-Let's talk about your movie,
"The Only Living Boy in New York."
-Yeah. -It's fantastic!
-It's good, huh? -Yeah.
-Oh, man. Yeah. -I love it, but I read somewhere
you said, like, you try hard to not do movies...
-Yeah. -...because when a good script
comes, you go, "I got to do this one."
-It's like that -- what is that --
what "Godfather" -- Pacino says, "I tried to get out,
and then they --" - They pulled me back in.
Yeah, yeah. -When it's too cool, you know?
When the script is -- the story is too great,
you know, the cast is too great.
This one's got a wonderful cast. -Oh, fantastic cast.
-Great.
-You play a mentor to a young boy.
I don't want to give away too much about the film.
-Yeah. -You should check it out.
It's great. -Yeah. Callum Turner.
I think we're going to be hearing a lot from this guy.
-Yeah. -He's really something.
-I don't know him. -Yeah, he's terrific.
He's really, really great.
-Who are your mentors in your
-Uh, well, I've had quite a few.
[ Coughs ]
I'm thinking -- one of the early one was Burgess Meredith.
-Really?
-Yeah, you know The Penguin from "Batman"?
-Yeah. Good point. Among his many roles.
-He was Mickey from "Rocky." -There you go, yeah.
-"Grumpier Old Men" and "Grumpy Old Men."
-Hilarious. -Oh, man he's a wonderful guy.
-How did you meet Burgess Meredith?
-This is back in the late '60s, maybe my second film,
called "The Yin and Yang of Mr. Go."
-Really? -And we shot it in Hong Kong.
James Mason played a Chinese-Mexican in it.
[ Light laughter ]
-A stretch there, yeah. -Yeah.
And we had a wonderful time. And then, after that,
he turned me on to another mentor.
Do you know who John Lilly is?
-No. Do I?
-He's the man who invented the isolation tank.
-Oh, I know this. This is a tank of water.
-Yeah, they made a movie.
What was the name of the movie with William Hurt?
It was loosely based on this guy's life.
-What's an isolation tank? This is like --
-It's, uh, sensory deprivation is another term for it,
where they try to, uh...
[ Sighs ] -I can't think of...
-See what happens if you don't have any input coming in.
You know, you're in, like, a big coffin kind of thing.
The water is filled up about here.
You got a thousand pounds of salt in it, so you float.
-Yeah. -And it's 98.6,
so you don't know even know you're there, basically.
Your ears are underwater. It's dark.
And what happens? What goes on?
You know? -What does happen?
-All kinds of stuff, man. I mean, you know?
[ Laughter ] All kinds of stuff that,
you know, you're not really aware
of how much is really happening inside,
how much you're projecting on everything that's going on,
until there's nothing going on.
Then, you realize it's all coming from inside, man.
[ Laughter ]
Yeah. -I feel really --
-Yeah. -I just --
-Yeah. -I just -- yeah.
We all just got a lesson. [ Cheers and applause ]
A lesson from The Dude, right there.
-Yeah, man.
-So, wait -- So, John Lilly -- - -So, John Lilly --
and this is before I knew anything about it.
The first thing he said -- he said "Get out" three times.
-Oh, yeah?
-Just so you program that you can get out,
that you're not, you know, prisoner,
because when you're anxious, you get scared, right?
-Of course. -You're frightened.
So, you're getting in this thing and you're kind of scared.
And in my mind, I'm thinking,
this guy John Lilly, he looked a little weird.
He was in this jumpsuit.
And did he have breasts?
[ Light laughter ]
"Is this solution going to give me breasts?"
Aah! Yeah, yeah.
And then he said, "No, just settle down, man.
That's your mind, man. Just -- Quiet."
[ Laughter ] You know?
-This sounds crazy. But what if he did?
What if he'd locked the thing? -Exactly.
All that stuff that goes through your mind.
-Yeah. -That goes through your mind.
-You got to really trust this guy.
-And so you -- You know, that happens all the time.
Like, you know, see, that's the thing.
We tell ourselves these little stories, man.
And we get -- You know, you get sidetracked.
And you just... -I love it.
-You get yourself in trouble. You know?
-See, this was a life lesson. -Yeah.
-This is a life lesson right here, yeah.
-I hear you're a meditator, right?
-I'm getting into it. -You're getting into it.
-Yeah. Baby steps.
I'm like... -Yeah, yeah.
-...dipping my toe in the immersion tank.
-Yeah.
-No, I've never done that tank, but I will.
-Yeah, well, it's really interesting.
Another mentor, speaking of meditation,
was this guy Bernie Glassman.
He's a famous Zen master. Wonderful guy.
And I was sitting in a dinner between him and Ram Dass.
You know the guy -- "Be Here Now"?
-Yeah. -Okay?
-And Bernie leans over to me and he says, "You realize,
in many Buddhist circles,
The Dude is considered the Zen master."
[ Light laughter ]
I said, "What are you talking about, man?
We never talked any spiritual thing."
You know? He says, "Oh, yeah!"
You know what a koan is? A Zen koan?
You've heard of that? -Koan.
-You know, it's like, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
-Yeah. Koan.
-He says, "Look who wrote 'The Big Lebowski.'
The Koan [Coen] brothers." [ Laughter ]
-The Koan -- Close enough.
-He says, "Lebowski is filled with koans.
I'm gonna bring these Buddhist ideas into modern times."
I said, "Well, give me an example."
He says, "'The Dude abides.' Koan.
Come on, it's a koan." -Whoo!
Or -- Can you -- You can't swear here?
They beep me or what? No? Don't do it?
-They'll bleep you. You can do it.
-Shut the [Bleep] up, Donny. [ Laughter ]
That's -- It's a koan. -That's a koan?
-Yeah, man. As you get into this thing,
you'll see, you know. -Yeah --
-Well, my favorite was,
"That's just, like, your opinion, man."
-Oh, I love that. That is a good one.
"That's just, like, your opinion, man."