Don Cheadle
Appearances
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Honestly, honestly. They're all looking it up, America. I've never looked into it this deeply. You might be absolutely right.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
He's not right. Kansas City, Kansas has the Royals. Are there any sports teams in Kansas City, Kansas? I'm so sorry, America. And specifically. Kansas City has had teams in all five of the major professional sports leagues. Three major leagues remain today. Is that Missouri or is that Kansas? That's Kansas City, Kansas.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
No, I do want to know, because to me, I've seen you in so many things. And like Will said, always brilliant. Like, to me, you were born on screen. Like, I don't know anything about you other than... I was born on screen. Yeah. Other than we run into each other a few times and had lovely conversations. But tell me, how did you get, like, you were in theater in high school?
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Well, sidebar, we played around with doing a movie together at one point.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Did you get it off? Yeah, it didn't do well. But thank you for your consideration. Next subject. Way to dodge a bullet, Don.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I was trying to give a compliment and went right in the trash bin.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
No, but were you interested in high school? How early did you get the bug?
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
So I kind of got the early acting bug. I think I was in sixth grade. I was Templeton the Rat in a production of Charlotte's Web that was written about extensively in the Denver, Colorado periodicals. You can look it up. I'm sure it's still there. And I was singled out. I'm just saying I was singled out.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yeah. And when Cheadle hits the stage, hold on to your... Yeah. So I did that. But I was also doing music kind of at the same time. That's when I got involved in playing my saxophone and instrumental jazz. So I kind of was on these two tracks of really studying music. And when I went to high school, I had a great acting coach, a great acting teacher, a great drama class. And I was in a really...
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
a really good jazz band. So I was kind of on these two tracks. And when I graduated from high school, I had applied for both things, to go into music, to go into vocal jazz, to go into instrumental jazz, and also to study acting, theater acting. And I got some scholarship money from a bunch of different places. And I kind of made... For acting or music or both? Yeah. Both. I had both.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
But I kind of made not only a weather choice, but I think I made a choice based on what I believed I was going to be able to actually do. Because I grew up with musicians now who are like professional musicians and who are hugely successful and incredible.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And I knew what it was going to take to actually be able to do that, go down that road and, you know, shedding and learning theory and doing all those things that I was like, I'm not, I know I'm not going to do that.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I think I'm probably going to spend my time more being out of the house, being with other people and pursuing acting. And I loved it equally. So I kind of went up that road.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yeah, there's definitely science and math to music that you have to want to...
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I was intimidated by it a little bit, to be honest. I had really good ear and I'd gotten by on really being able to hear music rather than understanding how it broke down and I was wide-eyed when I'd get into the weeds on that.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I kind of ran into something that I felt more comfortable with. But it's funny that the music has kind of come back around and that's become a bigger part of my career now too.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Well, I've never gotten one. No, but you produced something. But I did produce the Tonys award-winning show called Strange Loop.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yes. Oh, my God. That's right. With Barbara Whitman. Yes. Right? And she produced the play I just did. That's right. Yeah. Congrats on that.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I mean, when I graduated high school, the choice I made was to go to, I came to California and studied at California Institute of the Arts. And we, you know, did everything there. Musicals and dramas and classical pieces. We did everything. It was really a great experience. experience for me and a place to be able to try everything and make a lot of mistakes and not get fired for it as a result.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Get ready because I love horrible theater stories, things that go wrong. So just get one ready.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Well, no, I was asking. Oh, they're not? Since when do you call me and JB everybody? Yeah. No, I call you guys the audience.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
That is a component of it. And I think the umbrella of jazz under that are many, many subdivisions and categories. It's a huge sort of a blanket term, especially by now.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
