Boom. So we're talking about losing eyesight. Yes. You actually take comfort in the fact that your eyesight is starting to dwindle. You want to chase it.

At first I was like, I'm fine. Then I'm 42. Then it's like, let's try some ones. Then it's 1 to 5. Then it's 1 5. When I know I stop because I have so many fucking glasses. Some of them are ones. Some of them are two fives. It's like it's like a you don't man. Yeah, I do know you mean. But what I appreciate is, you know where you're at by what you're able to retain.

If you fight for it and the things that are going no matter what you do. Now, I've heard there's some Israeli guy who's got this app probably from Layard got this app. And you do it. You get your eyesight back. And sometimes it's about I don't need to try to use something to hold on to everything. I want to pick the five or seven things that I definitely want to hold on to. And I want to watch the rest of it go.

In and out with the tides, I I agree with that in some ways. But if there was a real thing where you could get your eyesight back, I would definitely be on that. I don't think there is Lasix.

This is not real well, Lasix, but I know several problems. You can get it if you have problems with your vision. But we have macular degeneration that's coming from age, age related macular degeneration. Lasik says really fix that.

But I know people who were wearing glasses and then got Lasik and they don't wear glasses anymore. That's that's a fact. But also, we never wore glasses.

They get one eye too close up and one eye for distance.

It's even more fun to have to. I am since I've gotten one up fucking me two weeks later.

Like these don't work. Yeah. What about the loss of a sense that you were accustomed to being fine annoys you?

What about it? Yeah. I like being able to see things read labels in particular. How many of these fuckers are most supposed to take? No. And what's in here? Yeah. I like how many milligrams?

What's an x ray? Also this shit. But it's also funny to go up to like a little latron pad and have to go like that to me.

I just as a gas.

Really interesting.

Except the things you cannot change now if someone comes in and says, Joe, Bob, I got it. We're done. Come over here. It's easy or it's a supplement. Or do this for two weeks or stop doing this, this and this. Then there's a tradeoff.

Yes. Well, I'm down for anything that actually works to make your eyesight come back. But I've heard of nothing. Everybody that I've heard us might be or. This might be our project then. Because you care and I don't. So we have a nice balance.

There's a guy named David Sinclair that I talk to is a professor at Harvard. Yeah, I was in MIT. Where the fuck is he? Harvard. He's there doing some work with people that have serious eye diseases and serious injuries. And they're actually injecting some form of bacteria that is been encoded with some miracle cure for degeneration. And they can detach retinas, fix things. Incredible. Yeah. So they're working on some stuff. Yeah. So maybe in the future you won't have 2s and 1s and 1.5s.

Yeah.

What am I got? I think I will explain. I have alighted to greener pastures. I'm sure there's going to be other issues and hurdles that you're gonna go. iSight times get real going on here.

Yeah, I'm sure too. I'm concerned about that. Do you that thing that you're wearing around your neck? Yes. Being as you are obviously known as being Iron Man. Are you concerned with wearing a large thing in the exact same spot as the zero?

You think of that. Life is funny because I was doing this before I ever got fitted for the r.t, so it was more of art imitating oddball stuff I was doing anyway. Oh really? Yeah. Oh well.

Iron Man bet that's even more interesting because maybe you were born to be Iron Man, because Iron Man obviously had that from the comic books loosely prearranged destiny.

And what's incredible is how far afield you can go from it and still find your way back.

Yeah, well, there's been.

It's the whole superhero genre thing. So interesting to me because there's so many reboots and there's so many. Like how many fucking Spider-Man 2 have been? How many hulks of their bit? There's only one Iron Man. No. You got that thus far.

What year is it? Argh! Here you're iron ravid.

It's like this, sir. Certain dudes just own a roll, and if anybody else tried to be Iron Man, we'd button been well, interestingly enough.

East Coaster. A dad of of some renown, very different. My dad was a kind of a underground filmmaker, auteur, maverick. I grew up definitely being Bob Downey Senior's kid. I spent time on Long Island, which is, I think, where Tony was raised. Yeah, but when when Stanley was really thinking that through.

He it was the Vietnam era and he was thinking about the military industrial complex. He was thinking about how about if I can throw a little bit of not politics in here, but karma and he gets trumped no by the own thing and it becomes, you know, so. And then, of course, there was the whole demon in the bottle. I think he was the first superhero. Whoever like had that, you know, almost like to hang up his jersey because he was hammered.

Yeah.

So, I mean, yeah, there was obviously. But again, once something goes your way, you can draw all the parallels you want. You can call it destiny. But it was. It was something that I def I definitely felt drawn to and I definitely fought for and looking back on and go fight it because it turned out to be a pretty special thing.

Well, it was an amazing thing. I mean, you embodied it in a very strange way.

I mean, it's inexorable at this point, you know, which is why I thought it was cool that you're gonna do Dr. Doolittle, because I love the fact I'm like, I'm a fan of your work. You've done a lot of great stuff.

Like what? And you you do. And Dr. Doolittle is like a cool.

It's I won't say you're not taking yourself seriously, but you're you're taking a trust that I'm not. You're taking. I mean, this is a fun kid's movie about a guy who talks to animals.

Yeah. You know, I mean, that's a great break because like, if you're Iron Man. Like, there's certain people that for whatever reason, become a role. And that is it. That's what we will accept. You are that guy and you're not doing that.

You're you're you're able to through your talent and through your ability to take chances. You're able to be a bunch of different things as well as be the Iron Man. Yeah. I mean, I don't we don't know if I'm noticing anything now, it's that it's that we need to shift and we need new challenges. And just like an M.A. in society and politics, things are moving and morphing and the information age is making things. So everything's learning and growing from everything so quickly and improving or disproving or or discounting whatever's happening next.

But for me. I heard that this was on the table, my Mrs. who's my creative partner in all things said Steve Gig, and I was kind of a Steve gig in Syriana. Really? What did he do? He wrote, Wow, I'd like that's a big turn for him. Yeah. And then I said, But why? Why do I want to?

And I looked out and we'd live on a on a on a rescue farm. We have real alpacas and goats and Cooney Cooney pigs.

And, you know, it's just crazy. And I was like, OK, same way I did with Iron Man a little bit. I was like, all right, there's something here. And then before I signed on, I was just Googling Lake weirdest Welsh doctor. I just want to think of I don't want to just do another English accent. So there's this guy, William Price, who's a nutty Welsh doctor. He was a neo druid ist.

He was someone who believed, like we could communicate with all nature and all that stuff. So I sent a picture of this wild looking guy wearing like a suit, stars on it and like a staff in sent that to Gagan. He goes, that looks right to me as a great let's do this movie.

It literally. That's that.

It's always it. You know, I mean, it's always that thing of you click and you go, here's my here's here's my sense. What do you think? And then the other Galla, the guy says, yeah, let's lean into that and then you go, but do this and that. Maybe give me some of this and you go, yeah. And all of a sudden you're in a synergy.

