- I knew that "Stranger Things" was starting up again
in September, but they didn't need me until January.
And I was like, I have this wife and kids and I love them,
but I was also going to go crazy.
I was like, I can't stay here with you...
I don't know what I'm doing, I'm dying!
(Fortune and Papa chuckling)
- "This is, "What a Joke," - With Tom Papa
and Fortune Feimster - On Netflix is a Joke Radio.
- What happens in a career when all of a sudden,
like all the cool projects start lining up for you?
- Oh man. (Fortune laughs)
- When did you feel like, "Okay, this is clicking now."
"Now I'm going to get some good stuff."
- I mean, I thought it was clicking pretty much
after the first weekend that "Stranger Things" released,
the first season, it was clicking.
And then I tried to mess it up a bunch of times by choosing
some terrible things, (hosts laughing)
and trying to tank my own career.
- That's hilarious!
- People just kept coming back.
I mean, I'm an interesting path because I've been
in the movie/TV world for a solid 15 years
and working with big directors, like Ang Lee, Spielberg,
but like in very tiny roles, like eight and nine
on the call sheet type of thing.
- Yeah.
- So I think I had the groundwork of kind of understanding
what it was and then when that "Stranger Things"
allowed me to hit, yeah, things started to,
people start to respond and it was great.
- So great.
- When you read that "Stranger Things" pilot,
did it feel special?
Like, oh, this is...
- Yeah, I actually have an excellent sense of that stuff.
And most of my career has been me auditioning for things
going like, "This is going to be big," auditioning for it,
not getting it, and then, it being huge.
(Papa and Fortune chuckling)
And that's been like most of my career.
- Yeah!
- And then, I remember when we did "Brokeback Mountain,"
I have like a scene in "Brokeback Mountain."
I remember all the late night talk shows
were joking about gay Cowboys.
And I was like, you guys don't even know, this thing's
going to be the most beautiful movie of the year.
- Hm mm. - Wow!
- But everybody's sort of on of this idea,
I have a very good sense of that stuff,
and I read this script and I was like, this thing's amazing.
These guys don't even know, the creators,
don't even know how amazing it is.
- Wow.
(truck rumbling)
(tinny radio music playing)
- Good of you to show?
- Oh, hey morning, Flo, morning, everybody.
- Hey, Chief!
- Damn, you look like hell, chief.
- Oh yeah. - Yeah.
- Looks better than your wife when I left her this morning.
(deputy guffaws)
- While you were drinking or sleeping
or whatever it is you deem so necessary on Monday morning,
Phil Larson called said, some kids are stealing
the gnomes out of his garden again,
- Oh, those garden gnomes again.
Well, I'll tell you what I'm gonna get right on that.
- On a more pressing matter, Joyce Byers
can't find her son this morning.
- Hmm, okay, imma get on that,
just gimme a minute.
- Joyce is very upset.
- Flo, we've discussed this.
Mornings are for coffee and contemplation.
- Chief, she's in your-- - Coffee and contemplation.
Flo.
(footsteps falling)
I didn't think I would get it, but then when I did get it,
I actually went back today.
I was just going through my email, looking for something,
you know, you ever go back, can you just like, 2015?
What did I?
And then I'm lost in some weird chain
and it was a chain with them.
And we were just almost like kids, just like,
"Hey guys, well, that line is really great."
And they're going like, "Yeah, man, we think you're great."
And it was just this kind of love-fest between us.
But I knew what, right when I read it, I was like,
"This is very special," I mean, it's just felt very special.
- Yeah. - Did the, did the character,
was it very clear to you how you were going to go at it
because it's so natural and the cool thing
about your acting, there's like this tough guy thing,
but there's like this very real vulnerability
to all your roles at the same time.
Were you dialed in pretty quickly?
Was it clearly defined or did you have to
take a while to find it?
- A little bit of both, to be honest,
like I think I had the broad strokes pretty clear,
but it was one of these situations where,
as I say, I've occupied a certain space in Hollywood,
I guess you say, like where in films I could pay
my rent for my studio apartment based on a couple movies.
And this was the first time where I was like,
you can really swing for this or you can,
and I was like, you have to swing.
And what that means to me is that you actually
have to go to work and for me, that's like
sitting in a room alone for hours and hours
doing a lot of this internal work.