You know, if you think of somebody like Robert Glasper, who I won a Grammy with for producing the album Miles Ahead. Anyway.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yeah, thanks, Will. Let me get a little water for him. Wait, are you close to an EGOT? Two Grammys. Oh, no, that's clear.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Wow. But like Rob Glasper, you look at his music and he's, you know, he's... spans the globe of what his musical knowledge is and his experience. And he does popular stuff, black radio, which is sort of, I think you would think of more as like R&B influenced. And then he does straight ahead, you know, jazz and standards. And he does everything in between.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
So I think if you were to ask a musician like that, what jazz is, Or even if you were going to go back and ask, you know, Miles Davis what jazz was, he hated that word. He was like, that's a word to box somebody in. You know, it's about good music. It's about social music.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
So I think there are different, like when I get in the car and, you know, the driver taking you somewhere is like, let's put on some jazz. And he puts on smooth jazz. It's like, I want to shoot him. I hate it.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yeah. I'm more like, I'm open to it if there's a melody that I can hum back, like a song. I'm not open to the jazz that's just people just playing.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
What did he say? I love it all. Because if you're really, you know, if you're... Jazz, you can whack too. Sorry. Jazz. No, latch onto. Grab your thing and have some fun.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Ready? The best gift I ever received was a broken drum. You can't beat it.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
We're not good journalists. Brilliantly. And I remember you telling me when I ran into you, you were working on that. Some nominations or even some wins for that, I believe.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Well, that was the Grammy that we got for the soundtrack, which is really cool. That one we put together with Rob Glasper. He and I put that together. So that was really cool. Um, but yeah, I think it's a big category to talk about jokes on shows. We had one on Black Monday where I'm talking to, uh, thank you very much. I'm talking to Regina Dawn, her name, the character's Dawn about it.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And she goes, yeah, I can never get into jazz. It just always sounded like a bunch of instruments thrown down a flight of stairs.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Funny enough, I did. I was on one of the first episodes of Fresh Prince. And I have a funny pilot firing story, too, about a pilot that didn't go. So I did the I think it was the second or third episode of the Fresh Prince where Will was still super green. He's like mouthing everyone's words, you know, along with his. So he'd say his line and he's staring at you and you say your line. Yeah.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yeah. So he was so studious. You know, he knew everybody's lines and then he would like mouth everybody's lines. But so we did that one. And by the third or fourth show, the creators, Susan and Andy Borowitz, who were the head writers on the show, they said, we want to do a show around you. Uh-oh.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
not necessarily based on the character that you're playing on this, but we just want to do a show around you. And I was like, okay, that's cool. So they wrote this show. How old were you? I don't know. When I did Fresh Prince? Yeah. Early 20s? Is that really germane to the story?
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
You're like, when you get offered your own show, it's like, what? I was six, okay? I was fucking six. No, he's just jealous.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Michael Landon. So it's the third day. They come down. They're like, we want to do the show. I said, okay, great. So they wrote this pilot. We shot the pilot. It's called In the House. I wrote the theme song to the thing. It was just, everything was great.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Super, super heavy saxophone. It was on the schedule. And I, you know, I'm pretty like, I don't believe it until I see it. And I just kind of wasn't believing that it was real. And also it just was a huge thing. It was the biggest thing that had happened in my career at that point. I was like, I don't, something's telling me this isn't real. But it was on the schedule. It was going.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
So like the day before I got this fateful call, I gave my brother my car. I was like, hey, it's on, take the car. I'm about to have this huge windfall.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
It's, I'm ready. And the next day I got a call and they said, it's off the schedule. It was, how old I was, was Brandon Tartikoff was still running NBC at that time.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
But he, when he stepped down and Warren Littlefield came in, he killed all the shows that were under Brandon. And that was one of them. That was one of the casualties.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
As a lesson, so he could live to tell the story to other pilots to get the sauces right.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
