-Our first guest tonight is a very
talented actor you know from movies such as "Whiplash,"
the "Divergent" franchise, and "Top Gun: Maverick."
You can see him in the limited series "The Offer,"
which is streaming now on Paramount+
and also stars in "Spiderhead,"
which begins streaming on Netflix June 17th.
Let's take a look.
-Mark, I mean, look, man,
I've been on some, some crazy-ass project teams, right?
But this one -- this one doesn't feel right.
-Jeff, you know, I sympathize, but only to a point.
Listen, I got to take off my friendship hat for a second
and remind you your presence in this facility,
while technically a punishment, is a privilege, is it not?
You applied for it. You were approved for it.
You could just as easily be at state, with the general pop,
then you really would be playing pitch and catch --
in your case, catch -- with the likes of Rogan.
You don't even want to know what he did in his last prison.
-Please welcome back to the show Miles Teller, everybody.
[ Cheering and applause ]
♪♪
Welcome back to the show, Miles.
I'm so happy you're here.
-That's how we do it.
-You have so many, so many projects to talk about,
but I want to start -- you had a real honor.
You grew up in South Jersey and you got to throw out
a first pitch at a Phillies game.
Were you nervous?
-I was -- I was pretty nervous.
I tried to cancel it the last minute.
[ Laughter ] -Okay. -Because I was like,
"I've done it before." It just really adds
like another layer of stress to the day
because you're doing interviews and you're --
-Absolutely. I would say to the week.
I did it exactly one time and I would never, ever do it again.
[ Laughter ] -So this was my second time,
but I threw from the rubber, which, that's a big thing.
-The first time, did you do front grass?
-No, I did the rubber both times.
-The rubber's a big deal,
to go from the rubber.
-And the photo they get
[ Cheering and applause ] is always like --
no, you don't have [indistinct] neck.
[ Laughter ] It's just always --
I always think of like Judd, you know, Apatow's photo
and just the amount of like -- because you're so nervous
and you're trying so hard to kind of aim the ball.
It's not very flattering, dude. -It's a face you very rarely
see actual pitchers have. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] -I want to stress mine is worse
than this, so I'm not -- I'm not judging.
-I noticed you didn't bring your photo.
-No, I didn't.
[ Laughter ]
Them's the rules. -It's your show, Seth.
-When you get to host, you don't bring the photos.
-Just happy to be here. -I'll tell you what I didn't get.
So, was the Bobblehead given out at the game you threw out the pitch?
-It was, yeah. -Now, that's pretty cool, right here.
You got a "Top Gun" Bobblehead. -That's a much better face.
[ Cheering, ohs, and applause ]
I mean, just the --
just the co-branding.
-I know.
I know. That was -- That was pretty --
That was pretty sweet. Like as a diehard baseball fan
and kind of that little bit of crossover was very nice.
Like there's some real nice details to it.
And congrats on this movie,
which, you know, so, "Top Gun," you finished in 2019
and, you know, I think it's been well-reported on
that it was -- it was delayed until people could go back
and see it in theaters. -Yeah.
Did it feel great knowing you had this really exciting thing
that people were eventually going to see
or were you just like chomping at the bit,
desperate for people to see it?
-I'd done a good amount of movies beforehand
and so I didn't -- I didn't feel like
I needed this movie to ensure future work.
[ Laughter ]
But some of the actors in it,
you know, this was such a big showcase for them
and, if anything,
I really was just bummed for the -- for the fans
because the fans, we found, are just like insane.
[ Cheering and applause ] They're so ravenous and they've been waiting.
Okay, we got some here. -Yeah.
I knew I could feel the "Top Gun" fans in the audience.
[ Laughter ] Warmed up a little bit.
But no, so, really, I was just, I was bummed for the fans
and I couldn't wait for them to see it
because I knew, as you've -- you know, you've seen the movie.
It's just been like -- It's been a rocket, so.
[ Cheering and applause ] -You were actually --
Again, much has been written about the fact
that you guys were actually -- I had Jon Hamm here.
He did not go up in the planes.
He did nothing. -I know.
-But you were in these planes. -Oh, yeah.
-And was it awful?
[ Laughter ] -It was --
I'm not signing up to do it -- Even like I was at the Indy 500
and, you know, the Thunderbirds, who are amazing,
they fly in formation --
everybody wants to take me up now and fly
and I just -- I'm like, "It's --"
They go, "We can take you up when you're in Las Vegas,"
and I go, "Honestly, there's not a place I'd want to go less
[ Laughter ] than like -- Not Las Vegas,
but I'm saying I would not want to go up in your jet
and fly in formation after being in Las Vegas,
is what I'm saying. -That's a good point, right.
You stay out late. You're like,
"What am I doing this morning? Oh, no!"
[ Laughter ] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
"Oh, I forgot I said yes to that thing.
That's not going to be good." -Did you think
you could fly a plane now,
after being up there with pilots?
I know you weren't doing the actual flying.
-It depends on who's in the plane...
-Yeah, that's a good point, right.
-...you know? Like if it's by myself
and I had to, I'll bet on it,
but if I had to like, if it was my wife or, you know,
my dog or my mom or something... [ Laughter ]
I would -- I don't --
yeah, I wouldn't want that responsibility, Seth.
