Hi, Ellen.
Hello, Scott Foley.
How are you and where are you?
I'm great, Ellen DeGeneres.
Right now, for the moment, I am home
with my family in Connecticut.
Oh, lovely.
You've been there for quite a while, right?
Yeah.
We moved here about a little over a year ago
and settling in.
Kids are in school, dogs are annoying,
and everything's great.
Yeah.
You have been here many times over the years.
What is a favorite moment of yours?
Oh, man.
First of all, thank you for having me as often as you have.
I've had such a great time on your show,
and congratulations on such a great run.
Thank you.
What is my favorite?
Man, I have so many great memories.
I think one of my favorites has to be Scandal.
The cast did your show quite a few times.
Portia.
You were so gracious to lend us, Portia, for a few seasons.
I appreciate that.
You're welcome.
But one of my favorites was, we did this--
we've had a couple.
We did this game show with you guys,
where we tried to find out who the most scandalous cast
member was, and somehow I was voted most scandalous.
I remember this because my wife was
like, hey Scott, how about you don't tell everyone everything.
Yeah.
That was one of my favorites.
We did learn a lot about you.
There was a lot that you did.
It was interesting.
Yeah.
I've learned a lot of lessons from speaking out loud
on your show.
The other favorite, I don't know if you remember this,
but we talked about one of my favorite shows
being This Old House, and you set up an audition for me
on stage where I auditioned for This Old House.
And actually, through that audition,
This Old House reached out to me and wanted me to guest host.
I wasn't able to do it, but I've struck up
a bizarre relationship with one of the producers, who has since
been fired.
But he's lives in my neighborhood now,
and he sent me like sweet pepper jelly from his garden.
We're friends.
It's nice, thank you.
I appreciate it.
Well, you're welcome for that as well.
Well, I learned that because you love to build things
and you're really, really good at it,
and the last time I actually spoke to you,
you were hosting my show Ellen's Next Great Designer,
and you really are good.
What have you made lately?
Thank you.
Well, I've spent the past three or four months
commuting back and forth.
We shoot The Big Leap in Chicago,
so I haven't been able to do a ton.
Although, right before I went to Chicago,
I built a bench for my entryway out of this old oak tree
that I brought with me much to my movers, Chagrin.
I flew, not flew, drove from California here.
So I made a big entryway bench out of that oak tree.
There it is.
Right there.
Look at that.
It's a monster.
Yeah.
It's like 300 pounds, and my wife
loves to put mail on it, which is not necessarily
what it was intended for.
That's where the mail goes now.
Well, what are you going to do?
Just sit in the middle of a hallway by yourself?
I mean, it has to do something.
Yeah.
It needs something to do.
It does need something.
Let's talk about The Big Leap.
Tell everybody about the show.
Oh, The Big Leap.
I'm so proud of it.
It is a scripted show.
It's a show within a show.
It's a scripted show about the making of a reality show.
I play the producer of the show, his name
is Nick Blackburn, who is straddling
the line between trying to exploit everybody there
to get the best content and the most drama
and conflict out of them for the benefit of the show,
and he wrestles with his integrity
as he doesn't necessarily want to hurt anybody in doing it.
So it's a really sweet show.
A bunch of great cast members, Piper Perabo, Teri Polo,
this new girl, who you guys have never seen before,
but is fantastic.
There's a picture of her right there, Simone Recasner.
And I'm just so proud of it.
I hope you guys check it out.
Yeah, and you now, you don't dance, or have
you taken dance class, ever?
Ellen, one of my first jobs in LA,
I was hired at an Arthur Murray Dance Studio.
I got another job at the same time.
So I had to quit Arthur Murray before I even got a chance
to dance, and I became a waiter, which
was much better for acting, schedule-wise.
But it would have made much more sense, in my opinion,
to find someone they'd already taught
and say, hey, you want to teach this?
Exactly.
Instead of hiring me, I mean, I was like 21, 22 years old.
I think it would have been fun, but I'm
kind of glad that it never came to fruition
because I loved waiting tables.
Which is a weird thing to say, but I did.
Yeah, I did too.
I didn't like anything more than a four-top,
though, because I didn't like carrying big trays.
I preferred a two-top, even though you get more money
as a tip from a four-top.
But did you like big parties because that's
what scared me waiting tables?
I didn't mind big parties because the money was better,
and I was OK carrying heavy stuff.
But what I love most about it is one
of the things I love about acting, which
is that the crew on set becomes like a family
and in when you're waiting tables,
the staff is like a family, and it's you versus--
it's a horrible thing to say, it's
you versus everybody who's eating it.
Right.
Well, anyone who's waited tables understands that because it
is us against everybody.
Because everybody wants something,
you've never brought it fast enough.
Anyway, I used to just bring everything,
in case they would want something,
even if it didn't go with it, butter, syrup, salt,
anything just in case.
I didn't want to wait for anything.
So you didn't have to make extra trips, I understand.
Exactly.
Hey, we have to take a break.
We'll be back.