-Our first guest tonight is an Emmy-nominated actor
and comedian you know from shows like "Rescue Me"
and the "Ice Age" movies.
You can see him in "The Moodys,"
which airs Thursday nights on Fox.
Let's take a look.
-Get this, okay?
The guys, they want me to move up to the senior league.
-Well, you have been getting injured a lot.
-Mm.
-I leave it all out on the ice, honey.
That's what I do. Okay?
-Mm. -Okay.
You're making noises, Grace. -Oh, no, no, no.
It's actually very normal what you're going through.
We struggle with transition as we mature.
-Okay. You can go in the office now.
Actually, you know what? Better yet, I'm going upstairs.
Three steps at a time, okay?
[ Laughter ]
-Please welcome back to the show our friend Denis Leary.
How are you, Denis? -Hey, Seth.
What's up, man? -It's so great to see you.
I want to talk about the show, but I also want to ask --
I know your grown children moved back home during the pandemic.
Was that a wonderful thing for your family,
or did it add some stress to things?
-Uh, it was both, actually. [ Laughing ]
I'm not the -- I can't be only person
who's said this to you, right? -[ Laughing ] Yeah.
-How old are your kids now? Your kids are tiny.
-Yeah, 3 and 5. So it's really just been --
it's been mostly upside for us, because they --
you know, they're just happy to have us around.
-Right, and also you're -- are you guys, like,
doing some kind of homeschooling thing?
-Yeah, you know -- this will --
I will not be the first person to say this either --
most of that burden has fallen on my wife,
who has been incredible with it.
I'm just getting the best of it.
-Yeah, right, okay.
Well, try homeschooling grown adults,
'cause that's basically what we had to do.
To get them all home at the beginning of the pandemic,
we felt like everybody felt, which is just so glad
to have the family together and it was gonna be cool and fun.
And that lasted for probably about two weeks.
And then, you know, it's human nature --
You're gonna find this out much later from now --
but, you know, at a certain point, your kids,
when they become teenagers, they don't think you're cool.
But as my wife and I found out, when they're home with you
for an extended period when they're in their late 20s,
they really don't think you're cool.
[ Laughter ] As a matter of fact,
they actually start to treat you like roommates.
That's what happened. We were like --
We woke up one day, and it was like there was
you know, five roommates living in the house.
That's what was going on.
So they were just eating everything, and like --
just like -- you know, like we were equals to them.
You know what I mean? I'll never forget this.
Probably about two weeks in, I was watching something
on television in the late afternoon,
and my daughter walked in and said,
"So we're about to vote on dinner."
And I was like, "What? We're gonna vote?"
And she's like, "Yeah, and then we're gonna vote on
what we're gonna binge watch tonight."
And I'm like "Vote?
There's no voting. What are you talking about?
This isn't a democracy. This is a monarchy, okay?
That's what this is. I'm the King.
Actually I'm not the King. I'm the Prince.
My wife is the Queen." -[ Laughs ]
-"Actually, I don't even have a vote.
Nobody has a vote. Your mother says what goes on."
So that's when they learned, like, there's no voting.
Your mother decides,
and then we all do what she wants to do, okay?
Unbelievable. -It doesn't surprise me
that you would choose projects that are about family, as well,
which this show is.
This is a limited series, second season of it.
It revolves -- It's a family,
and it revolves around one event.
First season was Christmas, this season's a wedding.
And it must be a fun show to make, because obviously
you're someone who has always seen the comedy
in being part of a family.
-Well, it was also interesting because this second season
was built around the idea of a wedding that goes bad,
which everybody finds out in the first like 15 seconds
of the opening episode.
But because of the timing, by the time we went to shoot it,
the writers said, "You know what we'll do is,
we'll make it sort of just post-pandemic."
So the idea was the kids actually -- except for one --
had actually left, and then they came back,
and then -- you know, for the pandemic --
and then they left again, and then they came back again.
So I actually had a lot to draw on
from my own experiences with my own family.
And if you're watching this show,
and the audience will pick up on it,
you know, it's the same thing. They're just --
They're taking us for granted, they're eating all our food.
I mean -- You know, it's a funny thing.
At a certain point, when I was here with my own family,
because they were eating everything,
as a grown man, I was hiding cupcakes.
I was doing that in my own house.
[ Laughter ] I was hiding cupcakes
from my adult children
because they were eating all my cupcakes, you know?
