-Our first guest tonight is a talented actress
you know from shows like "Brockmire" and "Dirty John."
She created and wrote the new series "The Chair,"
which is streaming now on Netflix.
Let's take a look.
-You look at your evaluations yet?
-Yes.
-And what did they say?
-That I'm too exciting.
Wait a minute. Was he always in here?
-Oh, I haven't had time to redecorate.
-I gave him a hand job in his car when I got tenure,
to celebrate.
-That's the president of the college from like 1924.
-Ooh, looks like the guy I gave a hand job to.
-Also, how is that a celebration for you?
-Good point.
He owes me an orgasm, whoever he is.
-Please welcome back to the show and the studio
Amanda Peet, everybody.
♪♪
-Ow.
-Hi. -Hi.
-Lovely to see you.
-Lovely to see you. -Come on up!
-Hi, everybody!
[ Laughs ]
-It's a little strange. You get used to it really fast.
-Okay. -But I --
I notice something's a little different
since the last time I saw you.
You're all splinted up. What happened?
-So, I had an operation yesterday.
-Okay. -On --
I had -- I had tennis elbow.
-Okay, from playing tennis.
-From playing pickleball. -From playing pickleball.
-Yeah.
-Did you say it was tennis when the doctor asked?
-No, I --
-You copped to it being pickleball?
-I copped to it. But I'm realizing
now that I'm on this show,
and I spent this money on this half sweater --
-Yeah.
-...that --
[ Laughs ]
I went to a store, 'cause, like, my dress wouldn't --
The dress that I picked to come here didn't go over the thing.
-You didn't think ahead to that.
-Well, I thought I had,
but I didn't realize how huge it was going to be.
So then I walked into the store,
and the nice gentleman showed me this.
[ Laughs ] -So he -- Did he know?
Did they have that in, like, the pickle elbow section?
-Yes. The pickle elbow section?
I'm wearing it backwards, too,
'cause the hole was on the wrong side.
-Oh, so it is -- So you didn't cut off an arm?
That is an actual -- Well, I don't know!
They really had --
Well, it just seems amazing to me that you'd walk into a store
and the guy would be like, "We got exactly --"
-That's why it's crazy.
-That's amazing. -Yeah.
"Only in New York, baby."
-Yeah. "We got sweaters for no arms.
We got sweaters for three arms.
It's New York City. What do you want?"
[ Laughter ]
-Oh, my God. I love these people.
-Yeah, they're really nice.
You think, like, it couldn't be worse, but it could.
[ Laughter ]
Imagine if they weren't here.
-Yeah. So, the point of what I'm saying is,
I'm not good enough
to warrant all of this -- this -- this operation.
-Good enough at pickleball? -Pickleball.
-Yeah. -And this whole discussion
that we're having right now.
-But you must play it enough to put wear and tear
on the elbow, right? -Yes.
Like, it's a very bad combination of cockiness...
-Yeah. -...and old age.
-Oh, so now that's interesting,
cause I do think, right, like, as you get older
and this happens to me with sports, too,
like, what it takes to, like, make you injured goes down.
So how often --
-I literally waved to the surgeon,
and I said, "See you in -- See you next year."
-Yeah. -[ Laughs ]
-How often would you say you played --
Is this once a week you're playing pickleball?
-I did -- I started playing about three times a week.
I became obsessed.
-Okay, gotcha. -I did.
-Do you play with the same people all of the time?
-Yes. -And how are they doing
physically? -They're fine.
[ Laughter ]
-Are they the same age?
-Yes! -Okay.
-But one of them was a star tennis player.
-Gotcha. Do you think this was a technique issue?
Like, do you think if you got some pickleball instruction,
you could maybe put less wear on the elbow?
-Apparently it's to do with old age.
It's, like, something to do with having a weak shoulder,
so then you overcompensate by using your --
-Gotcha. -Your --
Is anybody still awake?
-Was it -- Was it the most embarrassing
when you told the people you played with,
because they know exactly how good you are?
-It was most embarrassing when I went to the surgeon,
and he brought back the pictures.
-[ Laughs ] Okay, gotcha.
Was it just pictures of people playing pickleball?
-'Cause he does people -- He does, like, the Mets and stuff.
-Gotcha. -And so I was like,
"I know your rate of success
with 20-year-olds who are genius athletes.
I need to know you can fix an old lady."
-Yeah. "And I want you to know, you can fix this old lady
who will never do any of the rehab, and intend --
I intend --" Are you going to do the rehab?
-I have to do the rehab! The rehab is everything.
-Are you that kind of person that is actually going to do it?
-Well, otherwise, I feel like this is --
He just did this part. Now I have to do the rest.
-Oh, my gosh. Well, I wish you the best of luck.
We really want to see you back out there.
-That's why I bought this sweater.
[ Laughter ]
-Hey, congratulations on this show.
This is a wonderful show that you co-wrote.
