-Welcome back! -Thanks. Thanks, buddy.
-Very exciting day for you.
"The Irishman," a film that you were in,
nominated for an Academy Award.
-10 of them. -10 of them.
-Yeah. -Not bad.
-Pretty good, yeah. -Not bad at all.
-Not bad, yeah. We're very excited.
Yeah, it's an honor to be in a movie like that.
-And you also --
You and Rose Byrne are in "Medea,"
which, your preview started last night.
How was that? -It was good, you know?
It was sold out, thousand people or so,
and they seemed to enjoy it.
They got up afterwards and didn't leave.
-That's wonderful. -So that was good, yeah.
And you know Rose is extraordinary.
She's so good in it. And I don't think
she's ever going to think that it went well, but --
-Gotcha. So, now, you and Rose, of course,
are partners in real life. You have two children.
Is she that kind of actor that --
-Well, she's just tough on herself.
And, you know, the thing about the theater, right, of course,
is, like, you do it, and then it's gone forever.
So you just -- You really have to move on.
And I think it's a pretty demanding role for her.
-Of course. -And, you know,
I'm just going to get to hear about it every night.
-Well, it's interesting, 'cause this is a very intense play
about marriage and relationships.
And you guys are in a relationship.
-Tyler Perry comes in in the middle of it.
-Now, see, now, this is interesting.
Tyler Perry is not in this "Medea."
-He's not in this. -Right, okay, gotcha.
Do you feel as though there's any sense that
you want to let the audience know that ahead of time?
-Yeah, yeah. I bring it up every now and then. Yeah, I'm like,
I feel like we should have Tyler Perry do the announcement.
-Like, you know, like, "Unwrap the candies,
shut off your phone, and I'm not in this."
-Right.
-And then give people 7 to 10 minutes to leave.
-Right, like, "We're going to turn the lights off,
so you can leave if you want.
It won't be shameful." -Yeah.
-How -- You guys have worked together before.
But again, this is very intense, and it is about relationships.
Have you found it harder or easier
to do it with somebody that you share life with?
-You know what? The truth is, I'm a huge fan of Rose's.
And this is one of the great roles
in the history of the theatre.
And there aren't that many great roles, really, for women.
And so I was really very honored to be asked to do it with her.
And I've got the best seat in the house every night.
-That's fantastic. -So, I'm thrilled
to do it with her. -That's really exciting.
[ Applause ]
-You have a history, a long history,
as a stage actor and film actor.
But you have also a history of hurting yourself onstage.
This is true? -Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. It's like a contact sport for me.
Yeah, I've gotten hurt.
I've had more surgeries from acting.
-Really? -Yeah. You know --
-What were -- How do they happen?
-You know, like, I'll do something
like I'll jump on a table.
And then -- Like, in rehearsal. And then I'll be like,
"Oh, yeah. I'm going to do that every night."
But your body doesn't know you're acting.
Your body's like, "You're 49."
-Right, right. -"Don't do that."
-And you're like, "No, body, we're 32."
-Yeah, yeah. So after doing that for two weeks,
my meniscus tears. -Yeah.
-Or, you know, I'm punching a wall every night,
and then, like, I tear my rotator cuff.
So I got to fix that.
I walked into a metal pole one night in the dark,
and I cut my face open.
I had four stitches in my face, you know.
-See, the first two were kind of cool
'cause it was you being, like, tough guy.
-Yeah, yeah. I killed it with the last one.
-Yeah, yeah.
-That's like when I -- You know, I broke my wrist one time.
And I had this really great cast, you know, on my arm.
And people were like, "What happened?"
And I had a Vespa at the time.
-Yeah. -And I fell off my Vespa.
[ Laughter ] But I stopped saying that
and I started saying I fell off my bike,
'cause 20% of people thought I meant motorcycle.
-Yeah. -I figured.
-I mean this as a compliment. -Yeah.
-If you said bike to me, I would think motorcycle before Vespa.
-Because I'm saying it. You wouldn't think it was Vespa.
-Right, right, right, whereas, if I say it,
I think people think, like, Schwinn.
-Yeah, yeah. -Yeah.
-Yeah, yeah. The same thing with the meniscus.
-Yeah, exactly. -It was jumping on a table.
-Yeah, jumping on a table, not the best way to do it.
-Yeah, yeah. -You -- When you got your start,
your first head shot, and I think a lot of us
in the acting game have a first head shot
that we're maybe a little embarrassed about,
but you also filled your résumé with lies.
-Oh, yeah. Well, I didn't have a lot of credits.
So I had a very large special skills section.
-Yeah. -So like half of the page was --
You know, you have to put your credits down.
And then they want to know,
like, what special skills you have.
Multiple languages. -Sure.
-So, I just -- I wrote everything that I could do.
-Right, just 'cause you had to fill out the page.
-Yeah, automobile driver.
[ Laughter ]
-Oh, right, stretch it out.
-And then, automobile driver/automatic.
Automobile driver/manual,
'cause it's longer than stick. [ Laughter ]
Accents. -Accents, right.
-I don't know any accents. Horseback riding.
-And horseback riding came to --
-That one bit me in the ass. -It did, yeah.
-Yeah, 'cause I had never ridden a horse.
And then I got a job where I had to ride a horse.
And Kevin Costner, director,
and he was the best. He was the greatest.
And I remember, we got there, and it was rehearsal, thank God.
And they brought the horse to me.
And I just looked at it.
[ Laughter ]
And he was like, "You going to get on it?"
And I said, "Yeah, yeah. I'm just -- Just waiting."
And he went, "You don't know how to ride a horse."
So I went, "I don't know how to ride --
I don't know how to get on a horse."
And so he taught me how to ride a horse.
-Really? -Yeah, he was the best.
-And looking back, when you look at that work,
are you like, "That's believable. I look like --"
-No, 'cause I got completely cut out of the movie.
-Did you really? -Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, but I learned how to ride a horse.
Kevin Costner was like --
-That's fantastic. You got very --
Ultimately, you got paid
to take horseback riding lessons from Kevin Costner.
-Pretty much, yeah, yeah. There's no record of it at all.
-No record of it at all.
You posted this photo on your Instagram.
Is this from your first communion?
Is that -- -Yeah.
How about that hairstyle? -Everything about this --
-"No Country for Old Men." -There's so much to unpack here.
Lookit. Yeah, it is.
-I had that hairstyle before Javier Bardem.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-This is a young Anton Chigurh.
-That's right.
I had a big gap in my teeth before braces.
-Yeah. A very, very wide lapel.
-The turned-down turtleneck.
Yeah, I think I have a ring on, too.
It's on the other hand. -Oh, it's on the other hand.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I have a little thing there.
-Do you look back now and go, "Gosh, it was like --"
The innocence that you were so happy in this photo,
not realizing the outfit you were wearing?
-I thought I looked really good, actually. I thought --
You should see my first communion suit.
-Okay. -'Cause that was inspired
by "Saturday Night Fever." That was --
Not my first communion, my confirmation suit.
-Oh, your first confirmation. -It was white and black.
-You also -- Is this swim team?
-Yeah, you didn't have to bring that out.
[ Laughter ]
-That's a very confident swimmer.
Yeah.
-That pose is called "The Package."
[ Laughter ]
-Bobby Cannavale, everybody.