-Our next guest is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated actor
you know, from shows like "Escape at Dannemora,"
as well as the films "Little Miss Sunshine,"
"There Will Be Blood" and "The Batman."
This morning, he was nominated for a Critics' Choice Award
for his work in "The Fabelmans,"
which is in theaters and on demand now.
Let's take a look.
-$100 for a hobby?
-It's not a hobby, Dad.
-If you spent half the time on algebra that you spend on --
-Algebra? I hate algebra.
Why are you...
[ Chuckles ] It's completely pointless.
-Not if you want to make something, it's not pointless.
Geez. Sammy, when I was a boy,
I always used to think somebody figured out how to make this.
This car, that rear-view mirror, that directional signal.
-I want to make movies, though.
-Please welcome back the show our friend Paul Dano, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪
Welcome back!
-Janelle danced out here. -I know.
-She's got the way to walk onstage.
-We should have let you go first.
-I know.
-When you saw her outfit, you were probably like, "Oh, geez."
-I tried to change.
I thought if I just take the shirt off and go, you know,
just cardigan.
-I think you made the right choice
not even trying to compete with her.
-That's -- Yeah. -Yeah.
Ultimately, if you had been like, "You know what?
I'm going to be the dancer they remember from tonight."
-Yeah.
-Hey, congratulations, as well,
on your Critics's Choice nomination today.
-Thanks. Yep. Thanks.
-Something you do have in common with Janelle, so there you go.
-Hey, yeah, okay.
-But before I get to that, your partner, Zoe Kazan,
was here a couple weeks ago talking about the fact
that you have a very new baby.
Congratulations on that. -Thank you. Thanks.
-You also have 4-year-old.
How is the 4-year-old adjusting to the new addition?
-Well, the 4-year-old has pinkeye
and is sick right now -- not contagious, on antibiotics.
-Great. -Don't worry, Seth.
With her medicine, actually, you have to put it in the eye.
The other day, she was screaming,
and I had to hold her down to do it.
And I said, "You know, we're actually going to have to
do this four times tomorrow."
And she said, "We're actually not."
And I was like, "Four?"
Like, nobody warned me.
You hear about, like, the terrible 2s,
but 4 -- I mean, 4 has got some kick.
-Terrible 2s is the biggest lie they tell you,
because you think to yourself --
Because I've been through it now twice.
And you go, "Oh, great."
And now 3, and everything is easy.
And then 3 is just the terrible 2s but they're smarter.
-That's so true. -Yeah, they have more guile.
It's awful. -Yeah.
-So, you -- This is a film -- This an autobiographical film
by Steven Spielberg.
You are playing a version of his father.
This is the first time you've played a dad since being a dad.
Does that affect your approach to it at all?
-Yeah. It was actually really nice.
I mean, the film I had done before that, "The Batman,"
I play The Riddler, and that's, like, whole different bag.
You're not taking your family to work with you.
If anything, you're trying to create enough separation.
So -- And this was kind of the first time where
it was not about my past or what I'm digging up from my life
or, like,, something.
It was like, "Oh, this is me now."
I mean, it's not, but it is. It's Burt.
But, you know, what it means to be in a marriage,
to be a partner, to be a parent.
And that felt really good to
bring that part of myself to work.
-One of the great things about this film
is it talks about how, you know, a father
introduces his son to film,
which becomes, like, a life-long love affair.
Do you -- Have you started introducing
the 4-year-old to art yet?
-Well, we do -- On the weekends, we watch movies.
We make popcorn and we'll watch a movie.
So, she gets, like, a little more screen time on the weekend.
-Yeah. -So we'll do a movie.
We haven't gone to the theater yet.
I don't know if that's because she's, like, a pandemic kid.
She was 1 1/2 when the pandemic hit.
And, I mean, I can't wait to do that.
Her mind will be blown.
I mean, anticipation is not her thing.
Like, so, you know, it still needs to be
a pretty benign, you know, film, yeah.
-Do you put a lot of -- Like, do you and Zoe --
Do you stress about picking the movie?
Because that's where we are,
because we don't have a lot of screen time.
So when we show them a movie,
we want to make sure it doesn't stink.
