've said this, but the arc of John Truman Carter on that show is, I think, one of the best arcs ever on television. There are many shows that run 15 years, so you can get a lot of lifespan in that time frame. And they did. But they also had, it was such a lovely bookend to have his first day of work be the pilot of the hospital. So it's the audience's exposure to the environment is coming through this character. And even when I left after the end of the 11th season, left a few episodes in the balance, I called it a divorce with visitation rights. John Wells was always adamant about me coming back and being part of the end so that we could close the chapter on that career. And that the third year medical student becomes the chief attending was a lovely road to travel. Yeah. So satisfying to watch that in like what felt like real time, even though, and you know, spoiler alert, if you haven't watched ER fast forward now, but if you haven't literally what's wrong with you, but. um the way talk about bookends dr green getting woken up come on let's go dr green and ending with with with john carter saying dr green are you coming to dr green's daughter i mean good lord that made i mean the circle of life i know it's good it's good stuff i know i get very you get yeah it's it's beautiful it's beautiful and also what was so incredible about that show and and honestly what is incredible about shows that deal with people who have who do that kind of work is there is this feeling of celebrating life like one must yes one must yes because it's all we have yes and so i know i just anyway that was so beautifully done um and okay but i haven't there's a great pittsburgh poet who wrote a poem called a brief for the defense that has a line in there that i think about a lot i love this poem do you know the poem you must have the stubbornness to accept the glad your gladness and the ruthless furnace of this world this furnace of this world i love this poem i just sent it to a friend who's going through a hard time jack gilbert um okay 48 million people watch dr it's such a hit it's insane i just want to talk about what i believe was the most for me anyway the most important relationship on the show which was you and eric lasalle um sure dr carter and uh and uh dr benton dr peter peter benton who was the surgeon who who was everything about that portrayal was ahead of its time uh eric's choices your choices together the writing of that character the way that character changed the way that eric i think and all of you kind of fought for ways in which to make sure that that character was going to be true to himself um how would you describe that relationship and what did you two talk about to make sure to like maintain its integrity it's such a beautiful it was very instinctual and it wasn't very verbalized you know eric and i just fell into a really great rhythm early on with each other where because of the power imbalance being the exact opposite of what you would imagine it to be where the young white doctor is killing himself for the approval and approbation of the older black surgeon and holds his estimation as the highest level of validation um it and eric got to play the sort of you know i always laugh when i went to japan on a tour on a press tour once they showed me er in japanese and of course they gave eric the very deep like and then they gave me the status and the journey was to have my voice deepening to have his voice softened in my mind yeah i mean even watching it when i was a young person i remember thinking wow dr benton is so he's like so mean he's so uptight he's like you know he's so tough on carter i used to go to the post office and all the ladies would go he's so mean to you he's so mean to you just the physicality when you watch the way you two walked i mean i don't know i don't know i don't the way he was like striding constantly down the hallway the way you were always behind him over his shoulder peering until eventually you know throughout the seasons you just become literally on the same plane as him the way you are constantly watching him is so it's just what a relationship that was he gave me a lot to play off of and i i've said many times how much respect i have for what he was doing in a way without i think recognizing what he was doing consciously but what he was representing at a time that where that wasn't being represented and you know to us occasionally it seemed like eric's being kind of stubborn you know he doesn't want to be a team player and take this picture this way and we didn't really understand what he was trying to represent which was a different stripe of blackness maleness professionalism and uh i haven't given him a tremendous amount of credit and and have through the years for that um but i didn't get it in the beginning and uh i really got it now it was so beautifully done because his tension about being being successful being right being at the right time like advancing is comes from a much different place than carter's and the the clash of that was so interesting to watch eric and i come from very different backgrounds but we have a lot in common and it was really interesting to sort of mind both of those arenas how different we are and how different we are and how different we are and how much you know we end up liking each other despite our differences maybe because of our differences did you guys giggle a lot together though you gigglers yeah he has a very infectious laugh and getting eric to break is one of the great joys in life it feels like like you kind of were a couple of goofballs at times we were all goofballs we were all the class clowns in our class trying to get attention so the idea that we would all be serious doctors you know it's a finite concept before we all want to start making fun of what we're doing especially when you've got george clooney in the scene you know we're all kind of like we're all kind of like we're all kind of like you know it was people that and he really set the tone let's work really hard let's play really hard let's take this work seriously but not take ourselves seriously yeah i could show up be on time be professional erase the division