-Our next guest is an Emmy-winning actor you know from
"Veep" and "Arrested Development."
He stars in "Hocus Pocus 2," which is streaming now
on Disney+, as well as
"The Mysterious Benedict Society."
The second season premiers October 26th on Disney+.
Let's take a look.
-You think I'll be elated to hear you continue to claim
you ended the emergency?
A global crisis you're wholly responsible for creating?
-Drop this ridiculous facade and offer the truth -- now.
-No, it's not a facade. -Oh!
-I believe the instigator of a moment of change
can come from an unexpected direction.
-Please welcome back to the show Tony Hale, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪
Welcome back.
I'm so happy to have you here in person.
-It's so nice to see everybody.
Your Trump impression is very good.
-Thank you, you know? -Very good.
-It was almost worth it for him to be president, it's so good.
I sometimes -- I mean person-- No.
-Okay.
-So, I want to talk about "The Benedict Society,"
but also -- So, "Hocus Pocus" -- you're in the sequel.
-Yes. -A long-time-coming sequel.
-Mm-hmm. -This is a Halloween classic.
Are you someone who likes a good Halloween-themed film?
-No. -Okay.
I think -- I would say "Hocus Pocus"
is kind of a level I like.
-Okay. So that's about as scary as you want to go.
-Yeah. But I genuinely need someone to explain to me --
There is so much fear in the world.
I experience so much fear.
Why would I want to sit in a room with other people
and watch people be murdered?
-Yeah.
-It doesn't -- I genuinely don't get it.
I don't get why people pay money to go through haunted houses.
I'm like -- If I'm home alone,
I'm thinking someone's going to jump out at me.
-So that's your haunted house is just being home alone.
-That's a Tuesday.
But I really -- I genuinely -- Here's the thing.
People can watch those scary movies
and walk away and be like, "Well, it was fun."
I'm like, "Someone's after me,
and I need to protect myself and my family."
-So, I mean, at least those are,
you know, by and large, fictional.
What do you think about, like,
true-crime documentaries and stuff?
-Dude, come on.
I genuinely -- Like the Dahmer show?
-Yeah.
-No, I'm not going to watch that.
It's so terrifying, and that's --
Like, watch CNN and be just as freaked out.
-Right. -Like, why are we doing this?
I'll watch, like, YouTube videos of, like,
puppies coming home to their owners
and stuff like that, you know?
-Usually, it's the owners coming home to puppies,
but you watch --
-I just watch puppies come home to owners.
-I mean, I didn't even know those existed.
And then do the owners, like, freak out?
-Oh!
-Those are... -Woof, woof!
-From serving overseas. The dogs have served overseas.
-There's a lot of YouTubes like that.
-So, this is -- First of all,
the clip of "The Benedict Society."
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Very cool. You play two parts.
You play twins -- one good, one evil.
You also played two parts in the new "Hocus Pocus" film.
And I think that speaks to you as an a actor that
multiple directors have said, "You should do both."
-Yeah. Well, it's in my contract.
-Oh, so you only will now work if you get to do two parts.
-Yeah. Scorsese will call, and I'll be like,
"Does he have a twin?"
-So, have you said "no" to Scorsese?
-Many times over.
Yeah, exactly. -Yeah.
All the parts that went to DiCaprio were originally you,
but he was like, "There's --"
-I was like, "He doesn't have a twin."
-I like that you won't play two different parts.
They have to be a twin, too.
-No, twin. -It's like, "I got to parts.
I can play two parts. I can play this guy, that guy."
You're like -- -Nope, twin.
Identical twin.
-These -- You know, being a show, a wonderful kid's show,
do kids recognize you on the street now?
-For "Benedict Society"? Yeah, with a beard, they do.
Without the beard, they don't.
There's sometimes, though -- It's really sweet.
Like, if somebody -- When I did Forky,
someone will come up and be like,
"Oh, he was the voice of Forky."
And the kid's like, "That's not Forky."
And, so, it's really -- Oh, yeah, there he is.
-We've got a picture of Forky.
And, so, it should be -- I mean, I don't blame kids
for not thinking that's you, right?
-Yeah. That's along the realms of dogs
coming home to their owners.
But it's really fun because I can do --
Like, I'll send a little voice memo to them,
and their parents will play it.
And they'll show a video.
They'll play the video of them hearing it,
and that's really fun.
'Cause they think Forky is real.
'Cause he is.
-You don't give it up in the voice memo.
You don't, as Forky, explain that "I'm always --
I've never been real this whole time."
-And guess what else is not real. No, no, no.
-But, you know, guess what is real.
Jeffrey Dahmer. And you can...
-Thank you. -That was real.
-By the way, thank you.
So, why are we -- Why is this, like, the top-rated show?
That's upsetting.
-It is very upsetting. -Come on.
-You've been in a lot of shows
that I feel like are quoted all the time.
You show up TikTok all the time.
"Veep" and "Arrested Development."
Which I think speaks to both your performance
and how incredibly tightly written
those shows were that they sort of endure.