It's like a good interview, like a good fight, like a good dinner. It just kind of that.

The gentleman right there. That's a crazy look. Yeah, to me, I just thought that's can do a little bee like that. He goes, does he have to be that way the whole way through? I go, no, when they find him, he's a recluse. And then the animals like clean him up and then he looks less un handsome or what?

He looks less weird for the kids for the rest of the movie. But let's find him like that.

This this concept of things just sort of falling in the place. I'm a big believer in that, too. Yeah. What is that, though? Is that you getting out of your own way? Like what? What is that? Is it? Isn't that 70 percent of it? Yeah. Yeah. I say it's 70 percent maintenance of what can I do to do my part to stay out of the way. And then the other part I always think of it as like this little super thin invisible thread, but you can feel the tug and you just kind of you have to be really gentle when you have to pause when agitated and you have to go for it when you're going to like this.

Four walls in here, which one has the mat behind you? It's that one. And you knock down the wall and it's there, you know? Yeah.

What is that? That's a synchronicity, intuition. But labelling it is very dangerous because it's so filled with. Yeah.

So it's you know, there's so many people that are hucksters that have like made a career out of sort of like labeling it and defining it or teach you how to get to it.

It's great because it's the commodity that you can't capitalize on. And yet, if you don't show proof of its existence, you can't even you shouldn't even be qualified to speak on it. I don't know what's the big I don't know.

But when it happens, whether it happens with love or with friendship or with a career or with a path you're taking. You just know while there's a smile, there's an inner smile like, yeah, this is it.

Well put. I found it. This is it. I'm supposed be doing this. Here we go. Here we go.

Yeah. And I really feel it's so funny at this point in my life and being, you know, kind of middle age and all that. Well, I know I'm gonna fly around the world. I'm gonna sell some soap. And I know I have a new project. And I know I've just retired my jersey on this 12 year journey I've been on. And and how do I want to start? And it came up. How would you like it go?

Yes, that's exactly what I want to go have the Joe Rogan experience and and kick off this year in this season, in this new chapter by doing what I love, which is an interview as we're looking at each other. And it's there's a give and take.

Is the door to Iron Man totally close because I don't believe it is. Oh, you guys can go through time now. You can go there. There was you know, you already open up that door.

Let me ask you the question.

If I pick the jersey back up and put it on, wouldn't you feel a little bit like no rap?

No. Oh, here's here's the right thing.

They go through a few semi lackluster Avengers movies without you ready for this?

I'm ready. Here's the scene. There's a moment where the world's fate is at stake and they realize they need a super genius. And then they figure out how to restart that time machine. Great. Come on. Is that the audience sees you when you when you step out of that thing, is this year.

And can we. You want a little arc on it, too? Because if this is your idea, then you've got to show up for it, too.

I'll do it. I'll show up what I have to do. I don't know. I'll do whatever I have to do.

We all have to do whatever. Count the thing. I still have that.

They do. They do digital. I hold that digital thing. I'll do it. But did, though, the way people would freak out if you came back.

Mm hmm. Come on, man. Think about it. Take a few years off. Don't you, Dr. Doolittle's? Couple more Sherlock Holmes.

You know, it's interesting watching Eddie Murphy in this last little period of time. And I was talking to Colin Jost last night, who got to sit next to him at the Golden Globes and who was there and, you know, on the show and writing for him with him when he hosted recently Nago. It's just incredible. Our culture. Never encourages taking a break, never encourages saying don't chase that thing because you've got it in your hands and. And I love the idea that if you're if you're good at what you do, then it's not about time.

It's about. It doesn't matter when. You decide to pick up the mantle again, it's just about. But it's scary, isn't it? Could you imagine? Like they just say, hey, Joe, just don't do the show for four years and then come back and do it again. You'll be like in a lifetime.

Who knows what's gonna happen? Well, with Eddie. What's interesting is. He was arguably the greatest of his era and just stopped to stop for 30 years and no one does that. No one is that good. And then when you see him, if you ever saw him, he received some award.

He was on a panel, you know, and sitting in for podium, rather rather. And he was talking about Bill Cosby. He was doing this routine about them taking away Bill Cosby's awards. And it was fucking brilliant. And the timing was so good.

And all of us comics were just sitting there gone. He could do it tomorrow. He could just run. Get up there tomorrow. And he'd be fucking murdering.

Yes. And but it would be different. Maybe different is a different human. Yeah. You know, that's one of the more interesting things about it. It's him talking about some of the more homophobic stuff that he did in the past. Now it makes him cringe. I just can't believe he was that person. But you know, he was when he did delirious, I think he was like 22 or something crazy like that, which is just bonkers that he was that good.

Anyway, I've been thinking about him lately in relation to a bunch of things, but also just that.

Particularly nowadays, giving yourself permission to not have to. Jump because, you know. Strike the iron's hot. All that stuff. And maybe it's just as a bit of an anxiety to the times, which I remember, too.

Speaking of past generations, I remember grown up 1974, Nixon's black and white TV getting impeached. My dad and his buddies are whipping it up, but they're still pissed. And I'm gone like, wow, it's it's not worse or or or better. It's different, but now it's on us. Yeah. So there's a bit of an urgency and that that whole thing and just being able to say like. So to answer your question to me. Starting up again is off the table.

I feel I've done all I could with that character. There would have to be a super compelling argument and a series of events that that made it obvious to it. But the other thing is how did you other stuff. Right.

Of course. Yeah, of course.

You know what you're talking about? About Nixon and people get. People can lose themselves in current events. What I mean by that? It doesn't necessarily completely. Your life is more than what's going on in Washington. You know, Hunter Thompson talked about that when he was running for sheriff in Aspen. He was talking about how local politics like your neighborhood. That's real. Yeah. This actually can affect your life. Like what's going on in Washington? How much does that affect your day to day existence?

It's very little.

But for some people, it becomes an enormous portion of the real estate of their mind. It takes over most of their day to day consciousness where they're consumed with it and it becomes a thing they're cheering for or they're rooting against. And and then, you know, your life revolves on something that you have very little power over teams.

Turf war. Yeah. Interests. Yeah. Think globally. Act locally.

Yes. It's a beautiful statement. Really is. It's one of those cliches that you don't even think about.

But then I didn't know that was Hunter in that picture out there to me look like Joe Walsh could as easily fit Joe Walsh.

I mean, he moved to Colorado to allow the Rocky Mountain way. Damn, if he didn't. Yeah. He once told me I'll speak at a school, he said. Now, maybe you should just watch TV for a year, bro.

Thanks, Joe. I think he's probably right. All right.

Look, if you hang back and just did nothing but watch TV for a year. The fucking ideas you would have, you'd have.

