-This is a true story.
Well, not -- it's inspired by a true story.
I don't know if these guys were actually --
-Word for word. -Word for word?
-This is actually a documentary. -This is a documentary.
But these are friends, a group of friends
who have been playing a real game of Tag for 30 years.
-Yeah, it's true.
There was a "Wall Street Journal" profile on these guys.
They're from Spokane, Washington.
[ Audience cheers ]
There is 10 of them.
We scaled it down for narrative reasons to five.
-Yeah. And it's cash, right?
-Right, right. We couldn't afford it.
-Yeah, right. Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-But they really do play this game.
And it's actually kind of a beautiful thing
because it's kept them together as friends for 30 years.
You know, when you get older -- -Yeah.
-...it's harder to stay in touch with people.
We have Facebook and stuff now.
But to actually be in the same place,
this game does that for them and it's a beautiful thing.
-It is a beautiful thing.
I still think it would be a hard sell if I told my wife
I got to -- it's Tag time. [ Laughter ]
No matter how many years I've been doing it, I think --
-"Sorry, honey, you got the kids tonight.
I got to go run around and tag."
-"I got my tag thing." -Yeah.
Well, it is only one month out of the year.
-Well that's -- I guess she --
She would definitely give me that, yeah.
-So it's reasonable. Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-Jeremy Renner is one of your cast mates.
And one of your other cast mates, Annabelle Wallis was here
talking about how he broke both his arms.
-Right. -She was not one of the taggers.
You are. -Yeah.
-Did you get hurt? Any injuries for you?
-No, I didn't. I didn't get hurt at all.
And it's worth, I think, pointing out that Jason Bourne
and the guy from "Mission: Impossible"
and Hawkeye the Avenger got hurt.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And I did not.
-You came out -- yeah. -I came out unscathed.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Well, do you think -- do you think the industry has noticed?
-Well, that's what's so weird is that now there is all this buzz.
'Cause everyone was like, "Helms got out scot-free,
without a scratch, so like maybe he's the next big action star."
-Oh, wow. [ Laughter ]
And it's like -- I'm just hearing all this buzz.
I don't know where it started. [ Laughter ]
I don't know.
-But this is a palpable buzz in Hollywood?
-Palpable buzz, Seth. -Wow.
-Seth, it's -- I mean, this is -- it's buzzing.
-Yeah, yeah.
-Everyone is like, "He's gonna be --"
And this is -- I mean, I'm very humbled by this.
There's Oscar buzz.
-There's Oscar buzz too? -Yeah, for me.
Yeah, and I, again, I don't know where it started.
I don't know. -Wow.
Is it the Oscar for not getting hurt on the set?
[ Laughter ]
-It's because I just -- I transformed in this role.
-All right. So here's my question though.
So Renner's Hawkeye.
If Ed Helms is now the new action star, superhero guy,
what would be a good superhero for you?
-So I've been thinking about that.
When I do get the call from Marvel, what am I gonna say?
[ Laughter ]
And I think a good one would be,
because Renner's Hawkeye, I could be Hawkguy.
-Okay. -Yeah.
-Seems very similar. -No. It's not. It's not at all.
Because Renner runs around with a bow and arrow.
And I'm just the guy who knows a lot about hawks.
-Oh, okay. [ Laughter ]
-Yeah.
Hawkguy, he's like your go-to guy for hawk-related trivia.
-Gotcha. Facts.
-A lot of people don't know this.
Falcons and hawks get confused a lot.
-Gotcha. -Right?
But Hawkguy can tell you the difference.
-Gotcha. [ Laughter ]
Could he tell me a lot about falcons
or would he push me off to someone else for that?
-Yeah, he'd push you off to Falconguy.
-Right, exactly. -Obviously.
[ Laughter ]
-Not to be confused with the falcon.
-Jon Hamm is gonna be Falconguy. -Yeah.
-And I'll be Hawkguy.
-That's great.
I think your scenes will be the best in that film.
-It's just like I said -- don't know where the buzz started.
[ Laughter ]
So humbled by it.
-So humbled by the buzz.
-But we'll see what happens.
-You shot in Atlanta, which is where you are from.
-My hometown, yeah. Atlanta, Georgia.
-So how was that? Was it nice to be back home?
-It's awesome.
I do -- I love going back home.
It, you know, stirs up a lot of old memories,
old jobs and school and stuff.
-Where were -- What was young Ed Helms doing for jobs?
-Well, I worked -- I was a lifeguard.
-All right. -At a pool.
-Oh, that's where they do it. [ Laughter ]
-Well, it's funny.
When you say that you were a lifeguard,
people are like, "Whoa, that's impressive."
I was not impressive.
-Okay.
-I was a lifeguard at a city pool.
The most I did, like, the most heroic thing I did
was stopped children from peeing in the pool.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And that's --
-If you are stopping them from peeing in the pool,
that means they're doing it from outside the pool?
'Cause otherwise how -- [ Laughter ]
How can you tell?
-No, you can tell. -You can?
-You can absolutely tell.
Because they can be in the middle of, like,
a crazy game of Marco Polo, and when they start to pee,
they just drift away. [ Laughter ]
And they get this blank look on their face.
And it's just -- they're like... [ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
-It strikes me that once you see that face,
it's already too late. -It's too late.
But you can shame them into hopefully not doing it again.
-I see. I gotcha. -Right?
-So you're policing the next time out?
-I'm a child shamer. [ Laughter ]
-That's really what a lifeguard was, a child shamer.
-Let's go back to Oscar buzz.
[ Laughter ]
Because again, somebody keeps saying it.
Somebody keeps repeating it.
-Yeah, no, I've heard it a lot in the last five minutes.