between cast and crew between foreground and background let's just see if we can make this feel like a company and i've taken that exact ethos and recreated it with the pit that is exactly that is how that was baked into the intentionality of the pit is how can i recreate the environment of family hard good relevant work and you know a respectful inclusive environment at the same time did you like his pranks though now the answer is no no well you know who likes the pranks they're funny stories to tell are you a prank guy i've never i'm not a big pranker no i knew it who's a break pranker we don't have the time i like this is gonna like i when my son was small he was super into trains and when he would fall asleep i'd run downstairs and create these elaborate train layouts for him and then tell him like the layout fairy must have come and so he believed in the layout fairy like i i like magic making and i like blowing people's minds that way yeah yeah yeah yeah i'm pro football hall of famer brian dawkins and i lived for a long time with something i did not know the name of major depressive disorder i carried sadness and anger because i thought i could handle it alone but i couldn't now i want to make sure others know that that support is out there if you're experiencing similar symptoms talk to a health care professional visit mddallies.com to watch my story paid partnership with johnson and johnson brian dawkins is not prescribed capybara lumateperone this little light of mine in the dark found a hopeful sign i needed more from my antidepressant so my doctor added capybara lumateperone proven to provide greater relief from depression symptoms than an antidepressant alone building on my progress without starting over caplita is for adults with major depressive disorder when used with an antidepressant and is available by prescription only individual results may vary in clinical trials weight gain was not common elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke caplita is not approved for dementia related psychosis call your doctor about new or sudden mood changes behaviors or suicidal thoughts right away antidepressants may increase these risks report fever confusion stiff muscles which may be life-threatening or uncontrolled muscle movements which may be permanent high cholesterol and weight gain may occur as can high blood sugar which may be fatal monitoring is recommended common side effects are sleepiness dizziness nausea dry mouth feeling tired and diarrhea these aren't all the side effects ask your doctor about caplita learn more at caplita.com or call 888-252-4824 this episode is brought to you by ebay live here's how it goes first you're watching the ebay live stream telling yourself i'm just looking and then boom you see a vintage rolex go for an absolute steal suddenly a rare beanie baby pops up adrenaline hits and you're bidding you might lose that first one but you bid again and win and that winning rush incredible because you beat everyone to it meanwhile on ebay live you don't just watch the action you're in it download the ebay app to stream and shop live ebay live things people love ulcerative colitis and crohn's disease symptoms don't pause for the moments that matter that's why understanding your treatment options matters discover what's possible with trim fire guselka map trim fire is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative 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couple moments on er acting okay back to that okay sorry i mean i only watched it five thousand times. Fair. I'm all yours. Okay. In addition to Dr. Peter Benton being someone that I, it took me a minute, just like the character of Carter to realize like, oh, I'm talking about someone who's had a different experience than me. And I'm learning about their experience through this character, Laura Ennis, Carrie Weaver. What a beautiful performance she gives. Oh my goodness. I was at her audition. I sat in on maybe two or three auditions in 15 years. I just happened to be in the office when they were casting that role. And I had a friend who was reading for it. So that's maybe why I was there as sort of a, an anchoring energy for my friend. But Laura walked in and walked out or limped out with the part. It was just, it was, it was like a revelation, which she did with that part. That is, and that is a part that again, when you mature, I think at least for me as a woman watching the show, when I was in my fifties, I was like, oh, I mean, suddenly, that character who honestly, frankly, sometimes has to be the one that's like, stop having fun guys. We got to get back to work. You realize the pressure that that character is under to keep that hospital going, which you, you really take a hard look at in the pit. This idea of like, there's a whole other world. There's like the world, there's like the street level world of stuff. There's the bird's eye view of stuff. Then there's like this, this management, this piece that is just keeping the lights on is she's so, so good in that. And when, and, and in the scene, when, when Dr. Carter is a spoiler alert, when he has to go to rehab, when they call him out, what, I watched that scene. I don't even have a question. Such good acting. Noah, you're so good in that scene. I think I got good on that show. I got, I mean, the luxury of getting that writing week after week and those directors week after week, and you're working with guest stars that are Academy Award winners and icons and legends, and you're getting to share the stage with them every week. I got better so that when, after year five, when George left and after year eight, when Tony and Eric left and I inherited some of the bigger, more meatier storylines, I was ready for them then in a way that I wouldn't have been ready for them in those early seasons. So I, I credit, I credit longevity to preparing me for, for the juicier stuff, but those were great. And to give Carter the drug addiction, I remember thinking and telling John Wells, like, I don't know if I buy this. He goes, that's the point is that you're the most unexpected face for drug addiction, but the face of drug addiction is every