You probably have a really rock solid idea of what's going on.

His was more trying to have enough things going on that I wouldn't have any ideas for a year. And then I'd give myself a break for.

Maybe that's good to see ibota irreverently. I'm thinking like analyze the landscape. I think Joe Walsh is one of the most underrated guys ever because he changed the fucking eagles. The Eagles were one thing. And then Joe Walsh came around like victim of love. That's Joe Walsh. Yeah, he came around and just and also there was a rock to it. It's like they were kicking down doors and lighting shit on fire. It was different. There was an edge to it.

You know, he's he added crazy. He had a crazy to this beautiful harmony.

And I love it when the guys that added crazy go up to the thin veil between dimensions and say, I think I'm going to stay put. And then all of a sudden they represent. Stability, they represent being okay. Hanging up your guns. Yeah, and just being, you know. Well, that's everything.

Everyone has to accept that at some point in time, right. We maybe that's you and your glasses, right? Yeah. Because everyone has to accept that at one point in time you're gonna have to get off the ride. But when you're doing great and you're kicking it like boxers are a perfect example. They always last too long. There's only been a small handful like Andre Ward recently. Marvelous Marvin Hagler in his prime. They just go, that's it.

I'm done. And they actually are done. Almost every one of them comes back and almost every one of them chases that dragon.

Here's why I love you. You're making an argument for and also the argument against me coming back and doing another.

Yeah. Listen, I'm not married to anything except my wife, but I'm not married to any ideas. All the ideas that I have are just like, maybe that idea sucks. I love you as Iron Man.

So I would I would if you if they open up this time machine and you popped out. I just imagined the moment where everybody goes fucking crazy. It would be amazing to be great.

I would love that.

But I would also love you hanging it up. Yeah, it's look, it's just. First of all, it's 20/20 and I'm not an OCD guy, but I keep thinking see clearly. See clearly. And if your vision is going and it's difficult because by. I feel like we all just get buffeted by feelings and ego or fears or little, you know, chips of resentments or intuitions that are tied to something maybe higher, but you think is out of your reach or whatever.

So it was a perfect time. And I got to go have dinner with a bunch of the Marvel folks last night and kind of have just a little bit of extra closure because, you know, the movie came out and it was bananas. And the directors are sending me pictures of like people flipping out in theaters when Tony snaps. And I was like, whoa, this is kind of like a really big cultural thing. But then like Victoria Alonzo, who's the head of VFX for all these movies, a literal super genius or Kevin 5 year Favro or Scarlett or some people that I've just been there with it for a long time.

We we we were there experiencing it all when it came out. And then we see each other on the red carpet and it's not intimate. And then we kind of hadn't really had a chance just to do nothing. Just hang out and, you know, have some crudity and kind of talk shit. So it was really interesting being here today because yesterday was this kind of last night. Was this kind of real like felt like closing the circle on things a bit.

That's to be bittersweet. Yeah. But I'd like that. I'd like that you want to move on. And I'd like that you want to like that you're doing something like Dr. Doolittle because that's that.

Look, you've done a lot of wild shit in your life. You've got a lot of wild shit in your career. But. You sort of embody every new chapter with the same kind of energy, although there's a different result, a different piece of art. It's all the same you. And that's one of the more interesting things about people in particular actors, because actors get to be a bunch of different things. And it's one of the weirder things about that craft.

Like when you see, you know, a guy who's like Daniel Day-Lewis, who embodies these different humans, like literally becomes different humans. It's but it's always Daniel Day-Lewis. You know, I mean, like even though he plays these these, you know, that there will be blood guy and all these different psychopaths and various fascinating characters. It's always the end. You're like you're you're pumped to see him do it.

Right. And I think that's. I feel the same way with you. It's like I know there's you're an interesting guy. There's a lot of shit going on in your head. So when you dive into something, whatever it is, whether it's your character from Tropic Thunder or whatever it is like, you're you're gonna it's gonna be Robert Downey Junior diving into it. So I would imagine it be kind of annoying, even though you are brilliant at Iron Man to stay Iron Man.

Yeah, well, fortunately, I don't have to find out. Right. It's just interesting, too. You know, life is doing something. And and, you know, I met at this place. It's also. It it baffles me confidence. What is what does it really mean? There was a period of time where I felt like I did I did the first Iron Man and then I went did Tropic Thunder, and then I was doing the first Sherlock.

And I had my shirt off. I was a martial. I was like I was all over the place. And it just felt like I was that was hit and triples no matter what I did. And and then people are like, are you really as confident as you seem? And I was like, I guess right now I am.

Yeah. And then and I think this goes I mean, this reminds me, we were just talking about the McGregor Cowboy fight coming up.

You know, it's like it's gonna go to that. I'm going to watch it. I can not watch it, you know, to. Brilliant souls who cannot lose. Neither one of them can afford to lose this fight. Wow, that is a match up. Yeah, particularly cowboy doesn't want to lose. No, but there's this guy who's the poster child, the guy who's the the one, right. The chosen one. That's Connor and this cowboy who's like, I think I can fuck that guy up.

The journeyman. Yeah. Yeah. So confidence. You know, there's been times when I felt I'm in possession of it. And then you want to let go a little bit because it's only ever the moment and life. Guiding you, the wind does so at your back. You're like, wow, are you just. Are you just, you know, jumping over the waves and all that by yourself and you're like. You bet I am. But there's a physics to the moment, man, moment, machine, whatever.

And the wind's at your back. And then the wind does what? The fucking windows and it changes. And if you're left there thinking what you know. So I think it's great to be in full possession of what you would call supreme confidence and then see what happens if you don't hold on to it so hard because it's great. But it is a bit of an illusion because like everything else, it's always changing. And every day the reset button, the spacebar gets pressed and it's like, now what?

Yeah. The reset button. Yeah. That you kind of have to have a confidence to jump into some of the roles that you've taken, though. But I see what you're saying like that. You don't want to hold onto it. Because it could come and go, I remember Warren Beatty, who I learned so many amazing things from a studio movie called The Pickup Artists with Molly Ringwald. I remember them. OK. And he was kind of the de facto producer of it uncredited and taught me a lot about just acting and what it was.

And he said he said, what's your what's your action in this scene? And I was like, oh, no, he's asked me. And I was like, My action. I'm picking up girls. He goes, What's your action in this scene? And I was like, I'm driving a car. And he asked me, like, you know, the thing things sometimes when someone asks you a question and just you get caught flat footed and you don't know your actions, you're trying to go to work, but you're getting distracted.

By this. Addiction you have to trying to get laid. So your action is you're trying to. To get to work. And I was like, oh, yeah, he's right. And he said, always know what your action is because then when you come in in the morning, confident or when you come in in the morning, it can't hit your ass with both hands. You know what to do. So to me, one of the great lessons I learned from him was, oh, yeah, just boil down what it is you're doing, whether there's a camera around or just what am I doing today?

