- That's all the questions that I've got.
- Thank fucking god (beep sound).
(upbeat guitar music)
- Today we're gonna have a chat with Joe Pantoliano.
Now he's an actor.
You've seen him in a ton of things.
He been in "The Matrix", he was in "Daredevil",
he was in "Goonies,"
a whole bunch of stuff.
"Sopranos" too.
So we're gonna talk to him about his career.
There he is.
- Hi Tom.
- Come on in, how are you?
Welcome, welcome!
We gotta talk to him about his book.
He's got a brand new book coming out
and even a viral video he was in last year.
- You're a lot thinner in person.
You've photographed really fat.
(laughs)
- You look the same to me.
How do you know?
I'd recognize you anywhere (laughs).
So welcome, it's nice to have you here.
Thanks very much for coming.
- Oh, thank you Tommy, I'm happy to be here.
- So you got a brand new book coming out?
- Yap, it's called "Asylum"
and the byline is Hollywood tales
through my great depression.
Mental disease, recovery,
and also being my mother's son.
And what I inherited, that I never fully understood
until I had this breakdown about four years ago.
Up until then, I just thought that the way I felt
was a character flaw in my personality.
That there was something wrong with me.
- Now I saw an excerpt online,
and you were doing an audiobook.
- Then David said,
"Joey, the character's name is Ralph Cifaretto
and well, he's a scumbag."
But hey, they're all scumbags.
- What was it like to record that?
I mean, is it different than acting
or doing something like that?
To sit and just read your own words?
- Yeah it is.
And you know, for me,
with the dyslexia,
even though I've written it,
sometimes things come out backwards
or I have to do three or four tries.
- Peter left little Billy and the twins
off of a navy blue dress in the Lincoln bedroom,
Gore wouldn't have to worry about Florida.
- The little demo we shot,
you could actually see me struggling (laughs).
So I think we need to put a disclaimer up saying,
"The effects of dyslexia."
- You don't see these folks,
their Secret Service.
These guys wanna shoot you.
If you try standing up,
I will throw you through this fucking window (laughs).
(upbeat piano music)
- Who do you like to watch on screen?
Who lights you up?
Who is the, you know, the actor or actress you go,
"My God, so special, so good"?
- You know, I'm glad that you asked that question.
I think that society, doesn't think that way anymore.
You know people, I think audiences today,
don't look at actors with the kind of reverence
that we did 20 years ago,
like for instance, Brando, you know,
Brando came in and before Brando was thought that,
Lawrence Olivia was the greatest actor
and before Olivia it was Barrymore.
But there's a guy I think the most exciting
new comer to film acting,
since Brando, is a guy named Tom Hardy,
I think he's going to be, a make a splash
and have a career that is so stunning
because he's virtually the kind of actor
that I don't recognize from one movie to the next.
- So last year you were in this viral video,
you were in his giant video that blew up on YouTube.
(dishes clattering) (people gasping)
- How'd that happen?
What was that?
- We were shooting a potential reality show
around a friend of mine
who has a restaurant in Carmel and his family.
And I actually, set up the situation
while we were shooting to surprise everyone.
And it was the girl, one of the waitresses
who dropped the tray of food on me and Pepe.
And it somehow, you know, went viral
and people love seeing celebrities
in uncomfortable situations, getting hurt, you know.
- So wait a minute now, a lot of people were saying,
this is fake or this is stage or whatever, is that true?
- Not well it was half true.
I just put the girl up to it,
and everybody else was surprised.
- So you knew it was coming?
- Yeah, it's like story theater.
(dishes clattering) (people gasping)
(upbeat music)
- So let me ask you, what do you look like?
- Can I cross and let him feel it?
Feel my face and my you know,
- Do like they do in moves. - Let's see.
- Like in the movies.
Like we do in the movies?
- Yeah.