-Our next guest is a talented actor and writer you know
from shows like "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."
He stars in Season 4 of "A.P. Bio,"
which is now streaming on Peacock.
Let's take a look. -That's the thing with cults.
I mean, they do start out idyllic.
I mean, who doesn't love dancing and fresh lettuce.
Look, we need year five of a cult,
where there's a bunch of pantless children running around
firing guns, and everyone's foraging for Dumpster lettuce.
We've got to make Durbin think you guys are way more disturbed.
-Maybe we could hang after school,
try to dig a little deeper?
I recently realized I've been lying to myself
for years about having shredded abs.
I don't.
-Please welcome back to the show Glenn Howerton.
How are you, Glenn? -Good, buddy.
How are you? -I'm great.
It's always delightful to see you.
I want to talk about the show, but I really want to talk,
before we get to it, about the new additions to your family.
-Ah, the doggies? -Yeah, you have two dogs.
And this is new for you in your life.
-Yes, this is a very new thing for me.
I grew up with cats.
I've never had a dog in my entire life.
And my wife talked me into it.
And she talked me into one,
and then she, a couple months later,
talked me into getting a second one.
Now she's talking about a third. And I'm like, "Stop.
Stop it. It's too much." Come on, you know.
-How much of a gap between the first talking-into
and the second talking-into was there?
-I'd say, about maybe eight months, tops.
We had the first dog for about eight months
before I got talked into a second dog.
-But, overall, what would you say
is the big difference, being a cat person all your life,
and now entering the canine world?
-Truth be told, I've done a complete and total 180.
I used to --- I used to like cats,
because, I don't know, I just thought it was kinda cool
that cats were so standoffish
and you had to kind of seduce a cat.
You know, cat's not just gonna come to you.
You have to kind of like play games with the cat.
I thought that was kinda sexy and fun.
But with dogs -- I mean,
I always thought, with dogs,
I'm like, "Too easy. It's too easy."
They run up to you, they slobber all over you,
lick you, jump on you.
You know, like, "Get your dirty paws off me.
You're a little desperate." You know what I mean?
-Yeah, yeah. You have two boys as well.
We have that in common.
You mentioned they're getting older.
My kids -- My oldest is 5 1/2. So there's nothing he is into
in regards to youth culture that I don't understand yet.
But I feel like you're -- How scary is it
when you realize that you don't know what they're talking about?
-[ Laughs ] The most recent thing was,
my kids suddenly were like, "Dad, that's so sus.
That's so sus."
I was like, "What is that word you're using?
Sus? What are you saying?"
And apparently, "sus" means, like, "suspect."
-Oh, man. -"It's very suspect."
That's what they were saying.
So it's like -- It's every generation.
You get into your 40s, and all of a sudden,
you just -- you have so many responsibilities,
you got so much going on, I can't keep up
with what the hell all the kids are talking about these days.
-And you really, at that point when they use "sus,"
you have two awful choices. The first is just owning up
that you don't know what "sus" means,
and the other is trying to fake it till you make it,
which makes you seem even older than you actually are.
I think kids can see right through that.
-[ Chuckling ] Yeah.
I think you're totally right. At first, I thought, "'Sus' --
Do I need to suss out what that means?
Or is that what it means?
They don't know that word."
"I don't know what you're saying."
-You -- On "A.P. Bio," congratulations on Season 4.
Obviously, you're around child actors.
Well, not child actors, right? They're not "kid" kids.
Let's be honest.
-Yeah, I mean, they were -- Some of them were
in their late teens and early 20s when we started.
And now some of them are, like, in their 40s or something.
[ Laughter ] They're all -- I think --
I do think a couple of them are in their 30s, though.
[ Laughter ]
Like, Nick, who plays Marcus --
that kid has to shave like three times a day.
-Yeah. -It's crazy.
-His son just auditioned for us.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah. It's great, though.
But it's the same thing with those kids.
You know, they, like, sit around in their little circles.
You know what I mean. I hang out with the adults
'cause I don't know what those guys are talk--
They're in their 20s and 30s, and most of them are single,
and I don't know what they're talking about.