face. And that's the point we want to make. And lastly, I know you've worked with incredible people, but do you remember working with Adam Scott? Yeah. Well, not really. Season one, episode 20. It was reminded to me by Instagram. So he told a very funny story about that. So Adam was on a gurney and it was you and Ming-Na doing your scene. And he, I think he's just supposed to lie there as the patient. And he realizes he forgot to put the, the breathy thing in the tube that he, he, he forgot a prop basically. And you guys have all this jargon and he's like, oh shit. And he's like, he kind of raises his hand, like, does it matter that I didn't have my thing on and whatever? And everyone's like, yes, dumbass, it matters. I'm going to forgive Adam and put that all. I'm going to forgive Adam and put that all on our prop department. Yeah, it wasn't Adam's job. It wasn't Adam's job. No, that would have been Rick Latimer's job. Like, I know you've answered this. Rick. Yeah. I know you have. Rick's the prop master on the pit. Rick. He is? Yeah. Same ER prop. Yeah. There's a few connective tissue people that really make it very lovely. A good prop master is no better feeling. You, it is so important. Well, you know, I mean, it's from SNL and all. I mean, it's the best. Well, I didn't want to make comparisons, but I'm going to. I'm going to compare SNL. I'm going to compare SNL to ER. I'm going to compare Parks and Rec to the pit. I'm sorry. Do it. But SNL was like a comedy emergency room. And I know we are not doing the kind of work that emergency room doctors are doing. Way higher stakes with what you were doing. Way higher stakes. Way higher stakes. Way higher stakes. Not at all. Please know that I'm not making that comparison. But what I notice is, you know, you just, there's no time to panic. No. There's no one running around being like, what are we going to do? How are we going to fix this? We go on air in a minute. There's just, in fact, the more stressful things get, the quieter people get. And when you start to work with those kinds of people, you never want to work with anybody else again. Yes. They're just the people you can depend on when the shit goes down. I'll give my father a lovely compliment. My dad is a brilliant man, but in life, you know, sort of comes off occasionally like an absent-minded professor, but he's also a small plane pilot. And I've been with him in the plane. And that's when you want to be in Stephen Wiley's plane, because he's got an engineer's mind who just says, problem, work the problem. And motion, fear, all those other things don't seem to kind of come into play. And it's a really, I don't have that ability. I lead with emotion and empathy. So the first thing is like, well, what does that feel like? As opposed to like, you know, what would be the right thing to do? You don't have that? No. No, I can act it though. Yeah, you sure can. My wife will tell you, she slammed her finger in a car. She slammed her door and Dr. Robbie was nowhere to be seen. He just immediately started crying and you're like, oh my God, what are we going to do? And she, you know, elevates and drives the dogs to Santa Barbara for like three hours, comes back, goes to urgent care. Meanwhile, I'm still boiling water and finding hot towels. And you're like, I need a moment. I got to find my feelings. Okay. But I want to talk about the pit because here's my other, you know, clumsy comparison. But first of all, congratulations on a wonderful show. Thank you. A beautiful, well-deserved and, and satisfying rise as you made it. Like, it feels like you got to make the show before the show became, do you know what I mean? Like you got to make what you wanted and then people noticed. Yes. That's not always the right, that's not always the timing that happens. It was, uh, it was a whole confluence of events, which I'm sure you're well aware of that. We were going to start down an ER reboot road that didn't come to pass, but we sort of set a table of expectation for a medical. Show from us that we were then allowed to really fast track the development process through because of that vacuum that we'd created from the near miss. And so this just happened so quickly that it seemed like there was a larger force behind it and we just needed to stay on the surfboard and let it push us. What creatively came out of that like early stutter step that you're so happy it did? Well, I'm sorry to say for all the ER fans, but once we uncoupled ourselves from that IP, it suddenly liberated. The storytelling. It wasn't about who do we see again and what have they been up to? It's what are the issues of the day and how is the, what's the most cogent way to put them across? So in a lot of ways, it's kind of liberated the narrative, um, for us and allowed us to reframe and kind of modernize it and not have to pay any homage to, um, to traveled road. Yeah. Because the, uh, why I think about parks and rec, when I think about the pit is the show is about a place and the place. The place is this beating heart that everybody is gathered around and the place is like, has its own system and the people kind of almost like come alive when they're in the place and sometimes you kind of feel like they're like at rest, like computers when they're not in the place. And, and the, and other thing I'll say is that I feel like people really want to watch people who are good at their jobs. 100%. I do. Me too. It's like competency porn. Like people are like, wow, look at those people. They care. And they're good at their jobs. Like sign me up. It's what we're desperate to see. How recently we watched, um, all the president's men and just watching Redford and, and, and, um, and Dustin Hoffman embody Woodward and Bernstein and seeing that Washington post office at the verisimilitude, the detail, the specificity of everything in it and what everybody's doing is so good that you don't question anything. You're just along for the ride. That's, that's, that's a movie making its best. I meant to ask you, Noah, you had a chance to work with Rob. Reiner. I did. How was that? Oh my goodness. It was a dream. It was an absolute dream. He was everything you would imagine and