-I don't think I would be able to do it
with my mom in the plane, just because I think she'd have
a lot of like, "No, no, no!"
[ Laughter ] -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's like, "I did it in a movie, Mom, relax."
-You just relax! "You're going too fast!"
[ Laughter ] -Fanboy, fanboy.
-What was your -- Didn't you have like a --
like an allergic reaction to a plane or something?
What was the story? -Yeah, I told you that
in private, Seth. [ Laughter ]
No, I thought that's what we were -- Yeah, I --
Yeah, I landed. We got done.
They're called a sortie, basically,
when you go up and you do some stuff.
And so we landed. I'm just like, "Man,
I'm not feeling too good," and I was like getting --
I was really hot and I just started itching like crazy,
so I get out of the jet and I'm just covered in hives,
like head to toe. Instantly, I go to a doctor.
I do like a blood analysis, this, that, whatever.
I'm in an oatmeal bath at night. [ Laughter ]
Like I have sensitive skin, anyway,
[ Laughter ] truth be told,
like Irish/Scottish skin.
[ Laughter ] No dyes, no nothing.
-Ideally, no sun. -Nothing.
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
-I can get some sun. -You can get a little sun, yeah.
[ Laughter ] -It's "Top Gun," baby.
[ Laughter and cheering ]
Whoo! So, anyway, so, like [ Laughter ]
I go to the doctor
and my bloodwork comes back and I have
flame-retardant pesticides and jet fuel in my blood.
[ Ohs ] -Oh, my God.
-That's what I thought, but then I thought,
[ Laughter ] "Wait a second. This is actually kind of cool."
[ Laughter ] So I go to set the next day
and Tom's like, "So how did it go, Miles?
What did they find?" I was like, "Well, Tom, it turns out
I have jet fuel in my blood."
[ Laughter ]
And without even skipping a beat, Tom just goes,
"Yeah, I was born with it, kid."
[ Laughter, cheering, and applause ]
-There's your Top Gun. -Yeah.
So that was like a very Tom moment for me.
-Now, your director also directed "Spiderhead," correct?
-Yeah, Joseph Kosinski. -Which is really cool.
Obviously did a great job with that.
This is a -- a very different kind of film.
This is based on George Saunders' short story,
one I love a great deal.
-Yeah, so it's based on the George Saunders short story
in The New Yorker, "Escape from Spiderhead."
It's myself. It's Chris Hemsworth.
It's Jurnee Smollett. Joseph Kosinski directing it
and we filmed it during COVID in Australia.
The movie, basically, is
Chris Hemsworth's character runs a facility.
He's kind of half hippie, half mad scientist.
All the inmates in this facility voluntarily go there,
instead of kind of going and serving prison time.
They're all criminals. And we are under
the experimentation of Chris Hemsworth
and -- and a lot of different drugs
[ Laughter ] and some are fun,
some are -- some are terrifying. -[ Laughs ]
-And so that's kind of the premise.
How we -- How we deal with inmates, too,
and how we should deal with criminals
and, if it's really about reformation,
then why are we putting them in a prison system
where they don't -- I don't think they come
out of prison being, you know, model citizens.
I don't think that's really what our prison system is doing.
So, there's some larger themes there.
But, yeah, I mean, that's kind of the nuts and bolts.
[ Cheering and applause ] -Yeah. It's really cool.
And, like we said, with the introduction,
you've been so busy.
"The Offer," I'm enjoying a great deal.
-Whoo! -Thank you. -This is about the making
of "The Godfather" and it's incredible,
this movie I've seen so many times,
how little I knew about all the hurdles leading up to making it.
It must've been such a cool project.
Going into it, did you know this backstory?
-Not really. I think I knew a little bit about
how they didn't want Al Pacino, but I didn't know
they didn't want Francis Ford Coppola.
They didn't want Marlon Brando. [ Laughter ]
-Studio executives sometimes nail it, yeah.
[ Laughter and applause ]
-And so, it was just, yeah, there were a lot of obstacles,
but the biggest one that I realized was the mob.
I mean, the Mafia, to shoot in New York,
they really did control all the Teamsters.
They were the Teamsters in New York, so,
they talk about they would go into a building
like in Little Italy or whatever it is.
They'd come out and all their equipment would be gone.
So you really did kind of have
to have like a handshake with the Mafia
because they didn't want "The Godfather" to be made
because they said the Mafia is a word that's, you know,
keeping Italian American immigrants down
"and this movie is only going to make us look like savages.
We're not. We're proud people," and et cetera, et cetera.
So, also, in the movie,
the word Mafia doesn't exist one time.
They took that out of the script and that was a big a big reason
why they were able to get it made, actually.
-That's incredible because you definitely knew
it was about the Mafia, even without the word in there.
[ Laughter ]
-I know. -Yeah. They were like,
[ Italian accent ] Don't worry. I took care of it.
Nobody's going to know." [ Laughter ]
It's a great show. You're wonderful in it.
Hey, thanks so much for making time for us.
-My pleasure. -I really appreciate it.
[ Cheering and applause ] Miles Teller, everybody.
The finale of "The Offer"
will be released Thursday on Paramount+
and "Spiderhead" begins streaming June 17th on Netflix.
We'll be right back with Busy Philipps.