And I really wanted to swing.
I for sure was at the end of my rope.
I was 40, I hadn't really had the leading man career
that I thought I might be able to have.
And I was like, all right, "So go to work."
So at a certain point it was easy.
But also I did a lot of extra work
that you probably don't see,
but maybe resonates on some level.
- Oh, that's the coolest. - Yeah.
- That's a different level of acting
and it shows, that's why all of a sudden
you're like leaning in and you're watching it,
like, what are they up to? (Papa chuckling)
- Well, that's good.
I mean, I hope that you feel that way.
To me, that's the whole thing about acting as you do.
It's like somebody told me about some painting years ago,
you paint an orange and then you just paint over it
like a million, all these layers of paint.
And then it becomes a sunset,
but you call the painting "Orange."
So that, that to me is what it's about,
like layering paint, but it's stuff that you don't see.
It's just like hours and hours and hours
of layering this paint, hopefully it resonates
on a certain level. - Right!
- But I do find that when I do that work,
people respond to it more than when I just say the lines
kind of like, I'm done that work.
Like the work actually matters,
you can feel if it's real or not.
(hosts chuckling)
- Yeah, that's my approach.
Fake it.
(all laughing)
- I mean, you do, it does, okay.
I do that sometimes do that, it depends on the job.
You're like, "Ah, you gotta get through this."
(Papa and Fortune chuckling)
(transition whooshes)
(note crumbling)
- So we can build an environment where we all feel
comfortable and trusted and open--
- Share our feelings...
- To sharing our feelings.
This isn't going to work, that's not gonna work.
It's not gonna work.
- Yes it will, I promise.
Oh, come on?
Lemme just kill Mike.
I'm a chief of police, I could cover it up.
- Got this, I promise.
(melancholy music)
- You wanna have dinner tonight?
You can give me some more pointers.
(Joyce guffaws)
- Um, I have plans.
- Okay, sure.
- Oh, got someone.
Hey, Carol!
Hey, so good to see you.
- So, um, Georgie has his third--
(speaker's words drowned by music)
♪ She's got you ♪
- Were you filming stuff during the thick of the pandemic?
- Yeah, it was weird.
I mean, you're walking around in these masks,
thinking, and everybody's got masks, it feels like,
you're in an alien world.
It feels like you're in the "Stranger Things"
lab or something.
Like we got used to each other and we were all tested.
And then we had one scene where I had to walk
through a hallway with like 200 extras
and I had to walk through this long hallway
and we're setting up and then we're like,
"All right, masks off!" and they all took off their masks
and we rolled and I was like, "Oh God, oh God!"
(all laughing)
Run!
- Man, I know we were prime targets for "Stranger Things,"
but man, it was such a great experience.
It really got us--
- It was like right in your wheelhouse?
- Yeah, like all of that summer, you know,
like all those throwback things hit me--
- Nostalgia. - in such a great way
from being a teenager and then my kids
were just like into it for it just being great.
It just such a great combination.
I think it literally was the last thing
we all watched together.
(Papa chuckles) - Yeah.
- Yeah, it's super watchable.
- So when Zach come back,
(David laughs)
does he come back? (Fortune laughs)
- To be determined, well yeah.
We've shot a tremendous amount of it.
- Oh yeah? - One day we will release it.
- Yeah. - But yeah, I mean,
it's become this huge monster of a thing,
COVID and everything, but hopefully as soon as possible,
but I don't know when that means.
- It's trippy to see the kids though.
Like when I go on their Instagram, how big they've gotten,
I'm like, "Oh my God, they're like little adults now."
- Yeah!
- And we're still trying to shoot the show.
So it's like you put them in like a bowl cut
and it kind of works.
(Fortune chuckling) - Yeah!
- And you put me on like an apple box.
You put them in a little bowl cut.
- That's hilarious.
- Finn's like a model for like Louis Vuitton or somewhere.
I can't remember, I'm like, "Oh, wow."
- All I know, I saw him on a billboard
like the other day I was like,
"This is that little idiot running around the first season."
Now he's like-- (interviewers laughing)
- Yeah, all model, suit on--
- All cute like, I'm like, "Oh, it's horrible."
- Uh!
(all chuckling)
(cheerful music)