want him to be. Yeah. Uh, I've told the story before, but I'm happy to share it as many times as I'm asked about it. I got to the set early for my first day of work. I saw a few good men. A few good men. I saw Rob Reiner talking to Aaron Sorkin and I didn't want to bother them. So I started to move away and this big booming voice said, Noah. And I turn and Rob came at me like a big lumbering bear and he picked me up and he goes, Hey man, I'm so excited that you're here. We're going to have so much fun today. And he turned to Aaron and goes, this guy's fantastic. Well, you saw the audition. He's great. It's going to be great today. I'm so happy here. Listen, it's a little overcast. We're not going to get to your stuff for a little bit. Go check out your room. Go get some breakfast. This is going to be great. And he walked away. And if he had said, go kill that guy, I would have said, you got it, Rob. I was so excited that I was so welcomed that he made me feel comfortable and confident, competent all in about eight seconds. And I took that lesson on every set I've ever been on. And I got to tell him 20 years later when I auditioned for something I didn't get, listen, I just want to thank you for this gift of set deportment that you gave to me because I've welcomed every guest on to every set I've ever been on in the same way and gotten their best work and gotten them to be relaxed and to feel comfortable in the same way that you made me feel. So that's my takeaway story from that is, you know, you can get such better work out of treating people with kindness and generosity than being austere. or sort of aloof in making somebody wonder whether they belong and having their insecurities and imposter syndrome be the ruling emotion you know oh what a great story what a beautiful story with him um you know i do want to just you're not asking me for feedback about the pit but i'm going to give you a little bit of feedback are you ready i'm ready if you're going to show so much guts and blood yeah you're going to go there which you go there and it's incredible your makeup team is incredible the stuff you do is bananas i don't watch most of it i cover my eyes but i mean i can't take it i'm eating spaghetti no you need the pit blinders yeah you're gonna sell glasses but if you're gonna show that much you gotta every time you do that you gotta get a little smooch someone's gonna do a little so you think it's one for one one for one just a tiny smooch wow just one no not one for one maybe i would discuss maybe a one to four ratio but certainly not one to one just a little smooch okay you're gonna show the guts you gotta show some butts we do show butts you do show butts but you know in a romantic okay and then also robbie riding without the motorcycle without the helmet incredible such a great detail so great so smart such tension in the in the in the second season because he's riding without it and of course he's of course he's not a good patient you know all those things and it tells us so much it's so good i want him to come back from that motorcycle trip and i want it to have been good i think you're gonna be okay thank god i think you're gonna be literally i can't the fact that he comes back at all is a wonderful sign exactly right but i need him to have gone a little gone somewhere and had a yeah it's good had some smooches somewhere oh you know oh maybe not smooches come on i don't want to give anything away have you ever fallen asleep or seen anybody fall asleep while they were in a gurney on the show oh it happens all the time right yeah we all because you know we tell our background like go party all night take a second job come in just this is your job just you know and you hear him snoring or farting or whatever every once in a while it's it's wonderful it's pretty hard to lay down for many many hours and not fall asleep yeah yeah it's a great gig yeah that's great and it's great you know it's not just our background we intentionally have patients that are seated into the environment that don't pop until five or six hours later there's a guy that i've been i'm just working with this week who's been there since week one in a gurney and he's like oh my god i'm gonna fall asleep and he's like oh my god i'm gonna fall asleep and he's like oh my god i'm gonna fall asleep and he's like oh my god i'm gonna fall asleep and he's like oh my god i'm gonna fall asleep for seven weeks after week five we let him turn over after week six i think he sat up and now we're he's awake and he's carrying the narrative for the next four episodes that is so cool and it is a part of the show that's like just very fun puzzle boxy as you're just wondering who's going to be the main character in the in the in the next hour and this is a show that audiences seem to like to pull from the back row like i really like mateo or i really like amad the security guy you know people are really focused on the on the peripheral characters which makes this feel like okay the narrative is working if you're getting invested in and people that only sometimes have two or three lines per per episode and you know we talked very early on about this idea of like knowing when you met your people like at that at that program northwestern you love actors i do very much you've spoken about it and i find it really um very very moving the way you feel count yourself lucky to be among the actors as a community and i think that's a really important thing and i think that's a really important thing and i think the way you treat actors on the pit you can tell your love for them you give people a lot of opportunity to score i just want during the strike when i was walking around with a picket sign in my hand i was walking a lot with matt weiner and i was walking a lot with um i don't know i had a lot of people that i was conversing with and we were talking about work and what work should mean and used to feel like and what we'd want it to mean again and i feel like that became the intentionality of what i wanted this to look and feel like and i even wrote a book about this letter that i sent to our casting director saying you know this is the look and feel of the show