That's okay to say. I got one more. You got one more? Are there any mom jokes? Here's a mom joke. What's faster, hot or cold? Hot. You can always catch a cold.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I mean, you know, it's crazy that that my fallback was music. Like if this acting thing doesn't work out, I'll be a jazz musician. That'll get me there. It's like so I mean, that's where I was trending. That's what I wanted to do. And quite honestly, it's there's still no greater pleasure that I have, you know, in any sort of performance capacity than being with musicians and creating music.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
It really is. I think because of, as you were talking about improvisation, that you're creating things spontaneously. I don't know what it's doing biochemically to you, but I'm sure if you have electrodes on and they were testing you, you're getting dopamine hits that are just through the roof because... It's just so alive.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And it transcends language and it transcends, you know, English, Spanish. We can all speak this language. Yeah, yeah. There's a big unifying thing that it does that's just like beyond.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I had the same thing, Don. You know, I always had music to fall back on should the, you know, the acting thing, and I still have the music to fall back on if the acting thing doesn't work out. But I always thought my fallback was going to be, oh, I'll just be a pop star.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Rock it. Hang on, man. I just said Will got that one. You don't have to jump on Dr. Will's thing.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Hey, you hear what I did? Jump on Dr. Will's thing? I'm tripping off on it. Your turn, Sean. Get in there. Ooh, that was a good one too.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
No, and I've been like bouncing around on, so I played the sax and then I didn't do that. You know, when I went to Cal Arts, it was kind of like a conservatory, the amount of time that you had to spend on all that. There was no time really to do anything but theater and voice and movement and dance and all that stuff. So I just kind of dropped it.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And then I was in New York doing a play and I walked by a pawn shop and I saw this beautiful tenor sax. And I was like, I'm going to, pick it back up again. I'm going to see if I have any facility because, you know, you lose your embouchure, you lose that musculature to be able to play it. It's hard to get it back. So I started playing it again. It sounded terrible. I was like, no, just hang out.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Just like stay with it. So I started doing that. And then I took a gig, actually. the Rat Pack movie and playing Sammy Davis Jr., who played drums and played trumpet and, you know, gun twirled and could play piano. And so I kind of went back to school again, having private, you know, having lessons from all of these teachers to learn how to do all these different things.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And that's when I started trying to pick up the trumpet, which became something that was going to, I didn't know I was going to need later. when I did the Miles Davis thing. I've been playing bass more than anything lately and piano more than anything lately.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I haven't gone back to the sax. I bought a really beautiful brand new sax and let this dude play and he just recorded an album with it. It's always in the periphery somewhere. I think the most amazing musical experience I had in the last couple of years was Rob Glasper was at his, he was recording something. He said, hey, come by, come listen.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And I said, yeah, keep a track open because I'm going to bring the bass and I'm just going to like, you know, kill you guys with some shit. So just keep the track open. I was completely joking. And so I came over and I listened to him for a while and he goes, okay, here's the bass. Let's go. I said, no, no, no. I was joking. I don't want to play. He's like, oh, no, you're going to play.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And it became sort of like... you know, trial by fire. And I don't play like that. But when you play with great musicians, you know that they lift you up. Yeah. It's just like acting.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
You seem to be like so great at surrounding your life with the things that
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
means you know have great value to music acting family you always seem to be in a great mood too like is golf yeah um how do you do that how do you for people who don't know how to do that where where they're like i'm i'm in this rut like to us we've all found the thing that we love to do or things we love to do yeah um how did you learn how to gravitate towards the good versus the bad
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