-We stress, but there's so many choices on these things,
you know, and then that's hard in itself,
and then I get sucked into it and you're scrolling forever.
And then she's got her opinions, which are very strong,
as I've already, you know -- And, you know, usually,
yeah, we just -- It's like, "Okay, I want her to be happy."
You know, it's a tough line to --
-I want them to be happy, but, mostly,
I just want them to be quiet for two hours.
-I'm glad you said it.
-Yeah, just anything. -I'm glad you said it.
Yeah. Yeah.
-I want it to be the, like, kind of thing
that will engage them but not be
so smart they have to ask me a question.
Did you -- I mean, it also must be crazy
to be working with Spielberg, because I'm assuming
it's similar for both of us, which is those are
the movies I feel like I grew up on.
-One of my favorite movie-theater memories is,
I was living in a town in Connecticut.
"Jurassic Park" was going to be so big.
The lines were going to be so big down the block.
My mom took me out of school that Friday early
so I could go see the matinee.
And for a kid to get to miss school
to go see a movie was, like, the coolest thing.
So that is one of my profound theater-going memories
is seeing "Jurassic Park."
-You -- Those, of course, were not real dinosaurs,
but you did get to work with a real monkey in this film.
-What a transition, Seth. Wow. -Thank you very much.
-Yeah. Wow. -This is not a CGI monkey.
This is a real monkey. -No.
-And it turns out, a pretty well-credentialed monkey.
-Crystal's got a better résumé than I do.
-Crystal. This is Crystal. Has own Wikipedia page.
This, by the way -- IMDb page, as well.
Can I read you something that I found very --
"Crystal the Monkey is no small bananas.
In just five of her movies,
she holds a box-office gross of over $2.5 billion."
Like, I love that she has a Hollywood publicist,
who is, like, adding up the movies
and being like, "It's over $2.5 billion."
How was Crystal? Attitude? Diva?
-Crystal was good.
Crystal's trailer was bigger than mine.
But aside from that, Crystal was good.
You know, monkeys can be very well-trained.
You just can't train them to go to the bathroom.
-Uh-huh. Yep.
-So they wear a diaper when they're not on camera.
-Right.
-But when they are on camera, they're wearing no diapers.
So you just sort of --
-You're just sort of crossing your fingers?
-You're on watch. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-But you're also on Steven's set,
so you're going the act like you are just going to do your job
and buck up and -- Yeah.
-Right. That's true.
The things that Steven has put his actors through
over the years, you can't be, like,
squeamish about a little monkey [bleep]
-Yeah. That's right. That's right. Yeah.
-You did play The Riddler, as you mentioned.
And we talked about the fact that it was a really cool thing
to take on because you're a comic-book fan.
And then you wrote your own Riddler comic, "Year One,"
which is so wonderful.
I know you worked on it during the film, right?
-Yeah. So, it started -- I do, like, a backstory
where kind of to get to Page 1 of the script.
And I like to try to bring the life
that's been lived with me, right?
And all that.
And, so, I thought, "Oh, it could be a comic."
And, luckily, the director, Matt Reeves,
also said, "That should be a comic."
And I said, "Yeah."
You know, that's secretly what I was thinking.
-I've been lucky enough to do this once, as well.
I think the most exciting thing is when
you actually get the art back, right?
I mean, you -- I'm not saying it's easy to write a comic,
but, obviously, we both know the artist
is working so much harder than we are.
And it is so -- Stevan did such an incredible job.
-Yeah, this guy, Stevan Subic -- He is a Serbian guy.
He's not done a comic here in the U.S.
He is fantastic. It's been so fun.
When I get an e-mail with a new page,
I just light up, you know, seeing what he has done.
It's so fun.
-And, yet, still can't share it with your kids.
Too adult for your kids. -That's true.
Not a bedtime story, that one.
-It's pretty funny that you're like, "Daddy writes comics."
"Can we see them?" "No."
-Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
-"You can call up my friend Crystal the Monkey.
You can talk to her."
Congratulations on the film. -Thanks.
-Congratulations on the comic
and especially on your growing family.
Thanks for being here. -Thanks. Appreciate it.
-Always such a pleasure. Paul Dano, everybody.
"The Fabelmans" is in theaters and on demand now.
We'll be right back with more "Late Night."