I can't follow. -You know, I miss
having my writers in the building,
because they're still -- they're working remotely.
And that's the most jarring thing,
when they're around, is that reminder.
'Cause you actually feel young as long as you're
never in the same room as people younger than you.
That's the key to staying young at heart.
-Do you have this thing where, like -- I mean,
I still, in some ways, I can't accept the fact that --
Like, I still feel like I'm in my 20s.
And it's not until I'm around people
who are actually in their 20s that I go, "Oh, no, no, no.
I'm very, very old now. I guess I'm old."
-It's amazing that every --
I feel like you and I are very similar.
We're like, "Yeah, but we're gonna be young forever."
And then it's like, "No, we're not interested."
[ Laughs ] -No.
And you know, I do a pretty good job
of keeping up with what's going on with music,
or so I think. I don't like a lot of pop music,
but I try to listen to really cool stuff.
And I'll play it in the car, but my kids make me turn it off
as we're pulling up to the school,
'cause they don't want the door opening
and whatever I'm blasting out of my car to come out.
I'm like, "This is cool stuff, man.
This is, like, good music."
-Yeah, I feel like, even with the music,
they only show us the stuff that they don't want.
It's not the Glengarry leads that we get with new music.
It's like, "You'll like this."
And you're like, "Hey, it's the new music."
And then they're like, "No, that was the bad music."
[ Laughter ] -I really appreciate
you making a "Glengarry Glen Ross" reference.
-Well, 'cause that's what kids are into.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah, the 1990s "Glengarry Glen Ross"?
-They like the play. -Right.
-So, you -- Speaking of, so, you --
We talked about this, that you were, you know,
formally trained as an actor, went to Juilliard,
and did some really serious stuff,
and now not just with "A.P. Bio" but with this incredible
record-setting run on "Always Sunny."
Are you surprised that your sort of early acting chops
have led down this comedy path? -Yeah, absolutely.
What happens? You know what i mean?
I was supposed to be taken seriously.
I was on the path to becoming
a very serious and well-respected actor.
-[ Chuckles ] -And then I decided
to be a clown. No, I --
When I look back on it now, I realize I was in a group
of, like, very, very serious actors.
I was always seeking out the one or two actors
who I could just make jokes with and mess around with,
because everything we were doing was so serious.
We were doing classical theater. I actually do love that stuff.
But there's got to be, like, a release valve.
And I'm firmly of the mind that, like,
even when you're doing a drama, acting is supposed to be fun.
I could be wrong about this. You know what I mean?
If you asked Sean Penn this same question,
he'd be like, "Acting is not fun."
He does scenes where he, like, lights his foot on fire
to make himself actually in pain and stuff in a scene.
Whereas I think it's supposed to be fun.
Like, even when you're in a drama,
I think even if the character is not having fun,
the actor should be enjoying it on some level.
Otherwise, why am I doing it? I don't know.
-I think we're very lucky you ended up on this path.
Also, I think we're all very excited
about the fact that you guys are now starting up again.
And I would imagine, having been lucky enough
to talk to other people who work on the show,
the hardest, at this point, is just coming up with ideas.
Once you have the idea, it must execute pretty easily
because of how well you know each other and the characters.
But just coming up with those ideas now must be so hard.
-Yeah, it's brutal. I'm not gonna lie.
It's absolutely brutal. The 15th season
in the writer's room was like -- I mean, it really was
that old thing of, "No, we've done that.
No, we've done that. No, we've done that."
And you can't -- The characters can't
fundamentally change who they are.
So they can't just become a different person.
So you're sort of -- You're hemmed in a little bit,
in terms of, like, what the characters' attitudes
and what their point of view is.
But, that being said, I mean,
I took two years off from the writers' room
in season 13 and 14.
And so I felt a little fresher coming into it this year.
And I think I can honestly say this season of "Sunny"
is probably gonna be our best in many years.
-That's really, really exciting.
Congratulations on "A.P. Bio." I can't wait for that.
And it's always so great to see you, buddy.
-Thanks man. Good to see you, too.
Next time, hopefully, in person. -I really hope that is true.
-"A.P. Bio," streaming on Peacock.