"Tim Robbins"

guys it's so hot outside is anybody else hot i'm so hot i need a glass of water or something i need something to cool off you know what's gonna make me cool off a new episode of smartless smart hey guys hey hey well's in italy oh my gosh well what time is it in italy nobody knows it's time for a campari cue the music it's a problem for tomorrow no so will have you run into our our uh back of the theater uh critic oh everybody here what a bad guys look at this guy what a bad guy nobody on him nobody knew i see him on the italian beaches now no way at feast 56 i'll eat my hat what part we did have we did have we had uh we're up in uh we're on the italian riviera right now and let me tell you something that's fantastic that's uh that's a portofino that just drove up here today just drove up where it was at a wedding in uh tuscany sure and um but i did have a guy the other day came in the room to to look at something with the ac and couldn't with the light and couldn't fix it and it wouldn't go out and he said uh that's a problem for tomorrow no with us with a little smile like that too it's too hot to fix today you know what and it was it was a problem for tomorrow isn't that so different it's so different than us i know what do you mean you can't fix it here yeah they take all of august off europe does it's so good it's so so good what about you jb how's how's the uh how's the city treating you right now uh the city is all right um the heat has um gone down to 85 and 90 humidity as opposed to 95 and 90 humidity are you shooting outside yeah yeah on a farm not a lot of not a lot of shade but it's it's okay it's great i'm losing water weight you guys you know how i love that um and uh shawnee how are things for you and sean wants to go and just try to like going from the bedroom to the office and back into the back up try not to sprain your ankle going in and out of the kitchen no hey have you had any more s'mores dates with yourself you had a couple i had a couple s'more of them oh sean has been up early anything to update us on in your life sean yeah i did oh yeah i did a um just last night i did a uh with my friend todd's ashwick who was an actor i went to college with him and we he hosted a dnd night at dungeons and dragons night but i haven't played dungeons and dragons in like since i was like 10 years old since you lost your virginity yeah because you're 56 yeah i mean it adds up if you think about if you look at it the math adds up i'll do it wasn't it kind of him to like throw in the surprise in that sentence like i haven't played since i was 10 can you believe it nor has anyone else you know man you know man you know man you know man you know man no we really did it was so fun i mean it was i think stranger stranger things really brought that game back so what is it with that i've i never did play it when i was 10 it is it's a role-playing thing right and you sort of all improvised yeah so but do you do you roll dice to find out who can who gets the the right shield who gets the sword well and like who gets and like damage and like how much damage you did like did you survive their hit or the gym is that just based on how hard you roll or yeah no it was it was really our higher numbers more damage yeah exactly yeah yeah it is okay but you know what it's like it's like playing a it's like playing a video game but with your mind oh okay so you really get carried you really just get taken away into a different place wait i heard this i heard this so fun do you want to hear a good joke a new pun joke a damn good joke yeah i've been getting my my money's worth out of uh out of uh what did the uh sushi say to the bumblebee wasabi okay everyone's been enjoying that around okay good have they have they been telling you they enjoyed it when you're the boss well i see it on their face yeah sure oh that's a good one boss hey hey is jason hit you with that four fucking times too yeah he thinks i'm a pa i'm a fucking i'm a driver over and over again you got a freshie for me hey you guys okay this is awful the new uh the guy who invented uh cough drops died yesterday no yeah there's not there's not gonna be any coffin at his funeral all right i'll take that okay i'll take that i mean yeah the only the only yeah the only and this is not a criticism show that's funny you know what it is it's just that you say cough and cough and you say cough in the setup yeah you know what i mean yeah but the cough oh right cough drop well the guy by the time you say it's just throat lozenges maybe that's i don't know listen let's let's open up a suggestion line for peeps if they want to do like a punch-up line on smart and they can punch up our jokes we got a table together punch-up line please hold punch-up line please hold tell you who doesn't need a punch up here we go here we go this is a segue i can tell you it's a female i heard whispering earlier she sounds like she's got a pretty whisper voice okay well aren't you going to be surprised and uh he's going to get a great chuckle out of this because he's he's an academy award-winning actor uh academy-nominated director jb he's made some great films and i don't use that term lately he is david lean he's done iconic roles and i'm going to go backwards on the on the prana as an actor i'm going to go backwards on i'm not going to lead with some of his most famous rules because you're just going to know immediately because he's just done some of the most iconic films of all time but i'm going to say things like jacob's ladder the incredible bull durham i'm going to say the player you guys it's tim robbins oh my god tim robbins welcome tim robbins this is really exciting so who who who is the female whisperer was there any uh-huh she's just off camera she's just off camera no it's it's basically someone because i'm an idiot with technology someone that they sent you and me both apple to help me set up the yeah the microphone yeah us granddads have trouble with it do you do you have you have a smartphone don't you you're not still using like a flip phone are you uh no rotary oh no portable long cable right you got you carry that with you everywhere you go yeah i know it's and you have to find there's fewer and fewer places to plug in yeah uh tim it's so overdue having you here first of all let me just say that thank you it is so overdue it's great to have you man it's great to see you a fan of yours um yeah where boys