-Welcome back to "Late Night". We're here with Jonathan Majors.
Now you obviously have some athletic experience.
I know you grew up in Texas, you played basketball,
you played football.
But you also were a poet at a young age.
-I was a poet at a young age. -Yeah, and you had a poet name.
-Yes, the advent of J. Manifesto.
-J. Manifesto. -Yes.
-That is a very good poet name.
-Thank you. -Especially for
Jonathan Majors, I think that's a really good one.
-Same initials. -Yep.
-I had it put on the back of my letterman jacket.
-Wow. -Yeah, it said "Manifesto".
I thought it was very artsy and cool.
-Yeah, that's a real nice combination of, like,
sports and arts. -Jock.
-Yeah, a letterman jacket with your poetry name on the back.
-There was the football.
There was my number and then the mask.
-Oh, really? You had the, like, the comedy and drama masks?
-Yeah, I had all the patches. -That's great.
-And then it had "J. Manifesto" on the back --
no, it had "Manifesto" on the back.
-Yeah. -And then I was expelled
two days after I got it. -Really?
-Yeah.
-What were you expelled for? -Psh! Everything.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-Oh, they got you on everything all at once?
-I was at Rico. -[ Laughs ] Rico.
-Rico, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I gave it to my first love who still has it.
-Really? -Yeah, it's in a closet
someplace. -That's -- oh, yeah, wow.
-Yeah, if I could get that back, that'd be...
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah, first loves tend to check out interviews with their,
you know, former amours. -I reckon.
-Yeah.
You spent some --
You worked at -- before you were an actor
and, I guess, after you were a poet --
you worked at a number of chains we're familiar with.
Olive Garden, Starbucks, Party City.
-Olive Garden, Starbucks, Party City.
-Red Lobster. -Red Lobster, Quiznos Subs...
-Wow. -...Braum's Ice Creamery...
-Okay. -No, you don't know Braum's.
[ Laughter ] You don't know Braum's.
-I will say it was said like they knew.
-It was. I was like, "What?"
-It wasn't like one of those loose "whoos".
It was like, "Yeah."
-Yeah, "Can I get the double with the --"
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was great, man.
Like, working at a Halloween shop was cool.
You'd see costumes, you'd go, "Oh, nice, interesting.
This person is playing Velma from 'Scooby-Doo'."
And you're just thinking about what that person's like,
you know, and you were like, "Nice."
And then you work at Quiznos, and all of a sudden,
you know, you're an Italian sandwich man.
-Yeah.
-And carbonera, you know, you really invest in --
[Italian accent] "Carbonera," [Normal voice] you know?
-So these were, in a way, you were just taking them on as
roles before your bigger roles.
-Bro, I had to. -Yeah.
-I was working maybe two or three of them at a time.
-Gotcha. -And still trying to do
the whole letterman thing. -And then you were in
New York City for a brief period of time, right?
-Then I went to North Carolina School of the Arts,
another school. [ Crowd cheers ]
-There you go, they knew it. -Guys.
Yeah, she knew it. -Pickles!
-Pickles? Okay, you're in.
You're in, you're in, you're in.
Yeah, and I worked here in New York City.
I was following around a mentor named Ruben Santiago-Hudson.
-Mm-hmm. -And was trying to get
in his rehearsal room as much as possible.
But I was also working on Second Avenue,
and there was three bars on Second Avenue --
two of them which are still there --
and I worked at them.
I was the -- I played the role of the bar-back...
-Uh-huh. -...the host...
-Yeah. -...the bouncer...
-So you could do it all? -...the runner.
-Yeah. -I mean, yeah, I was --
-When you came in wearing that poetry-and-football jacket,
they were like, "I think he can handle almost anything."
-Yeah, I could do everything.
-Do people -- especially, you know, obviously, New York City,
you work in bars, colorful characters,
but they're also your colleagues --
do you hear from those people still?
Are they proud of where this has all ended up for you?
-Well, full circle, bro.
'Cause we chatted right before I went to "SNL".
-That's right. We talked right beforehand.
You were fantastic. -Thank you.
-You're very welcome. [ Cheers and applause ]
-When I hit "SNL", they blew me up.
For whatever reason, "SNL" and those bars --
they were just like, "Oh, my God, Jonathan, we knew.
This and that. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah." Now it's like,
"Oh, love you guys." -Yeah.
-So, yeah, like, we stay tight.
-That's wonderful. -Yeah, these movies go up,
and I get pictures of Kang, you know.
They send it to me, and I go, "All love, man."
-Yeah, that's fantastic.
Well, no one ever expects when they're, you know, working
with a bar-back, that one day they're gonna be Kang.
You know, that's... -True! True, true.
-That's true. They might think you're gonna host "SNL",
but at the time -- -Kang.
-I think it's gonna be Kang.
-No, nobody thought that.
Nobody thought that. -Now you have a 9-year-old
daughter.
Is there any of your work that she's engaged with?
Is she impressed with her dad?
Or is this stuff a little...
-She's impressed when I throw her very high...
-Oh, that's good. -...and she lands on the bed.
-All right. -Right now, she's having
a bit of a moment. -Okay.
-My daughter's 9, almost 10. -Okay.
-And recently [Sighs] much to my chagrin,
young boys are walking up to her and saying,
"You know, you look a lot like Kang."
-Oh, wow.
-And my daughter looks at them and goes, "That's my daddy."
[ Laughter ]
So she's dealing with that, and, I mean, she was starstruck
by Paul Rudd. -Yeah, well, who isn't?
-Fair point. -Yeah, I mean,
all ages, all walks of life.
-Fair point, fair point, fair point.
-Well, she has a lot to be impressed about.
It is always so wonderful to see you.
Thanks so much for being here.
-This is worth it, man.
Thank you. -Congratulations on your films.
Congratulate Jonathan Majors.
"Creed III" in theaters and IMAX tomorrow.
And "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" also out now.
Be right back with Riley Keough.