Today I'm I'm showing up and I'm trying to be honest and and also to. To listen and learn. But really, my action today is I'm today as I'm beginning a process of promotion. Warren Beatty is another guy who'd learned how to put his guns down. Yeah. Yeah. It's like I remember watching that Madonna movie when he was dating Madonna. Truth or Dare? Yeah. And he's hanging around with her. You know, she's in the throes of fame and everything.

He's like a fuck is going on here.

You see, like he's never seen it. Yeah, but he's an older gentleman now. You know? Yes. And you know, he's hanging out with her and just shaking his head. And, you know, that kind of marked it for me. Or Warren Beatty just realized that. All right. Let me step away real quick if I had to talk to him. One things I would ask him is, what was it like when Carly Simon writes a song about you?

That's got to be a trip.

So many I mean, we should if we should do a whole session, just about things I learned from Warren Beatty. Yeah. I'm telling you, I would imagine that a brilliant guy. Clearly. Do you think that you could do Tropic Thunder today? Would that be possible?

Or you could do it?

And again, like Eddie, you know, I look back to me, that movie to me was a circle back to my dad's movie called Putney Swope, which I highly recommend anyone who hasn't seen to see about a black guy who takes over an ad agency in the 60s because everyone votes for him when the head of the company dies because they think no one else will. And it's about what happens when someone who is free-spirited takes over an essentially corrupt endeavor.

And then he realizes and confronts his own corruption. But I remember I was proud two or three when that was being shot. And when it came out. And it was so a part of my upbringing. And I just remembered some of the folks that were around my dad at that time. And so when Ben called and said, hey, I'm doing this thing and, you know, I think maybe Sean Pendent passed on possibly wisely.

And I thought, yeah, I'll do that and I'll do that after Ironman. Then I started thinking, this is William. And then I thought, well, hold on, do get real here.

Where's your heart? And my heart is a I get to. I get to be black for a summer, and so there's something in it for me.

The other thing is I get to hold up to nature the insane, self-involved hypocrisy of artists and what they think they're allowed to do on occasion. Just my opinion and also Ben, who is a masterful artist and director, probably the closest thing to a Charlie Chaplin that I've experienced in my lifetime. He writes, he directs. He acts. He. If you had seen him when he was directing this movie, you would have been like, I'm watching David Lean.

I'm watching Chaplin. I'm watching Coppola. He. He knew exactly what the vision for this was. He executed it. It was impossible to not have it be an offensive nightmare of a movie.

And 90 percent of my black friends are like, do, that was great.

What about the other 10 percent?

You know, I can't disagree with them, but I know where my heart was. Yeah. And I think that. It's never an excuse to do something that is out of place and not have its time. But to me, it was just putting a it was a blasting cap on. And by the way, I think White Chicks came out pretty soon after that. I was like, I love that. I was like, that was great. So, you know.

Well, it might be the last time we see that unless things change. It seems like no one can really. I don't think you could do blackface anymore. I mean, we almost lost the prime minister of Canada because he did brown face. He pretended to be Saudi Arabian. Right. You did Arabian Nights in high school or something like that.

It's it's an interesting and necessary meditation on where is the pendulum? Why is the pendulum right? Yeah. Where's the pendulum? Maybe cutting a little into what could be perceived as as heart in the right place. Openness of its time. But again, I mean, you know, there's a morality clause here on this planet and it's a big price to pay. And I think having a moral psychology is is job one. So sometimes you just gotta go.

Yeah. You know, I effed up again. Not in my defense, but Tropic Thunder was about how wrong that is.

Yes. So. I take exception. But no, it's not. I think you could do it today. I think you could. I think it could be done today. There would be so much outrage. But do it also be people cheering. And if you if we got we boiled down all the bullshit and got to the actual result of what the film did. It's fucking hilarious. To this day, I watched it again about a year and a half ago.

It's a great movie. It's a great fun movie.

I mean, it's ridiculous, over-the-top hilarious. And it worked. And your portrayal, I mean, it wasn't it wasn't egregious. It wasn't there was it was necessary. It made sense. All of it fit it all the square pegs and square holes.

I was just thinking square. I don't know why. I was always thinking about Sarah Jessica Parker on the right or the crazy. I think I drove by.

Should that Warner Park near here? Yeah. Yeah. I think she went to school over there when she was doing a show anyway. Interesting. Yeah.

It it worked. And but it was it might be the last time we'll ever see a studio take a chance on a guy wearing blackface.

And the the prolific use of the word retard.

Those are two things. And by the way, that's a Ben. The funny thing, too, was all the heat got deflected to Ben and simple Jack. Yeah. That's what people were pissed off about.

And I go, oh, great. But you never know when it's gonna be your time in the barrel. You know, sometimes sometimes life just says, you know what? And I've been on both sides of that coin. Sometimes life just says your symbol now.

Did you have anybody that was telling you not to do it with their bunch agents or anyone else?

My mother was horrified. Really?

I am. I have hit bad feeling.

I was like, yeah, me too, mom. But anyway, how are we?

At first is that there put the make about you how hard you sweat.

There's been a couple of times. I was all the night before and we were on Kawai and I was like, oh, here we go. And I was just running. I think I had six lines that day, but I knew that there was going to be choppers, there was going to be squib fire, there was going to be choreography, there was going to be, you know, it was going to be cacophonous. And the only thing that mattered to me, again, what's my action?

My action as an actor in this movie is to know what I'm doing, even if what I'm doing is insane. So I ran those six or eight lines. I had a thousand times lying in bed over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. So the next day I was free to enjoy myself and not be struggling to wonder what it was I was supposed to be doing. And then that's what it is.

It was just, you know, it was one little mosaic after the next. And and by the end of it, I had some pride that I had made it through. Forget that it was, you know, blackface. It was special effects, makeup day after day after day after day after day after day after day, except for the times when I would have my bleached hair and blue contacts in my eyes or, you know, other characters.

And it was just a it was a piece of work I was doing. And I cared about doing it as professionally and as honestly as I could. So when you memorize lines, that's an interesting thing. You said that you were free to to do it like when you memorize lines. Is there ever a part like when you're acting where you have to think like, OK, what am I supposed to say next and how much does that get in the way?

I would look. I have a very broad band of tolerances. I don't care if the people I'm with happened to not know what they're doing or don't know their lines or stepping on my lines or or whatever or want to change their lines and my lines. And it's always a different thing. It's like reading the room. It's like, you know, if I was a fighter, you go in the octagon and there they go. You ready? You ready?

And you go. And then you just do it.

You go in. But so I've had it where I would try to be off book before everyone else. I would get it down to an acronym. So if there was a thousand words I do remember, I would just remember the first letter of each and I would put it on a piece of poster board and then I would stand away from it. Not as far as you and your your arteries set up over there, but far enough away to where I can see it, but kind of can't see it back when my vision was little more clear and I would just run it and run it and run it.