jb says where are you what part of the world are you in east west coast uh west coast right now west coast oh in los angeles um yeah don't give them an address tim don't tell them where i can't give you my quadrant no dungeon dungeons and dragons uh set up he's gonna show up with this golden die yeah and you can ask it to roll roll for damage knock on the door are we doing a barbecue yeah have you ever played dungeons and dragons tim you know that's what i missed i i was more you know that kind of long form nerdy kind of game mine was uh stratomatic baseball oh tell me about that you're talking to a baseball um i didn't play but i know i'm aware of it tell us a little bit really cool uh you know it's a long long game but you know you play nine innings and you pick your teams and you know basically there's a roll of the dice and a multi uh sided dice die that uh um determines whether it's a hit or you know a strikeout or a grand slam you know whatever it's it's it's very complicated do you pick real players you say you pick your teams yeah we pick real players yeah i haven't played for a while i um back in the day when uh cal ripken was on his long streak sure you know his yeah i don't think anyone's ever going to break that record of um consecutive times played without missing a game um we kept cal out of the game games or something we kept cal out you kept them out yeah just to spite him yeah yeah just to spite him it was cal won't play philly was in there we ended the streak yeah um what about fan what about fantasy baseball do you play that at all i don't no cool it jb sorry are you a fantasy guy yeah he's up at four a.m i'm like the i'm the commissioner of my league it's um really it's my dungeons and dragons dork uh can you be bought like you're sure everybody's got their price anybody everybody on my team's up for sale except the dodgers wait so tim were you are you so you i i i'm gathering by the fact that you played that that you were a lifelong baseball fan and i i mentioned uh bull durham which i saw in the theater twice i loved that movie i know it was a million years ago it's an iconic movie it's one of the great sports movies and it's not just about sports it's about so much much more and about, uh, so when you, I guess you were a big baseball fan. So when you got the chance to play and that character you played, what was his name? Nuke? Was that his name? Yeah. Ebi Calvin. Yeah. Nuke Lelouch. Yeah. I mean, were you, was that a role when that came your way? Were you, do you remember the process of getting that? Were you stoked to get that, to play that part? Oh, are you kidding me? You know what? The weird thing was that I got cast in another baseball movie the same time Eight Men Out that John Sayles was directing. And, um, I love John Sayles. It was, uh, you know, uh, I had to make a decision and I'm glad I made the one I did cause it kind of shifted everything for me, uh, in life. Um, I was so psyched. I mean, I had, I did, I did the audition section and then I got the, my, my call, uh, callback was, uh, basically you gotta come play some baseball, throw, throw the ball, Kevin Costner. Right. And so they wanted to see if I could throw, um, that he didn't want to have to fake any of that stuff. So I had played all my life and I was mostly third base. And so I had a pretty good arm, but I didn't know the mechanics of the pitching. So I had to go, you know, earlier and try to, you know, put that together. Did you end up becoming a fairly decent pitcher? Like, did you learn a couple of pitches? I, I, I did. I got it up to, I got it up to 85. Wow. No control at all. No control at all. And you know, I threw it into the stands. When he hits the ball, you know, that, that's, that was, you know, basically me, but I could, I could, I could throw it pretty fast. And how were you as a hitter? Pretty good. Could, could you get around on an 85 mile an hour pitch? No way. No, no. Oh no, no. I didn't play. Uh, I grew up in Manhattan, so we didn't have a lot of, we didn't have a lot of baseball fields. Right. Right. You had show leagues. Yeah. We had concrete. Playgrounds. So we played softball. Gotcha. And so, um, mostly softball. And, um, so I, I could hit a softball. I could hit very well, but, and I still, you know, I still play a little bit. Do you really? Yeah. I play, uh, first base now, you know, cause it's easy. It's easier. Tell us about that. Is that just your buddies? Is that like a, is it a, is it a show league? Is it, um, what, how are you doing that? Usually just friends, you know, get together. There's some regular leagues when I'm on the East coast, there's a game I, I get involved in. Um, it's, I, I play hockey that way too. Still? Roller hockey. Oh my God. We can get so hurt. I have a game every Sunday out here that I'm missing for the show. Well, you're playing, you're playing roller hockey, Tim? Roller. I used to play ice. I haven't played ice for a while, but I play roller hockey every Sunday. Tim, I used to play, I used to play on the Upper West Side for you. I played ice hockey. And then when I moved to New York, I used to play up on 84th Street and there's a school between Amsterdam and Columbus and they paved it. And then for some reason it wasn't open for like six months. And all these Canadian guys that I knew and a bunch of American guys, we played every, we played all day, Saturday and Sunday, like right when rollerblades came out, like 91, 92. So nice. And we, and I lived, I lived by the Holland Tunnel and I would skate uptown with my stick all the way up to the Upper West Side. It was the best through cars and shit. You know, Tim, Scotty, my husband was a goalie in an adult ice hockey league in New York, played at a place called Sky Rink and he played you guys. Sure. No way. Yeah. In the nineties. Scotty's team played your team. And he said, he said he took a beast of a shot. You took, you threw the, you took a shot on him. It was great, but he blocked it. Maybe he's lying. Isn't that wild? What a small world. Do you remember Scotty, Scotty the sieve? Do you remember Scotty the sieve? Scotty the sieve. Isn't that wild? What a small world. Wow. That's crazy. That's, I remember Scotty. Goalies are a special breed, by the way. They sure are. There's Will. I used to be a goalie. I was a goalie growing up. Really? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wouldn't you agree there's something different about them? The kind of weird. It's like the catcher in baseball. It's usually the brains of the bunch. Yeah. And, uh. Well, there's always that thing. They always say that goalies are the best skaters on the team because they have to be really nimble. I don't know if that's necessarily true, but I think that goalies, you know, the, they spend a lot of time, think about it, even in soccer too, they spend a lot of time on their own and then all of a sudden they got to kind of perform. But they, they kind of, they're the king of their own little domain. You know what I mean? So they have to have a certain temperament. I don't know. Yeah. What about injury? Are you, are you, are you worried about injury? I'm worried anytime I get active, uh, like you're going to blow out a hamstring or a lower back. I mean, you know, we're not 25 anymore. Yeah. But were you ever like that before? Or is it age that's telling you that or bringing that fear? You're, you're a sneak. JB's not sneaky. He's very athletic. I will say I've seen him hit a softball out of the park and he's a, and he's a heck of a golfer. Um, but he does pull it. He'll pull a muscle now, you know, pulling Greek yogurt out of the fridge. So, you know, it starts to wear on you after a while, but anyway, um, no, I, I, I, I don't worry about it. I don't worry about it. I, I, I have injured myself and it just means you have to sit for a while, you know, but you're, you're not legging out ground balls. Are you? Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I went, I went the last time I, I played Chelsea Piers of, sorry, go ahead, Tim. No, I was going to say, uh, yeah, I leg them out as fast as I can, but I'm not, I'm not, you know, going to tear a muscle for it. Have you guys ever tried to not say when you, when, when you're talking, uh, over each other and someone says, go ahead. Have you ever tried not to say, oh yeah, I was just going to say, yeah, you can't, you can't, you can't do it. Not. Yeah. Oh, that's right. If somebody, if somebody says, go ahead, you, you, you don't just go ahead. It's always a, yeah, yeah, no, I was just going to say, you can't, I'm telling you, try, try to do a week without that. You can't do it. It doesn't work with an edit either. It's true. Like if they edit out the interruption. Yeah, right. Yeah. It doesn't work with the edit. You know, I've been curious about this, you know, I've listened to this show and I love it. And, um, has it ever gone wrong? Oh yeah. Like, like, like when you, like the surprise guest is actually someone that's the, one of the other two hate or has had a bad relationship with or a, or some kind of, you don't have to say names. Don't have to say names. Well, I tell you what, Tim, it's funny you ask. Cause I got, I got a, not in trouble, but I, about six months ago, guys, I was doing, I did this guy's podcast in the UK. This really funny dude, Romash. He's hilarious, dude. And I mentioned that a couple of, that we'd had a couple of guests there. didn't go so great. And everybody I knew asked you guys, right? And asked me who I was talking to. I didn't say who. But we had a couple that didn't go so shit hot. Give us the names now, Will. It's just us. But we have had, yeah, and you have, as you know, I mean, we all kind of are in, we do the same. We work with a lot of people, and we know a lot of people, and we know, and there's a lot of crossover. And there are certainly times where you have people who are hurt, or whatever, and there are times where you have people on who you're like, yeah, I got history with this person. But it's never gone wrong. Like the reason the episodes have not aired is not because there was anything contentious or something like that. It's more just like, that was sort of like not really a flowing interview. And just to protect the guest mostly, it's like they don't need that out there. You know, where they were sort of tight, or we were tight, and it's just not an entertaining thing. And so we just, we scrap it. We do. We do so many of these things. And we also, sorry, I was demanding to say that we always, once we get on, I think that you guys chime in too, that we want, I always want it to go well. Like I want it to go, I'm always rooting for the person, no matter who it is, I want it to be good. Yeah, it always is. Yeah, I just was, I was curious about like, like two of you don't know who the next guest is going to be. Right, correct. So what if like you had an affair with somebody? That was previously undisclosed. And it ended poorly. Guess what? We're way too close. We know each other's dead bodies and everything. So when there is somebody that we know the other person has mentioned before as maybe not being their favorite person, we will sort of break our little rule and say, hey, man, I was thinking about having such and such on. Are you, are you guys good? Yeah, yeah. And I'm not telling you when, but yeah. We don't say when. And we, and we, and people do ask, we legit, the other two legit don't know who the other, who the guest is going to be on that day. So there is, as JB says, there might be like down the road, like as you're like, hey, but we never let it out. I like that element of surprise about it. Yeah. I think that's a good thing. Well, what's funny is, and we know this is, the audience knows who's on because we advertise who the upcoming guest is. So we're the only two idiots. It's just for us, I guess. It's just to save the homework. Right. And we will be right back. And now back to the show. Tim, so let's, so I mentioned Bill Durman, you auditioned for that and talk a little bit about, so you grew up, I mean, your parents were musicians, right? You grew up in the city. Really? Yeah. And your folks were musicians. And so when did, when did you know that you, well, weren't going to go in the family business necessarily be a musician and that you were going to go and, but, but you were going to perform, you know, as an actor? I probably got the bug from watching my dad on stage with his group. the highwayman he was a folk musician and um i remember specifically not very clearly but but but a uh responding the audience responding to him saying something and laughing i felt that was like the entry point that that was that was the moment uh my three-year-old or four-year-old self was like i want that yeah yeah uh so he became uh you know he he went out on the road until 1965 with them and uh they they made several