You know, the things that are good for you, the things that fill your soul. This is a question.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Will's killing it. And you're killing the pot shots from the sideline, by the way.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I honestly have to attribute a lot of it to... My upbringing. I was very fortunate to have... And people get to it however they get to it. I was very fortunate to have... really solid parents, you know, really sort of, you know, corny, traditional picket fence, three, you know, the 3.5 kids and a dog and the whole thing.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I really was able to grow up like that with parents that never dissuaded me from going after what I wanted to go after.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I think it was, you know, really fortunate that my mom was sort of a frustrated, you know, performer, a frustrated singer. So when I wanted to be an actor, she was like, yes.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yeah. Well, she's a, she's a girl. So I like took advantage of the different months, you know, I had, I was stronger than her. Uh, and then we moved into weapons and that's when it was like, Oh, she's leveled the playing field. So we got to chill out. And that's when we stopped fighting. Um, but, uh, just really close knit family. And it's something I think I just wanted to replicate in my life.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And I'm really lucky that, you know, I have friends from when I was in elementary school still and from college and the people that I'm close to are still in my life. And I think we all know people who have gotten to a certain place and have looked around and they don't know anybody that's No one that's around them has been around them for five years.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And you go, that person's probably going to have some problems. So you need people who will laugh at you and say, you're not important. Chill out.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I think I've had the opposite where I'm like, this thing's going to crush. And then it comes out and I'm like, ooh. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Not so much. Right. I mean, we don't know, right? You just go in with, you know, your best, you know, you've made the best decision you could and you go in and throw everything into it. And then sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. But I've never, you know, I've always had, I've always believed that the thing I've said yes to has value and it's going to be good and the experiences.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And then it turns into being what it's going to be. I've been really fortunate to have really, really great experiences. I've had very few, experiences where it's a toxic set and people are horrible. I've just been very, very, the things I've gravitated toward have gotten made and I've just been very, very fortunate. I've had a very blessed career.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yeah, I mean, we have stuff. We're trying to develop things as we speak. There's a couple things.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
uh an easy voice to follow considering he's kind of this are you trying to dovetail into you because no no no no that's what i'd like to do but can i take a minute to honestly actually spike it he served it up guys take us take a second i do want to spike it I'm a big Jason Bateman fan. I'm just going to say I'm a big Jason Bateman fan. I love everything that I'm seeing you do.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And I saw you in a roundtable talking about understanding as an actor what you were going to be doing as an editor and knowing when you get into the editing room what you're going to be able to use and not use and how you're going to craft things. your performance based on that?" And I was like, that's so fucking smart and such a cheat, by the way.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
It's the pressure. Honestly, it's the pressure. I think my agent one time said, good actors can be and sometimes need to just be hard sons of bitches. They just have to be able to, not necessarily in how they deal with people, but you have to have a... the ability to have stuff kind of roll off and be thick skinned and not have it be, you know, penetrate and keep moving.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And I think I have more, I'm more like sort of bandied about by the things that happen and the things I wasn't able to get. And I just, and it's something that I'm learned about myself going through that experience. I'm like, oh, well, I'm a lot more porous in that regard than I thought I was.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Well, for me, I really could, I sound like an idiot, Aaron, you know, complaining about anything about my acting. Because, again, I was super, super fortunate. I've never done anything but this to support myself. I, you know, got my first job when I was still in college. You know, my junior year, I got a gig. Oh, I did get fired from a job. That was actually the first job.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I got an AT&T commercial. Wow. where a kid was supposed to be on the phone and sort of trying to dodge the questions that his mom was asking because he was not doing so well. She goes, how are your grades? And he's like, my grades? I can't hear you. This connection is bad. She's like, no, I can hear you great. And it was AT&T. You know, you can't fake the funk. You know, one of those things.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
That is crazy. That's what's going to happen. So I actually did get fired from a job I got. That was the first one. But yeah, but for me, the acting thing has been, I've been, like I said, I've been very blessed, very fortunate. But the directing part of it, yeah, it's really just, it's been...