Is that -- Do people come up to you
and quote lines back to you all the time?
-Yeah, and there's a lot of jokes I miss.
A lot, like, -So, that you were part of.
-Yeah. -Okay.
-Like, there's this joke in "Arrested"
where my hand is eaten off by a seal.
I don't know if you guys remember.
And there was a great scene in there where, like,
the doctor comes up, and they say, "How's Buster?"
'Cause my character is Buster.
And they said, "He's okay, but he lost his left arm."
It's kind of funny.
But then I'm doing this podcast once,
and they said, "No, no, no, that's not the joke.
The joke is, he said, 'He's all right,'
meaning he only has a right hand."
Guys, that was 15 years after I shot the show
that I got that joke.
That's sad.
Oh, and, recently, I went to this great restaurant
in Raleigh, North Carolina, called Union Special.
And they gave me this T-shirt, and it said,
"Waking and baking."
And I was like, "Oh, you know, I love bread."
So, I had -- So, like,
I wore this shirt for like two years.
I wore this shirt to drop my daughter off to school.
I wore this shirt to church.
And I would say probably like two months ago,
someone was like, "Oh, you did a little..."
[ Clicks tongue ]
And I was like, "What?"
I had no idea it was about the weed.
-By the way, even if it was about baking,
it does seem pretty underdressed for church.
-Not my church. -Okay.
-You got the laid-back kind? -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Well, this makes sense that someone that would wear
a T-shirt to church -- you did get your start here
in New York City in the fashion industry.
-[ Laughs ]
Okay.
I temped.
One of my first temp jobs was at "Vogue."
-Okay. So, you were just a temp,
and you got assigned to "Vogue" one day.
-Yeah. I was at this temp agency and I was --
Because I was auditioning for commercials,
and you couldn't do a set gig.
You have to do it day-to-day. -Right. Of course.
-And so, every day, they'd send me somewhere new,
and they sent me to "Vogue."
And it was just like -- I was just like --
I looked like a bad Gap ad in the middle of all --
Just khakis and, like, surrounded by --
I was like a stain in the fashion world.
-Did you clock it immediately when you --
Did you expect it to be that jarring
or was it when you walked in that you realized,
"Oh, I'm not dressed --"
-Oh, It was immediate. But I love those jobs.
For those of you who have temped, back then,
we didn't have the cellphones and all that stuff.
And I would make just
long-distance phone calls all day.
I would just sit at the desk, and, you know,
there's Anna Wintour, and I was just like, "Hey, Mom."
Like, I was just making long-distance phone calls.
So Wintour paid for my long-distance phone calls.
-Oh, that's really nice.
And then, but that was the end of it, right?
You had no communication with "Vogue" after that.
-Well, they've tried to contact me many times.
-They wanted to put you on the cover,
but you were like, "As a twin?"
-Yeah. No.
Cut to a foldout.
-That was a very weird September issue
when it was you and then you folded it out.
-The month that "Vogue" just goes to crap.
-You mentioned that kids only recognize you with a beard.
Is the beard now something you only have for the part
or are you bearded in regular life now?
-I like the beard. -The beard's really good.
-It's, like, a natural kind of fat contour.
-Uh-huh. -I kind of like it.
-I'm curious, though. I know you have a daughter.
Does she like the beard?
Because when my boys -- Even when I grow it out a little bit,
they don't care for it at all.
-Yeah, I think -- Yeah.
Mine's 16 now, and she's -- She'll be 17 in February.
-Wow. What piece of your work does she like -- None of it.
-None of it. -Ever. At any point?
I mean, 'cause I guess, like, Forky,
she's too old for Forky when it happens, probably, or...
-Yeah, she was too old for Forky,
but even when she was little, we didn't watch
"Arrested Development."
I mean --
-Yeah, that's not a great little --
By the way, I love that you're like, "Dahmer's too rough,"
and then you told us, "There's this really funny scene
where a seal eats my arm."
-Yeah, exactly.
And then the seal eats it.
But there is this one scene on "Arrested" where --
just talk about a picture of co-dependency --
where my mother, played by Jessica Walter,
the late Jessica Walter, who was wonderful.
She was on house arrest and she couldn't smoke.
And Buster had to inhale the smoke out of her mouth
and then blow it out on the balcony
and then come back, inhale the smoke out of her mouth,
like a baby bird.
And I'm like, "Do I want to watch this with my daughter?"
-Probably a good decision.
I think let her find it on her own.
Hopefully, one day, she'll go off to college,
and people will say, "Oh, my God.
Your dad was in the funniest show."
-She's like, "No, he wasn't.
That's not my dad."
-Hey, thank you so much for being here.
It's always such a pleasure. -Thanks for having me.
-Really appreciate it. -So fun. So fun.
-Tony Hale, everybody.
"Hocus Pocus 2" is streaming now on Disney+,
and the second season of
"The Mysterious Benedict Society"
premieres on Disney+ October 26th.
We'll be right back with more "Late Night."