it's like an old altman movie where you just you got to throw in like you're going to summer camp or doing kind of rep and tv and camp at the same time leave your ego behind bring your creativity you're never going to work like this again this is a really immersive experience so if you're thirsty for something like that and you want to buy into something and play hooky from your life 12 hours a day come join our pirate ship and it was just like calling all pros calling all pros people just came and they show up to play it is not hard for me to be focused at work because everybody's coming in there to give the best of themselves and i find that so inspiring that's what i love about actors is their courage and they can be petulant and they can be petty and they can be gossipy and they can be like cats that never want to get on their mark or come to rehearsal once you get them there they'll kill themselves for you they really will you know you speak really well about a lot of things that matter to you and you also show up um there's there i could list a million things in which i've even in the past year i've seen you speak passionately about where is this um feeling of like justice and advocacy where did where did it come from is it is it is was it in your family of origin i definitely think i think i grew up in a family that that preached a version of social justice and was always conscious of inequality and our responsibility because we had opportunity or uh um you know advantages was to try to level the playing field and democratize it wherever possible so you know we all grew up with a sense of civic mindedness the sense of you have to participate in society that you know there is a limit of enough for yourself and you can define what is enough and that makes the you know define the difference between want and need what do you really need versus what do you want and i i had this wonderful huge career in my 20s when i got all the big toys the big house you know i got to see what my grandfather said was true you can only be in one room at a time and sometimes the bigger the space the lonelier the space so i've been on my own journey of defining what is enough and what makes me happy and i've gotten to a place where it really is defined by meaningful work and meaningful family life anything other than that is give back so i'm allowed to be philanthropic and feel magnanimous because my cup is full which is a lovely thing to be able to say and then being in a position with this show to you know have an opportunity to go to washington have doors open and have people listen to things that are important to me be um an advocate for los angeles based production a couple other things have become very important i love i loved uh watching you and your mom go together oh that was amazing i mean to me that's not a an act of charity if you get this incredible opportunity to be with your mother and have your two careers dove tailed together i got to watch my mother you know uh i don't want to say my mother's age but of advancing age walking with her fellow nurses and feeling relevant at her advanced age which isn't always easy for women of advancing age sometimes you feel rather invisible and for my mother to feel like like a bit of an icon like an elder stateswoman who had put in the time and put in the years and was earning the respect of her colleagues was huge it was wonderful to see when you saw her being a nurse she was an icu nurse she was an operating room nurse for 10 years and then she was uh chief orthopedic nurse at kaiser in hollywood when you when you saw her at work like you know i i let i you know i have two sons i love hearing uh from men my age uh like what they took away from seeing their mother work well i i've talked about this i had my mother and i had a big moment after season one of the pit aired and she watched episode 12 where my character has this and she came over to my house and she just said that it's triggered something for her and she started having all these memories of all these cases that she didn't save the patient she starts listing a gang member who had been shot that she was trying to help with two units of blood and little kid that she put into a morgue drawer and and i was like i don't know these stories i've never heard these stories yeah and i said where were all these uh and she goes oh i don't know i said how old was that how old was i when you put the kid in the drawer she goes well i think it actually your brother was that age and that's why that one got to me but then in retrospect what i remember is she made us dinner she drove us to practice she helped us with her homework she didn't bring her work home unless she was bringing us gauze to be mummies on halloween or surgical tubing so we could use them for our star wars figures layouts or whatever like i didn't learn about who my mother was professionally until 54 years old honestly a lot of kids don't learn who they're like a lot of times we don't see our flowers now though yeah it's awesome to see well we're going feminine to masculine now because i have to say on the pit there's just a lot of incredible investigations into like men's friendships and relationships and you don't see the often see the kind of complexity of that and the relationship you have with dr jack abbott with sean haddisey is really something yeah it's so good and the same with langdon you know oh i mean i mean patrick ball is so good and to an extent whittaker as well like the mentor mentee you know it's it's really lovely to explore these things yeah well we have this thing on the podcast where lovely is not a really masculine adjective lovely it's uh okay really cool but you know what the guys are really cool yeah the guys are cool um so we we spoke to sean uh-oh haddisey Had to see. Okay. I was hoping you'd go with the other one, but okay. Okay, first of all. I was hoping you'd go Cassidy. I know. Oh, my God. I love Sean Cassidy. You wanted to hear an embarrassing story? Yes. Okay. I love Sean Cassidy. There was a night where it was brokered where we were going to hang out and play pool. For anybody under 55, Sean Cassidy was like, he was kind of