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
These particular experiences I've had, not when I've directed my show, that's a little bit more of a comfort zone, a little bit more support I've had and a little bit more resources and people to rely on. But, you know, I made, we made Miles Ahead for $8.5 million. in a town that had only done one other movie before that where we would show up and there was no redundancy in the departments.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
We'd have two cameras and only one cameraman. I'd be like, where's Phil? It's like, oh, he took a commercial in Dayton. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, coming in one day and I was like, where's the... We had her in the scene. She's like, yeah, she didn't want to come today. I'm like, but she's in the scene. They're like, yeah, she doesn't want to come.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
So I'm like, put this woman in the dress, turn her back to the camera. Like every day it was something like that.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Just... But the problems that didn't make sense, like the fire alarm going off and then the fire, then the actual firemen coming and coming in while we're shooting the scene. And so, okay, I guess we'll shoot this MOS and just mime all these things. We'll do it in post. I get, you know, just every day it was something like that. My wife came out to see me and she said, you can't do this anymore.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
You know, I lost weight. It was just, it was just bad. So I have a lot of scar tissue. So maybe if I get some sort of procedure where I can scrape that off, I'll try it again.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
For the emotional scars. I have a question just about your acting style and approach because when I first saw Ocean's Eleven, and which you were brilliant in, I'm not making this up, like halfway through the movie because of your accent, I was like, oh, wait, is that Don Cheadle? Like you didn't do anything to your appearance. You just changed your kind of way. I don't know how to describe it.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And it's amazing what just an accent can do. How did you find the trust to do that? Why that character like that? And how do you do that like in any character you approach?
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
It was written like that and I was going to change it. And my manager at that point said, there aren't black British people. I was like, oh, I mean, yeah. She's like, so why don't you just do it as how it's written? And I was like, yeah, fuck.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I'll try it. And so while I'm in my trailer with, you know, a vocal coach, a speech coach going over like diphthongs and schwas and stuff, they're out playing basketball. I'm like sitting in my trailer watching them play poker and have fun. And I'm like, you know, no, this word, no, uh, no, I, no, uh.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
So I slept all through the night. I got up to pee, and I went right back to sleep. Why do you think that is? Did you load up on a bunch of sugar before you went to bed? I did a little bit, but because of yesterday, I think that what Will's talking about, I think I ran myself around in circles like a little child being up at 3.30, and then I just crashed, and it made me sleep all night long.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Oh, that's nice. That's a nice diphthong. But I was famously murdered. You know, people hate, people are split right in the middle on that. The people that hate that. I hate it. When I was in London, I almost had to get security because people wanted to kill me based on how bad they thought that accent was. Oh, the accent? Why? They hated it and me. People literally drove.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
They would see me and come across four lanes of traffic to pull up next to me to scream at me about how bad the accent was.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
No, I'm just going to say, and some of them, you know, fit better than others that I've attempted to take on, you know. But they're all, like you said, it's all tricky. Like you're kind of acting through a mask and you're trying to make that mask be as real and as facile as you can. It's tricky.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yeah, I would I would I would guess Devlin in a blue dress was probably I was on picket fences for a couple of years before that.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
You know, I was 12th on the call sheet and you guys know what that is. I'm sitting in the trailer all day and they're like, we're coming to you next. We're coming to you next. And they're like, oh, no, we're not going to use you today. And you've been in the trailer for 12 hours. So I started writing. That's when I started writing and just as survival. Right. Just to not go crazy.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I mean, it was an incredible experience. It was directed by Carl Franklin, who I did his AFI thesis project, his graduation project. So I had known him from before. So that was really old home and felt great. And Denzel and I, from the audition on, which is online, actually. Our audition is online. Oh, no way. No way. Yeah. And so is that pilot that I mentioned, by the way.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
People find shit and upload everything. But we just had a great time. And of course, I was just in awe of him and, you know, worked as hard as I've ever worked on anything to make sure I was in the pocket. You know, when I was with him, I didn't come out, I was super methody. I was not great character. I was mouse all the time. You know, I just stayed in it. And I, yeah, I had a great experience.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Which of your BMWs, Mr. K? That's a great... Very good. I just think that, you know, like we... I think people... underestimate, you know, to what Will was saying earlier, what we really do.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I think people think it's super, super easy and then they try it and they're like, oh, you're actually trying to be very naturalistic inside a completely unnatural environment where somebody's standing in your eyeline chewing gum and, you know, somebody's making noise off, somebody's, you know, walkie-talkies going off and you've got to act like this is the first time you've ever done or said any of these things.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And I think that you only do that well if you're really prepared and you've really done your homework and you're not here just because you think it's going to be cool to cut line at a restaurant.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
You know, it's like, this is, this is a, this is really, I'm not, we're not rocket scientists and we're not, you know, jumping out of airplanes or whatever the hardest shit there is to do or ditch digging, but there is a craft. Yeah. That's what we play the shit out of. And we learn about them. That's another thing. Good actors are students. So we're always in the lab, right?
