Taron Egerton

Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to armchair expert. I'm Dak Shepherd and I'm joined by Lily Patman. Hi. This is pop-out pop-out episode of the year for me. Last year it was Alexander Skarskard. This was a equal-level pop-out. Taryn Edgerton. Oh my, my. This whole room was in kind of shambles afterwards. He put us in a trance. Yeah. Under his spell on us. Fuck. I'm so excited for everyone to hear this. I really want them to watch it. Me too. Because he's so fucking cute. And so smart and interesting. Hyper intelligent. He's great. I don't even know why he's acting. I mean, he's got a fucking. He's got it all. Taryn, of course, was in Kingsman, the secret service. My favorite action movie. Rocket Man. Doing an impeccable job. As Ellen John. Blackbird, testament of youth, carry on in his movie out now on Netflix that I imagine most people have watched by now, because it's so good. Apex. Check that out. Prepare to be charmed. Taryn Edgerton. [Music] Oh, he's saying to you. What's up, you're going to read to us. Thank you so much for having me. Oh, yeah, delighted to have you. Hi, Monica. Hi, Monica. It's so nice to meet you. How are you? Happy to have you. Oh, well, thank you for allowing me to reschedule after I. Of course. Thank you for saying schedule. It's already all working out. Of the many charming things about the accent. I think schedule is really high on my list. Thanks so much. I'm glad I'm winning approval already. Do you say, oh, what's my friend, Jethro? The one that really gets me. Oh, do you say controversy or controversy? Oh, I don't know. I think I code switch depending on how I'm with. Contravacy is more like posh or it might be a bit more posh. It might be when I'm trying to sound erudite and impressive. Yeah. Which is normally on the podcast. I love your Range Rover. It's very sexy. It's very tighten of industry. Thank you. It's making up for some sort of deficit in my sense of self somewhere. Oh, you should look in my garage. You'll see the holes. For me, and I bet it's the same for you, but it's a very specific thing. It was when I was a kid, BMX bikes were everything. I raised BMX bikes. You had to have a hutch or a GT and I had a fucking mongoose, which is fine, but it's not what I wanted. And I coveted it so much. And then I wanted a dirt bike. Boys had dirt bikes. I didn't have them. So all of this bullshit is healing. I think it is that. And I don't think that's just to get out of jail free card. I haven't really scrutinized why I have a Range Rover, but it's aspirational. I think it makes me feel like I've done good. Yes. And I think when you grow up broke, you like covet these things because they're so out of your reach. I know. I know about you. Unless you had the world's only rich social worker mother, single mother. Oh, wow. You have done some. Assuming that's not the case. I'm going to say it was probably a modest stuff. It was a pretty modest stuff. You started in England. Yeah. I did. Well, I was raised in Wales, but up to two. You're in England by Liverpool. Yeah. This is exactly right. So you're just across the body of water from Wales. That's right. Okay. And first and foremost, I want to know because I've heard you state it, your Welsh through and through. Do you feel that way? So tell us the distinction between being an Englishman and a Welshman. We've had the great pleasure of interviewing batteries. Yeah. Yes. And then also the other Welsh person. Oh, Anthony Hopkins. Yes. I saw that episode. But what is the distinction? I guess it depends on who you are. For me, I suppose it means being a little bit of an underdog. So Wales is a lot smaller than the UK, than England rather. The thing that springs to mind is that I suppose England is based on a mixture of different people who've come to that country at various different times over hundreds and thousands of years. Whereas Wales is a little more ancient. We have a word called 'He Rife' in Wales for which there is no English equivalent. And it kind of means a longing for the land. And I think that relationship with place, country. There's a loyalty there. Yeah. And a sense that you are one, that you are one with the land, that you're a part of the land, and there's something. You're from it. That you're from it. Yeah. Yeah. You have a read a book called 'Annam Cara' by John O'Donohue. No. It means soul friend. It's spiritual wisdom from the Celtic world. And that book talks a lot about man and his relationship, particularly through the Prism of Ireland. People from that country's relationship with the land and how it informs a spiritual identity. And I think, although we may not have quite the same international literary heritage of Ireland, I think we still have that same cultural connection with where we're from. Maybe a nice healthy chip on your shoulder, too. Yeah. It's a little bit of undidogsy and dreadful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For you. Say it, little brother. No. That's different. That's different. It's the opposite. How could it be the opposite? Because little brother energy is like, hey, I'm like, you pick me. I'm just like, you I'm old enough. Wanting to belong. This is like, fuck you. Yeah. Right. Little brothers do want the other. We're going to get a little brother. We got to have all new little brother energy. They just have they need their own identity very badly. Little brothers in general. Are you a little brother? No, I was raised as a only child. Okay. Nice. But my mother and my stepfather when I left home started again. So I have a 13 year old and I'm an older brother. Yeah. 13 and 16 year old sisters. Yeah, but yeah, little sister. Oh, that's sweet. You've sang with probably. Somewhere else. Yeah. There's nothing I won't commodify at the moment. You got extract every penny. How else are we going to get rain trovers and doom bugs? Fuck. They're not free. Yes. So you went with mom. I guess they got divorced at two mom and dad. Yes. So they weren't married. Happy very young. 23 and 24. I think the writing was on the wall and my mother left when I was probably two, maybe nearly three. And she moved to kind of pursue a new life. I think whales and the north part of whales has a bit of a romantic notion for people from Liverpool, which is when my family are from because it's like a very working class holiday destination. So people who went there as children to vacation, grow up and think that's where I'm going to go. I'm going to go and revisit this place I loved as a child in life will be like vacation. It will be exactly like some holiday. Yes. Yeah. I think that regularly when I'm visiting a place I like to go to and I go like, I gotta live here. And then I go like, yeah, you won't feel like this if you live here. You ruin it. Of course. There's a reason they say grass is always green. How long did mom hold under the holiday spirit? Do you suppose she's still there? Oh, she must have liked something about it. She's still there in a slightly different part of whales, place called Aberystwyth, which is where I kind of did my formative years. And I think she loves it. I think like anything you love, you have a love hate relationship with it. You know, she hates the short days in winter and all the rain and wetness. Yeah. Okay. So from two to 12, you're at the initial place, right? That you guys move to. Also, say no dad ran a bed and breakfast in Liverpool. How often were you seen each other? What was that like distance you had to travel to see him? So my father and I, when I was growing up, we're able to maintain a sort of fairly kind of functional relationship. As I got older, that became more difficult. And I haven't spoken to him for a number of years now. Okay. Yes, I noticed when you close your eyes, it's a similar way at periods of my life. I would have had to tell you about my father. Sorry. Yeah. My parents got divorced when I was three. He was a good time man. He was a fucking had a Corvette and did coke. He was a car salesman. He was living a very exciting life and we had a lot of ebbs and flows. The father's son thinks really complicated. I think you're not constantly in close proximity. I think that compounds an already tricky relationship. Yeah. I mean, I'm, you know, reluctant to talk in too much detail about him because he's living his own life and doing his own thing. And I'll always love him. I do love him. I just don't think we work very well in terms of our relationship. Yeah. Yeah. And so there was a point where I pushed the ejectacy and haven't seen since my father died in 2012. But I think what I now notice is whereas before I knew about all the hurt I was experiencing. And I think now from this vantage point, I'm like, oh yeah, we had just a unique gift to hurt each other. Yes. I think we were very similar more than I ever wanted to admit. And I think the way we got injured and the way we protected ourselves was just like a match made in hell for the most part. Generally speaking, I find that I am happier and more functional when I try and view everybody else's just trying their best. And with some people, that's really challenging. Well, I don't find that challenging with my father. I think he's a guy who wanted to be a good dad. Yeah. It was fucking 23. He's 23. You do, do you give me kids it? 100%. You make his would be right now telling you as a shitty. 100%. I mean, I feel like maybe I started to grow up about 18 months ago and maybe not. And I'm already 13 years older than he was when he had me. Yeah. But it sounds like you had a bit of an idealic two through 12 in this place. Is if 59 letter. Yeah, you want me to do it? Oh, wow, I've heard you won't do it. I wasn't even going to ask you because I know it's triggering but yes, no, it's become a bit of a party piece. I maybe have gotten over myself. Is where I you gotta add a slice of your two at once. I mean look, it's a name that is I think contrived to create that reaction and generate tourists interest. Wow. I read it British GQ interview with you from probably I don't know it's probably Rocket Man press and the actual magazine said he won't say it and it's too many letters for us to even try it. But it's 59 words. Hold on hold on. I missed the very beginning. So I was thinking about dads. So wait, what is that? That's the town they move to in wilds of village. People say, where do you live? People, they shorten it to like, you can shorten it to various different. Oh, my God. I mentioned like first grade through four. There's just teaching all the kids in town how to pronounce the fucking town. They may be five through eight and learning to spell it. Yeah. I know I was a kid coming from England as well. I didn't speak the language at that point. Wow. That's impressive. But you got on well there, right? You had a lot of friends. Yeah. I was okay at that stage. In hindsight, I think maybe being raised by a single mom who was pursuing a degree and trying to make ends meet through the midst of time looking back. I think I was possibly a little more anxious than I maybe thought I was aware of until quite recently. Yeah. Because I think I'm a fairly empathic guy, single parent, single child relationship. And I think I probably picked up on a little bit of her. Of course. But she was great mom. You know, I never felt that I wanted anything or missed anything. But you're the only other person in the house. Yeah. She's your parent. Of course you're going to pick up. Yeah, I've definitely got a bit of that man of the house. I'm trying to take care of everyone things. Superman thing which sounds like an advertisement or advertisement or a virtue. But it's no, it's a thing that I'm working on. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I want to report. I want to pause this all to report. I'm a super fan of Kingsman. Oh, cool. I've spent hours on here defending number two. I've got a compelling argument. I'll hit you with later. Okay. But what I want to say to the listener who's not with you in person, you're way cuter even in person. You know, we go one way or another us actors. It's like we're either not as good looking as we are on camera or we're better. And I'm shocked to report you're even better looking in person. And you're very handsome on screen as well. So that's the bless you bug. I find myself moved by your handsomeness. That's incredibly lovely. Thanks you. Are you moved at all? I mean, I thought it was all going to be over when the air went. When did Stepdad entered the picture? What age were you 14? Okay. So that's post move at 12. Yes. And things hit the skids there when we move. Yeah, it's a little rough. Yeah, that's right. So I moved at 12. It seems to me that around that age of preteen is when people are a bit in danger of abandoning themselves anyway. And we moved from one school to another. My grandmother was in the process of dying. We were being there to be near her. I just felt a bit lost and alone. And when you feel lost and alone, I think it's really hard to be outward looking and forge those connections with people and make friendships. Well, you don't even know what you're selling them. You're like, you're grasping at what I did. I'm going to pitch them. Do I start with the fact that I like the who? Do I tell them I'm into this? Yeah, exactly. How does it work in the UK? Like for us, you know, it goes kindergarten through fifth grade. So that's one chunk. You're six years in one school. And then you're in a middle school, six through eight. And then you go to high school. So where is 12 there? So between 11 and 12, depending on what time of year you're born, you go to, we call it secondary school. People probably do call it high school now, but traditionally it would be called secondary school. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is were you also bracketing up? Yes. So I'd done a year in secondary school in the north of Wales. Which is already hard. That's a hard year. That was a rough year for sure. That was a rough year. And then you move. Yeah. I had this horrendous experience where the day where we went to that secondary school, you know, where they give you like a taste a day where you go and meet other kids from other schools. I've been orientation these two boys whose names I can still remember who I won't repeat but I can still remember the names. They just saw me. They saw me. They saw me. They saw me. And they and they went for me. And that was the first year. So it was rough. They marked you. They marked me. We're going to ride this guy like a rented mule for the rest of the year. That's right. They saw me for the little feminine masculine Aussie boy. What was your size relative to the boys your age? I was very small. Very small. Always very small. My voice didn't break until I was 16. It was rough. That's not how you want to go and do it. None of the girls protected you? No. I mean no. I just want to show off. I just want funnier. Yeah. That works for the girls. No, I had a rough first year. So then we moved to Wales after that because of my grandmother being sick. It was a couple of years before I was sort of able to find my feet and find my tribe, my people. Was there ever a common bounce for the two unnamed gentlemen? Just life for them? No, I mean I'm not mad at them. They were kids. I don't know. I never heard from them again. When was your growth spurt? I kind of caught up a little bit. I think about 16, 17. I never felt short again, but I've never felt tall either. Well, yeah. I read a quote where you said, "I lost all my friends I had as a child when I moved. I was quite cocky and quite confident, but that was to mask the insecurity I was feeling." That's why anyone's cocky and confident though. It's hard to know that though when you're a kid. I didn't ever see through that. I was just like, "Why is this guy struggling around like this?" I think it was on the markable. There was no extremity of tragedy or anything difficult in my life. I just think growing up's hard. It was rough there for a minute. I think I was also a bright kid and I had a really powerful imagination. If not an understanding of adult things, I could see grown-ups doing adult things and I wanted to understand what those dynamics were. So I felt like I maybe stepped outside of the world being a child the time when things got difficult. It was just rough with a couple of years. I think it's hard to escape if you were raised by a single mother as I was. You're out in the world. You become aware of how dudes are looking at your mom, how people are talking to your mom. That role you somehow subconsciously know is supposed to be filled by someone else to protect her. It's now on your shoulders and I think it starts down the road of hypervigilance a bit. It gives you a specific relationship with your sense of your own masculinity as well. My mother is and has always been an attractive woman and I can remember that as a boy. I can remember the feelings of rage and I can remember the feelings of inadequacy and I can remember not knowing what to do with all of that. I'm probably also wanting her to be looking maybe more than them. Often single mothers I'm not saying yours was but also there's a blurry line between child and partner. You are filling in some gaps because they don't have anyone there to share their day with. You take on a role that is a little more complex than otherwise I think. I remember my mom has big boobs and my mom would occasionally wear like fucking white tank top and I just remember like oh fuck man. We're going in the grocery store. She's in the white tank top. It's going to be like weird dudes that just start talking and they just like I hate it. It's not something a kid should have to think about. I think that's maybe that's right. You're in this position. I'm not going to say anything to my mom like oh fuck mom you're wearing the shirt. Now put a sweater on. We're going to be dealing with all kinds of heat here. It's an interesting experience. I don't know about you but for me the absence of a dad going like good job little tiger. You're on the road to masculinity. Mine was just like okay what are the boys all going to acknowledge this masculine. And I did all of it but it's all peer-driven. There's no wisdom in the map. I didn't follow that. And I still now I think when I'm asked about tropey masculine things I kind of go shit. I'm going to be found out. And so rather than pursue what you're talking about. Which is that pushing. I think I sort of slightly fell into being a bit introvert for a couple of years there. Whereas I'm naturally somebody who's quite expressive and outward looking I think. Well it's when he's we both have minds driven by the fact that no one's confirming a masculine. It's like it's deep in security. So like you didn't found out I relate to deeply. Despite doing all the things. On some level I still feel that now. Particularly I feel it in my romantic relationships and things. You know it's it can be hard. But we're getting real deep here. You were right to cancel the first time. I didn't want to ask though about the character of cockiness and confidence. Yeah. Because again there's so many ways of evaluate your life. It's like oh boohoo this. But it's like well that's a skill. My hunch is that's a skill that ends up being applied to exit like that's exit. He's trying and you've already practiced it. 100% and don't mistake me for a second because I was aware of that. When you talk about yourself and you talk about your negative experiences. I think in the cynical world we live in, it can be an assumption. that you think that your lot was tougher than anybody else's, and I absolutely do not think so. You're not giving that off. You're not giving Victor Martha. I am one of the luckiest people on the planet, and my upbringing was amazing, and it was always loved filled and great people. But I am also interested in my fucked upness, and I'm interested in how it contributes to who I am, the artist I want to be, the work I want to make. You have to be, because as you age, you start becoming aware of these patterns you're in, and these cycles, and then you're required to come up with an explanation. So it's like, I don't think it's self indulgence. It's actually a pursuit of transcending these fucking patterns you want to break. Yeah, I think that's right. And I don't think it's boo-hoo. It's it's explanations, not excuses, not a pity party. No, and I'm also very interested in all of the bits of myself that I have a natural aversion to. The bits of myself that I'm scared of, the bits of myself that if you're therapist enough, you would call shadow, you know, I've done a lot of work in recent years in terms of like five or six years ago. There is no way I'd have come in here with a shaved head owning who I am. I was still too scared. I was still too worried about my currency as a leading man. I was still too worried about being rejected by women and all of those things. But I've found that work in terms of actively engaging with the parts of myself that I don't naturally feel that great about. And aggressively loving them, the bad of phrase, has been quite transformative in my life. Do you know Phil Stads? I mean, do you know of him? So Barry Michaels is my shrink. Are they colleagues? Yes, they're co-writers. Oh, okay, so look around your shoulder there. You see that little drawing for us. I didn't know he'd been on the show. So, okay. So about four years ago, I was in the morning. I was making a movie called Carry On and I was sat in my apartment, flicking through Netflix. Thank you. And I saw a documentary called Starts. The Jonah Hill. The Jonah Hill made moving. I love Jonah Hill and I thought there was something that looked interesting and different about it. And I put it on and something about it really spoke to me. Something about him really spoke to me and something about Jonah Hill's candor and vulnerability and willingness to put all of his baggage for one of the better word from the center. And I still don't know why, but I text my lawyer of all people. I watch out for my lawyer. I don't know where did this. Your concierge lawyer. It was so weird. He's somebody that I have a friendship with, but I'm not in the habit of sending him what I sent him, which was a quote from the movie saying, "How extraordinary is this as a sound?" But he sent me a message back immediately saying Phil Stutz's practice partner is my shrink. And I could see if he will see you. And what started with a relationship with Barry Michaels who he co-wrote the tools with and he co-wrote coming alive with and Barry changed my life. For me, it's the most poignant, beautiful moment of the documentary. They show this picture of Jonah that is virtually his shadow, right? It's everything he thinks is bad about him. It's little him and he's overweight in all these things. And Phil says, "He wants you to take him along and let him experience this with you." And that fucking touched me in a way. Nothing ever has. I was like, "This kid I'm trying to hide, man, he deserves a come to the party and I got to be proud of him." And I just found that very powerful. Is that one of the moments? I find it moving even as you're saying at it, it's been at the core of all the work I've done over the past few years. It really has changed my life in so many ways. And I don't always succeed, but I really try and bring that incredibly awkward high-pitched, voiced kid with the hair over his eye, shrubby overweight. You know, this year I realized that I round my shoulders because I'm still hiding the way I can on my chest when I was 15. Yeah, it's wild. Muscle memory. Yeah, yeah. Bad muscle memory. Bad muscle memory. But there's also something really thrilling and exciting and then makes you feel very whole about learning things about yourself. And you know, I don't know that everyone benefits from that kind of wisdom and it's such a gift and it's been an amazing thing for me. You also have to know the things in order to say, "I don't need that anymore. That's not serving me anymore." Totally. But if you don't know them, if you're not doing the work to know like, "Oh, wow, I round my shoulders and it's because of this." You don't know it, then you can't get pat. You'll never get pat. Yeah, fix it. Yeah. That moment you talk about in that doc with the photo that's emblematic of Jonas Shadow, it's so fucking hard to love that person. It takes a lot of work. It doesn't just go, "Okay, I'm going to love that person now." And it's like a process of attrition. Because to begin with, if I don't manage the relationship with myself well enough, that part on myself makes me feel ill. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It robs you of everything in the present. Yeah. Very, I don't think he would mind me saying he also at this stage in his life has quite pronounced health problems. He has Lewy body dementia and watching the dignity and courage with which he's dealt with that adversity has been the single most inspiring, affecting thing that I've ever been near to in my life. And it really does put everything in perspective. And I know that a big way that he's achieved that is through the shadow work that he prescribes. Yeah. Yeah, you're watching him use these tools. Yeah. He finds that work and they work. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, that's wild. I want to meet him. You should. He's an amazing man. Yeah. Okay, so you kind of get into acting right to make friends. Is that true? Yeah, that little Nadia to use a grand deose word, but that little period of time where I was a bit lost, I became aware of other people doing drama. And I think I always had that swagger that you mentioned masking stuff, but that really started to appeal to me. Took me a while, but when I was 15, I joined a youth theatre. Look, I used to be really reluctant to talk about myself as an artist. And I've completely lost that because acting is the thing that I love most. And I do consider it to be a craft. And one that I will never really understand. And I love it. But tracing back to that moment, when I first had a taste of it, I remember as being a real inflection point in my life, I was like, this makes sense. There's something large about this. That to begin with, sure, was about a bit of attention seeking. And probably was about making friends fit in my tribe. But, you know, over the ensuing 21, 22 years, it's the thing that's the most important to me and started there that you sit. Stay tuned for more armchair expert. If you're there, we are supported by all state. Checking all state first could save you hundreds on car insurance. Not checking your gas gauge before hitting the road. You genuinely thought you could make it. You were wrong. That's a very long stretch of highway where you learned exactly how far fumes can take you. And it's not far enough. Yeah, checking first is an excellent plan. So check all state first for an auto quote. It could save you hundreds. And for fast, reliable help when you need it, add an all state roadside plan today. You're in good hands with all state. Potential savings vary insurance and roadside assistance plans are subject to terms conditions and availability insurance provided by all state North American insurance company Northbrook, Illinois. Roadside assistance plans provided by all state motor club incorporated in all state affiliate. Well, you probably tried on a few different identities by that point and you have some like purchase on them. You're kind of convincing in that round. But then when you actually find the thread that is the thing, you know in your heart, oh, while yeah, this is the thing I'm going to build my whole life around in my kind of identity. It's very powerful. Totally. When I did that first play, you were wearing a cocktail dress, right? Yeah, mid summer night's dream. Yeah, I've told this story too much, but it was a real moment. And it look, it makes for a great late night moment telling this story of me. I basically had to step out on stage and address. And I had had so much anxiety and, you know, body consciousness and all this stuff and my voice hadn't broken. It's just all felt wrong. There's a make a break moment in your life. There's a make a break moment. And I stepped out in this dress to adoring laughs and I just was like, thank God. My memory, my mind's eye, I sort of processed myself kind of looking around, going, hang on, this is me. It was amazing. And I've loved it ever since. Why have you been reluctant to talk about acting before? You just thought it was silly? You know, we're all a mess of contradictions. I think, particularly as a younger person, I did have a kind of cockiness and a swagger, but I also have a kind of classic British tall poppy syndrome thing, which runs completely in the face of it where I sort of both have wanted to be the center of attention, but then I'm also embarrassed about it. Yeah, you brits have really figured out how to torture yourself. We're quite good at fucking ourselves. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And we like to judge everyone else for their music taste and that kind of the notion that the Great British Empire would have tall poppy syndrome is already the most ironic Yeah, over the world could have Maybe it's some residual guilt of that like some So you get into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at what 17 or 18? I was a bit older. I was 19. Okay 19. Yeah. All right, because you didn't get in and then had to wait a year I did a round of auditions no joy and experience what was probably one of my first real Like little ego deaths and had a little moment to reflect and the second year I got him My guess would be like you were pretty hot shit in school and then you get kind of Humboldt dramatically by not getting in it. It wasn't that I was hot shit. I don't remember feeling like I was Ever in a league above anybody else that I was doing acting with all drama with but I think I had in general That sort of slightly Cavalier attitude and invincibility to things at that age that I think walking into an audition room where they probably want a sense of somebody being serious about the craft and growing up and mature I probably read as being a bit Whatever, you know, yeah, they put me in my place a little bit. I think so in between school and Kingsman You're on a TV show. You do a little bit of work. Yeah, but obviously this Kingsman thing. I was insane This happens once every five years work a new actor gets in a mega worldwide hit. Yeah, it's overnight I presume you had an agent at the time. I did and they called and said you're gonna Go read for this thing. Yeah, I was in Hoban in London and I was filming a TV show called The Smoke which was about firefighters in London and I can remember the street corner I was on we were filming in an old arch building which had been repurposed as this fire station And I was on the end of a street and I had got this email through about something that was called Huntsman and Oh Huntsman and some and I wasn't sent the script. I was sent two sides But it was a scene in a pub with Harry Hart calling first And one other also with that character. I read those two scenes. I was struck by a certainty. I was just new Like this my part. Oh wow. I've had that one other time actually, but much many many years later But I remember it as kind of clicking into a mode and it feeling like you know Like when you're I don't know preparing for some live event or creative pursue and you feel like you're drawn into a kind of inexorable bit of momentum and and you can't get off the ride And all of your being is child towards this one thing That's what I felt like about that test. I didn't know anything about who was involved. I just knew that it Really zinged off the page even at that age. I was 23 Went along to one of other studios leaves then which is where they filmed all the Harry Potter movies And they were setting up to do the movie and I somehow Got a recording a taping With Matthew Vaughan in the room. I don't know how I managed to get there. Here I have 45 minutes late and I was nervous But I was also possessed Something yeah, yeah, and a red film and I remember he didn't look at me once during the audition Which I can remember feeling Furious about and that probably manifested somewhere in that Attitude that character has and yeah, that started a process of several weeks of auditions where you know, I got to read the full script learned that Samuel L Jackson Colin Firth and Michael Cain were attached. It was mad really. It was a really mad time Do you think your brain compartmentalized in a helpful way where you were able to ignore the stakes of that? My own experience has been that my relationship with stakes has shifted as I've gotten older someone Recently sent me a video of me singing without and I don't recognize the guy who did it You know, I'm like wow. How did I do that? But at the time I was like this is a movie I want to see and that's the best feeling when you're an actor auditioning for something Or hoping to be a part of something is like if you feel like you're making something that you yourself would want to go to the movies to see That's absolutely correct. Yeah, you know, that's the right reason to be somewhere Yeah, and that's what I felt and Matt obviously liked me and we Went through all of these various different tests and readings and and I ended up Getting the part. It was insane. It was life-changing and it's funny in like in some ways it feels like Last year, mm-hmm, and in other ways it was 13 years ago Wow, Matthew Vaughn has said some interesting things about Cass and you one beam He liked that this would be overwhelming for you He liked that this was too big of an opportunity for you because that is exactly what exe was going through He's a street kid with a fucked up family and now he's in the elite of the elite world of privilege and money and Espionage all the stuff so that was a good quality he thought he could mine for it. No one outside of our industry wants to hear That it's hard to make a movie no And so I'm not gonna say it's hard to make a movie, but that was one of the more challenging creative episodes of my life This isn't great to have that as your first because then for the rest of your career like oh, it's not that I know He's been this hard as that one. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, why not even this last one tied A max no, no, no, you kidding me Saga. I've got equal bill into Charlies That was a tough job maths. I think he's softened a little bit over the years But at that stage he was still pretty old school, you know, he's coming out of that guy richy 90s I would flatten myself that I might have had an effect on him over the years So softer than he used to be but at that time it was like this is what you're doing This is what you need to do and this is how it's gonna be and it was tough But again, it's kind of great because what exe's going through is exceedingly tough life is tough Yeah, you know life slight and shade and That's one of the things that Barry actually is you'll know this from talking to Phil Stutz and the tools The idea that pain and negative experiences are something that grow if you back away from them And the more that you move towards them and attack them the smaller and more manageable they get It's an absolute truth and time and time again. It's that thing, you know, they're most obvious pedestrian one is I don't feel like going and doing hot matte palates this morning I want to lie here and drink coffee in bed But you go and do it the gates to the kingdom open when you leave you know I do think it's an absolute truth and you're exactly right tax my experience of making kingsman at the time was overwhelming Yeah, yeah, it was the best training ground because nothing's been anywhere near as difficult Yeah, yeah, and also the thing that I'm my experience about it There is one of the things that's harder to explain is the thing about acting Is that it alludes you most of the time? It's not like you show up and you do the thing and you fucking great at it all the time I'm shitted it most of the time now the filmmaker if there are any good make sure that they pick the bits where you're really good So you look like you're good, but you've spent 90% of your working day being fucking frustrated and annoyed with yourself Because you can't achieve that thing the flow thing where you're like, oh, I'm cooking here. I know what I'm doing Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's hard for a number of reasons, but I love it. I probably love it For those reasons, because it does elude you yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Now in the movie column Firth is very much your mentor and I was curious Do you have the disposition where you can't avail yourself to mentorship because like if I were you and I was in that situation I probably would have missed a great opportunity to be mentored by him. No column was amazing I remember I was going through a difficult time I broke up with my first girlfriend and I was really aggressively partying to deal with it Yeah, and was coming in in a bad way And you know, I remember there were a couple of days on Kingsman where Matt was like you're gonna know I can't film you today. Oh wow and Colin was amazing He was never anything other than kind of gentle and fatherly and understanding I actually found it and read it a couple of years ago because I'd never read it But I remember him getting me a copy of Rilka's letters to a young poet which is an amazing collection of letters From Rayna Maria Rilka to a young aspiring writer who admires his work and I would recommend it to anybody It's just the most beautiful advice for life and Colin bought me a beautiful addition of it at the time That I did not have the fucking bandwidth to look at but I Found it on the shelf and a couple of years ago read it and was like man This was an incredible act of generosity and yeah, and he was always lovely to me And when he saw the movie I was remember what he texted me. He said you are not perfect Generous kind man, you know one of the reasons I would like to make another installment is because it would be fun to get to ride with Colin once more. Yeah Your performance is astonishing for a first movie of that size and scale. It's astonishing. I can yeah I obviously didn't know glue who you were and at the end of that I was like yeah I mean Do you learn some parkour? How good were they with the stunt bubbles away man? Okay That's Damian Walters who's an incredible gymnast stuntman now director Greg Townley there's a lot of people making me look very good in that movie. How did the ego handle The enormous success of that that's a pretty light switching moment honestly I never felt like I had at the moment of arrival if I'm completely candid. I was an incredible shape for that movie But I think for the first time in my life. I felt really beautiful. Yeah And it was completely intoxicating and I was like oh my god. I am ripped. Yeah. I've got this jaw Yeah, I mean the hair was starting to go but I had enough and I felt invincible and when we finished the movie I just went the other way and I gained so much weight and that really has been a feature of my adult life. In my 30s, I've kind of got a handle on it, but in my 20s, I never really felt like the movies, I never felt like, well now I can go out and enjoy this, you know, because I didn't feel camera ready ever. So I never felt like I really got that moment to be strutting around. I never did. Again, you know, I don't want it sounds like, well, with me, that's just my path. We all have our battles to fight, but that was my own personal experience of my own success. I withdrew a little bit. I went, I bought a little place in my hometown. I would live there. I would then go away and film. I think in the face of that success, my instinct was slightly to withdraw a little bit. Do you think you'd do any self-sabotage? Because even when you said during filming and you were partying and like, that's your huge opportunity, you know, it sounds like maybe there might have been a tiny bit of, I don't deserve this. So I'm going to do a little self-sabotage. Maybe. I don't know. I definitely was flagrant with the opportunity, with regards to what I would do on a Friday Saturday night. I'd be dialed during the week and then I would go for it on the weekend. I mean, most of us do, but when you're in that position, we could have had some real fun if I could have time travel. I really relate to that, though, never ever experiencing the moment of arrival. I remember watching American Idol one season, or I watched multiple seasons, but this one time we were watching it and I'm on the couch with my wife. And once they make it to, I don't know, maybe it's the bottom three or whatever, the top three, they go back to their hometown and they take a ride in a convertible. In the whole town, cheers for them. It may weep uncontrollably, because clearly they're experiencing it. I'm like, why have I never had that feeling? Yeah, I don't feel like it ever happens in some way. No, I don't know that that's really happening for them either though. I mean, yeah, that's the awful prison of those kind of shows, is you're being presented an idealized version of things that does not fucking exist. You get your dreams and then you're filled with allation. And I was like, where's the allation? You know, there were other ways that it was incredibly satisfying in life changing in terms of being able to buy a house and do things for people I cared about and experience an incredible uptick in lifestyle, but I never had that thing where I felt like now in the guy that made it. I'm the shit. Yeah, I have to ask one question about Tom Hardy, because I'm pretty obsessed with them. What is it that about him that you're a talent? He's so talented. Yeah, there's just these scenes and peaky blinders that it's just so next level. They'll have the dialogue. They will have the upper hand. They will be delivering this thing. And he has a presence where you go, yeah, they don't have the upper hand. He can't not have. Like, there's something in transit about him. Talk about masculinity and my obsession with masculinity. Yes. Do you embody all these things that if I were just like him, it would have been an easy ride. So I think it's very much fantasy. But I also admire, I think in my moments of insecurity, my instinct is to go bigger. Try to command control through volume and dominance. And I guess I'm intrigued by his opposite approach almost always to what you think is going to command that. So I find that fascinating. And yeah, then I'm just intrigued by what's really how I don't know. I'm so curious about that. But at any rate, you worked with them right after that. Yeah. I did. Was he already kind of legendary? Yes. He was. He was. Yeah. And were you intimidated at all? No, I wasn't. I've thought a lot about that time because he is intimidating. He's also playing the craze, right? He was playing the craze. I had a kind of slightly odd angle to Tom, because we were depicting a bunch of guys in a hyper masculine world, playing gangsters. But I was playing his lover, Ronnie Craze lover. So my job was kind of to subvert at all. And Brian Helgoland who directed it was very open to us improvising and trying things out, which Tom loved. And I kind of grabbed that ball by both horns as well. I have all of my insecurities and all of my fears. But one thing I'm not worried about is I believe in myself as an actor. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think in that environment, yes, I felt really excited to work with him because he's this unpredictable. He's a heavyweight. He's a heavyweight. And you know, as anyone knows, you're only as good as really as the person you're opposite. And it's a dance. And he was someone I was really excited to dance with. And he and I go on really well. And your character I would argue, if you're his lover, you are the person in his life that doesn't think he's so intimidating that you're afraid to get intimate. Yes, exactly. So it's almost like we're wired up on you to be in the mindset of that to not be fearful of him or you. And trust him. There's a scene. It never made the movie, but I was so pleased with myself. There was a scene where he murdered someone and get back in the car. And I was sat in the back of the car waiting for him. And I grabbed his face and I snogged him. And it wasn't in the script. I can remember backing off from him thinking, how will this land? But I think he loved it. Yeah. I think I think I have not seen it for 10 years, but at the time, I think he quite liked my Hutspa. Yeah, that's both. Yeah. Okay. So obviously the thing I'm most curious about after that is seeing, had you been singing, where is the singing come from? Seeing is a big thing in Wales. So I did quiet stuff in school, loved singing. My real father's musical. And so that probably had an effect as well. I think I was introduced to music very young. There was always music being played because I auditioned for that. It was in 2015, I think I got that auditioned through. And I did know all the people involved and it was incredibly illustrious cast. And I went along and sang. I think I sang these arms of mine. I sang Otis Redding and ignored what God has asked me to the director of the options he'd sent. I got the part and it's been a really lovely thing to be a part of. There's such good movies, I think. You can say that when you're voicing in something because you're really so little to do with it. Yeah, a few hours. Yeah, you have a very interesting relationship with it. It's like, you don't even feel like you're in the movie. That's right. You know they made a movie for two years, but you certainly weren't a part of that. So it's almost like disorienting when you hear yourself in the anime thing. Yeah. Oh, that's right. I'm in this. Yeah, you feel like an ambassador for the movie. I think rather than actually being in the movie. Yeah, it is. It's really interesting. I only want to talk about Golden Circle. I'm just going to give you my defense of the movie. Go for it. I was on a tie-rate monocle remember. Yes, we saw it together. You did. Yeah, into the movies to see it again. We did with our friend Jess and Dexfield popcorn. Everyone is a huge deal. It was a trip. I had a huge fall and popcorn whenever we're at the beginning. I had a comically large portion of popcorn too. It was like a couple of gallons of fun. How did you respond to the fool? He died laughing. Before I even hit the ground, I was laughing at how ridiculous that looked because I threw like a 30-ounce drink and a 90-ounce popcorn. Yeah. We were at 120 frames. This would be so enjoyable to watch this fall for about three minutes because it's spectacular. And it's in front of all these people and I've landed on a greasy popcorn. It's famous. There's a lot going on. This is perfect. This is bad as it can go. I kind of loved it weirdly. But anyway, I read some reviews in my anger was simply this. I compared it to automotive journalism. Most writers that car and driver and road and track, they don't want to own a Honda Accord. They didn't get into writing about cars because they love Honda Accords. But they have some integrity with the knowledge, hey, all these things go 300,000 miles. The fit and finish is off the charts. You know, you'll get a review that they understand why that is a great fucking car, whether they like it or not. And my frustration often with reviews of movies is like, if it's not your type of movie, but you cannot discount the masterclass of directing that's on display. Like you have to acknowledge. If you know anything about movies, what went into that movie and how well it was executed, you know, as a physical product, you must acknowledge it. You can then go on to say, it's not my cup of tea or it's not my sense of humor, whatever, but just the full disregard of this thing and ignoring how much skill was on display and acting talent was on display and great music. I'm like, there's no integrity to this whole review thing. It's a tough one, isn't it? Because as an actor, it almost feels taboo to acknowledge any kind of relationship with critical evaluation and review. It's like you should pretend it's not happening. And of course, how many of us are successful at that? Exactly. Even if you ignore it, it'll get to you. Yes, it'll get to you. The movie I just made is the first experience I've had where I got through it without coming to the temptation and reading them. It's the first time in my entire career that I've done that. I didn't read one. Look, I share your frustration and the thing that has been my experience of it that I think is quite specific to my time is I feel like the integrity of it is compromised by the means through which you consume the review. A fair balance, the praise of something coming from a place of good will does not make for good clickbaits. Exactly. So you have to understand the myriad of complex motivations there are in writing something. Everybody's fallible. Everybody's coming from their own subjective experience. Everybody has an agenda. My best mate. I can't remember what the movie was, but he worked with me for a time. He traveled with me and worked with me as an assistant. I'm thankful to say that our friendship survived it. I spoke to him on the way here, but I always remember him saying to me once. There was a movie that we were both interested to see. I said, bro, it's got shit reviews. And he went, I'm fucking care. And then my own mind up. He didn't say it even with that bit of vim and vigor that I said it with. He didn't say it to prove a point. Yeah. He said, if I'm care, I'll do something in my own mind. And I thought, wow, what a statement of integrity. And I think that that is something that I've tried to. Practice. Well, and repeat to myself at the times where, because we all slip into the mode of thinking that external affirmation, validation is going to be the thing that makes us whole and actually never is it's turning to yourself and going, well, how do I actually fucking feel about this? And I think I just can't imagine, maybe I can imagine, I just think the desire to eviscerate something is an impulse that is worthy of scrutinizing. Yeah, why, why? Sure, this is a pithy bit of writing. And yeah, you've managed to completely undress this thing, a large group of people who spent a couple of years making, but how much real value it has. Yeah, and I think it contributes to this issue we're having in this country, definitely right now. It's like, if you like this, you're stupid. You don't get it. And it's like, oh, I guess I shouldn't like that. It's creating this division between like intelligent people and not intelligent people, or like classy people and not, and it's like, this is not good for us. This is our such a problem. And these critical pieces are not helping. I think it's pushing a lot of people. I've never thought of it that way. That's not good. I completely agree. Things are made for different reasons for different people at different times. And I'm a different person today to who I was yesterday, and I'll be a different person again next week. And yeah, sometimes I have the kind of bookish filmmakerly appetite to watch something brilliant that was made in 1972 by someone that I should have watched. And sometimes I want to watch a kind of goofy, eddy Murphy movie made in the Nazis, because I want to just decompress in that sense. Yes, it's all valid. Yeah, I think the thing that's going on, I totally agree with you Monica, is like, I think because of the political identities got so massive over the last decade, that that now is the muscle memory of like, oh, I got to declare my identity all the time. And I declare it on that thing. I had this situation where I had watched Justin Bieber singing at Coachella just him on stage in a microphone. And I was so blown away by it and moved by it. We're all hanging out. And someone's like, oh, yeah, I heard it's like, he didn't even fucking do anything. He made $10 million. And it's like Sabrina Carpenter had this whole thing, this whole takedown of him, which by the way, I had seen simmering online and I was like, yeah, I just don't know how you could watch that and not feel the authentic power. That's exactly why it rocks. Because it stripped back and it's him being honest. And she goes, I haven't seen it because it was only live, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, yeah, that's what happened. The silo season had declared that as a money grab and this and that. And she hadn't seen it, but her tribe, that was the synthesis. And I don't blame her. I do the same thing. But I was like, yeah, that's kind of what happens a lot of times. They're chamber declared a verdict. You've got to go along with it because that's your tribe and it's all about tribes. The idea of declaring and identities, in some respect, it can be a really powerful thing, certainly for traditionally marginalized groups of people. And I totally get the power and the importance of that. But I think that on a different level, the idea of declaring anything about oneself as being fixed and absolute is sort of preposterous. And I hear myself do it sometimes. Like, oh, I'm not really that kind of guy. I'm not a kind of guy who does this. And I hear myself and go, what the fuck are you talking about? Weird narrative. Are you writing about yourself if you go along? Like you're a mess of cells in a swirling chaos. We're trying to derive security from something. Yeah, some permanent. I am this. I am this fixed. Yeah, it makes us feel safer. Yeah, it feels like you've anchored into bedrock. But all you've anchored into is something that's not going to change and evolve as the context should demand that you change and evolve. Actually, exactly. I think, and by the way, I love capitalism. You've benefited well from it. Yes, and I think it brings the tech and it's raised the overall starvation rates and infant mortality. I think it's the best system we got. So I'm not critical really of capitalism. With that said, I think what's fascinating about capitalism is like, how long will it take before people themselves are a product? And that was a kind of an unimaginable scenario. Until there's media. Because you literally have a billboard. And on the billboard, you know, because you've watched every other product. The product declares what it does and what it doesn't do and how it's opposite of that. Those advertisements or advertisements are declarations of what the thing is. And so we have just models are now presenting image online. As a product, we've got to declare what we are and what we're not. And it's all very fixed and ridiculous. But I think we've become products in some way. I mean, well, none of us know who we are or what we're doing. Exactly. We don't know how the fuck we're going to move forward and we're all having many existential crises several times a day. And these are huge questions that are way above my pay grade. But I know that for my own self, I'm kind of excited by my own capacity to change and be different from one moment to the next. And I think there's tremendous power in not allowing yourself to be too fixed or brittle or rigid in your sense of who you are. Okay. A lot of funny suspicious things along the way that add up to things where you could get suspicious or an SM. I would argue, you know, Elton John being a cameo in the Kingsman. And then you having this thing for a thing really adds up quickly to you being a rocket man. Yeah. I wish I'd read Actual Young, but I haven't. But you know, he talks a lot about synchronicity and that is one that kind of came up for me. I auditioned for drama school singing Elton as well. Oh, when I was 18. And you sing Elton and sing. And I sing Elton and sing. It's suspicious. It is suspicious. Will you ever let yourself go down a fun effervescent fantasy about the suspicion? Like, oh, there may be a little charm to magic dust floating around. You know what I think? I like to. back it to the ideas of certainty and rigidity. I like to remind myself that my perception of the world is entirely fallible because my eyes are my eyes. Uh-huh. And actually, who knows what forces are at play in the universe? I saw the Tony Hopkins episode. And when I first met him, he told me about his fascination with Young's ideas around synchronicity and how the song Pro Call Haram has followed him around. And he feels that there's significance and meaning to it. I like the idea that there are things at play in the universe that we don't fully understand. And I think I used to be somebody who had a very kind of staunchly atheistic, quite certain view of