I mean, going to the store was like --
You remember, in the beginning of the pandemic,
that was like a scouting mission in World War II.
You had to have masks on and gloves.
You know. So when I went out to get
the cupcakes, I bring back what I thought was enough,
you know, for everybody.
And then wake up, and they were all gone.
So I hid cupcakes.
And I'm not proud of it, but I did it.
-I think there's that thing that happens where people
sometimes will look at someone like you and think,
"God, there's someone who has it made.
An incredibly successful career."
And it's very nice for you to share with them
that you're just a man like any other who has to hide cupcakes.
-Oh, you listen, and you -- you get -- I am so --
I'm not cool as a dad in the first place,
but then I get criticized for, you know, everything.
Everything I think about -- You know, like,
one of the things I did during the course of the pandemic,
and the voting on dinner
was they would get into these conversations.
Voting on dinner, for them, discussing it,
would be like 45 minutes.
And then the idea of picking something to watch
was like an hour and a half
just to find something that they all wanted to watch.
So I would just sneak off and make a Paul Newman
frozen pizza, which takes like 10 minutes,
and watch a Paul Newman movie in my -- in my own room.
In the bedroom. I would.
And, you know, it's like,
Paul Newman got me through the pandemic, basically.
But I actually remember, when my kids were small --
this is, like, what fame really -- how you sum it up.
My kids had grown up -- they're probably like 10, 12,
and there was a bunch of cousins at my house this one night,
and we were watching a Paul Newman movie,
and one of the kids goes,
"Hey, that Paul Newman chef guy was also an actor?"
And I was like, "Yeah, there you go.
That's Paul Newman's career."
They thought he was a chef. [ Laughter ]
That's what fame means. And, of course, it makes sense,
'cause they're' looking at his picture on frozen-pizza boxes
and salad-dressing bottles, you know, so...
-My kids, of course, their entire lives I've been on TV,
and so I'll FaceTime with them
right before I come on and do the show.
And I'll often be in the makeup chair,
and you know that's something that we just have to go through.
And today I FaceTimed with my kid, and he had --
a friend was behind him.
And so my kid's not surprised that I'm sitting there
with somebody doing my hair,
but I just watched his friend in the background go...
[ Laughter ]
Like, "What the hell is your dad's deal?"
-"What the hell is going on?"
-Hey, I do want to give a shout-out.
Chelsea Frei plays your daughter on the show.
-Yeah. -And Chelsea succeeded
in spite of the fact that she was an intern
on this show when we first started.
So we just want to give a shout-out to her on her success,
and we're so happy that you two are working together.
-You know, it's so weird, Seth, because I had no idea.
She never told me that. And so today, one of the people
on your staff mentioned it, and I was like,
"You got to be kidding me." So I called Chelsea,
and Chelsea said, "Yeah, I loved it.
It was the greatest, blah blah blah."
So, you know, it's just --
It's such a small world in show business anyways, you know?
But that's just -- that's a point of fact,
you know, how you discover somebody who was working.
I think she was like, a music intern, right?
-She was a music intern. It's also --
It really speaks to why anyone, at any level,
not just in show business but anywhere,
should be very nice to their interns.
Because they don't just --
When it's over, they don't, like, go back in a box.
-That's exactly right. -They like --
They continue on in life, and they, like, maybe one day
will speak about their experience.
-Well, I got to tell you something.
I would have said this even if she hadn't been intern
at "The Seth Meyers Show," which I'm on tonight, right now.
[ Laughter ]
I got to tell you, man, she -- that entire cast is great.
Elizabeth Perkins and Jay Baruchel,
I think everybody was kind of aware of.
You know, obviously, Elizabeth
is an amazing comedy God, in my book.
And so is Jay. But Chelsea's sort of like
this surprise kind of unknown, and she's unbelievably talented.
Not only is she a great comic actress,
you know, the show goes back and forth
between primarily comedy and some drama.
She's a great dramatic actress.
She's fantastic.
I mean she's -- I can't say enough about her.
I love her. I love her.
-Well, we're so happy -- We're so happy for her.
And it's always so great seeing you, Denis.
Thanks so much for being here.
-The last time I saw you live, I think, was years ago.
Once I'm vaxxed -- I'm fully vaxxed as of tomorrow --
so the next time, I'm gonna come in,
hopefully, to the studio.
-We would love to see you again.
It's nice having you nearby, and we'll see you then.
-All right, pal, thanks. -All right, be well.
"The Moodys" airs Thursday nights on Fox.