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
We're always trying to, if I play a doctor, I'm going to read up on doctors. I'm going to follow doctors. I'm going to go to hospitals. I'm going to try to sit next to them. If I'm playing a cop, I'm going to do a ride along. I'm going to. So I feel like that part of it often gets overlooked, that we're always in school. You know, we're always.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
That's exactly right. But I said, wait till my tool comes out. Yes! Double guns. Yes!
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Don Chalant! Don Chalant. Don Chalant strikes again. Fuck him. Is that you, Sean? Oh, this is me singing, yeah. It's horrible. Here we go. It's so bad. Okay.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Jimmy Somerville and Beirut. That was the name of the album. Oh, Sean. Yeah. Did you ever see, by the way, did you ever see Ricky Gervais' music videos or anything? Oh, yeah. Those were tough.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
That's some other path. Oh, my God. But, yeah, do you have any, like, tragic, horrible theater gone wrong?
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
My tragic, the most tragic thing other than a real injury that I suffered during a play, same play, by the way, We were doing Cymbeline at the Public that Joanne Acolytis directed, who is experimental director from Mabou Mines. If people want to go back and look at all that stuff, she's great. But we had an actor, Stefan Schnabel. who played the doctor in this play.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And, you know, it's kind of a stereotypical Shakespeare fifth act wrap-up where one character knows everything that happened in the play. Like, you're his niece, and she actually has the potion. And this king knew him as a... Like, they unwrapped the whole thing, and we're all on stage going... Oh, that's how I did that. So he had this last speech that he had to give.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Wow. So it comes time for him to wrap this up, and he goes up. Forgets his lines. Yeah, forgets his lines. Goes up, forgets his lines, for those who want the theater vernacular. And he starts... stammering and making up words and basically just sort of like... Trouble. You know, standing in place and teetering.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And no one, you can't give somebody in Shakespeare, you know, it's not, we're not doing something naturalistic. You can't come up with some, you could try to come up with some iambic pentameter and like slip a line there to help him along the way. But it went on so long that first the audience sort of laughed and then realized, oh, it's not a bit and stopped laughing.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And then the other half of the audience laughed and then half the audience shushed that part of the audience that laughed. And then the actors on stage kind of were starting to laugh. You know, those two that would start to laugh. And everyone's like, shut the fuck up. And everybody stops laughing. And he's still kind of trying to pull it off. He doesn't think anyone's noticed.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Trying to pull it off. This went on for probably two minutes. You know how long two minutes is? You guys have died for two minutes for sure, collectively on this show, for 100%. It feels like a long time. Yeah, it's a long time.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Joan Cusack, who was the lead in it, who played Cymbeline, just finally just started saying his lines. She just couldn't take it anymore. And he kind of revved up and got through it and then got off stage and he said, I want to kill myself. I have to quit. You're like, you're 98.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yeah, you're going to be dead soon, I guess, is what Joan said to try to, like, you know, bolster his ego.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yeah, there's nowhere to hide. But now, Don, you're like one of the sweetest people ever. What pisses you off? Because I can't, the few times I've met you, even today, you're always just very in the middle, very cool, calm, collected. Gummy. Gummy program.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Immediately, but then I kind of let it go, you know. I think, like, stupidity without any desire to not be stupid pisses me off. I don't mind if you're stupid. People can be stupid. But when they are, like, incurious and don't want to actually look under the stupidity and see where the stupidity is coming from, that kind of pisses me off. And, you know, as we can see, it's incredibly dangerous.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And, you know, we're in a sweet spot of stupidity right now for a lot of people. Yeah.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
This is definitely. No, no, no, no, no, no. I think Will's just trying to use... It's very general.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I always say I could drive the cart. He loves to drive the cart. It's a date. It's so much fun.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And universally loved. And, yeah, we say this all the time. It seems like the people who work all the time also have wonderful personalities. Yeah, I agree.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Or talk about, like, vacation spots. Like, I don't know, like, has he ever been to Thailand or Mumbai? Mumbai! Oh, Mumbai!