When I did the first Sherlock, we were rewriting it so much, you know, to have pages and pages of stuff. I was like, give me an earwig. And it helped me with my accent. And then I started getting into like, you know, what's so great? I can finish work, go home, hang out with my kids or do whatever I want to do, go train. And in the morning they can change it all they want.

I don't have the trip, if at all. If, you know, unless it's some monologue that you want to really be committed to, that's not going to shift. I'll just go like that.

So you'd put one of those little earpieces in. They would feed you the lines. Yeah. Yeah.

And now I've kind of gone as far as you can go with that. And I'll try go back to a new method or a new version of the old method.

So it's basically improvisational like you in the moment you decide with whatever preparation going to do for each role. How you going to do it? Whether you're gonna go and memorize everything obsessively or whether you're just going to be a little bit more loose and free with it?

Yes. Depends on the script, too. Like Tropic Thunder. Justin Thoreau wrote that script with with Ben. Really good script. I mean, my missis, who next to my mother with Marceau's the opinion I was really waiting on and she was reading in the kitchen laughing her ass off she goes, this is so wrong. This is so wrong. And she goes and it's so true.

Now, if you do this right, you're you're doing something that's. It's about a bunch of. Self-involved idiots somehow or other becoming heroes. And she goes, I love that. If that's what it stays and it's gonna be good. And so like, for instance, the you know, never go. Yeah.

Full say no. By the way, I guarantee you I'm getting out of here. My stock is not plummeting when I leave here. I'm not smoking dope. I'm not doing a mosque. I'm going to do everything right. Stock went up the next day. All right. Dropped six. Went up nine with you. I don't know. I don't understand it.

I love that. You now know, it's a piece of art with 60 percent. And the smell of books is art.

Yeah, it just changes. It just changes. I also know that I don't really know that much and it's different every time anyway. But some I really like when you have a loose concept of what you're doing there, certain parts that aren't going to change much in the rest you discover. So the first Iron Man, I mean John and I in there and the writers or John and I, we were just would write you write a line or write a line.

And then we would we were literally watching the puppies be born as we did it. Frustrating for people who not Gwynneth, because she can look at a piece of paper and then go, OK, I get it. And she's got it all memorized. She's amazing. But what's for the highest good? Sometimes it's very self-indulgent to come in and like, you know, hand out new pages or say, oh, I'm not seeing that. So feed me that, you know what I mean?

You need an environment of respect.

But I I'd like I'd like discovering things.

How much of acting is managing those weird relationships that you have with these other people that you're acting with? You've made some references to like people changing other people's lines and not being prepared. I got out of acting for that very reason. That was the thing that I. I went from a world of standup comedy, which are just a bunch of crazy people to actors, which are a bunch of crazy people, but in a different way. And the managing all the different characters and all the different personalities.

How hard is that? That seems like that could really get in the way.

Well, yes, sure it can. And it's like a thumbprint every time you're on a new. Project it's a completely different, you know, fingerprint. You never know what you're gonna get. And sometimes projects seem blessed and sometimes you could say they're coerced. But again, my Susan Downey, Esq. was talking about this yesterday. She goes, It's the only thing you can't overcome as a creative producer on a big movie or anything is in principle, no matter what happens, you can fix it.

We lost the light of the thunder. The weather came in. OK. He got sick. Oh, she's. Oh, she's pregnant. OK. Great. They change the costume. You can't overcome personalities.

Yeah. The relationships that people have with each other. Do you meet up before you commit to a role? Do you ever say, like, I want to meet Captain America and find out what the fuck that guy's really like?

Well, by the way, I mean, I love that you think I to have the authority.

Did you catch this guy? All right. Let me get a taste of you around. Really?

I'm really interested in doing that because we all have a group dinner or something like that. Yeah, I meet these guys. My SO my M.O. is always let's mindmeld, let's get together. Let's work weekends. Let's spend time together cause you can't replace that familiarity. But so you have to try to build it and sometimes it happens very naturally. Like I adore Chris Evans. I can't even tell you why is a Boston guy. He's technically it's such a brilliant actor, but he also doesn't take himself seriously.

He's flaky, but he's the first guy you would want to have your back if something went down. He's. And and yet we're different enough where I feel like by being who we are and then both having those characters, we were able to I think I thought I thought civil war was a special moment in the in the arc of the Marvel films about turning one against the other and what it meant. And. And so sometimes you just get lucky.

As a matter of fact, the whole Marvel universe, possibly without exception, just happens to be a really well.

What do you call that when you when you put together something curated group of souls?

Well, it's interesting because people take superhero movies seriously now. Like now, superhero movies are films that happen to be about superheroes. Whereas, you know, for the longest time, superhero movies were bullshit. You know, the TV shows were kind of clunky. They were there can't be you know, it was Batman with the silly pants on. And Robin, I bought it. Everything was bang, boom, bang. Member, you'd see the big boom.

Absolutely right.

And yet who was in the first Superman? Brandon. Yes.

There was always a seed of an attempt to legitimize something that was otherwise two dimensional.

This employment was probably the first film that really did that. Right. And then Batman. Yeah. Then the Batman series. But again, how many goddamn Batman's that event?

Right. I'm I. I want to see what Pattinson does. Oh, that's right.

He's gonna be Batman now. I like that guy. How many Spider-Man's of the men. That that's the most, right. Three.

Only three. Yeah. And three hawks. Right. At least. One, two, three. Not counting the TV show now. Counting the TV show for time. So you're right. Eric Bana. You're right. Yeah. Norton. Yeah. Mark gruffalo, who I think he's my favorite. He was just born for it. Yeah. It's perfect. Yeah. You believe him? Yeah.

And again, his whole thing was what's my action is like? You know, I anger problem.

How do you guys manage this giant CGI thing? Like, how does that work? Like when you're on the set. But that seems like one of the weirdest parts about acting in some of those Avenger films. Yeah. Is how much of it is actually digital.

Yeah. You just kind of get used to it. All digressive the movie with Richard Linklater called A Scanner Darkly and it was rotoscoping. So gritty, like a movie. I love that movie.

Love him. And then Keanu and I and Woody and Woonona. And it was this cool thing. And we would shoot these scenes and he would say, oh, you can just leave your your body, Mike, on the outside because there's paint the whole thing.

So that rotoscoping is a great metaphor for essentially what the Marvel movies became when sometimes you would even go, and I'm supposed to come in and like, you know, throw something in the B. It was off camera, but everything else was great.

Oh, we'll just move your arm later and you go, wow. So you never want to rest on your laurels and say, you know, but after a certain while, I was like, why am I wearing this? This. This football suit just put some dots on my shoulders so I can move more freely. And they be like. All right. I got it. Honestly, what are you really using this? All the stuff I'm wearing for it.

