-Happy Thanksgiving to you. Nice to see you.
-Thank you so much. Nice to see you, too.
-Thanks for coming on. Thanksgiving exciting for you?
Not exciting? Do you have a big family gathering?
-No, not exciting. Not exciting, no.
-No, not exciting? -No, no.
So, I come from a family of -- of vegetarians and vegans,
and, um -- Yeah, yeah, I mean --
And, I mean, all due res-- You know.
And, um, yeah. -Yeah, so --
-Yeah, so, no, we do, like, a "Thanks-living,"
which is, you know -- which is, like, a pun.
Which is not fun in and of itself,
but also when it applies to a vegan Thanksgiving.
-Thanks-living. -Thanks-living. Yeah, so we --
-What happens at Thanks-living? -We -- we -- You know,
we buy a turkey, which is essentially saving a turkey.
And we put that picture of the turkey, you know, on the table,
instead of turkey food, you know.
And it says little things like, you know,
"Oh, it's Bagel, and he likes to run around and..."
You know, and stuff like that.
And so anyway, then we don't eat turkey,
but we do feel the guilt of it anyway.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You see -- You're looking at Bagel the whole evening.
-Yeah, exactly.
-And talking about how he likes to run around
and other activities that a turkey does.
-It gets worse. Yeah.
Yeah, no, so, like, my sister will read from this book,
"Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer.
-Oh, my goodness!
-I don't know if you've read this book, but it's basically --
It takes you through the factory farming process.
So I'm sitting there eating asparagus.
I've already committed to what you've wanted. Yeah.
-What foods do you eat besides asparagus?
-They make loaves. Loaves.
Everything goes into a loaf. You have lentil loaf.
Loaves. -Lentil loaf.
-Lentil loaf. -Oh. Like a non-meat loaf.
-That's it. Sweet potato loaf.
Anything that you probably don't want to eat,
they turn into a loaf,
and then we have to sit there and eat it, yeah.
-Loaves-giving, yeah. Thanks-living. Alright.
Well, that's good. Do you cook at all?
-No, I don't cook. I don't cook.
Which is probably, you know, why I wound up going
to a Thanks-living every year 'cause --
I should be taking control of my life.
You know what I mean? -Yeah, no, this is good.
I think you'll have a fun -- a fun time.
I want to talk about "Fleishman Is in Trouble."
-Yeah. -Congratulations.
You are Fleishman. -Yeah. That's right.
That's right.
[ Cheers and applause ] Yeah.
-It's great. It's smart. It's funny. It's very New York.
You and Claire Danes... -Yeah.
-...who I love. Have you ever worked with Claire?
-No, no. I mean, it was amazing. We -- I did meet her once.
I met her probably, like, 15 years ago.
I -- She has no recollection of it,
which is the impression I normally make on people.
But especially -- especially in this case.
-When did you meet Claire Danes?
-So, my wife had to go to some benefit, and I was with her.
And I had to go with her.
And I just got really high because I --
I knew it was going to be boring.
And then --
[ Laughter ]
And I -- I got, you know -- I got separated from her there.
You know, and I wound up talking to this woman.
And she -- We had gone to the same high school,
and she said she was an actress, and she went to Yale.
And I was just thinking, "My God.
This is, like, the coolest person
I've ever met in my life." And I -- I told her that.
And then, I walked over to my wife, and I said,
"Honey, I think I just met my soulmate.
I met this amazing woman."
And I pointed to the woman who I wanted to be my soulmate,
and Anna, my wife, she said,
"That's Claire Danes, you idiot. Good luck."
[ Laughter ]
Yeah.
-Were you -- Were you married to your wife?
-I wasn't married to her, but things were going well.
-You were dating her at the time.
-I was dating her, yeah. You know, we did a dry run.
[ Laughter ] -Now you're happily married.
And all these years later,
here you are working with Claire Danes.
-Yeah, but she had no recollection
of the greatest day of my life.
-Yeah. [ Laughs ] Oh, my gosh.
For this series, you told me backstage
that there was something they asked you to do
you were a little apprehensive about.
-Yes, yes. -Can we talk about it?
I think it'll be good to talk about it.
-Yeah. I mean, I'm apprehensive about most things.
But in particular, they wanted me to be naked in this.
You know, they wanted me to be naked.
Not -- Not my front. You all know what --
Everybody knows what the difference is.