things that were quite stark and quite chaos-driven. And I don't feel that way anymore. I don't know what's going on. Yeah. There's a freedom to that. Yes. And I also feel that when I believe in a benevolent universe, the universe gets more benevolent. That's right. Yes, when all of us humans, it's a very well-established bias, confirmation bias. Once you have a theory, you only see things that confirm your theory and you exclude all of their evidence. If you want the real view of the world, you almost have to let go of any fucking theory because you'll miss everything else. That doesn't confirm that theory. Yeah. God, we're cutting so deep right now. I don't even know. It should just be in a philosophy class. Well, this is part of a curriculum. Anyways, Rocky Man, I know that the Kingsman were harder, but Rocky Man is the biggest swing you may be ever taking your life. I don't have the balls for that. Even if I could sing. Really? No. You know, I think I didn't feel like that at the time. Because can you recognize now? It's like a fucking swinging for the fences. Not to drop a baseball metaphor on you, maybe. No, yeah. What do you do on that pitch? Absent father figure. No, there was something to do about the fact that it had a musical component and it was about somebody incredibly dysfunctional. A lot of the dysfunction I related to in terms of who he was. It just felt like a chance to express me. I'm really proud of that movie and I always will be and I am proud that people who like Elton John like me in that movie. But I only ever really felt like I was expressing me. I was playing Elton John, but I also just felt like I was going to use Elton John to slightly express something about who I am. Yeah. Elton John was like the outfit you put on. Yeah, a little bit. He encouraged you to not do an impersonation, right? He said go be you. Is that liberating? Yes, absolutely. And he's a brilliant creative person and I think he understands that in order to do something, well, you have to feel a degree of ownership and authorship. Nobody's going at any point. Oh, Elton John wouldn't have turned his head that way in 1981 because he was doing this or wearing that hat. It's like who gives a fuck? The point is that we're trying to capture the spirit of who somebody is by recognizing commonality between myself and him. And it was a totally beautiful experience. He's still somebody that I care about enormously and I will always, always be thankful for it and I could not be more proud of the film I love making it. Yeah, it was just awesome. It's a mega accomplishment. It's crazy. Thank you. Stay tuned for more armchair expert if you dare. We're going to skip everything else because I've taken so much of your time. We're going to go to Apex. I watched Apex and my mother was in town visiting. She and I watched it together. She hates it. No, but I've never seen her have an experience in a movie like this. It was thrilling. I was so distracted by her. She's like, oh, oh, oh, Daxler. This might be too much. Oh, oh, Daxler, just get her off the cliff. Why is she going to? Oh, oh, here he is. He's like, she. Yeah, this role. Yes. Her rousal setting went to fucking 30. I loved it. Right on the. - I'm sure you don't know this about me, but I fucking love men's bodies more than anything in the world. - Really? - You're in very good shape. - I love muscles so much. - Yeah. - What is it about it, do you think? - Well, for me, I'll explain it as being born in '75, and my first drive in movie was "Cone in the Barbeque." - Yeah, bye, bye, bye. - I was just like, wait a minute, a man can look like a gorilla, and then Stallone was at his height. It was like the birth of muscles. - It's worth being wary of that, though, I think, because that version of me, in Apex, the guy who's whatever city body fat I was and all kind of, you know, strong, every day I punish myself for not looking like that. But the truth of the matter is that I starved myself. - Exactly, you were probably miserable. - And I was running myself absolutely ragged to get there, and Barry once told me, and it's such a great sound bite, but the idealized version of yourself, look, I don't want to get too heavy, you want to talk about muscle. - No, no, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - He once said to me that the idealized version of yourself, the kind of hero version of yourself, your job is not to aspire to it, your job is to smash it. - Oh, wow. - And I love that. - Yeah. - And I spent a great, a tremendous help to me. It's one of the things that is a challenge that nobody wants to hear about, but fluctuating relationship with your own images. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - We always have that, if that's universal. - Yeah, yes, absolutely. - I'll hit you with my current understanding of my fascination. One is just, I grew up in a house with a violent step there beating everyone up. So when I saw Conan, I was like, "Oh, if I look like that, I got no problems "for the rest of my life." So that was like, "Yeah, fuck if I was Conan." I got no problems. Mom can wear her fucking tight tank top all she wants, you know? Second, and I think this is the true thing that intrigues me about muscles is, it's rare that you can see a visual display of someone's work ethic and dedication. And as someone who the my shadow is, you're a lazy piece of shit who's undisciplined. - To conquer that is to me the ultimate goal. I can see there's some dedication here, there's some execution, there's like real commitment, there's struggle. This is the proof of making oneself suffer for a goal. Kind of forget the goal and all honesty. At this point for me, I don't make myself miserable. I eat in a way that like works for me that I'm not miserable at all. - That's so good. - I work out all the time 'cause I'm a nutcase and it's my medicine. And the esteem I get from knowing, I did the thing I didn't wanna do is enjoy it for me. I love it. - And I feel the same way. I've always loved to move. And I am a little bit of odds with the world if I'm not doing it. But it's complicated and it's all tied up with food and all that shit, which we all struggle with. - Yeah, it's toxic. - The tiny moments in my life where I've looked like I did those shirtless days in Apex, or I did a show called Blackbird or in the first Kingsman. Those days, I just was filled with self-loathing. - Yeah. - I couldn't enjoy it at the time. Because I'd completely lost any distorted sense of perspective. Also in that deep, you bounce back, you carry on, it's fine. It's just what it is, you know. - How about the attention you get from other men too? Isn't that hysterical? - Well that's the thing. Women do not give a fuck. - No. - No, we both know that, they don't care. - Yeah, that's an established fact at this point. In fact, sometimes it's like, yeah. In the way you're saying it's apparent when you look at someone's body, it's like, God, they really know how much fear it is, but it's not a pain. - It's not. It's like, oh they-- - It reads as vanity. - It can't. - They don't know I'm on an internal battle for self-discipline. - Sure, sure. - But you know what I do love. There was a slightly different type of training I did for that movie. It was much more functional than just getting pumped up. And I felt so fit and felt amazing. You know, that just the joyous feeling of your body's just primed, but great. - Yeah, peak, but what it can get to. - Yes. I used to have a picture on my wall and it was about 15 that I drew because I used to love drawing. I drew that classic, Arnie's shape and would write, I will get to this shape in next number of days. And I'd mount a chin up bar in my room and I'd have no notion of how I want to achieve anything like that, and it's crazy. You know, that kid to think that he is later, I would potentially be the model for another 15-year-old kid who was head I'm fucking up by the dream. - It's like I know that you've given me a realistic body type. - Do you know what I feel like it's a part of the job and it's fine? - Yeah. - I feel like during things like this, I do feel an impulse to say that it's a moment in time that you sweat for and you restrict the amount of food you eat, forwards get your body fat down, and there's a lot of pain and while moving well and using your body as a prerequisite, and it's important and we should all do it, that doing tons of rigorous, aesthetic-driven work is a path that can fuck you up, like they tell you. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And I think there's a responsibility to say that sometimes. - And also, it's diminishing returns. Like right now, I think it's nice to think I can run and I can move, but who knows, in 25 years, what is it gonna be able to do? And what I refuse to do is turn into the person who hates their form as they age and change, you know, because the temptation is so there. And I do think you see it in people when they develop a kind of sense of being odds with their own form and I want to enjoy what it can do right now. And I wanted to stay malleable and functional for as long as possible, but I also want to accept it as it shifts over the coming years. And I want to love it when I'm 75 and it maybe doesn't do as much as it used to do. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll let you know if it's possible. I'm a bit further down the road, I'll tell you. - Send the message back. - Is the Aussie accent that you have in there? To me, it seems like you have a leg up on Monica and I trying it. Although to you, probably, it was a nightmare. I worked with an incredible dial coach named Felicity. I think Felicity's surname begins with a J. I think it's Judd. Sorry Felicity. - Felicity Judd is right. - It is right. - Yep. - Oh my god. - You are Felicity Judd. - Wow. - This is an upper 23 people on the back yard right now. - How is Asian impressed? - We did a lot of work. It is just a really tough one and people warned me before. The studio, in fact, were very like, we'd actually be happy if you did it British. We would like you to be British. And I was like, well, that's not really what I want to do. But I remember I got a certain way into the process and it wasn't quite clicking in in the way that it has when I've done certain American dialects and things. Anyway, look, I think I got a way with it, but it's a tough one. As a American watching, I feel like you nailed it. - I have been running by any Aussie friends of mine, but I was like, oh, this is impressive. - I taught to know whether people are lying to you, but I feel pretty good about it. - The whole thing with an accent is so dicey in my opinion because I remember doing a movie and I can't even fucking remember what was said in it and they got a dialect coach for me. And I started going down the path. And maybe I'm just a quitter, fearful, but I was like, this is making me way too self-conscious. I can't even think about what the scene's about. I'm thinking about where you showed me on the piece of paper I'm changing this vowel to that vowel. And I'm like trying desperately to understand why I care in the scene or the other things. I had to make a call. Maybe because I don't have the skill set. I was like, I can't prioritize that 'cause it's gonna take a toll on this other thing. I care more about. - But I think we're all different from all our different skills set. - Yes. You can sing. - There is no fucking way that I am ever getting up and doing standup in front of everyone. - I respect and see it for the extraordinary feet of artistry it is and daring. There's no fucking way I'm ever doing it. I'm not interested. - Yeah exactly. - I don't wanna go out there and die. No, thank you. - Yeah. - And also, I think growing up, whilst there are some really interesting, diverse distinctions between dialects in America, I do think generally there is a more cohesive sense of self with regards to the way that people speak. Whereas I'm from the UK and I move from Liverpool to Wales, it sounds as different as South African does to American to most is. You know, so I think there's a fluidity that's baked into who I am that means that it doesn't feel that way to me. To me, it feels like the first domino I'm knocking in a string of dominoes that's gonna change other things and lead me to feel like I'm really somebody else. - Yeah. - So I did make a movie in the autumn where I made the conscious decision to not adopt any kind of difference in the way I speak and to play it as close to me as possible because I felt like I hadn't done played a Brit for seven years. So I didn't feel like I'd played anything near to me. And the first week, I thought I was gonna have to give up that thing. - Really? - I was terrified. - You had no artifice to hide. - No, it's a hide. - I felt overexposed. I didn't feel there was something I could lean into and it nearly fucked me up. - Wow. - So it swims around. And I would be nervous to go back there. - Yeah. - I felt a little so raw. - I felt a little close to hide. It was a weird thing to experience. I didn't see it coming at a tool. - And then underneath of all that, or at least maybe an aspect of that, is it the fear like, well, I'm not interesting enough on my own. - Maybe I definitely know that I want to feel like things that I do with this thing from one another. And that's because, I don't know, maybe some sort of lofty aspiration to be like the people I most admire. But I do genuinely enjoy it. And I feel that once I, like I just made a movie in Australia that's actually set in New York. And I, for the first time in my whole life, I stayed in the accent the whole time. I've never done that before. - Oh, I've said. - No, from arriving in the make up bus to leaving at night. And what I found that in the car on the way home, I kind of struggled to shake it off. - Yeah. - Not because I felt like I was this guy in 1957, but because you get into a muscularity, yes. It's like, when you're acting out as a kid and you like, can't stop the bit that you do. It's like that. - I agree what's so fun about doing something. For instance, I was in this movie "Idiography", it was a character you used to do at the groundlings. And once I start talking