-How are you? -I'm great. How are you?
-I'm wonderful. You look fantastic.
-Thank you.
-Congratulations on the first season of "The Conners."
-Yeah. -This show was "Roseanne."
And then, it wasn't. -Yes.
[ Laughter ]
-And so, Roseanne, you know,
she was relieved of her duties, so to speak.
How has it been, you know --
Obviously, you still have Laurie Metcalf,
you still have Sara Gilbert.
Has it been strange without Roseanne around?
-It was. It was -- It was really odd.
She's a -- We used to have a lot of fun on the show,
and I really missed her this year.
-Yeah. I can only imagine what it's like.
I mean, certainly, there were things she was doing
outside the show which ultimately led to her leaving,
but the product the first year
really did have that old snap to it.
-Well, she -- she gave up a lot so that we could do the show.
She gave up all her rights to it.
So we didn't have to call ourselves the Monners
or the Chonners or anything like that...
-Yeah. -...and invent new characters.
But, yeah, she will always be missed.
-One of the things that people loved about the reboot
of the show is it took issues seriously,
and up to and including the fact
that Roseanne was written off the show.
Her character died of an opioid overdose.
-Yeah. -You know, and that --
You just kind of say, "Oh, gosh.
You guys went into it headlong like that.
Were you surprised that that's how they handled it?
-I was. That's pretty permanent.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-I mean, when I died on the show,
they just brought me back. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] You're back, yeah.
-They're not gonna remember. [ Laughter ]
Nobody was watching toward the end.
He was sleeping.
-And some pretty great guest stars this year.
-Yeah. -Mary Steenburgen.
-Mary Steenburgen. Peter Gallagher.
Katey Sagal. The fabulous Estelle Parsons.
-Fantastic. Yeah. -She's amazing.
But, yeah. We got good people on the show.
And I know I've forgotten... half of --
-You'll hear from them. -I put it in the variety.
-Yeah, that's great.
We were talking backstage, your old former castmate,
Jeff Bridges, was on stage,
winning an award at the Golden Globes.
And, you know, there were multiple clips
of "The Big Lebowski" in his honor.
Is that the film that people approach you about the most?
-Yep. -Yeah.
-Yeah. -It's a good one, man.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I did one called "C.H.U.D." that gets a lot of airplay.
-"C.H.U.D."? -Yeah.
-Cannibalistic --
-Cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers.
-Yeah. "C.H.U.D." was a big deal.
I worked in a rental store and "C.H.U.D." was a big deal.
[ Laughter ]
Back when people had to go to a store to get a movie, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
But, I mean, people must --
I would assume that when people interact with you
on "The Big Lebowski," they also --
they want to yell lines of dialogue.
-And they do. -Yeah.
What do you hear the most?
-"Shut the [bleep] up, Donny." -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] See, that's --
I mean, I guess that's a weird thing,
because obviously they're doing that out of love,
but in doing it, they're screaming,
"Shut the [bleep] up," to you.
-It's not as bad as when Buscemi gets it on the street.
-Yeah, that's true. Poor Steve Buscemi.
I, of course -- It was a Coen Brothers film.
But I believe maybe the first time I saw you
was "Raising Arizona," which is --
[ Cheers and applause ]
But I will say both of those -- -Yeah.
-Both of those movies hold up so well,
because they really weren't
specific to the time they were made.
-Were they big rentals? -They were huge rentals, yeah.
-They got rewound? -Yeah, yeah.
They got rewound a lot.
-Yeah, Coen Brothers watchers, they'll rewind.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. They really do rewind well.
You got hit with one of those blue --
-Lawsuit? -No, no, not a lawsuit.
[ Laughter ]
You robbed some bank. -Yeah.
-And one of those blue pellets. -Yeah.
-As a special effect, was that one of the better ones
you've been involved in? -It was great.
Yeah, it was great. I think we only did it twice,
because of the hours it involved in cleaning up.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
It was a teller put a bomb into the bag of money and fooled us.
Which was -- Never mind.
[ Laughter ] -No, but...
I mean, it was the greatest thing, because it exploded
not just on you guys but also on the windshield.
-Yeah. And we were trying to drive.
Go see the movie, folks. [ Laughter ]
-Out now. -Rent it.
-Out now. -And rewind it.
-Rewind it. Be kind and rewind.
You -- What were the movies -- I mean, 'cause again,
that was a really inspirational movie for me growing up.
What were yours?
What were the films that you saw as a kid that made you --
-"On The Waterfront." -"On The Waterfront."
-"On The Waterfront." I loved it,
and it made me want to try to act.
-And did you ever meet Brando? -No.
I would've -- No. I'm better off.
-Better off, yeah. You don't think --
Because did he continue to be
someone who was very important to you?
-Absolutely. Yeah.
Especially when I was starting off.
But you can't steal everything from him.
-Yeah.
-'Cause you wind up doing really bad imitations.
"Um..." [ Laughter ]
-You did Brando on "SNL," yes? -Yeah, I did.
-Yeah. -"Jeopardy!"
-Oh, right. -"Celebrity Jeopardy!"
-"Celebrity Jeopardy!" Yeah.
-With Turd Ferguson.