albums together um i had the music bug though too as well um acting i i started in in grade school but um music i i also had it and i actually um i'm glad you bring that up because uh i've been working the past couple weeks on some mixes of um some concerts i've done uh i i have a band called the rogues gallery band wow really and um and we um occasionally will perform live we've done tours of europe and um the united states and we recorded several of those shows uh so i'm mixing a couple of them right now i'm opening a kind of new website um uh performance kind of platform where what's the what's the website uh it's uh timrobbins.com okay and it'll be available and how'd you come up with the name i i i fed it through an ai computer to tell me what would be the best sure best uh best available what do you do you play guitar and sing or are you uh uh i play guitar and sing and i write the song some most of the songs we do some covers but usually covers that are you know really not well-known songs uh the rogues gallery started as a um a band by uh by put together by hal wilner and it was uh originally the albums they made were about sea shanties um with you know all kinds of different guests uh guest artists and hal uh was you know such a genius and um one of the angels in my life uh you know he used to work at saturday night live and yeah i was gonna say yeah right yeah yeah not well but i knew him a little bit yeah yeah and so um uh i'm on this new uh site i don't want to call it a website because it's sort of like it's a destination it's an experience yeah whatever it's right it's funny portal it's a portal basically it's my way of stopping my portal that's good yeah it's a portal tim robbins portal um i i i uh have a storage unit that uh i have so much stuff in and um i want to get rid of and that's what they're for so i was looking through some boxes in there and i found some old videotapes of uh i used to be a mess around on sets with uh old school video camera you know the ones where you could load the entire video cassette yeah yeah the vhs thing sure you'd shoot like behind the scenes stuff of projects you were on yeah but it would be more like stories that i was making up right like so i i i i have one from howard the duck uh yeah and so i made up a story about you know um what was this intrigue that was happening on the set of howard the duck and uh this i did two with howard the duck i did one that was um uh about this actor that goes to set and everybody hates and the other was about the this place called kiddy land that we were filming at and it was this location we kept going back to because there was always a shot that they needed and so you thought you were finished with kitty land and it would not and it would not end i i was on that movie for six months um it was supposed to be three and the last six weeks of it were the ultralight sequence which is like maybe five minutes in the film so so it was pretty extraordinary so i was going a little crazy and so i had this video camera and i had friendships with the crew members and we would you know just make up and so you sat there and you you were watching this video uh after going through your your storage unit and like yeah so i said i want to put that out there i want to this is this i think people would like this i also have all these interviews with people like you know uh johnny cash and kurt vonnegut and whoa uh harry belafonte and i i you know i've never released them wow did you remember did you remember these or did they just come back to you as you were going through the storage unit and you started seeing all these tapes did you sit down and have like a weekend of of going down memory lane that must have been really kind of uh powerful those those journeys can be powerful and dangerous too right old versions of ourselves i know stuff and what it means and what did i what was i thinking and so you have to give a listen and uh make sure that you weren't an idiot at the time that you were doing this um but i think there's some good stuff here and the people that have been working with me are you know they're the ones kind of driving they were like why aren't you doing anything with this stuff so these are up on timrobbins.com or you're in the process of doing that yeah i think there's some good stuff here and the people that have been working with me are you know they're the ones kind of driving they were like why aren't you doing anything with this stuff so these are up on timrobbins.com or you're in the process of doing that no it's it won't be up till september first oh okay yeah but that's like a visual you know people say you know uh you know you should write write a book you know but like this sounds like a kind of like a visual i mean it's really cool it's multimedia yeah robin.com is a multimedia experience it's a portal exactly it's a portal thank you guys this is my marketing team all right what else can we call i've got this thing called robin's radio which is going to be my live shows my father's show my father's albums and my brother who is a film composer his scores and it'll be you know kind of on a kind of random play yeah continuous when you come to the website dude that's cool yeah i'm excited by it it is it is like a it is like a a living archive i'm this um but it's also just it's also just been a lot of fun to do it's it's and at the same time i am actually writing a memoir so it's it's all just coalescing coalescing and i'm trying to find stuff that might be interesting do you have a name for the memoir yet no i don't say tim robbins.com no portal tim robbins tim robbins.com on paper yeah you used music and i was just thinking about sorry uh sean i was like tim robbins.com yeah oh that's good oh that's really good and it'll drive people to the website they'll buy the book and they'll just do websites right there on the cover by the way you open the book and it's just a it's just a hyperlink to the website it's a qr code it's a one page oh my god it's so good oh you'd be so cheap to make the publisher would be stoked um do you think uh you i was just thinking about thinking about your dad and the highwaymen highwaymen no wait the highwaymen it wasn't that wasn't that bob dylan no that was uh no i think you're thinking of the johnny cash waylon jennings hi yeah willie nole and that's not it that was the that was no this was in the early 60s okay um before your time