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Is that a new nickname? That's really clever. It's, I'm trying to put it out there. You know, I was going to try to trademark it, but I was unsuccessful.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Don Cheadle, hi. Good morning. What's up, gang? I love Don Cheadle.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
You know, the team was like, you've got to do these guys' podcast. You're going to love them. I love all of you individually and collectively. Not as much when it's set through the banter. Yeah, we get it. The early bad dude.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
It's ISU, Illinois State University, where I have an honorary doctorate and a scholarship fund set up for people who want to go into music or the arts. Sorry, acting.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
You know what? But I appreciate that. Yeah, Scotty and I just watched just last week, not even knowing, obviously, that you were going to be on because you're Jason's guest. We watched Mission to Mars. I was in that. And I was like, there's Don again. And you're brilliant in it. Always.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yeah. And that you could grow facial hair. I thought it was only Jason who could do that.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I'm in Atlanta, Will. To answer your question, I'm in Atlanta. You're in Atlanta.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I'm working on something. It's a project called Fight Night. And I am in this wonderful project with... Who you guys had on the show, Kevin Hart, Sam Jackson, Taraji Henson, Terrence Howard. Wow. Yeah, it should be. I'm looking forward to it. I've shot one day, so I'm looking forward to this.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
You know, Sam has been on IR for a minute. I hope he comes off because I would love to. You know, we used to play a lot, but he's nursing an injury or two.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Well, you know, Sam famously, you know, whenever he would get a gig, a part of his contract was they had to get him a membership to whatever local course there was because he's such a freak about it.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yeah, he played everywhere. I was like, you can do that? Sam also was, you know, Mr. If you force me, you're bringing me $900 in cash in an envelope the next day like a drug deal. I was like, this dude's my hero. Yeah.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Did you really go to ISU? I went to Illinois State University. Yeah, it's one of the greatest colleges ever.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I've worked here a bunch because a lot of the Marvel stuff was here.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And I've kind of been around it a little bit more. But this is probably the longest stretch that I'm going to be here. So I'm looking forward to, like, getting up to the mountains and going to the lakes and just checking it all out.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
So, so I did a movie there a long time ago in Atlanta during the summer. Did you guys shoot those, all those Marvel movies in like the summertime? Because you can't breathe. It's so hot.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
And, and, and how do you, you're in those costumes and running around in that heat. Is that what it is? And you're in space.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yeah. I mean, I think that was the, oh, I, there's a callback. Yeah. Good one.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
Yeah, it's brutal. I mean, I'm from Kansas City, Missouri, where 98 degrees and 98% humidity. So I was born for this. But yeah, it's not fun. But right now, it's very cold, actually.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
For a theater. By the way, you know who went there? Me, Jane Lynch, Craig Robinson, and I were music majors together.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
You know, what's hilarious when Sean was talking about that is I was very jealous because I did not sleep well last night. That's what I'm saying.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
No, no, no. There's one in Kansas, and there's a Kansas City in Missouri. I mean, they're close.
SmartLess
"RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"
I don't know if you remember. I'm sure you don't remember because of your gummy program.