Go for reference. I go, great. So I'll wear it for one take and then I'll take it off and I'll relax a little bit. But then other people would be like or better'n would be like, I'm stuck in this fucking thing done paper.

So everybody got to join in on the joys and the miseries of the of the technical challenge of doing it. And speaking of rough low by the end, because he's smart hawk, he literally they're just making big wherever he was. And they'd put it a little, you know, a a piece of PGC with a big hulk head up about five feet over where his head was and he was just there in a green suit.

So in a tracking suit, we'd like his package out, you know, and he'd be like, let me just at least tie like a little sarong around my. Come on, guys.

And so I think Mark went about as far out into the ionosphere of PSEG as you can.

I didn't get the whole smart, hot, smart hook thing. I didn't get how they how he figured that out wasn't really know.

Like Hulk is supposed to be Hulk. Right. Supposed to be the alter. It's like one you can control. One is one of the genius scientists. Exactly. And one is the beast.

But after so many times and again, this is the genius of the people who who who break and shape stories over there fighting his team as they go.

He's Hulk and he's not Hulk. He's Hulk. It's a big battle. Always so conflicted. What if he could meet himself in the middle? And then what corner have we painted ourselves in by having a meet himself in the middle? Because then you can't ever if that doesn't work, you can't go back to the way it was you've done it, or you can go back to the way it was. So I just think that the real genius of the Marvel creative team is they and the Russo brothers who did the last few Avengers Infinity weren't in games.

They go. We love writing ourselves into a corner. We love it because then it it activates all of those. How do we get out of purgatory juices? And then you get the next right idea.

Now, when you guys sit down and when you first receive a script for one of these things, do they consult with you? Do they discuss this with you? Do they just lay it out and say, this is this is the character act? How do you how do you feel about this? What do you think?

Yeah, an MBA. It's changed over time. I think if you're one of the folks, as there are standalone movies like Scarlett has blackwidow coming out, I think you take a I would you take a bit of a different tack in how much meaning?

I think the phrase, the legal phrase for actors and studios is meaningful consultation, not script approval, because then anybody could hold a studio hostage because I don't approve this $30 million that you're trying to spend right now. So your schedule is fine when you say I don't approve.

I picture a bathrobe and a picture fine. China and teacups. That's not a picture I don't approve. And then just storming off.

I've had my moments, too, because I'm so passionate about story. But again, after more seat time with the same people and new people coming in and getting a pretty brutal education on what kind of process these movies require, you, you just start trusting more that they're thinking on your behalf. Mm hmm. And also, literal things are easy to change. Big things become a inconvenience to the higher good. And at what point do you want to pull the air brake on something where the trains, you know, are already leaving the station?

Well, I would imagine it would be a fine line that they want the actor to be comfortable with the character and they want some and maybe some feedback would be beneficial. But there are also they have a path of vision that they've created. Yeah, they would like to see you somehow or another release morph slightly to get on this path.

Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, after I had my second round to kids with Susan, I became both artistically.

I had a bit of a renaissance when I was doing the Third Iron Man. And then after that too, I was like, well, now going to do this Avengers. And as so many moving parts. And it's so difficult just to get all these schedules to coincide and get everyone together that I'm not going to be like I'm not feeling it.

So, again, it's that thing. It's it's sometimes. What do they say? Faster alone, further together? Sometimes you can only think about further because you gotta get downfield. Other times you're thinking, hey, this is my moment to run. And I need I need a little help and a little approval and I need a little leeway. But that's any creative endeavor. I would imagine when you're involved in something that's so epic. One is actually over, it probably almost seems surreal because the production is so massive.

There's so many moving pieces, there's so many special effects, so many things that you you have to sort of visualize while you're doing it. And then after all, it's all over, you're done. What is it like? What is a big Avengers movie?

How many months are you involved in this?

Well, I mean, it could be some part of 18 months to two years, depending on how far out you are, and then four to six months of principal photography and then additional photography and then post. And then I always include promotion, you know, from. Yeah, yeah. From soup to nuts I think is the phrase soup to nuts. Yeah. That's a Joel Silver phrase. One of my oh. One of my great great friends and probably one of the greatest big movie producers of all time.

We did the Sherlocks with the Hammy did the Matrix series. My missus was running his company for 10 years. Kiss, kiss, bang, bang. Which is I think in some ways the best film I've ever done. Wound up being a calling card. It came out and it bombed. And but John Favro saw it and he said this guy could do an action movie. And so that wound up being my calling card into the Marvel universe. But to answer the question, it can be anti-climactic.

Like anything. I mean, this is surreal. You know, I never I maybe senior around a little bit, but I feel like I know you because I see you all the time and I listen to you. And I'm a I'm a a martial arts nut and. Yeah. Isn't it? Sometimes you do it when you when you get outside of the fortunate. Interesting, creative experience you're having. You kind of go like it's very dreamlike. Yeah.

Yeah. My whole life's a dream, you know, except for the ramifications. The Rimsky just those come back a bite in the ass like I fucking dream at all this kid. This is dangerous. Yeah.

I used to remember the first time I met Phil Hartman. I was stunned that I was actually sitting it. We were at a table read sitting across from my car.

Fuck, you're a famous guy. Like you're a really famous guy. Like I've seen you in movies, man. Yeah, you've seen you on television. Here you are right there. A weird, you know, and it seems it's very hard to be normal. And then after a while, it becomes normal. And then the fact that it becomes normal becomes surreal. And then it really feels like a dream.

Like when I meet people like you, like we've just met an hour or so ago, and yet instantly I feel like I know you. Yeah. Yeah. It's very strange. But you also you're not full of shit, you know, when someone's not full of shit. It's pretty easy to get to know them. You say something. I say something back. I know he works. I see what's going on in there as an actual human. Here we go.

We're talking.

There's a good litmus, too, because you watch your show pretty. And I just love it to you because in your show, you literally you just you start is a rolling start with you every time you come into the show and you're already kind of thinking about stuff. So it's it feels very organic. And part of me even this morning was like, I hope it looks into my eyes and doesn't see a complete and utter foolish fraud because I would probably believe him if he mirrored that back to me.

Oh, no, that's a that's a danger, right? Yeah. If someone if you respect someone and they think you're a fucking idiot.

You know, I might really be a fucking idiot.

But there's been times when in just being myself, someone who I respect has looked at me and said, what are we talking about? Yeah. What do you even saw? And you remember that cause it kind of. Yeah. It it stiff arms you papa.

Those are good because it realized what you were probably off on a fucking stupid tangent. Yeah. And that's part of being a person, you know part of being a person is like I don't know what the next word out of my mouth is gonna be right now. No one ever does unless you do. And if you do, it's kind of weird.