-Sure. -And so -- But my back.
And I'm, not, like -- I'm not a very comfortable person naked.
You know? -No.
-No, I mean, I would shower in a bathing suit if it meant,
you know, staying -- if it wasn't unsanitary.
-Of course. Yeah, of course.
-Just so I don't have to see anything. You know what I mean?
And I also have, you know, the same body -- For the last,
really, 30 years, I've had the same body.
And so um -- And, yeah --
But anyway, they wanted me to be naked.
-So you're not parading around saying,
"Hey, this is the way I live."
-I have three more jokes about my body.
No, yeah, yeah. Sorry.
So, anyway, they wanted me to be naked, and I was mortified.
You know, and I thought, "Okay, well let me --"
They asked me so, so nicely.
And I thought "Okay, well let me call my wife,
'cause she'll say no, and then I can say, 'You know, my wife said no.'"
So, I called my wife, and she said,
"Well, is the woman in the scene naked?"
And I said, "Yes."
And she said, "Well, then obviously you have to be naked."
I was like, "I was calling you
'cause I thought you would say no."
-"You're my excuse out of this." -Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Anyway, she -- she had already hung up.
So I -- [ Laughter ]
Anyway, so, I was naked in the show.
I was, you know -- -Wow.
-It was deeply shameful. -Yeah.
Did it change anything for you? Did it feel like, "Wow"?
Like you've -- I don't know.
-No, no, I didn't feel like, oh, I conquered anything.
-Yeah. That's what I meant to say. Yeah.
-It was more like, oh, I just did this thing
that I'm embarrassed by, but then when it comes out,
I'm gonna be doubly embarrassed by it, you know?
-At Thanks-living, do you not bring up the show?
-You know, I told my parents
that there was no premiere in New York.
[ Laughter ]
I said, "I think they're just gonna go to air with this one."
-"They're just gonna go straight to Hulu on this one," yeah.
-Yeah, "I don't think you have Hulu."
And then I'm gonna disable it on their TV.
-Oh, my gosh. -They're not going to know.
-Can we set up what "Fleishman Is in Trouble" is about?
It's a great novel, by the way. It's a good read, as well.
-Yes, yes, yes. It's by --
I guess you're a fan of Taffy Brodesser-Akner.
The writer. She's a genius.
-I love her. She's so great and funny and smart.
And it's a great book.
-And more importantly, you're in the show.
You're in "Fleishman Is in Trouble."
-I do full frontal nudity in this.
I didn't want to do it at first, but I called my wife --
-She was like, "Is Jesse doing back?"
-"Is Jesse doing back?"
-"If Jesse does back, you gotta do front."
-You gotta be fair. Exactly.
-Yeah, you gotta see both sides of what a man looks like.
-Of course, you do, yeah. I'm not sure if people will
understand when they see my front, but it's alright.
-Exactly. They'll probably think it's my back.
But anyway -- No, yeah, so the show is about this couple --
-You're saying my front looks like your back?
-I'm just -- Yeah.
[ Laughter ] -That's very funny.
-Oh, thanks. -That's very, very funny.
How do we set up the show? Sorry.
-Oh, yeah, the show is, you know, about this --
Oh, I'm not -- It's not true. -No, no, no, it's not.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, the show is about, like, a couple divorcing.
They're going through, like, a bad divorce.
And then she drops the kids off with me and disappears,
and no one knows where she is.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-Alright. I want to show a clip. [ Laughter ]
Here's Jesse Eisenberg and Claire Danes
in "Fleishman Is in Trouble." Take a look at this.
-No, actually, I'm just asking a question, Toby.
It's an honest question.
-Can I get Instagram? Everyone has it.
-No, we've answered this before. No social media until you're 13.
-Everyone.
-Hannah, you don't even have a phone.
It's not good for kids and anxiety.
Your brain is still developing, alright?
-Dad and I will talk about it. -Excuse me.
We've already talked about it, okay?
-How about my anxiety
that everybody is always on it and leaving me out?!
-She has a point. -Yeah?
[ Thud, water running ]
-You're an animal.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Yeah.
Throwing raw chicken. -Yeah, yeah, yeah, raw chicken.
-Jesse Eisenberg, everybody.
Check out "Fleishman Is in Trouble."
It's great. Right now on Hulu.
Madelyn Cline joins us after the break.
Stick around, everybody.