like him, Frito, I have completely different thoughts that - Yeah, yeah. - It doesn't happen. - It is, it's so fun and interesting. - Yeah, it's interesting as well, because going back to that thing earlier where we were talking about reviews and that sense of certainty about anything, there's so many different versions of me within me, and I think it's true of all of us, and that's one of the things that I really love about acting, is it's like a way of embracing your multitude of self, yeah, all the parts. You're not just this one, and maybe you're right, maybe it is a self-love thing, maybe actually I'm rejecting tearing a little bit, I quite like the idea of being able to aspire to be somebody else for a little while. - The movie, we should explain it, and it's been out for a minute, so probably most people listening, oh, I've seen it, but in a nutshell, Shirley's thrown, is a woman who is in love with a man in that beginning opening scene as fucking bonkers. I just kept trying to figure out the math of how they had filmed that, so convincingly, them sleeping on the side of that cliff. Oh my God, it brought me back to that fucking climbing movie, we all saw, but her partner dies. She's on this kind of soul-searching mission. She continues to be an outdoorsy person. She's gonna go down to Australia and climb and kayak. - Yeah, rediscover herself a bit. - And she meets you at a gas station, right? And you kind of step in to protect her from some locals. You guys are in the middle of fucking nowhere. - Yeah, were you down there? - We shot that just outside of Canberra. Where is that? - It's a city in Australia. It's got this kind of political seat of Australia. I think Canberra is the capital, I think. I didn't know that. - It is. - Right, I'm sorry it is. - It'd be great. - Thank God. - She's the right twice. - Not as remote as it appears, like many of the locations, all of the locations in that movie. - Yeah, so I can't remember you playing a fucking evil human being. Is this the first time? - Yeah, I did a TV show last year called Smoke on Apple where I played somebody pretty wobbly, but it's definitely a newer chapter in my life. - You're a psycho path. - Yeah, yeah, I'm a tote freak. And we meet you in your very kind and soft spoken, your very appealing, it looks like you're gonna be probably a good, you know, a sweet heart. - Yeah, and then we have some more interactions with you as she's on her trip. And then the turn is one of the freakier turns of ever seen. I do wanna know a little bit about that moment. We're basically, it's starting to occur to her. You're not a good dude. And then you basically put on a song for her. - Yeah. - So creepy. - And you start dancing. It gets real creepy in a hurry. - Yeah. - The scene was written that way. Like, what's the fear level going into a scene like that? - Well, massive. It was sent to me the fall of 2024. It was a slightly different version of the story. And the character originally was imagined as, it sort of felt like it was written for Chris Hemsworth, kind of like topnot beard, man of the woods, one with nature, leaf whisperer sort of vibe. And I read it and was like, well, I can't. This is not me. - Yeah. - They'd expressed a desire to rewrite it. So I said, I'd be really interested in as finding a version of it where it's a guy who wants to appear like that kind of guy. - Yeah. - Because that feels more honest to who I am. And what started was a really remarkable process of like creativity and open discourse for a big studio movie. And they were really open to ideas. So one of the first things we discussed, I should look villains dancing in movies is not a revolutionary idea. But I thought, wouldn't it be cool if he kind of declared the beginning of this hunt and we could find a cool song? And they were open to it. And what was birthed was that sequence. And I'd been searching high in love for a song and I was training over Zoom with my trainer here in LA and that chemical brothers track came on in the gym. And so yeah, I asked the chemical brothers. I wrote to them and asked if we could use their track and they let us use it. And it was quite a thrilling thing to shoot. - Well, basically, can I just say it is a fundamental trick. If you had got there and they go, you're dancing to this song. - Yes. - You would have found nine reasons why that's not a fix. - Exactly. - But it was your idea and you had to live with it. - Exactly right. And also, as much as I'm playing as sociopathic cannibalistic nut job, that guy dancing is just me at a festival at 21. - Yeah. - This is me. It's just me at the chemical brothers in 2010, you know. So me bringing something of myself to it is what I think makes it extra weird. Because people are going, oh my God, this feels really real and it is real. 'Cause it is me. I can feel that he is feeling the song. - Yes. - Exactly. - The song really is his song. - Oh God. - Yeah. - I'll put it in a two-way tie with was it Buffalo Bill in silence of the lands when he did? - Well, that's, you can't put it in there. You can't. - You were doing that. - No, I went like, oh, walk dude. This guy's even weirder than I was in. - No, he's already there. - Yeah. I mean, that shot the Buffalo Bill opening that road. I'm very honest to say that I have a sort of like pen pal relationship with Anthony Hopkins. And I asked him before doing the movie for a vice about playing a really fucked up individual. - Wow, you got to go to the source. - Yes. - Yes. He said something like, he said, I don't know where Lecda came from. Probably something in my childhood. But he said the only advice I would give you, and I don't need to tell you this, but the only advice I would give you is don't play the evil. Play him as the hero of his story. - Yes. - I really took that advice forward with me. And yeah, it's a great time. Parts like that where the rules are a little bit malleable and you get to do something where you're being a license to be as strange as possible. - So freeing and expressive. - Yeah, how fun. - I had a great time. - Charlize is just a bad motherfucker in this. - And honestly, I know that people say this when they're promoting movies, but the movie's been out. Where did we, you know, we're here as friends. - Yeah. - I mean, she is a force of nature. Talk about grit. She really went there. And I think it's kind of what makes the movie work. She trained for so many months as a climber and has taken it on as a hobby. You know what you were saying about me really digging that song? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - That was her with the client. - Yeah. - Yeah, really. - And I think that's what it takes to make it feel really real. - Oh my God. - Did you get to keep those crazy teeth? - No, I didn't keep those, actually. I hadn't shown them to anyone the day we filmed. I had them designed here in LA and I had them shipped over independently of production. - Oh, God. - No one had seen them when I did it on set. So Charlize's reaction is really legit. - 'Cause I think you could plan the most incredible scare in your real life. If you're just having a wonderful evening with somebody and then you go into the kitchen to grab a couple more things and you come back and resume talking, you just don't do a thing. - What a fun. - I mean, they are so fucking scared. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah. - Bye. - You're missing out on a real good life. - It's not as good as the Bridesmaids actors with a little bit of chocolate cake on there. - Oh, yeah. - That's so good. - That's a great one. Last thing I'm gonna say is I'm now following you on Instagram, which was new once we started doing research a while back. I just really enjoy you dancing and I want to know about the decision to do so much public dancing, which I applaud. I do have a video of me dancing, so it's a big swing. - Yeah, it's a big swing, here's a big swing. I think it's the shadow thing for my entire 20s. I thought that what I should be aiming at, what I was supposed to be, choose your fighter, those guys who epitomize the Hollywood leading man. What I have found in my 30s to use rough parameters is that I am much happier when I'm not trying to be the guy. - The man. - The man. And I get it, Hollywood celebrates the man. And there's a reason, you know, there's a reason. Tom Hardy's the man, and it's cool. - We like those characters. - We like those guys. - I like those guys, but it's not my path and it's not who I am. And I suppose me doing stupid dancing on Instagram feels like a statement of intent about me going, actually I'm this guy, I'm okay with that. And I like my weird, and I like my shadow. - Yeah. Oh, that's beautiful. - I've been charmed on this show. We've done 1200 episodes, but I'm putting you in the top 10 of charge. I am so charmed by you. - Well, I felt, when I couldn't make it the first time I felt pretty wrong about it. So I'm glad we got to do this. - Yeah, me too, this is a blast. - Thank you so much. - I'm so rooting for you. - Thank you. - Yeah, yeah. And everyone wants Apex, it's fucking stellar. Watch it with your mom and just see what happens to her physiologically, cardiovascularly, check her heart rate. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Thank you. - All right, be well, brother. - Thank you too. Just a quick reminder that as part of our summer break, here's a rerun of one of our favorite fact checks. I just really shit the bed myself on my time management. - Oh, okay. - I had gone on my workout gear on. It's like, should I ride on my bike today? - Sure, always a big question. And I was like, I really need to change this rear-end or two. The nozzle kind of popped off. It's still holding air, but I can't risk it. - Okay. - Then I'm gonna need a repair it. And then just lift. We're gonna lift. Got in my outfit. Then I went to, I thought, well, now I have a little extra time. I got to work on the bicycle. I did the tires. Little more challenging than there's a lot of challenges. So when I finally got it all done, cleaned up the tools. I'll just go work out and I looked at my watch, 1240. My entire workout had blown by. - Yeah. - Yeah. - That'll happen. - Got away from me. - That'll happen. - You get tinkering in the shop. You know this guy's get tinkering in the shop and the time just flies by. Blue right by. - Oh my Lord. - This cookie boy likes the tinker. - Yeah, cookie boys do like to tinker. They'll think or we were morning was good the time get away from you my internet was out at the beginning of the morning Wow, unacceptable. I know and I I got a text from AT&T saying so, but I thought it was spam Sure, or a trick. I thought it was a trick and a way to for them to take all my money So I didn't click it. Kristen just dealt with the exact same thing. She started getting tons and tons of emails and texts from spectrum Oh, like you're we're gonna shut your cable off. Okay, shut off your internet Sure, and she's like, I don't even think I signed up for the account I don't think I it's in my name or anything. Mm-hmm now. There's a big mystery There's a huge mystery and it's so very similar, but she the whole time she's like this is all a ploy to get my credit card God to be careful. I think they got it. They did I think so You're never supposed to click on it. Well, she looked up the actual web address for spectrum and it was the right No, you don't click on it so scary. Yeah, well, I didn't click on it and I was wrong. They were that was real That was real and that was out and but then it came back Oh, wonderful then it came back, but I do this right? Do I like plan I plan my Morning or am I getting ready to the minute? Uh-huh, which is a problem. Yeah Yeah, yeah, but I'm a busy girl. Yeah, it's very busy A lot to fit in there, but then the makeup okay That's gonna take seven minutes and then it takes seven and a half and then you add a half minute to each of these line items and you're late Line items. Yeah, business speak You your P&L and you realize more losses than profits and the ROI is not good. It's not a good ROI I hate all those terms and then once they learn on my realize they really are useful Annoying and then I'm the person I hate you you're the you've become the person you've always hated It's almost my full arc as you can just be coming fully the person I hated Um, I did a good prank last night. Oh my god. Tell me because I'm into pranks now. Okay, so as you know my girlfriend Kaleesi's visiting Yes, your little baby friend. She's seven Kenny's daughter. I told you about the hike. We had a great hike We held hands the entire time. I'd love to show you some pictures. Oh, yeah Yeah, she calls Kristen your wife and Kristen my wife and Kristen previously Chris daxes mom Daxes mom, which is really sad, but I did discover after we talked she is calling My sister Delta's grandma She's great. She kept saying it's Delta gone to her grandma to the movies when she's gonna be done with her grandma at the movies So now TT is grandma always so fun. Oh my god. I'm scared for her to give me an A at least it's consistent So like if if Kristen's my mom and my sister is Delta's grandma, those are their peers, which they are of course in this weird structure What if she started calling me Daxe what about your Indian friend? Oh, no. No, she's gonna do that. It's more of an age mix up So anyways, Cleesey Delta Lincoln Kristen Kenny and I went to cafe 101 last night. Okay, we're in a big booth Cleesey's so excited. There's older girls Older girls have had enough, but I'd tell them I tried to tell them You know, if we went somewhere and there's two older girls, you know, I It's really tough being a parenting situation. I know Cuz you're really kind of weighing a couple things. Yeah, I'm gonna teach you to be kind and civil and also They're in their house. Yeah, they have some boundaries. I also want them to have boundaries I don't know. I know. I think I may have made a mistake on this front. Okay. Did you advise them to punch Cleesey? I did No, I told Delta the other day I did a pop out. I pop out here. I walked by and I decided to go pop into my house and I was walking by your friends. I heard you grunt I was unloading motorcycles and power