like Harry Styles. He was like the Timothee Chalamet of his time, except more TV than film. And he cut albums, too. Yeah, I knew him as a musician first. Sure, of course. Did you run, run? Yeah, yeah, of course. So we're going to hang out. We're going to play pool this night. And I tried too hard. Sometimes I come on too strong. Sometimes I'm a little overly zealous in the questions I ask and the things that I'm interested in. And I turned him off completely. Never got a call back. Yeah, never got a call back. Because you came on too strong? I believe that was what happened. In fact, that was. I don't want to embarrass Sean, but I did get a review from the mutual friend. He was like, he thought you came on a little strong. I mean, I'm sweating thinking about it. I'm sweating retelling the story. I know, because I think about so many times when I audition for stuff. And it is, take the feeling you have of being on a bad date and multiply it by 10. When you're like, oh, fuck, this date sucks. I am, and you can hear your own voice. Oh, yeah. And you're like. Mm-hmm. Well, I thought it went great. Went home and bragged to my wife. I'm like, we're like this now, baby. Like, I may go out on tour with him. You never know. And then you started going, maybe he didn't want to talk about Hardy Boys for an hour. Maybe. Why, Sean? Why would you not want to talk about the Hardy Boys? That's his problem. He missed out. He's kicking himself. I've heard a million of those stories, if that's what you want. You do. I do feel like, Noah, you, I'm learning that you, you go in. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and sometimes I come out, but most of the time I don't. Yeah, I can tell. I can tell. If you're going to be the sexiest man alive, you can't do that. I'm going to go over that. You've got to get out. I think Sean Connery and Denzel and the sexy men of yesteryear would look down upon my. For all the work that they did. Oh, my God. I'm not holding up. Think about how hard it was for them. I should have trained harder for this, really. I didn't realize that there was so much. Your sexy forefathers did not. Yeah. Battle so that you would get. There's no guidebook. No, no. There's no rule. Yeah. So, Sean, and I was saying to Sean, we were talking about you, talking well behind your back, and he's very, very in awe of your talent and what you can do and all that you do. And I was just saying, like, what I love so much about his character on The Pit and what you guys have done is you've created this mystery, this nighttime mystery for the night shift that is so fun because we're just projecting. A lot on them. Yes. What kind of people they are. What did they like? You know, they kind of show up as the show is ending and you're like, what? Those little tastes are so well done. Thank you. He had two questions for you. Okay. Okay. One is serious and one is fun. Okay. Is there anything that you read in a script that scares you that you have to do? Like, you know, when you see something come up and you think to yourself, okay, this is going to be hard or scary. Um, that it, it doesn't have to be necessarily in The Pit, but like something that you know is coming. What, what do you do when, what, what is that? And what do you do when you know it's coming? Well, I can kind of answer it two different ways. One, generally speaking, when I read a script, if I think, oh, I couldn't do that. Like what, what could you not do? Well, for example, I remember the first time I read the pilot script for a show I did called Falling Skies, where it was like, oh, this guy is, you know, he's like, oh, he's like, this guy is a history teacher. I'm into that. Oh, wait, no, he's going to kill aliens with a machine gun. Oh, wait a second. Nobody's going to want to see me doing that. And so you start to think like, nah, that's not me. I'm not an action hero. They're going to want to get, you know, that guy. And then you say, well, what are you afraid of? What is it that you're resistant to? And you think, do you think this history professor wants to be an action hero? And you start to make logical leaps within to sort of figure out how you would get there if you had to be. And then suddenly that thing that is sort of scary. It's more of a mirror saying, look, you're post-divorce. You don't know quite what the future holds for you as a single father. You're rebuilding your life. He's rebuilding his life. Maybe you're afraid of leadership. Maybe you're afraid of fatherhood. Maybe you're afraid of loss. Those are the three defining characteristics to this character. Maybe that's exactly where you need to go. So I tend to look at those things as barometers for where I need to go rather than where I want to go. And then when I'm in the job, if there's a challenging thing, it's coming up, you know, I protect it like I'm a caveman trying to protect a kindled fire so it won't go out. I know it's coming and I just keep blowing on it and adding a little straw to it every day, thinking about it every day. You know, I can make it bigger and then, okay, just tamp it down until the day. So that on the day, it is a day of release. It's a day of liberation. It's a graduation from having to tend that fire. And so it's not intimidating. I actually get excited when I go to work. Yeah. And I think, this is going to be so fun to see what comes out now that I can actually make this an inferno. I love that visual of that fire, of keeping that going. Especially on this pit. You know, when you've got to, in episode one, know that you're going to have a breakdown in episode 10. That's a long time to keep the fire lit. And that every day, you know, I'd be at breakfast with my kids and think, is it there? Yeah, it's there. And I'd be, you know, shopping in the grocery store. Could you do it right now? Yeah, I could do it right now. And to me, that is the technique I've always wanted to have. I wanted to be able to have a technique that requires, I required fresh coffee and a folding chair, and I could do it anywhere. Fuck yeah, Noah. I know. That's so cool. Wow. You're really good at acting. Thank you. Thank you. Well, that's going to help you in this basketball team, because Sean Haddisey, second question is- Second question, here we go. You're the point guard of a basketball team, and you have to bring- I've never played point guard in my life. You've never played point guard? No, I'm too tall. Yeah. Congrats, by the way, because literally in the world of actors, you're a giant. It's true. It's true. Actors are pretty tiny. How tall are you? 6'1". Hey. Hey, Pete. And change. Hey, 6'1 and change. 