sure um barely it was uh yeah 1960 to 65 were their years but you took you took i was thinking about the i think the first film you directed was bob roberts right am i right yes and that was that was about a guy which is a great movie about a guy who who in fact a right-wing politician but he uses folk music to kind of sell what he's doing and and it was like a confluence of this guy kind of used media and personality and but and if a lot of ways it was very sort of prescient if you if you think about it of considering where we are these days unfortunately i mean it was a little yeah yeah i mean it's pretty can you do you ever think have you thought back on that over these last years and gone like wow we were we've kind of predicted the way politics might have might go in terms of the celebrity aspect of it yeah you know it's yes it's weird uh but it's also i was looking you know going through all this stuff uh uh realizing that at the time when i was doing press for it i was also in some of the interviews i was they were saying is this you know is this because the coming election was george bush senior versus clinton uh when it came out and so the press was asking you know this is this movie about bush and i said well he's actually in the film you know this you know there's clips of him in the film yeah but it also could be about you know the gore of a doll character too you know the the it could be about what why change doesn't happen and so the when bill clinton was playing his saxophone on a sydney hall i was like hmm that's kind of bob robertsy too um yeah so i i at the time i said you know it could be either i don't know i don't i really don't know um so as time has gone on it's become kind of you know very prescient as far as the current administration but um i i personally am not a happy guy with either i i gotta say it's there's they gotta be better ideas and better you know better motivation for people to to vote for democrats they have to get their stuff together they really do yeah i think there's there's a lot of shortcomings uh to no no shortage of shortcomings uh i've learned i had 65 you know what i did is i i realized i have to retire from something right and i didn't i didn't want to stop acting i didn't want to stop directing or writing so what i retired from was was the anxiety the daily anxiety of opposing something oh that's good um the idea that you you can find your worth and purpose and virtue by hatred is a terrible terrible idea and the um the idea that you if the source of your hatred is a particular person you don't know it's even a worse idea you're you're you're battling a concept or an idea or a philosophy you're not dealing with an individual right and so uh there's so i feel like there's too many people that wake up agitated about uh political figures and then they use that as a fuel to get through the day that's so on either side and and it's not a good way to start your day if you're the first thing you're doing is doom scrolling about something that will make you feel better about your political beliefs you know you might try a little yoga or you might try a little exercise or take a bike ride or totally because i i would say that i have this discussion with scotty all the time you can watch it all day long on tv or read about it online or whatever but there's nothing you can do about it necessarily you we have the power to vote yeah uh and we have the power to protest but to actually you know my friend maria shriver she always one of the greatest quotes ever she's if if anybody's complaining about any of it she goes i totally agree so what are you doing about it yeah right and it stops people in their tracks well here's the thing this is what i this is what i learned was that that what are you doing about it well about 15 years ago i had that epiphany of like what are you doing about it and um yeah i i started working in in spaces where i could make a difference so uh my with my non-profit with the actors gang so i put a lot of uh attention into how can i expand the programs that we have the education programs in that we go to into schools that do not have theater programs and we introduce them to theater uh the prison project that we have uh that goes into uh california state prisons what is that it's it's a rehabilitation program that we've been doing for 20 years now through like theatric like theater and acting and stuff like that it's basically i made a documentary about it actually that's why i asked i feel like it's called 45 seconds of laughter and it will be coming uh um to criterion uh in november oh then i saw something else yeah um you may have seen it we've screened it around it went to the venice film festival and to new york film festival no what we do is we don't go in as some groups do and i think that's valid too but we don't go in to do a production we don't you know try to make a production what we do is we do a uh seven day intensive workshop to train them which is basically in the four states of emotion that we have and we introduce these states of emotion but first we introduce the characters they will be playing them in so we create a distance between their expression of emotion and their personal story so we we we use the committee dell'arte so you have the rich old man who wants to marry off his beautiful daughter who wants to marry off his beautiful daughter who's in love with a young man he wants to marry her off to someone of his business associates it's a tale as old as the time it's it's it's done in every culture uh it's told in every in every culture i saw it in bali bali uh in a town square um so it but the reason is it keeps the characters simple and you know stock kind of characters and then we try to get them to genuinely portray emotions through these characters and um so what happens is they get in touch with emotions that they have kept dormant or suppressed for many many years survival in prison is one emotion it's anger it's about keeping safe on the yard you have to project an image of anger and so when they start playing these other emotions some of them tell us that they haven't been you know allowed to be sad or in fear or happy for years and so it allows them this place the other great thing about it is when we set a program up we we ask the prison to give us um people from different sections like it has to be integrated with different gangs different you know so they're