-Thank you. -And it's about --
You have Sandra Oh, first of all.
-Yeah. -And you got Sandra Oh
through your friend Sarah Paulson, yeah?
-Yes. She made some calls for me, as she sometimes does.
-Okay. And so, had you known Sandra Oh before --
'Cause she seems so perfect for the part.
-Yes, we had met a couple of times.
I knew her peripherally, but I didn't have her phone number.
-Okay, so you got her phone number.
-So -- No, no. I just had Sarah do it.
-You had Sarah call and be like, "Do you want to do this show?"
-Or she DM'd -- What do you people do who are --
-We are exactly the same age.
Don't try to --
My doctor told me I can't even play pickleball.
That's my age. -Really?
-He's like, "It'll go right away."
-It'll go right away. -No, not really.
-"This will go right away." -Yeah, as like everything --
-Well, I thought maybe you had an injury.
-You -- But you got so -- -'Cause there's a lot of torque,
you know, and it's -- -So she DM'd?
-Okay. Yeah. I'll go back to that.
She DM'd --
-I just feel like I would like to go back,
'cause I feel like we've already put a lot of time
into pickleball. -I know, and it's not,
like I said, commensurate with --
-Yeah.
-Yeah. Okay.
Paulson is my dear friend.
-Mm-hmm. -And she also sort of acts like
my casting director/agent/Jewish grandmother.
-Oh, that's a nice combo of things.
-Yeah, yeah. -And then I --
Well, you know, I couldn't help but notice Holland Taylor,
her partner, is in this, as well, in the clip, no less.
-Yes. -And so how did --
She help you do that, as well? -Of course she did.
-Wow. So Sarah Paulson should really --
Did she get a special thanks in this?
-She --
Thank you, Bird.
I'm thanking her here and now.
-There's a real coup --
There's a real casting coup in this show.
'Cause it's about an English department at a college,
at a fictional college, it should be noted,
but beautifully shot at Carnegie Mellon?
-We were at Chatham. -Chatham.
And here's your friend, I guess I don't know if you know him,
but David Duchovny shows up as a version of himself,
in that Speedo.
-Well, so, you know he wore a red Speedo in the "X-Files."
-Yeah. -And I asked him --
begged him to do this part, but then I thought of this idea,
"What if he was in the red Speedo?"
But then I realized I had to make that phone call to him.
-So he'd already said yes, but he didn't know the Speedo part.
-Yeah, well, I hadn't thought of it yet.
-Yeah. That's your story. -So then I practiced
my phone call -- -Yeah.
-I practiced my phone call to him,
but I really just felt like a sleazy director from the '70s.
-Right. You mean that you got, like, the young ingenue
to commit. -Yeah, and then I was going
to be like, "But the thing -- So the thing is, is like
you need to just wear your skivvies."
-Yeah. -But he said yes right away.
Because, I mean, look at his body.
-It's pretty impressive. I mean, I'm not going to lie.
I bet he was in that when you called.
-He was waiting by the phone.
He was just waiting for somebody to be like --
[ Laughter ]
-He must have been so happy.
-I was, like, "Is this uncomfortable?"
He was like, "No, no. Where do I need to be? What?"
-You -- Your husband, David Benioff, is a producer on this,
but this is your rodeo. This is your show.
He -- You know, he was a writer, creator of "Game of Thrones,"
and we've talked about the fact
that you kind of had to bear the burden of being a parent
for those many years.
Was he -- How did he do in his role?
-He was amazing. And, you know, I was in Pittsburgh.
-Yeah.
-And show running is intense.
-It's very intense.
-And so, he had all three kids.
And a couple of times, he --
He had, you know, a Zoom conference,
parent-teacher conference or something would happen,
and he would just start complaining
that he -- that it was too much, he was on his own,
and I would just be like [Stammers]
Nine years.
-Yeah. -Nine years...
-Yeah. -...you were in Belfast.
-Right. Yeah, not even Pittsburgh.
He was in Belfast.
Croatia, a lot of time in Croatia, right?
-Yeah, that, too. -Yeah.
-But, boy, was that fun. -Yeah, that must have been nice.
-Boy, was that fun in my marriage to just be like --
-Also, it must have been -- 'Cause we've done this, as well,
where, you know, as a parent you do a lot of Zoom things now,
and we complain about them,
forgetting that in regular times, you'd have to go places.
-I was at those things.
-Yeah. -With the other parents, alone,
schmoozing and ooh-ing and ahh-ing.
-And other parents were like,
"Should we ask her to play pickleball?"
And they were like, "She's too old."
"She'll fall apart."
I can't believe you found a one-armed sweater.
-I found a one-armed sweater!
It's, like, the greatest thing ever.
-I want to close by saying the show is fantastic,
and everybody should check it out.
You guys, that is Amanda Peet.
"The Chair" is available to stream
in its entirety on Netflix.