6'1 and change. So you're 6'1 and change. So, okay, you're right. Maybe Sean- Anyway, you're the point guard of the basketball team. On Sean's team, I'm not playing point guard. Okay. You're just on a basketball team, and you have to bring four more players from ER and the pit. Who would you bring? Obviously, I'm going to take Clooney. You don't grow up in Kentucky without growing up with a basketball in one hand, so he is a great ball player. Okay. And I played a lot of ball with him, and he beat me a lot of games. Okay. So I'm taking Clooney. I got to pick, how many more? Three more? Three more. Was Sean asking to play? Is this like a- This is a great question. Was he like, you know, tell him I still got my wheels, you know? I mean, I don't know. What do you think? I don't think he's asking. I don't think he's asking for a spot. I don't think. He's a tennis player. Okay. He did mention that he plays tennis. I bet he did. I mean, but I mean, I'm sure if you asked him to play, he'd be psyched. Luke Tanney's really big. He's on a night shift. Yeah. Luke is great. Am I bringing Luke for some size down low? Great. Who's your big guy? That's the tricky part. If I could go all the way back to ER, I'd take A. Ben Ruby, who plays Jerry the desk clerk. That's what I was going to say. Jerry is a hell of a rebounder. He actually never, ever played with us, ever. He would play Nag Champa incense and sit off to the side and watch us play. But he's 6'6", 6'7"? Yeah, he's like 6'8". He's a good ball player. Okay. And then who else am I going to take? I got to take one more. You've got one more. I'm going to take young, scrappy Garen Howells. Probably never played the game before, but damn it, I'm going to teach him. I'm going to teach him. You're going to have one person that you're teaching. You remember that guy in Hoosiers who makes the winning basket by throwing? Oh, my God. Throwing an underhand. Just re-watched Hoosiers with my kid. Yeah, the kid that makes the underhanded free throw. That's going to be Garen on our team. And you always need somebody that's going to be like, give us the spirit. Okay, so Sean was not picked. That's okay, Sean. He didn't want to be picked anyway. It's just odd that he would use a basketball metaphor. And want to get picked. I love that you got hung up on the fact that you weren't going to be the point guard, which is so great. I'm just saying, because I'm merely thinking like, Wiley, no, no, no. You can't dribble up there. Get down low. Get down low. It is, like, I always loved the fact when I was watching you guys on ER that I could tell you all were shooters. Like, that's, it's just, it was a very satisfying thing to watch. We had a hoop right outside the soundstage, which my trailer was the backstop for. And we played all the time. We played every lunch. It was the bane of all the makeup artists' existence because they had to constantly clean off the sweat and, like, you know, cool us off after lunch. But, you know, George was religious about it. And I could either listen to them play outside my trailer or join them. Yeah, that's awesome. Is there a show that you've watched over and over again? Like, what is your ER? I have this very bizarre habit in that I travel with, like, a jewel case of DVDs and I pack a DVD player because most places don't have them anymore. And I carry with me the collective. episodes of Columbo and MASH and there's a few that I just I go to all the time. You've spoken about Alan Alda. Can we speak? Let's talk Alan. I love MASH was really important to me too and very important to my parents. I had young parents and they would like MASH was a really big thing in my home when I was growing up and how important was it for you? What do you love about it? I, that relationship with television shows and actors on television shows is so ancient for me because I was the classic latchkey kid. You know, I was raised by a square babysitter and you know, I watched so much television that my parents were concerned. Parents are concerned about video games or TikTok. My parents were concerned because I was, you know, playing hooky from school so I could watch Big Valley and Bonanza and Emergency in the Morning and then Laverne and Shirley and Happy Days or Love Boat or Fantasy Island or The White Shadow or Hill Street Blues or MASH. Yes. I mean, I just love them all and I don't know what it was about the two actors in particular. Henry Winkler and Alan Alda. Like to me, I was like, oh, I could do that. I could do that too. Like one, they both made acting seem accessible and I loved both of their characters and I knew they from other stuff. So I saw their versatility as well. But getting to meet and work with Alan was it's not always exciting to meet and work with your heroes, but he did not disappoint. Oh yeah. And we've now been on a television show together. We did a play together. We did a movie together and I've done his podcast. So we've been able to be in each other's company quite a bit. That's awesome. And you worked with Sally. Oh, she was the best. Sally Field, who is like our generation. She's just incredible. I got to reconnect with her doing an Actors on Actors interview, which was so cool. So cool. So good. She is one of those people, you know, it's like Disneyland. I remember Disneyland at 3, 5, 7, 11, 15. I remember Sally. Yeah. Each stage of my life and development, whether it was a comedy, a drama, she was there. No, I talk about this a lot. Norma Rae was one of those films where, I mean, I don't know if I watched it and thought I could do it, but I watched it thinking I like whatever she is doing is the thing I want to keep watching forever. That's how I felt about Ron Liebman in that movie. He was never better. I mean, he was