-Greg Kinnear, welcome back to "The Tonight Show."
It is great to see you in person.
-Good to see you.
I have an earworm in my head right now.
It goes a little something like this.
♪ I still don't understand NFTs ♪
-I'm telling you, right? How talented was she, right?
-It's never going to leave my mind.
No, yeah, it's the new "We Don't Talk About Bruno."
Yeah, it's giant. -Yeah.
-Thanks for being here, bud. You look great.
How's the fam? -Everybody's good.
Everybody's good.
We've -- You know, I haven't seen you
since this whole crazy lockdown
and everything we've been through.
-I'm so happy that you're well. -Yeah, everybody's good.
I have -- Lockdown with six daughters is tricky.
Three daughters, sorry. -Okay, thank you.
-Three daughters.
Felt like six daughters. -Wow.
-But, yeah, we managed to get through it.
You have daughters. -How old are you daughters?
-They're all teenagers. [ Audience murmuring ]
-Wow.
Yeah, everyone's feeling it. -That's an appropriate reaction.
-Everybody -- Wow.
So three teenage daughters you were in lockdown with.
-Yes, exactly.
So we did everything -- My wife and I, we tried to --
you know, especially in the early days, we did the dress-up,
we did little bake-offs before dinner,
and we did culture night.
And, you know, it devolved into, you know,
"Honey, tell the table your
thorn and rose for the day."
That's, like, your -- That's the good thing and bad thing
that happened to you in the day.
And they're teenagers.
They don't want to be asked that question, Jimmy.
-No.
-And I don't know what a serial killer looks like,
but the looks that I was getting back.
-From your own daughters.
-I mean, it was -- I had to get out.
I had to abandon ship
and find a way out of the house wherever I could.
-Yeah. When they finally eased up on the lockdown,
you did something that I probably would never do.
-Yeah, I had a friend --
Well, you would if you were in my situation.
I had a friend call me, and he said,
"Look, we've got six guys going about 40 miles off the coast
of Cuba to go free diving.
That's diving without scuba equipment,
without any apparatus.
It's open water. It's dangerous.
You're gonna have to sign a life waiver.
You could die."
I was like, "I'm in."
"Get me out of this house."
-That fast. That fast.
-Yeah, no, it was really -- But it was crazy.
At some point -- Because I couldn't get
as far down as these guys could.
So I'm in the mid-water. They're in the deep water.
Here's the top. -Yeah.
-And I'm starting to see shadows.
And these are -- these are sharks.
And they're not -- It's not just, like, a few sharks.
It's not like, "Oh, my God, a shark!"
There are a plethora of sharks.
And I wasn't told about it.
I didn't know about it. I had no idea about it.
-What are you talking about?
-Yeah, there's sharks in the water.
-I understand, but that's frightening. What --
-I don't know how to explain it any better, Jimmy.
There's sharks. -I know, I know. There's sharks.
But then how do you get out of there?
-Well, you have to -- You -- Well, first of all,
you know, when you do plunge up and you're struggling for air,
and the guys come up, and they're like,
"Greg, listen, relax.
This is their environment. This is their habitat.
This is their home."
And, you know, I'm thinking,
"Well, maybe we shouldn't be in their home."
-Yeah.
-And maybe we should -- But, no, you have to just realize
that the fear that you send off
is the thing that attracts them.
So you have a, like -- You have an electricity.
Jimmy Fallon has electricity.
-Uh-huh. -And I think America knows that.
-Thank you. -But I think --
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I appreciate it. Thank you very much.
-I think we've known that.
So, you can't turn that electricity off.
When you're underwater and you're starting to feel, like,
sharks coming at you, they're --
You know, that adrenaline you feel actually sends out
to these predators a sign that you're on the menu.
So it's both good and bad.
-Well, I know you've won all these awards,
but, I mean, what -- Can you act not --
You're not fearful at all?
-I cannot do that. -You cannot do that.
-I cannot act not fearful. -Yeah, me neither.
Yeah, I cannot act not fearful.
-I not -- I not cannot act fearful.
-But, so, you saw these crazy sharks,
but here's the coolest thing.
You brought us a video. -Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is -- So, the guy hands me the camera,
and he says, "I'm gonna go down with the dudes."
And he swims down. I have a camera.
And this is actually -- This is in real time.
This is a -- -It's a free dive.
-This is just me cruising around.
-No, no, no, no. -Yeah, so, there --
-Greg -- -That's --
-Whoa! Sensed no fear, by the way.