all in the same room and uh what we have what we find out happening is this bond that happens in the room between them when they're sharing emotions together and and looking in each other's eyes and and realizing that they have a lot more in common i mean imagine if we could do that for people who aren't in prison i mean just yeah that's what set me on this path of like if i can if these guys can do it we can do it yeah you know we can't we don't we have created our own yard where you have segmented populations that stick together and if if anyone crosses over the line it's at their own you know detriment right and that's that's the way it is now in our society right if you if you if you say anything that might be uh sympathetic to what you view as the other side yeah you're done you're out you're done you're condemned you're you're and it's listen it's a terrible way to build a movement let's just put that put it that way when a good organizer walks into a room to organize a movement they have the main objective is to find out what what all these different people have in common right there's going to be they have to walk in knowing they're they're not all going to agree with them so what can we agree on right it seems like the opposite now it seems like in order to get to save your position in a in a certain community you have to act in a certain way and if you act outside of that then you're kicked out of the community yeah that's right and that's on both sides by the way that's not a that's not a partisan thing that that's something that happens on both sides and that's not a that's not a good way to build a movement i totally because basically you're making people you're saying you have to agree with me or you're you're done and then so people learn very quickly oh well i shouldn't talk i shouldn't say anything i won't say anything i i even though i don't agree with what they're saying i'm not going to say it and so that's not an alliance that's fear that's that's causing that so right we'll be right back and back to the show tim did you get involved with the prison stuff when you when you did uh because i was thinking about dead man walking which is your second film which is so different from bob roberts uh in every way uh is that when you first started getting involved with that or becoming really aware of of that i was kind of aware of it growing up i had friends that went to jail so i was kind of aware of it growing up i had friends that went to jail so i was kind of uh it wasn't it was it was one of those you know there but for the grace of god go i you know i had maybe different parents or different upbringing that that kept me away from that but um and then i did uh some work with some prison organizations back in new york and when i first you know after bullderm but uh then i did shawshank and then then dead man walking so i so i was around that space uh more and more and one of the things i you know one of the prison guards on shawshank said to me was um you know i i asked what would you do to change things if you could you know and these are salt of the earth republican conservative ohio kind of prison guards and um the guy said you know you um you know i i asked what would you do to change things if you could you know you come in in for possession for a year and they're winding up becoming better criminals it's big basically they call it crime school right the prison guards were calling it crime school and so it basically they said you know there's no ged programs no job training uh that those are your waiting lists so these kids come in and they have to survive in a with violent offenders and they basically are training criminals so you gotta either you gotta either you gotta either legalize it or create a separate prison and did they uh since then they there has been movement there right certainly legalized marijuana uh to a large extent yes yes i don't know if it's that way in ohio uh yeah i made a i made a far inferior prison film uh called let's go to prison uh if you ever get a free afternoon yeah and by the way i tim i love that you just rattled off those movies that are so i know your friends that were in prison must have watched you And Shawshank would be like, wait, how did he break up that? I've got to take something out. I've got to figure that out. People must still stop you on the street about Shawshank. It is one of the iconic, I mean, it's always at the top of people's list when people go like, what's your favorite movie? Shawshank's always there. Yeah, that's a real beautiful thing. Bull Durham, right next to it. I was going to ask you what today you get stopped for mostly when you go to the store or you're out in public. I was going to guess Shawshank Redemption or Bull Durham, but then I was like, but Silo, which I watch, and you're fucking brilliant on. Which, by the way, season three is coming. I know, I can't wait. Tim, when you showed up, I had no idea you were in that because we're sci-fi nerds, right? Dungeons and Dragons, everything sci-fi. And I watched, I was just like, your performance is just incredible in that. Thank you. Yeah, I really love the show. Do people stop you now, like nerdy kind of? Yeah, yes. Nerdy and others, too. Yeah, a lot of people are seeing it. It's really nice. It's really nice. I really love it. And it's such a good show. Rebecca Ferguson is a great actress. She's amazing on it. So good. I've had a blast on it. I was shooting over, we were shooting over in London, so it was a real human experience, let's put it that way. Yeah. Ten-hour days, you know, never going over because there's. There's never any weather, you know, it's always in the silo. Everything is in the silo. Right, right. So, you know, it was, and I actually now can talk because this is airing in mid-August. I've been under, like, kind of a gag order, shut the hell up kind of thing about the show because I wasn't supposed to be in season three. Oh, uh-huh. It's funny, Sean just ordered a gag, but that's a different. Okay. Also coming in August. I can't wait. They're back-ordered. Did you get the ball option too, Sean? Yeah, of course I did. And I paid extra to get it here sooner, but. Does that come in Hello Kitty style? Of course. And Dora the Explorer. What happened? What was the gag? What was the. I just want to say a little bit more about Silo. Yeah. That we would, you know, the thing about human is that it allows the