so good in that movie. Everybody is. And then what are you watching to laugh? My wife and I call it palate cleansers. If we watch something really intense, it's like we need a key and peel. Key and peel. Yeah. Key and peel. Let's watch a key and peel on the way out. What's your fave key and peel? Oh my goodness. That's like really hard to pick, but there's one that they've been showing on Instagram a lot where it's a bunch of gang members sitting around a table and one of them is talking about how they've just lost a friend and it was a friend he grew up with and they used to play Care Bears together and they try to figure out which one, which kind of Care Bear they were and Keegan is daring everybody else at the table to not laugh while my man shares his feelings. Manly tears. Manly tears. Okay, let's watch this. Those guys are incredible. What geniuses they are. Genius. I know. Okay, you know what? None of you look at them tears and think that shit is funny because it takes a big f***ing man to cry in front of his crew. Go ahead, Carmel. Go ahead, Carmel. Oh my God. Noah! I'm dying. You're dying. I'm a sweaty mess. Oh my God. Do you cry when you laugh? Yeah, I cry all the time, but these are good tears. Oh my God. Keegan Peele, come on and perform this live for Noah. I got to meet them at Comic-Con once years and years ago. That was super cool. I was with my son too. That was instant street cred. Do you ever think about hosting SNL? Did you host SNL? When Julianna Margulies was the host, I did a pre-taped sketch with her, so I got to go out on stage and wave, which was super cool. And DMX was the musical best and I'm waving to everybody. I feel this like, oh! And I turn and DMX is like, come on, man. I'm holding out my hand. I was like, I'm so sorry. DMX, I'm so sorry. Mr. X. I'm so sorry. I would love to. And I recently met Lauren and kind of put the bee in his bonnet, as they say. Yes, I think you would love it. I would love it. I would live at the studio all week. I would just eat it up. Don't overthink it. Okay. Don't live at the studio too much. You don't want a Sean Cassidy on your hands. That's a really good point. Or a Kevin Bacon or I've got so many. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great warning. Just go home at night. Yeah, right. And enjoy. Take a load off. Don't work too hard. I got pizzas! No. Don't be that guy. Oh, my God. So many times I've been that guy. So many times. But you know what? I always want to go down swinging. I think you're that way, too. Yes. Like, no one's going to accuse you of not caring. No. I will try and try and try. Yeah. And I think it would be amazing. I mean, since I was a kid, I could from, I mean, I watched the first cast in reruns, but my first cast was, you know, the Eddie Murphy. Yeah, exactly. We were the same age. Yeah. It was just like, you know, I'd do every Joe Piscopo bit. Yeah. I could do them all. Tim Kazerinsky. I could do all his stuff. I met Eddie once when I was a kid. You did? I asked him for his autograph and he and I said, I really like you on SNL. And he goes, what are you doing up that late? And I said, duh. And I said, can I have your autograph? He goes, fuck off, man. And how old are you? Like, nine. So I always sign an autograph. Whenever a nine year old needs an autograph from me, I sign that so fast. You want to hear a great story? So I've told this story in my house. And last year for my birth, my daughter didn't know what to get me. So I let my 10 year old daughter printed up a picture of Eddie Murphy and then wrote on it, Dear Noah, you're a great kid, Eddie Murphy. And she spelled Eddie, E-D-D-Y. And I have it framed in my office. It's the greatest gift that my 10 year old thought, you know what? And then she came up with a story. She's like, Dad, you're never going to believe what Mom and I saw yesterday. Eddie Murphy. And we got what you've always wanted, his autograph. And then they gave me the gift. Oh, Francis. Isn't that awesome? She's a doll. She's the best. Oh my God. What a great, I love that story. And I also love Eddie's story too. I don't think, I think we've turned, we've treated kids too nicely sometimes. You know. You used to be able to tell a kid to scram, at least. Yeah, get away, scram kid, you bother me. Scram, you get out of here and now, God forbid. Yeah, no. All right, let's end it on that note. Noah Wiley, everybody, thank you. Scram, kids. Noah, thank you for doing this. Thank you so much, Noah. It was such a delight to talk to you. And thank you for tolerating all of my fan questions and for the work that you do. And we mentioned a movie when we were discussing some of the legends, and that movie is Norma Rae. If you have not seen Norma Rae, I understand why, because it's so hard to find on streaming. So if there's any people listening right now that like, I don't know, like Jerry Netflix or Dave Amazon or whoever is owning those places that can like flip a switch and get Norma Rae on streaming, please. That film is so incredible. It's, Sally Field plays like a southern mill worker who encourages her factory to unionize, and it's so, so good. And also you know, ties into a lot of what Noah was talking about. So check out Norma Rae on DVD, I guess. And remember those. And thank you, Sally Field, for that performance. And thank you everybody for listening. And see you soon. Bye. You've been listening to Good Hang. The executive producers for this show are Bill Simmons, Jenna Weiss-Berman, and me, Amy Poehler. The show is produced by The Ringer and Paper Kite. For The Ringer, production by Jack Wilson, Kat Spillane, Kaya McMullen, Alea Zanaris, Bridget Geerlings, Paige Garberini, Belle Roman, and Drew Van Steenbergen. For Paper Kite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell, and Jenna Weiss-Berman. Original music by Amy Miles. Folks, as we head into fall, we welcome yet another season of change. Changing leaves, refreshed wardrobes, and new routines. But one thing that doesn't need to change? Your phone. The smartest upgrade this season isn't a new phone, it's a better wireless plan. Switch to Visible, the ultimate wireless hack. 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