-Yeah, yeah. -Sensed no fear. Came over.
He's like, "No, he's cool, he's cool.
That's frightening. -Yeah. That's scary stuff.
But that was like -- Honestly, there were --
It was a lot of sharks.
So, day four -- They promised this wouldn't happen.
I feel a tug and a sharp thing on my thigh.
-Stop. -Bull shark.
37 stitches on my thigh.
No, that's bull[bleep] I just wanted to tell...
-That's a good actor!
That's a great actor right there.
That's how you do it. We all fell for it. Oh, my God.
Bull shark.
I don't even know if that's a real shark.
-I don't think it is. I don't know.
As I was down there, I was like, "You know,
if there is an upside, if I were to get bitten,
it's a great thing to tell Jimmy."
-Oh, my gosh. You got me.
I want to talk about your new series, "Shining Vale."
-Yes. -This is with Courteney Cox.
-Yes! -We love Courteney Cox.
Come on. -I love Courteney.
[ Cheers and applause ] Great.
-Now, as far as -- There's a part of the show
where it's horror stuff in the show.
-Yes. There's horror. There's comedy.
There's drama. It's a mystery.
-Are you easily scared or just no?
-You know, I'm not.
Courteney Cox is very -- What a sweetheart.
I mean, she's so vulnerable and so easy.
We're shooting in this, you know,
very kind of scary, gothic house,
and she genuinely does -- You wouldn't think that,
'cause she's done, like, the "Scream" stuff,
but she's really easy to scare.
And I got great. That turned into a sport for me.
-Oh, yeah.
Yeah. You think the bull-shark story was one thing?
Yeah, wait till you really get scared by it.
-Yeah, yeah. It was great.
-But what can you tell people about the show?
-Well, you have to -- I don't actually see the --
It's a family that's in New York.
And they -- My wife has had an indiscretion,
and the family is trying to rebuild themselves.
So we move.
And lot of people are doing this.
They're moving out of these big cities into faraway places,
and what happens is, your problems follow you.
So, they move out to Connecticut, in this house,
trying to get a new lease.
And there's a -- She thinks that
there's something in the house.
I don't believe her. -Yeah.
-So I don't actually get to be scared,
but I'm studying how -- all my scared looks,
'cause that's great stuff to do, you know?
-Like, what's a scared -- Like, what?
There's more than one scared look?
-Well, there's the standard horror stuff, like --
you know, like the quick jump, and then it's okay,
where you go -- [ Gasps ]
You know, that happens early in the movie.
And then there's -- [ Laughter ]
There's the sound from the other room,
where you're like -- You have to look --
It's important you look this way.
-Uh-huh. -And then...
The eyebrow is key in that.
You try it. -Yeah, yeah. Wait. Sorry.
-You're over here,
and then you're gonna hear something over there.
Okay, that's very good.
That's very good.
The mother of all, obviously, is the great horror realization
that everything you thought was scary is scary in the house.
And that requires -- I mean, this is the full Monty.
So that would require something like
you're looking straight ahead, and then...
-Oh, my God.
-You have to -- You have to unhinge.
-You actually moved your ears.
-You have to unhinge the jaw. That's the key.
-You moved your ears on that one.
That was amazing acting right there.
-If I ever see the ghost in "Shining Vale," I'm ready.
I'm ready to go. -Yeah, yeah.
I want to show everyone a clip.
Here is the great Greg Kinnear and Courteney Cox
in "Shining Vale."
Take a look.
-What's up?
-Nothing, nothing.
I'm just admiring your
toddler-trapped-under-a Toyota-like strength
and our newly gouged floors.
-I know you don't want to hear this, but we have a ghost,
and I'm pretty sure she lives in this closet.
-Oh.
-Gaynor, I'm sorry to freak you out.
-I'm cool. -Okay, okay.
Let's -- let's assume we do have a ghost, Pat.
And let's say that that ghost lives right there,
in this closet.
Do you really think that this armoire situation
is the best way to keep her from haunting us?
-Don't condescend. -Mm-hmm.
-The armoire's a stopgap measure.
-Great. Ghost problem solved.
Let's have breakfast.
[ Door creaks ] -Oh! Aah!
[ Door creaks ]
-I guess I do get to do it. I forgot.
-You Greg Kinnear, everybody!
"Shining Vale" premieres
this Sunday at 10:00 p.m. on Starz.