crew to have lives, right? Right. If you work in 10-hour days on rolling lunches and everyone knows they're going to get home for dinner with their kids, it creates a happy crew. Absolutely. You get people that, you know, the younger people, they have time for a date. You know, it's not driving you into the ground, you know, and I really, I was really inspired by that. You know, that's Graham Yost. The executive producer, that's his achievement. He created a great group of people and he created an environment that wasn't oppressive. That, you know, we tend to take for granted now. You know, we just know, oh, we're going to go 12, 14, you know, 16 to get the day, you know. And I've done it as an actor and as a director. And I never stopped to think, really, until I worked with Clint Eastwood when we had like six-hour days, seven-hour days. And like most of the time we were out by lunch. Wow. Because he would only do one take on everything. Wow. But it created a discipline and more family. It created this idea that we used to have, I think, in the business of this can be really fun. What about directing, Tim? Do we get to see some more of your great directing anytime soon? Well, as a matter of fact, yes. I'm working on, I'm working on what that is on the long term. Yeah. I've got, I'm writing a couple of scripts right now, which I'm kind of reluctant to jinx, right? Yeah. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd love to see you write one that you star in and direct about somebody doing what you were talking about earlier, about, you know, figuring how to not be so sort of tribal with their beliefs and practices and passions and things like that and trying to be more sort of inclusive. And you're the kind of guy that could handle something as, you know, kind of nuanced and delicate as that. Well, thank you. Yeah. Where's the conflict? We need that story. Well, there could be a bag of money and a gun, you know? I mean, yeah. Perfect. We got it. Yeah. Yeah, I remember, Tim, I don't know if you remember this. We probably don't. But everybody asks, how did you meet Jason, Sean, and Will? How did you guys all meet? We met playing poker. I mean, we kind of knew each other. We kind of knew each other before that, but we really started hanging out when we were playing poker. I was like 27, 28, 29. And you would come over and play poker too sometimes with us. At Cage's house. Yeah, Kyle Gass. Yes. That was so wild for me, who just got off the boat from Chicago. I'd be like, I'm playing poker with Tim Robbins. I told all my friends. It was so cool. I just loved it. It was so wild for me. But you probably don't remember. I do remember those games. Yeah, yeah. Yes, absolutely. But there was an element. There was an element at Cage's that would lead one to forget. Yeah. Yeah. You'd have to crack a window every once in a while. This dude, for the listeners, should know that this dude, in his living room, was dominated by a custom-made 12-man poker table. Right. And he was the bank as well, which-- Served as a kitchen table, the kitchen counter, the dining room. Sean, one of the first times that you came, Sean came in. And I think you went all in on like three of your first five. Five hands. And you took a bite. And then you were like, oh my god, it's so late. I remember it was Tuesday nights. It was often Tuesday. You were like, it's Tuesday night. You'd be like, oh, I got to go. And everybody's like, you're not going anywhere. Yeah. Oh, whatever. Right. I'm like, oh, OK, dumbass. Like, great, they want me to stay. I had a running Friday night poker game on silo. Oh, really? And Common was the-- he was that guy that walks in and goes, I've never played this before. Uh-oh. Mm-hmm. And all of a sudden-- and by the way, I don't-- he wasn't bullshitting. He hadn't. You know, he'd be-- and of course, the cards are going to drop on him. Yeah. And he would win almost every time. It was insane. Were you playing Texas Hold'em or dealer's choice? Texas Hold'em. Yeah. God, I remember those games. Will, how do you remember Tuesdays? Like, it was Tuesday because I paid for the show that night. I know. I just thought about the same thing as soon as he said them. Crazy. This guy. It was so-- there were a couple of people who came in who had first night luck, too. Richter did. Mm-hmm. Andy Richter did one time. And then I remember 80 Miles came in and did the same thing. And yeah, I don't know. Tuesday nights-- The commons went into second and third night. You know, I won the first week, hands down, right? And I realized, I can't win every week. You know, I can't do this. Not a good luck. Yeah. So I kind of was an idiot the second night. And that's when Common won. And then he went on a string, like three or four, five. Until Rebecca showed up in the last poker game, and she won. Oh, that sounds like fun, man. The first night. Yeah. You always shoot in London the whole time, Silo? Silo, yeah. Yeah, I was over there for three years, really. I mean, back and forth, but a lot of time over in London in the past five years. How do you like living over there? I loved it. I love it, too. But I'm going to love anywhere I'm living right now. It's like, why not think that every place you're in is the best place in the world? Yeah. Right. Right? There's so much to do in London. Yeah. There's also a lot to complain about. But I was just like, well, how crazy is my life? How great is my life that I'm being forced to live in one of the world's great cities for almost three years? Will doesn't like it much. Will's not a big fan. I love London. I love London. I want to ask, I was just thinking about this. Before we let you go, Tim, and JB, kind of for you, too, a little bit, because I remember we were working on my thing with Bradley. I would ask, like, you guys, as actors, actors who are also directors have such a luxury of working with directors and really good directors. And we get to do that as actors. But also, then to do that as directors, you get to observe and have that experience with a lot of great directors. How did working with directors as an actor then influence you as a director? It must have, right? Absolutely. You get it. Yeah. And you know it, so you know what they're going through. You know what their process is. One thing I've also understood is the actor will give you the truth. If you're directing someone and you go in with an idea that you know how the scenes should