-Jesse. -Hello.
-Oh, thank you so much for coming on.
I really appreciate this.
-Thank you so much for having me,
you know, on the computer.
-Yeah. You did something that I've dreamt of doing
my whole life, except you did it during a pandemic.
You took an RV trip. I'd love to know about this.
-Yes, yes.
I mean, it was out of necessity, not, like,
any kind of, you know, dream or whim.
It was like we were, like, stuck in Los Angeles
when, you know, the world shut down,
and we had to get back to Indiana, where we live.
And so, yeah, we rented an RV so we could kind of, like,
quarantine safely and also move.
-And, obviously, you took the baby with you.
-Yeah. -Did he like it?
Was he like, "What's going on?"
-Well, he's 3. He's almost 4.
I just asked him today, "Do you remember
when we spent that amazing week in the camper van?"
He said, "No." And I showed him a picture.
He's like, "No. Put on 'Paw Patrol.' Enough."
-I said, "This was, like, the best week of your life."
I showed him pictures.
I said, "You said this was the best thing in your life."
He's like, "No, I don't remember that.
I don't remember it at all."
-I've had that conversation before, too, yeah.
-I'm wondering, do we have to do anything nice
for our children before 7?
They're not gonna remember. -No, 7 is the age.
That's when they start remembering. Yeah.
-Really? -Yeah. That's exactly it.
They don't care. They don't care at all.
No, nothing until 7.
-I might buy myself stuff from now on.
-Were you nervous to drive that giant RV?
-Yeah. I mean, I was a little nervous.
It's a bit of a learning curve with the RV,
and then, if you're kind of, like, an idiot, like me,
you know, you feel cocky, like, way too prematurely.
So, like, you know, after like 20 minutes,
once I didn't get into an accident,
I started, you know, changing lanes without signaling.
Yeah, exactly. -One-hander. Yeah, yeah.
Uh-huh. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, like the idiot 7-year-old boy,
who, like, you know, is on a bicycle for 20 seconds,
and he comes back with a split lip
because he decided to pop a wheelie.
-Yeah, with no hands. -Exactly.
-Did you get to meet the communities?
'Cause that's what I'm obsessed about, too, like, the RV world.
-It's a culture. It's a whole culture.
-It's fantastic.
-And the interesting thing is,
the RV culture does not end at, like, the RV park.
Now, like, when I see an RV in town, like, where I live,
you know, I kind of I give the guy a nod,
and he gives me a nod, and then we usually discuss hitches.
You know, it's like a whole --
And, like, everybody has the same gripes, like,
"Why can't the Forester just carry something bigger?"
Like, everybody has the same very specific gripes
that sound absurd if you don't know the culture.
-Yeah, I've done a tiny, little RV trip, you know,
10 minutes away from my house just to see
if I would like it in a campground.
And I did. I loved it. I did it twice.
And I just wanted to be closer to home --
-You rented an RV for a 10-minute drive?
-Yeah. I didn't even actually drive it there.
My friend drove it there and parked it,
and then I went and stayed there.
-Well, that's a definite dry run.
-Well, yeah, I just wanted to make sure, you know,
if I went out, I got out, you know?
-And you feel... -I loved it. I loved the people.
Everyone was so nice to me. They were offering me things.
It felt so neighborly.
And it was just -- There was
something kind of beautiful about it.
It was a very interesting thing.
I thought I'd be like, "I don't want to see people."
And I was the opposite.
I was like, "Hey, I'll share this you.
-I think it's because we no longer --
We're feel, like, so infantilized in our
normal lives, like, in New York City, you know,
'cause you don't, like, fix anything.
And then, here, because you're in charge of everything,
you feel, like, confident enough to talk to people,
like, you know, the way early man used to talk to people,
because you're not, like, infantilized by,
you know, mass technology.
-Yeah. Did you get to see the country
and take pictures and all that stuff?
-Yeah. I mean, it was totally surreal
in the sense that, like -- So, you know, I mean,
it's probably already a surreal experience
because you're kind of, like, on the "open road"
or whatever that's supposed to be,
but during a pandemic, it was truly, like, empty.
Like, we went to the Grand Canyon, which was open,
and we were the only ones there.
Like, we went to these amazing towns --
you know, Lawrence, Kansas, St. Louis, Albuquerque,
and no one was there.
We would park -- Like, we would park on the grounds of, like,
a museum and we would, like, walk around.
It was like I was in "Big" or "Honey, I Shrank the" --
I don't know.
Whatever movie that conjures that nice experience.
-This is a dream for me. That's unbelievable.
That is unbelievable that you did that.
I love that you did that.
-You're gonna have to wait for another pandemic.
-You didn't freak out? 'Cause we've talked about this.
You're open about dealing with anxiety.
Did you have anxiety at all during --
Do you have it now during the pandemic?
-No, no, no.
I've been anxiety-free since whenever the pandemic struck.
Anytime there's a real crisis in the world,
I'm, like, kind of an American hero.
364 days of the year, American coward.
Crisis, American hero.
You know, because I'm in a panic
that something terrible is going to happen.
I mean, I think there's been generations of me, you know,
in my lineage that are in a panic,
waiting for the bad thing to happen.
And so it makes us look really out of step with society
and worried, but when something actually happens,
we're the only one that's ready for it.
You know what I mean?
Like, I carry a flare in my back pocket just in case.
It looks weird most of the time.
But then, you know, if your car gets -- Blow a tire --
-A flare.
Hey, can we talk about the Audible Original?
I love that people are doing this now.
This is the one thing I think is kind of, you know,
a little bit -- a cool thing that's coming out
of this awful situation that we're in is,
everyone's getting very creative and seeing what they can do
to just give people content and help people.
And any second of normalcy, it just feels good for people.
You did this Audible, almost like an Audible movie, kind of,
called "When You Finish Saving the World."
You wrote it. You star in it. How would you describe this?
-Yeah, it's essentially like a kind of -- It's like a novel
told from the three characters's perspective,
but it's all audio.
So, it would be structured like a book
and it takes place over the course of 30 years.
I play a new father, and then you jump 15 years
into the future, in 2032, and Finn Wolfhard, the actor,
plays my son at 15.
And then you jump back 30 years, to 2002,
and Kaitlyn Dever, the actress, plays my wife
before we met.
And so it's like this kind of a story of a family
over the course of 30 years,
all centered in this town in Bloomington, Indiana.
-I love that. I cannot wait to listen to this.
This is fantastic. -Thank you so much.
-And you're already going to make a film version about this?
Is that true? -Yeah.
So, yeah, I adapted, like, a small part of it
and wrote a movie that I'm going to direct
with Julianne Moore, and then, this wonderful company, A24,
is coming on to produce it.
So, we're, yeah, about to leave for Manitoba,
where there is, you know, very little virus.
-I love A24, by the way.
Anytime I see that logo come up, I go,
"Oh, this movie's going to be cool.
-I know. I know.
I'm having trouble, like, just because of my own pessimism,
picturing the thing that I'm worried I'm going to make
coming after the logo that I have a lot of confidence in.
-Well, I'm looking forward to that
and I'm looking forward to listening
to your Audible Original.
It's always good to see you. Stay safe.
And, yeah, wait another four years, then do another RV trip.
-Thanks. I'll see you on the road.
We can give each other a knowing nod.
-My thanks to Jesse Eisenberg. See?
I don't even have the nod down. -I know, I know.