-Congratulations on a sixth season of "The Blacklist."
-Thank you. -It's amazing.
-You've got Glenda Jackson here tonight.
-How exciting is that? I mean, I'm very excited
you're here, don't get me wrong. -Yeah.
-But Glenda Jackson, yeah. I'm glad.
-Because I want to see -- is she going to talk about "King Lear"?
-Yes, she's playing King Lear. -I know, I can't wait to see it.
-You'll go see it, though? -Yeah, of course.
I saw her in "Three Tall Women."
-"Three Tall Women" was amazing.
Do you go to a lot of Broadway shows?
-You know, I try. I mean, things are busy.
-Yeah. You're so busy,
do you have time to even watch the news?
Can you even do that?
-I don't watch the news. -Yeah.
-I don't watch the news at all. I read the news.
And, you know, I read it every day.
-It comes out every day. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
But I -- I don't know, I read a lot of news.
You know, I don't know. It goes in cycles for me.
I'm having a terrible conundrum now of how to process the news.
-Yeah. -Today.
-I don't think you're alone. A lot of --
-Right. And so, you know, so I sometimes -- but I vacillate,
like, in all things in my life,
I have never figured out moderation
in any way, shape, or form.
And it's that way with the news as well,
where it's either for me just consuming a ton of it
and trying to figure out a way to, you know,
put it together and process it and get rid of it.
And then that, or sometimes it just has to be a blackout.
I'll skip the first section of the paper,
I'll go right to, you know, the later sections.
-Do you feel better on those days?
-In some ways. -Yeah.
-I think that the certain things in the news are being --
we're seeing too much of it. Especially --
Sometimes I succumb to the 24-hour news cycle.
-Yeah. -Which, I'm very envious of you.
Because I was thinking about this tonight.
You know, I was actually talking to the producer backstage
about the fact that you're forced to process it.
I mean, you really -- -Yes.
[ Laughter ]
-And in a way, it's tremendously digestive.
-Oh, yeah. -You can consume it,
you can metabolize it, and then you can [bleep] it out.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-You know what I mean? And get rid of it.
-Yeah. And I get to [bleep] it out in front of an audience.
-Right, right, right.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Fantastic. Anyway...
-I want to talk about simpler times.
Because one of my favorite things about when you
come on the show is you have wonderful stories
about growing up.
And I want to ask, you took a lot of family trips
with your family, as you do with family trips.
And I -- because I'm excited about traveling with my kids.
Your family went to Europe.
You would drive around in a VW, what, van?
-Van. Yeah.
-How is that? -VW bus.
-A VW bus. That's so Bohemian.
-The Vanagon was the first VW van.
And we didn't have a Vanagon. I wanted a Vanagon.
It just felt great. There was a popup thing.
-Yeah. -There was, you know,
anything that had a fridge in it seemed great.
But, you know, I...
yes, the VW bus was our transport.
My parents were teachers, and we didn't really have much money.
You know, they didn't earn very much money.
But what we did have is every seven years,
they got a sabbatical,
which means that you get a paid vacation, basically.
And they went to Europe because we have cousins,
Italian cousins, and so we'd go over to --
For the two sabbaticals when I was growing up,
that there were, we went over to Europe both times.
And both times we picked up a -- we got a van --
a Volkswagen bus, and we drove around Europe,
and then the Volkswagen bus became our car
back in the States.
-It was such a hit that you got one in the states?
-No, no, that car became -- that bus
became our car in the United States both times.
-You brought it back? -It was a trip to Europe,
and the car buying -- you know, we drove around --
-You went to Europe to buy your car?
-To drive around Europe.
-Yeah, no, I understand that part.
That's the normal part. [ Laughter ]
-And then it would come back with us.
-That's not the normal part.
-Then it would come back with us.
-Gotcha. -And it was great
because for me, these are the --
this was in the days sort of before seat belts.
I mean, the '50s. I wasn't born when the seat belts started.
But it was before --
It was still when you're ignoring seat belts.
-Gotcha. [ Laughter ]
They had them, but nobody thought they mattered.
-Yeah. They were something that you sort of like --
You're sitting on something, you want to get rid of it.
But I never experienced a seat belt, really,
because my domain was the wayback.
You know the wayback? The wayback. That's what I had.
-Okay. -Which, I think
that's changed now. -Okay, the wayback,
meaning just the way back of the van?
-Yeah, it's where the suitcases and kids go.
-Okay, gotcha. -And you're just like --
And at that point, because you didn't have to be seated,
belted into anything. There weren't seats.
The wayback was just a space for luggage, you know?
And you would go back in there.
-So you would just sit amongst the luggage?
-Yeah, I'd be -- if you're in the wayback, you take a pillow.
-Yeah. -You know, so you'd have
a pillow back there. And a bunch of suitcases
up -- and you know, it's, like, a space
a little bit smaller than this. -Yeah.
-So, you know, you're sort of, like...
-Yeah. -You got a pillow.
-Yeah. That doesn't look that bad.
-You know, I mean, it's fantastic when you're a kid.
-Yeah. -So that couch is
the same sort of ratio --
-I feel like you're trying to sell me a van right now.
[ Laughter ] -I am.
Vans are a great fantasy.
I could have lived in the wayback.
Yes. Anyway, that was --
and also that became the last VW bus that we drove around Europe
and then came back and brought it back with us.
That became my first car. -Really?
-Yeah. And it was fantastic because I went to this school
in Massachusetts.
It was a big, huge, sort of college-sized boarding school,
but I was a day student. I lived in the next town over.
And I had a Volkswagen bus. It was crazy, you know?
-I mean, you were like the towny kid with a bus?
-With a bus, yeah.
-I mean, you must have been the coolest kid at that school.
-Well...
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
We'll talk about that next time. James Spader, everybody!