Some people are poker players. I respect some people that are that. Because. There's a. An ability to if maybe it's fear based, but I always appreciate people who, you know, as people like their icons are big shots or that they hold a certain esteem and all of their text, they're very simple.

It's like, yes. Yes, we should fix that. Sure. Shaw is my favorite. Shaw Okay. On it. Yeah. Yeah. No periods either. You know, I make a period.

Beats the all caps text. Yeah. Oh, I don't like those at all. Those people are weird. Although C.T. Fletcher, he says the all time good, huh. I. I love him, but he's shouting at everything. Everything is a shout.

But yeah, the surreal part is I think part of the reason I'm still so interested not just in life, but also, you know, getting to do what I do is I'm a fan.

I love movies. I love creativity. I love music. I love I love culture.

And the fact that I actually have a place in it. one-line observing it and digging it is like it's it's. It's not her. Well, that's a beautiful perspective. And that shows in how you how you how you carry yourself. And it shows in the work that you do that you do appreciate it. You know, one of the saddest things is someone who's in an amazing position, who doesn't appreciate it. And that drives other people crazy, too, like prima donnas drive people crazy for a variety of reasons.

But one of the big ones is you don't appreciate how fortunate you are like. And people love when people appreciate good fortune and appreciate a well earned position. And are, you know, engrossed in a beautiful life of something that they really enjoy and something that really inspires them.

Well, I need I need to be kept right sized because I can easily fall into self-seeking in depression and self-pity and judgment and all that stuff. It's kind of a it's a bit of a default. But I spend enough energy.

And if I've had enough help over enough years to actually just say, oh, that's that's just. Awful destructive behavior. You're entertaining in your head. You know, bad patterns, just bad thought patterns. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think we could all fall into those. I'm ruthlessly self-critical. And that's it for me. Sometimes it's very hard to step outside and and just just take a pause and recognize not everything's going to be right the first time you try it.

You know, I think that a lot of people that are really great at things. It's one of the things about them is that they're not very satisfied with their work. Like they're always looking to improve it. They're always looking for it to be better. And then that can start that cycle in their head of self-loathing and angst, anxiety and anger at their their performance or their work or whatever it is. And then that can lead to depression and that can lead to just self-hate.

Yeah. And what are your tolerances like that? I'll be the first to tell you.

Like me, you know, do certain movies or movie do in Tropic Thunder. One of the first Iron Man movies, I was like. I go over to the monitor. I'd be like, play that back again.

That was so good to let me see that again. I need confirmation. Yeah. Because it's always a miracle you stayed in frame. You got the line right. Your eye line was right. The lighting was right. The sensibility was right. And you just look at it. You go, oh, you know, it's like, I don't know. For me, it's like the playback of the perfect Superman Punch K0. And you go show me that again.

Yeah. Or when we were shooting Tropic Thunder, I had a little teaser clip for Iron Man, but it wasn't coming out until the next year. And we were gonna go to Comic-Con and I. So I got to see and show it to people. And they're like, oh, I. I think that movie is gonna do pretty good. And then when we went to Comic-Con, we saw it. But used to be like that with music, too.

Like I write music I haven't for some time, but you would write something and then you just listen to it on the loop because you go, wow, that's not I know that I was here and I did that. But it feels kind of inspired. Yeah. And you want to get on that stuff.

But yes, self-critical is important as long as it doesn't bleed out into and over the edges and just make it run. Sure. Sure.

All right. Again, get out of your own way. Yeah, again. I mean, that's one of the many tenants of life. Learn how to get out of your wall your own way with everything, including with creative endeavors. It seems like that that thing that you said about music. Most people who write things or create things say that that it's you. They know they're doing it. Like if you make a great sculpture, you know you're doing it.

But where is it coming from? Like, what is what is the idea that manifests itself into this perfect thing that you could step back and look at? And it seems so really. How did I create that? Did I? I don't know if I did. I mean, I definitely made my fingers move, but I don't know if that's me. Who wrote that music? Who performed it? I know you did. But there's a thing inside you that sort of like tunes in to this this energy of ideas.

And then it comes through you. And again, you kind of have to get out of your own way while you're writing something. And then when it comes out, it's a weird feeling. It's not like like if you hammer a nail into a board, you fucking are very aware you did that. You're very aware. But there's something about the creative process that's not you're not totally there.

It's weird. Yeah, because it is you and it isn't. Yeah. Right. It was. You even mean. I love it. We always hear it too. In sports, it's like, you know. Oh, you know, you know how to go today, Federer. Oh, I was out of my mind. I was not in my mind. It was a beautiful day.

And I think you saw the results. Yeah. You know, sure. Effortless poetic bullfighters talk about that all the time.

That like especially a counter shot, like they land something and they don't even have any idea they're going to do it. And they did it and then it caused the knockout. It's their training manifest itself in this one special beautiful moment. Bang, this thing happens and then they see the guy drop in like, holy shit. Oh, yeah. And then they they walk away. And it's the work. It's it's there's so many things involved.

Right. There's so many moving pieces. You have to be working on your own mind to learn how to get out of your own way. You also have to be like really engrossed in whatever the activity is that you're doing, like obsessed in love with it, passionate about it. And then you have to have the discipline to show up and actually do the work. There's so many different moving people and it all has to be managed. And it's not solid.

It's like it's like a fucking raft on the ocean. It's moving around. You're always trying to like figure out how to keep it, keep it moving and functional. And it always seems unmanageable. And after it's over, loads like, oh, fuck that even work.

Yeah, we call it the fader board thing right now. How do you get it all? And honestly, particularly in the last 15 years when I started really taking martial arts seriously. Half the stuff that I've been able to do right in my creative life are principles that I learned on the mat with my CFO. Mm hmm. You know, guard your center, keep your eye on the lead elbow and get to the blind side. You know how often you do that?

What started? I think in the 15th or 16th year, seafood is over. Day before yesterday. So, you know, a bunch of times a week. And if I'm working on something or if he can make it to location, we'll have long stretches where we're doing it every day. Then there's gradings. So you got to prep for those, you know. Mm hmm. It's.

So what are you do you doing come fooling? Is it a verb? Do Jewish style traditional wing Chun grill?

Yeah.

Which is very underrated art form. Yes. Also, so many trade secrets and so different than how I see it when I'm looking at videos in that in UFC, everything is out in the open and it's discussed. And you see in a lot of the eastern stuff there was a turf wars and we're not really going to show them our footwork. We're not going to do this. But anyway, it's been a real deep dive with my chief who Eric Aurum, whose seafood, my sea gun is Grandmaster William Cheung, renown, kind of Hong Kong rooftop fights, all that stuff.

Amazing, Laura, but very technical. Difficult to build, an easy to use.

You know, you very rarely see that in the UFC. One of the best fighters in the UFC uses it regularly. Tony Tony Ferguson Tony Ferguson uses trapping hands to move junk. Yeah. Yeah.