washing them. Yeah, and I heard your little voice coming from like the woods. I said hi And you you kind of like jerked around. This is why I'm into pranks now actually because it was actually very funny because you got really Well, and you are obscured behind Fikas like a hedge a row of hedges So you got to watch me react and look stupid for a while Funny You said who's saying hi? Yeah, you got into that mode where you were scared protect my family. Yeah, I said It's Monica. I'm here. I'm over here by the fence I'm gonna get your Indian friend over here. So then yeah, you came over and then Delta came over And so we were chit chatting a lot and yeah, she mentioned that there was gonna be a young young girl and Cleesey so friendly She wants to talk to you You friendly, you really want to get into was anticipating being you know a little overwhelmed and then but really her I was towards Lincoln. Okay, Lincoln shuts the door and then I have to just play by myself with her and Also she looks at me and she says please take care of it and then I do and I just I don't want to do that this time And I said, well, that's good. That's boundaries. You can so I taught her but then if you saw little Cleesey excited to play with them You'd be like girls get over it's too low girl. So yeah, Lincoln's largely spared Because of the age gap. I think Delta's more interesting to clean. Yeah Anyways, all this is say we're at dinner and I'd love talking to her right because I'm just messing with her the whole time exactly how I talked to Lincoln and Delta is there because she's family She's Kenny's of course. So she's um Kenny says something she doesn't like so she starts punching Kenny Won't stop punching him. He's like stop punching me and I go Cleesey. I'm gonna tell you right now They throw people out in this restaurant. They have a zero tolerance policy on violence You say no, they won't and I go no, they'll throw you right out of here and what is great is I've developed now Without this ever in sight. I've developed a really good relationship with the bus boy. Oh nice I love the dude, you know, we have a great report. Mm-hmm. So I go on that's it. I'm gonna get the manager So I got up and then luckily he was the stand right around the corner and I go oh perfect Will you tell that ask that little girl she's been punching people and he's like oh yeah Yeah, so we come back and now there's an employee the rest of it and he goes if you've been punching people and she She was busted. Yeah, she was so scared she's about to get thrown out And then we all started laughing and then she started laughing and it was great. She laughed. Yeah, but I came back with an employee And he got right into it. That is funny. Oh, it was I just got me her neurons though like I'm back to not liking pranks anymore You're afraid of getting kicked out. Oh my god. I would have cried And then and then I would have felt bad that I was crying because I knew I would know everyone else felt bad Yeah, yeah, but I wouldn't be able to help myself Yeah, yeah, there's a lot there's a lot there so tricky, but it did stop the punching Well, that's good. Okay, so the other thing she and I have going is we are in the hot tub two nights gone She's telling me all these different stories and she tells me about how mean this um gymnastics coaches and he's a real mean and One girl is gonna have her water and he said oh you want some water and he poured the water on her hat No, she's alive. I'm gonna be honest. I don't believe that story Is he's like what what you mean you don't believe it and I go Like I I trust you and I love you, but at the same time I just I really can't I don't think I'm able to believe that story And begin this whole thing about believing that story and then later she told me You know your eyes turn color when you lie my grandpa told me that and I go yeah, I love your grandpa Joe He's one of my buddies, but I I'm afraid I can't believe that story And she fought me on that for a while, but then in the car and the way to Cafe 101 she was saying Yeah, my grandpa told me your eyes turn color when you lie and I don't think I believe it anymore No, you made her turn on her grandpa. That's okay. It's good to be skeptical this you can't believe in Cherry tails, but the reason the grandpa said it is because she's a little liar and she's running around telling lies and the grandpa's basically saying Don't you do that I'll just tell her a liar. You don't need to make up a whole thing or eyes Little babies lying you can tell kids exactly everything You do, but not everyone does that we're having a blast although don't they say that about hazel It's like sometimes it you're green sometimes you're blue because sometimes you're in light that makes them look that way and sometimes you're in light that makes them look the other way very Wish you watching yeah, it's a very ephemeral it changes and moves some Morphus. Yeah All to say your eyes don't turn a different color when you lie. Okay. This is back to me really wishing I had green eyes since I learned they're the rarest. Yeah, you can't be in you already know they were the rarest Did you need to learn that you already talked about this? I like guess I kind of knew in my heart of hearts But you just met the least amount of people with green eyes. Hmm. I'll answer for you. Yes. Oh, no Yes, you've met way more people of blue and brown eyes. Well brown. Yeah browns are done brown Here we go around also. I love browns. Don't listen to her. Daniel Riccardo's brown eyes. I know. A saddle wood. I know, but like It's just you always want the grass is always green open your eyes or green Yeah, no, I I would call your eyes brown. - Blue. - Wow, see, I don't know. - That was a dangerous question. - Why? - Because people take it so personal if you don't know their eye color. Oh, I hear this all the time. - This is one of these, I think, trends about how to out guys for, you know, another thing guys are terrible at is like, "Guys don't know your eye color." This is a test for guy. - Oh. - What's your mom's eye color? What's your wife's eye color? Eye color. Eye colors. - Oh my God. - Yeah. - It's day, it's real dangerous. It's, people get very hurt if you don't know what color their eyes are. You know color, right? - Blue. - Yeah. - 'Cause I know that, 'cause we were talking about it. - I think I sort of thought blue eyes were the rarest. - Oh, wow. (laughs) - I don't know how you thought that. - I, I like blue eyes the most. - Name three people with green eyes. - Okay, Callie, she has green eyes. - Are we playing it fast and loose? - No. - Okay, there's solid green. - I mean, texture. - Well, what's solid green? Is there such a thing? Callie might be mad, 'cause now we're back to the game. I said you have green eyes, right? - Well, she says, "I'm so hurt, lose my number." I think she has blue eyes. - She doesn't. - Okay. - She either has green or hazel. My friend Gina, green or hazel. - Okay, you're asking me? - No, I'm telling you, these are two people. - Okay, so we're up to two. - All right, and- - You're currently sitting with two people with blue eyes, so that's already neutralized. - Okay, so evens, evens, evens. - With the media people in your vicinity and all the people in the world, you know, yes, it's evens, evens, even so far. - What does Kristen have, blue? - Blue. - And the kids have blue? - Yeah. - See, I'm not paying much attention. - Yeah, you know the kids have blue. They're so prototypical, born blue. - I know, but- - They're generically important. - I think I don't, you know, people's think eyes are like the window to the soul. - Yeah. - And I guess I get like, when I look like in your eyes, I get it. - That's where the human is. - Right. - But I guess I'm never looking. - You can't see very well though in your defense. I don't know that you can even see most people's eyes. - Your eyes are like- - Shit, blue. - I'll say that when you know I have brown eyes, it's so insensitive. - Years are like grayish blue. - Oh yeah, for sure. - Yeah. - I would agree with that. - Yeah, which is nice. - Just as said the nicest thing about my eyes is anyone, is ever said. He said there's icicles in them. - Oh. - It's very sweet. You know what color my brother's eyes are, right? - What are his eyes? His eyes are probably green. - No, they're red. - No, it's there. (laughs) - He has brown eyes. Go ahead, test it. You're a bad boyfriend. I'm a much better boyfriend than you are. - Color your eyes, question mark. - He's just gonna start crying. We'll get back to you in 30 minutes. - Who else did I install? - Yeah, exactly. So you tell me you don't care about me without telling me you don't care about me. - I don't know. Like all of my, all the girls in the pod, I'm really trying to think. - Who's got what? - I don't know. - Yeah. - And the boys, I guess like, I hate eyes. - Yeah, they're not your thing. - Okay, we have a really important thing to do today. - Oh, we're gonna finally do the-- - It's a quiz. - From the book. - Whoop-up. - The quasi. - Oh, no, but we-- - Okay. Do it next week. - Tune in next week for-- - Us saying we'll do it the following week. - For the green one. - So what quiz is this? - Okay, this is highly sensitive person quiz. - Oh, wonderful. - 'Cause this is for blades. - Stay tuned for more armchair expert. - If you dare. (upbeat music) - Now-- - Do you want me to read it? I always feel like you're always administering the quizzes. And I'm happy to do it if you want. - I'd like to do it. - Okay. - Okay, now discover your personality. Choose your gender to start. - Now. - Okay, you find it easy to make new friends. Strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree. - Strongly agree. - You could spend days learning about random things that interest you. - Oh, strongly agree. - When others are-- - You seem to have nothing to do with sensitivity. It's interesting. - When others are upset, you feel upset too. - Oh, yeah, I hate it. - Which one? Agree or strongly? - Strongly agree. - You aren't one for backup plans. - Yeah, that's-- I'm not gonna go strongly, I'll go the next one. - Okay, you stay cool, calm, and collected, even when under lots of stress. - Yeah. - Which one? - Strongly agree. Right, if you ever see me losing my shit. - Yeah. - Oh. - Oh my god, yeah. - Wow. - Wow, wow. - Oh my god, yeah. Wow, really? - Yes. - Oh wow. - Okay. (laughing) - I just think when this shit's hitting the fan, I'm very calm. Is that not what the question is? You would agree with that. - Yeah. - Yeah. - My car's on fire and I'm like, okay, let's get the hood open. Like there's no, I have no, oh no, there's no, oh no on me. - Right. (laughing) - When your car's on fire, yeah. - Okay, when out and about, you don't really introduce yourself to new people. You prefer to chat with people you already know. - That's true. Even though I can make friends really easy, that's true. - Okay. - But not strongly. - So regs. - Let's go medium. - Neutral or agree? - Let's go neutral. - Okay. Yeah, because part of your thing is that you like talking to strangers. - It's really weird. I like to talk to either dead strangers or people I know. It's periphery people that people I know know that make me nervous. - I understand. - Yeah. - Can you understand that's weird, isn't it though? But like, if I'm at a gas station, I talked, like I'm very engaged. - Yeah, you wanna learn about that? - Or the server or whatever. - Right. - Yeah, I'm gonna ask the Uber driver where they're from. - Right. Yeah. - But if like the Uber driver, I kind of remember his friends with Callie, I'd be like, oh, fuck. - Oh, no. - Not her specifically. - How he's friend is so cool. - But, you know, any friend of a friend. - I know. It feels like you have to be on in a little bit of a different way. - Yeah, we're supposed to connect, 'cause we. - Yeah. I get it. I'm like a no across the board. I don't wanna talk to strangers. - Yeah. - And I don't wanna talk to friends. - No friend, I don't wanna talk to friends. - Free friends effect. - Yeah. - Okay, you don't like to start a new project until the first one's finished. - Mm-hmm. - I agree. - Okay. - You're a sentimental type of person. - Yeah, I strongly agree. - Okay. - Do I use list or schedules? - Neutral. - Okay. Making a small mistake can make you question your knowledge on a subject. - Medium. - I agree. - Neutral or agree? - Medium or agree? Is that. - Just agree? - Yeah, agree. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Okay. You easily spark up a conversation with a stranger. - Oh, five. - You love talking about an analyzing creative works. - Four. - You follow your heart more than your head. This is an interesting one. - Boy, that's. That's a hard one to do. - That's hard. - What's the objective about? What do you think I'm open to your. - I kind of think so. - I do too. - I do too. - Yeah, so agree. - Are you agree or four? - Yeah, right. - You tend to prefer following a daily routine as opposed to just doing whatever you want. - Yeah, I love a daily routine. - It's strongly agree. - It's strongly, okay. - When you meet new people, you worry about whether you made a great first impression. - To five. - You prefer solo activities over group activities. - Neutral. - Okay. - You love watching movies that let you interrupt. Oh. - No. - A little projection. No, or not projection, just interject. - Interrupt? - You put something. - I wrote what if I said. - Yeah. - I started changing the quiz. - Yeah. - You love to interrupt. What do you think? - Six. - You love watching movies that let you interpret the ending yourself is a good question. - Four. - You get more happiness from achieving things yourself than you do from helping others. - Yeah, terrible quality, but yeah. - Strong, okay. You aren't interested in very many things. - No, strongly disagree. - You often worry about the worst possible scenario in any given situation. - Five. - You love taking up leadership roles. - Five. - You are an artistic type of person. - Four. - The world would be better off if people made more decisions with their feelings. - No. - This is the worst. - It's strongly disagree. - Yeah, it's strongly disagree. - Well, you work with your head at heart. - I know, but I'm allowed to and no one else. - Okay. - You prefer to relax before getting into chores. - That's weird. Relax before getting into chores. - You don't. - I don't. - Yeah, so you're. - I like to keep the motor floored or off. So that's a disagree. - Okay. - You don't mind when other people are having a heated argument in front of you. - Oh, this is interesting. - Yeah, I don't mind. I like it. - So you. - Is horny an option? - Strongly agree. (laughing) - Strongly agree. - You like being the center of attention. - Oh, 15. - This is like how gross you are, quiz. - Your mood is generally pretty stable. - Yeah, that's a four. - You have plenty of patients for people that aren't as efficient as you. - Zero. No. - Strongly. - Yeah, strongly disagree. - You're spontaneous. - Five. - You have always been fascinated by the question of what if anything happens after death. - Neutral. - You prefer to be on your own rather than with others. - Neutral. - You love theoretical discussions and can engage in them for days on end. - 15. - You have a hard time empathizing with people who come from a very different life. style to your own. Hmm. Interesting. Oh, feel like you have a, what would you give me on that? You have a hard time ever, those in people who come from a very different number one from. I know. Yeah. I love gay dudes. I'm going to say something baulzy right now. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I think that has more to do with your contrarianism than it does with your empathy. Wow. And I'd mean that positively. I think you, you always want to look at the other side and you don't want to status quo. Yeah. Michigan, there was a status quo about people and I think it was not empathy that drove you. But I have an outcast identity, right? So I think I like it's easy for me to lock into. I don't, I'm going to go with neutral. Okay. I think I'm, I think I'm more, I think I'm more empathetic than the average dog from where I'm from. Okay. But also, yeah, a lot of times, like I had to definitely become friends with you before I was able to truly understand how hurtful and doing an accent. I wouldn't use. What's use you? I actually mean more like, I think currently you can't empathize with like a very hyper liberal person. And that is from where they come from too. Well, let's see though. Is it that I can't empathize? I mean, I think I understand where they're coming from. Okay. I think it's going to end in defeat. Yeah. So I have like a real strong objection that I don't think we're ever going to get in power again, unless people have a reckoning. So neutral. When there's a decision to be made, you want to make it right away. Yeah. Four or five. Five. You tend to second guess the decisions you make. No, I disagree. Socializing quickly exhausts you. Socializing quickly. If you start socializing, are you quickly exhausted? Oh no, I'm energized strongly disagree. You enjoy going to art museums. No. Okay. Oh my god. I went to one recently and it was it was lovely. I went by myself. Oh, where? This one in Echo Park. And I went to see this awesome artist her name Sophie. I'm already a fan of hers and she had an exhibit there. So I went and I got a coffee and I went by myself and I felt so cultured. And you really enjoyed looking at the paintings. Yeah. But there was only like I was I was in an out pretty quick. Okay. Well, they're one of that. I mean, I can remember the couple that I've loved. I love to go Picasso one in the Allian Barcelona and then the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I like walking around the getty, but it's like I look at the paintings and I feel like Larry David. Right. I'm like I'm more annoyed that other people are getting some transcendent experience that I might not be. And I'm like, why? What is I see? Yeah. This is a ding ding ding for my other fact, which isn't a fact, but is flower poopy. The flower puppy outside the Guggenheim in Bilbao the Frank Geery designed building. I went there. Yeah. Yeah. That came up in this episode. Oh, right. And I just I went there with Callie and it was great. You loved it. I loved it. Yeah. And I'd like to go back. Yeah. Okay. You struggle to understand what others are feeling. No, I disagree. Disagree. Okay. You like to have a to-do list for each day. Where are you answer this? No, I don't. I don't. Regs don't. Regs disagree. You often feel insecure. I mean, what year is this question being? No. Um, um, rarely. Disagree? Yeah, but, but. Regs. You prefer talking to people on the phone over texting or messaging them. I used to, but not anymore. Disagree. Disagree, regs. When someone has a different perspective on a subject than you, you genuinely try to understand where they're coming from. I'd go regs agree. I think so. You find that telling the cold hard truth is more important than being tactful. Yeah. Five. It was puked. You're happy to go with the flow when your plans are interrupted. No, I'm not at all. That's a strong disagree. The stakes you made in the past often haunt your minds. Five. Five. You feel energized after spending time alone, engaging in solitary activities like reading or reflecting. Not energized. No. Regs disagree. Okay. You prefer to rely on your instincts rather than sticking strictly to a set plan or schedule. Five. You often find yourself deeply contemplating the underlying meanings and implications of things rather than focusing solely on the surface details. Regs agree. I think that's a neutral for me. No. I think you're strongly agree. Yeah. Okay. Okay, strongly. When making decisions, you prioritize logic and objective analysis over considering how it might impact others' feelings. I agree. You often, I would have gone regs, but okay. I think we're there. You often find yourself worrying about potential future outcomes, or what could go wrong in a given situation. Five. You often find yourself drawn to new experiences and enjoy exploring unfamiliar places, strongly agree. You tend to trust your gut feelings and intuition when faced with difficult decisions rather than relying solely on logical analysis. They're neutral. Okay. You feel a strong sense of empathy towards others and are often affected by their emotions, even if they don't directly involve you. Well, I'm affected by people's emotions, but you said I'm not empathetic, so I'm gonna take that. Let's go regs agree. I didn't say that. Okay. You prefer to have a well-structured plan in place rather than leaving things up to chance or improvisation. Does regs disagree. Okay. You thrive in dynamic, fast-paced environments and feel invigorated by challenging situations that require quick thinking and adaptability. Fifty-five. When faced with a problem, you're more inclined to seek out practical solutions rather than dwelling on abstract theories or hypothetical scenarios. That's a hard one. That is. I would go neutral. Okay. You enjoy engaging in deep, meaningful conversations with others. Yes, strongly agree. You often find yourself reflecting on past experiences and considering how they've shaped your beliefs and values. Too much so. Yeah. You're inclined to take charge in group settings, assuming leadership roles and guiding others. You already asked that. It's a achievement. There's two big questions. Like, do you hate me and ask the same question twice? Or rather, it would say, you hate me and ask the same question. Oh my god. Okay. You feel most comfortable when your environment is organized and structured and you may feel stressed or unsettling chaotic or unpredictable situations. I agree with that. Which seems like a contradiction. I know. But I, yes, I keep my room really clean and my side of the thing, you know, like I am, yeah, a little bit of a. You prefer spending time with a small group of close friends rather than attending large social gatherings. Yeah. Four or five. Five. When presented with multiple options, you tend to follow your heart and make decisions based on what feels right in the moment. They're trying to confuse us. But keep asking the same question. It was slightly different than you wanted. Yeah. That's how all these are. And they're trying to catch you being inconsistent and they're about to catch me one more time. Yeah. I agree with that. Okay. You enjoy exploring new ideas and concepts, often seeking out an opportunity. Okay. Yeah. You find it easy to do that. What if at the end, it's a did this piss you off? And that's the only question that matter because you're so sensitive. You find it easy to adapt to changes and plans or unexpected situations. No. No. Often seeing them as opportunities for growth and learning. No. Okay. I mean, I get there after a long time. Yeah. When working on a project, do you value efficiency and strive to complete tasks quickly and effectively? Yeah. Five. You often seek out opportunities to challenge yourself and push your limits, whether it's through physical activities or intellectual pursuits. Strongly agree. You prefer to focus on the present moment rather than dwelling on past regrets or worrying about future uncertainties. No. Right. Disagree. Okay. You enjoy engaging in lively debates and discussions, sharing your yep. Okay. You have a strong desire for structure and order in your daily life, feeling most at ease when following a clear routine or schedule. This is crazy. It's getting really crazy. You tend to be proactive in seeking out new experiences and opportunities. Embracing change is a natural part of life. I like new things, but I don't know that I embrace change all that well. So let's go neutral. Okay. You feel energized and excited by social interactions. Off and seeking out opportunities to meet new people. Is it like is there a glitch? No, but it is different. Often seeking out opportunities to meet new people. I do do that. Let's go ranks. Okay. When making decisions, you prioritize logical reasoning and objective analysis, considering the facts and evidence before reaching a conclusion. I'd say for you tend to be highly self-critical and introspective, frequently reflecting on your actions and decisions and striving for self-improvement. Five. You often find yourself empathizing with others' emotions, even if you have an experience, the same situation yourself, and strive to offer support and understanding. I'm not good at that. Let's go to um, regs. Regs disagree. Yeah. You prefer to have a clear plan and direction in life, setting specific goals and working diligently to achieve them. Um, um, regs agree. Okay. What is your current relationship status? Um, married. Yeah, but five? What is that? No, no, it's okay. Married. Married. How long is your current relationship six plus years? How many relationships have you been in? Oh, God. There's zero, one, two, three, four, four plus. Four plus. Four plus. Oh, wow. How, this is personal. How long has your penis? How sad is this? despite are you with your current relationship? We have dissatisfied, somewhat satisfied, mostly satisfied, very satisfied. - Very satisfied. - What's your age, cave? Oh, God. - 500. - It's not even an option. Oh my God, I'm too old to take this quiz. - No, it's 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60 plus. - Oh, so I'm, okay, there's at least-- - But it's just weird to say 50s. - Well, that's not even as concerning as I thought it was going to say 50 plus. - Right, no. - And then the rest of everyone. - Okay, male, submit. - So you're going to ask you for $2.99? - Yes! - Uh-huh, oh my, these bastards. - What the fuck, I have to pay it. - I know, 'cause we filmed the whole segment. - Oh my God. - What, bastard, and this is like, someone made this test up in their fucking basement. - I mean, it is blossom.co. - Oh, that's not competence-inducing. - But some of their questions were good and repetitive. - Some of their questions were great. And then on the second time, they were good. And then sometimes on the third time, they were no good. - You didn't love it. - How much do I owe you for this? Was it $2.99? - It was $1.99. - Are they going to give you unlimited tests? - Oh, you can take more quizzes. - Oh good. - Oh, that's fun, okay. - Well, let's find it. Be my result. Show me. - Oh, no. - Oh, fuck another paywall. - No, this just isn't about, this isn't- - Have anything to do something? - You're an ENTJ. - An ear nose and throat? - Oh no, this wasn't even a highly sensitive person test. - Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. - What kind of test was this? - It was like, you know, it's called something, and it's a person out of time. - I'm happy right now. Like, someone has wanted us to take this test, but we don't know about it. - No, it's like an NEogram test. - It is, but it's like a really common one. You're an EN, or an I-N-F-G. - But it won't tell you the name of it. - I think it's Myers-Briggs maybe. Let's see. ENTJ-- - Doctor Zimboni. - Stanford Prism. - It's Myers-Briggs. That's like the original ones, so that's cool. Now you know. - What am I an ENT? - You're an ENTJ, that's a confident leader. - Okay. - That tracks 76% extraversion. - Okay, I'd agree with that. - Method of processing information, 81% intuition. ENTJs are intuitive thinkers, fascinated by possibilities, patterns, and future outcomes. Interesting, okay. 55% thinking. - That feels like not neutral. That's a push. - Well, because it's either, so it's introversion versus extraversion, that's the I and in the E. Intuition versus sensing. - Okay. - That's a method of processing information, your intuition. Decision-making functioning is thinking or feeling. You're thinking, but at 55%. - Yeah, I'm on the fence. - And then management function is judging or perceiving and you're 61% judging. - Wow. (laughing) What a lecture. (laughing) - You still don't know if you're highly sensitive. - You're right. We'll have to find that test, and we'll do it when we do the-- - They tricked me. - Briggs and Stratton test from your book. What one's that called? - Myers-Briggs. - No, from your book. - Oh, yeah, green hats. - Green hats. - Oh, what a mess of the fact. - Cool. (laughing) - All right. - Come on. - Oh, are there any facts? - That was it. - Oh, great. - Yeah. - I love you. - I love you. (upbeat music)