be played, that's a bad idea, because you're cheating yourself from two really good artists that are going to interpret something. And oftentimes, when they can't say a line or they keep messing up a line, it means the line needs to be changed. They're the truth through line. And the director has to modulate their performances so that it fits into what they're trying to construct. But deep respect for actors, because they're going to tell you a lot. And hopefully, they'll tell you in a way that is not upsetting a set or something. Hopefully, you have a good relationship. and that you can find as much as you can out from them and then guide it towards what your truth is. Yeah, that's really well said. The tricky part sometimes is that the director is somewhat obligated, and I would say it's sort of required that they come in with a plan such that everyone who is obligated to follow them has something to follow, and there's a strategy to get the call sheet done that day and everything. But oftentimes that plan can be at odds with, like what you're saying, Tim, about how the actor might have a completely different idea or perspective or interpretation of what the scene is about and how it should be played. That could be at odds with some of the plans for the camera work and whatnot that have been in effect for months through prep and tech scouts and all that stuff. So there's a balance to strike there that's often somewhat tense because it's the day you have to shoot it and there's not a lot of room for reinterpretation. Right, and that's where you. That's where. That's where. That's where your talent as an actor when you're directing comes in. Exactly, to try to talk them into your way. Yeah, exactly. Do you guys remember good. Do you guys remember moments where you did a scene, where you're directing a scene and an actor did something that so surprised you in the best way that you were like, fuck, yeah. Yes, absolutely. Like, mind-blowing stuff sometimes. You know, it's like. It's that moment where you go, we don't have to shoot this scene anymore. This is done. This is like. That truth has been laid down. Or you don't need coverage of the other actor because this actor is killing it here. I'm just going to want to watch them listen and talk. Yeah. The guy's like, wait a second, are you turning around? No, we got it. We're done. We got it. Oh, man. Tim, we've taken up way too much of your time. Man, what a pleasure, dude. My pleasure. So, so good. Yeah, it was very nice of you to come talk to us. My pleasure. Yeah, and Silo Season 3. Silo Season 3 is happening. It's coming. It's on. Is it on right now? It's on right now. It's on right now. You may or may not be in it. Well, now I'm in it. I wasn't in it until the end of July. Right. And now we're somewhere in August. Yeah. And the truth has been revealed. I'm actually alive. And I really love this show. I really stand by it 100%. It's a great, great show. Great writers. Great actors. Great everything. Crew. Everything was so beautiful about it. I love that at this stage of my career, I can go to a set and really kind of fall in love again with people. In that old way you had when you were young, you walk on a set and you're like, oh my God, this is the best thing ever. I felt that about these people on Silo. I felt it. That's great. Such a great crew. Well, Silo, Silo season three, timrobbins.com. It's a multimedia portal. We've been through that. Coming September 1st. Yeah. Very good, very good. Tim, you're just an icon. Tim, thank you. You're the best. And thanks for the inspirational words today. Yeah, man. Some of those really, really cool stuff. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Yeah. All right. Thanks, Tim. Enjoy your day. Bye, buddy. The great Tim Robbins. Mm-hmm. The movies he's been in. I know. We didn't really talk. Did you guys see Arlington Road? Oh, wow. No, I did not. I wanted to. Such a good movie. I don't think I ever saw it. I mean, I haven't seen it in such a long time, but I remember loving that movie. He plays some, like, psychotic, or some, it's about a small town that turns on them, or he turns on them. What about Jacob's Ladder? Wait, didn't you see it? It sounds like you didn't even see it. I did, and I loved it, but I haven't seen it in decades. It was so good. Jacob's Ladder was one of the greatest movies ever. Yeah, Jacob's Ladder was great. I have not seen it for years and years and years. I don't know if it holds up, but, man, I saw it a few times back then. I bet you it does. And him in War of the Worlds. Did you see War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise? Spielberg film, right? Yeah. Really good. He was so good in that. Dude, think about The Player. Right. Remember how groundbreaking that was? The Player was amazing. What the fuck did we just talk about for an hour? I know. We didn't cover any of this shit, Arnett. Sorry. You better drive that fucking interview. No, but he was teaching us stuff about life, man. He was, yeah. Just open up your mind. I couldn't. Sean. I love that we're talking about. Wait, who are you mad at? Me or Sean? Yeah. I love that we fan out after he leaves. I know, I know. I know. Well, we did it before. We get shy. Yeah. I know. We get shy. I know, because I'm like, it's Shawshank Redemption, right? Do you remember? I know. I've seen that movie 100,000 times. God, is that so good. And Dead Man Walking. What a director he is. By the way, Dead Man Walking is his second film. I think Sean Penn won the Oscar for that, didn't he? He did. I think he did, yeah. I remember when my. He did. My dog had cancer, and I was taking him for his last walk around before we put him down. I said to his face, I said, it's Dead Dog Walking. Oh. It felt so bad. And he laughed. He laughed, didn't he laugh? Oh, he laughed. In that way, he used to laugh. Oh, the laughter. Oh, poor little Buzzy. Remember Buzzy? And he was also in. You know, I was thinking about the other film that he was in. Here it comes. Well, I. You could always hear him. Here, a little turn off the highway. Let's get to the off-ramp, Willie. What's the name of the off-ramp today? It's so sweaty. What is it? It's so sweaty. Yeah, do you remember that one film? Yeah. What's this one called? He had a great part in that movie. Bye, Fidelity. Oh, God. That is terrible. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. smartless is 100% organic and artisanally Thank you.