He he grabs wrists and comes over the top with elbows. He does straight wing Chun. He does it all the time. And even practices on a one. It wouldn't dummy. Yeah.

I got my ass kicked by a wooden dummy for about three years and then I finally understood the principle of don't fight force with force and you know, it's just nuts. So anyway, half the time. If I would be in a critical artistic situation. I would just say cause Wing Chun problems or life problems, life problems or Wing Chun problems, and I would just go back to. How did this kind of relate to. Cause I don't like getting clocked and getting my teeth knocked in because we tend to.

Sometimes we glove up, but we're not wearing mouthpieces. It's very. Why do you wear.

Well, it's certainly not because he's very good at pulling his punches and he's also even better at making sure that I don't accidentally hit him. But we get as close as we can to what the real experience would be.

But again, it's like everything. I'm sure, you know, a few clicks back down the road. There's things that instructors were doing that would be considered illegal to do to a group of students nowadays. Yeah, for sure. So not just a few clicks. While I was coming out. That's what I said I would imagine. Yeah. Oh there's. Yeah.

Hit each other. Yes. Students would get beat up. Yeah. This is a normal thing. Yes. You.

So did you start training for Sherlock Holmes or you start train before they did.

It absolutely coincided with my recovery. And the two things just somehow rather seemed to to lock in when and talk to you. Off the record and afterwards about any and everything to do with my recovery as far as it locked him this, it was an apprentice, an apprenticeship and it was an apprenticeship that was contingent on me being in a certain headspace. Mm hmm.

You know what's a good thing, too? Because it's it's a very addictive thing. People get very addicted to martial arts and it's a good substitute for sometimes negative addictions. You know, for days before he died, he was obsessed with Brazilian jujitsu. Yeah. Became really obsessed with it at 58 when and got really good. He was he was training every day and he was trained twice a day, every day. So he went from when I first met him, he was chubby.

He was smoking cigarettes. He drank every night. Still kind of still drank every night. But, you know, he just did enough to eat enough healthy things, keep his body together. And then his ex-wife got really into jujitsu. And then he decided to follow one day to classes. And he was kind of mocking it, laughing at it at first, and then became obsessed and then really got good. I mean, he was at the look, I wanted a tournament.

I mean, oh, my God. He's fuckin 60 years old at this age.

What's really crazy is a picture of him walking down the street in I think they were in Rome and he has no shirt on and he's fucking ripped. Anthony Bourdain, full six pack. Yeah. Dude, he was obsessed. He would take a private every day. Look at him.

Look at that photo. That's crazy. He's like 60 something years older. So he would take a private lesson every day and then he would take a class. So we take a private lesson, sharpen up techniques, and then he rolls.

Yeah, he'd take group classes, too, which is very rare, very critical role with different people percent.

And so he was in there like and it became a good thing for him to sort of become addicted to this positive thing.

Yeah. I mean, for me, it wasn't gonna be golf. It was going to be something passive like that. Oh, I hear it's great. But it's been. It's just been a great gift. And it's also the thing where, you know, you're just you're never done. I make black belt five years go. I'm for another grading. And now we're doing a lot of weapons stuff and it's just it's awesome resolutions.

Yeah, my tigo no teacher said something to me when I was very young. They said that it is a tool for developing your human potential.

Yeah, I never forgot that because of my car. It's because it's really difficult to do all martial arts or really it's really difficult to get your body to move that way. And to be able to be effective in a conflict situation. And if you can do it, you can do it over and over again and you can overcome that difficult thing. And you thought it was insurmountable and then you figured out how to do it. Eventually, you get to this point, you realize, well, everything in life is like that.

Everything life is like something. It's a puzzle. You have to figure out what what how my approaching it wrong. What can I do to make it better? How do I get more competent at this particular skill or this particular discipline?

And just the humility to I mean, if I've noticed anything in the last couple of years assisting in UFC, which, by the way, I was doing a Robert Altman film called The Gingerbread Man back in the 90s and UFC, it just start off and I was getting the VHS tapes and watching them. And so when they go back on the twenty five years ago, I was like, I've been I've been I've been there from jump. That's awesome.

But if you watch. It's just that thing of no matter what you think. The tides are changing quickly and yeah, and you just gotta keep keep working.

Well, that was a real wake up call for a lot of martial artists was the UFC, because a lot of the stuff that they were doing really wasn't effective. Yeah, they thought it would be if everybody was playing by the rules in the dojo and sort of following along.

But once you really saw the actual caged event where people were just going balls out, you realize, oh, a lot of this stuff just doesn't work. Yeah.

I love how messy it was at the beginning because the stellar matchups were so was almost crazy, laughable until you until you saw the violence and no weight classes.

And you and I share another passion. Agresto MoD's. Yes. Yes, you have. Was it a 1970 Mustang? Yeah.

I got the three 028 of speed core. A couple other ones caught does amazing stuff.

They're great. Yeah. And when I saw that they were doing your cargo. Oh, there's gonna be good. You picked a unique color too. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the only thing.

Yeah. That's back east right now. That's a good car for first straightaways. That's a nice Long Island car.

Yeah, it's beautiful. But the beautiful thing about something like Speed Core is they're gonna take that car and make it so that it's manageable. You can actually drive it if you drove a real 1970s stock car.

It would be. It's horrific.

Yeah. And it's amazing how far we've come. Yeah. Those cars, it's like your car you like blindfolded as you're driving. You're sort of aware of what what the car is going to do as you turn the wheel, but not really know it's it to me.

It's like it's like a crop duster without wings. Every time I start going go. Jesus Christ. I got kids. I got kids.

And also, since I threw my hat in the ring with this kind of green technology initiatives, I.

I'm pregnant. Wind up auctioning them all off, to be honest. Right. You know, drove a little BMW electric car here. I saw I and I started laughing when I saw it pulling the plug.

Oh, yeah. You gotta do what you gotta do. Avideo. I'll hold on to Falk's. Yeah. You have to hold on to that. We've got to. What is this.

That is a tarantula hawk that Maynard Keenan from toul sent me from his farm in Arizona. We were talking about it on a podcast and he's like, have you ever seen one? I go, no. And then a week later, one arrived in the mail. Hold on.

Let me shoot this as they carry.

Yeah. By the way, if I'd been too far off Mike this whole time. Now you're fine. Okay. We're good. You could give me as a sign. Jamie's master, he knows how to handle this.

I know you have a lot other shit to do, so I'm going to let you get out of here. I just want to say it's a honor. Honor to meet you. Likewise. You should sit down, talk to you. Appreciate you. Take your time. And best of luck with everything.

Just flew by, pal. Now I'll be back. Just me.

Okay. I hope you do. Hope you do. Come back. Bye, everybody. You know what I wanted to get to?

There's a guy named Brandes parent. You've heard of him.