-Hey, Sean. Welcome to the show. How are you?
-Very well. How are you? -I'm doing very good.
There are reports that you recently got married.
Is this true?
Congratulations! [ Chuckles ]
How recent is it?
-It's, um, Thursday.
-Oh, my goodness.
So this is, uh -- you're really fresh into it.
-Yeah, we did a COVID wedding.
By that, I mean it was a county commissioner on Zoom
and we were at the house, my two children and her brother.
And we did it that way.
-Actually having had a very large wedding,
that actually sounds pretty nice and low stress.
-Let's say there are socially liberating factors under COVID.
-[ Laughs ]
I want to compliment you on what I feel was the finest moment
in television this year.
You played yourself
in an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm"
as the owner of a pet store.
And it's the hardest I laughed all year.
Did you enjoy that? -I did enjoy it, yeah.
I'm a big fan of that show,
so it was nice to get the invitation to come down.
They have a pretty loose play plan,
very encouraging, and we had a lot of fun, yeah.
-Does all the time you're spending here take away from,
you know, acting?
-I was never a very Zen sort of personality.
but I find myself very, very calm now.
I think, you know, it's the birds.
[ Toucan screeches ] Shut up!
[ Toucan squawks ]
-Yeah, I asked Larry David about it,
and he said you improvised yelling at the parrots,
and I thought, well, that was the best moment,
so, again, I tip my cap. -Thanks.
I can't remember what was improvised and what was not,
because we just did it a few times
and they kind of loosened it up each time.
And, yeah.
But I had a good time doing it. Short, you know?
It's just, uh, shot one morning and, yeah.
-It's very nice when you -- when you create a world
for someone to come in, work a very short amount of time
and score.
That's why you keep getting people to say yes to you.
-Yeah. They figured out that chemistry.
They've got -- so you go in there, you kind of feel like
there is some unseen safety net anyway
because everybody's terrific on that show all the time.
So, you figure, well, I don't want to be the odd one out.
-[ Laughs ] Right? Exactly.
I want to talk about CORE.
So this is an organization you started
after the earthquake in Haiti.
And now you're also using it to help increase COVID testing.
what brought you to the decision to do that,
and was it easy to take an organization that had been
set up for other things and to sort of shift it
into this testing world?
-Yes, and no. I mean, what was easy was to say
we had more than most in terms of the infrastructure
of a disaster response organization.
And we had done infectious disease once
with the cholera outbreak in Haiti.
That's, you know, a bit of a starter kit
for what this incredibly transmittable COVID is.
So we initially went to the governor of California
and said, "Look, we've got people.
We've got some experience, and we've got the will to play.
Where would you guide us?"
He guided us to Mayor Garcetti in Los Angeles city
and Los Angeles Fire Department,
where they had already set up test sites, but they were --
those test sites were being operated by firefighters
who, frankly, had other things to be doing for the city.
And so we were able to take training and to absorb
those sites and then expand site after site,
until now we're doing all the city sites.
-You know, one of the major issues has been a lack
of transparency from the government to the people
insofar as what -- how long it's going to take your results,
what it means you need to do in the time between when you get
tests and you get your results.
Is it important when you're testing people to let them know
exactly how long it's going to be until they find out?
-I think it's essential.
And this is something that we've been working
very hard with the city on and in the --
and that's just in our operations in Los Angeles.
Because, you know, we're throughout the country.
And we've been expanding this with a criteria
for our organization to operate.
Our criteria is moving towards a total five-day program.
So you are notified -- from the time you test,
you come in with the assumption
that you will cooperate in contact tracing,
you will isolate from the time you're tested,
certainly to the time you are notified.
If you're notified positive, you will continue to quarantine,
and you'll be contact traced all within five days.
After five days, any of these reports that you hear,
if it is more than five days, the cat's out of the bag.
It becomes relatively useless,
except for those who by being notified
begin to quarantine from additional spread
with the community or family.
But it's under a -- where you have an open economy,
very difficult to get people who are out of a job a long time to,
if they are asymptomatic,
quarantine themselves out of a job.
So it has to be -- the language, at least,
has to be charged with the seriousness of the pandemic.
It is not always enforceable, but it is always mandatory.
And that's what we're moving toward,
but we want people to know that from the time they're tested,
they will only have two days of full isolation
if they then test negative.
-And do you find, like, when you explain it
to people in sort of terms that are easy to understand
like that, that they're pretty game to go along with the rules
you set out? -Yes.
I think that it is less an issue
of rebellion against the machine or against liberty
than it is an issue of chaotic communications
from the White House down.
And also, through a lot of -- While a lot of the media's
done a very good job, if half of the media
is not doing a good job, if they're going point to point
every day, you lose track of the five,
six essential things you've got to know.
And it's those essential things you got to demand
of your friends and neighbors and of the public health system.
-This is very exciting as well.
I know you're doing a reunion table read
of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"
coming up in a couple of weeks, right?
-Right. Yeah, August 20th, I think.
-That is such an iconic role,
but is it true that you did not feel as though
you nailed that audition?
-Oh, for the original movie?
-Yeah. -Yeah.
No, I have to say that that movie's audition
gets more attention and questions,
but it is true that I never did a good audition for anything.
I was just not a good -- -Okay.
-The big difference with that one was after I failed
the audition, the casting director,
Don Phillips, came running after me in the parking lot,
I guess having seen something,
and drew me in to give it a little bit more.
I was resentful of -- of auditions and just felt
if they didn't get it by osmosis,
I shouldn't give it till they were paying me.
-[ Laughs ]
Now, as you've also been on the other side,
you've been a director.
Do you feel as the director when people come and audition,
you have a great empathy for what they're going through?
-Yeah. And many times I won't audition people.
I'll often sort of just have somebody come in
and meet and get a sense of them and talk to them a little bit,
their instincts about the character and the story.
And, you know, there's been times where I've gone and cast
non-actors without auditioning them.
And other times you feel you have to, 'cause you're looking
for some kind of a chemistry with somebody.
You got to see that or -- but, yeah, I'm very empathetic.
I find it painful. -Yes.
I've been very happy that the last decade or so
of my life, I haven't had to go through that,
because it is -- it is heartbreaking.
-It's the only good thing about success in acting,
frankly, is not auditioning.
-Does that mean that -- I know you've directed
Jack Nicholson twice.
is it safe to assume that he did not have to audition
for either of those?
-Surprisingly, he did not have to audition.
He just had to respond to my pleas.
-In the days when I was struggling at "SNL,"
I never quite found like I had my footing.
I wasn't particularly good at impressions,
but I did do a Sean Penn impression back in the day.
and, uh, we've never met.
This is the first time we've interacted,
and you're much better humored than I feel like I portrayed you
on the show, so I feel like I owe you an apology.
-No, I reject that apology.
I saw exactly myself at many chapters of life.
It was -- it's a zone I get in.
It's not that I don't find the moment funny.
I think I actually sometimes --
There's a kind of adrenaline in following
one's own self-seriousness that I guess is a certain,
I don't know, counterpoint that I get quite a kick out of.
-[ Chuckles ] Well, that's good.
It's good to know that there's a kick getting
getting passed along in the viewing of it.
Hey, thanks so much not just for making the time for us
today, but with everything you're doing with CORE.
We really appreciate it. -Thank you very much.