John Goodman
Appearances
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
That's a good point. It was different for the time because the antidote to a lot of things like Dallas and Dynasty and... all these rich folk things, and I think we hit a nerve. I know my nerves were beat.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I was out here for something. In L.A.? Yeah. It was either a movie or a commercial. And I got hip and rented a Corvette. Mm-hmm. I thought I was hot shit. I had a couple of bucks, and I remember going to the audition in that Corvette. And... I walked in, I didn't know much about her. I'd seen her in some Pizza Hut commercials.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I've seen a couple of clips and she was really good, like on the Carson Show. And I walked in and it was very friendly and I read and I just, I knew I had the gig. Yeah.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I was living out of suitcases all the time because I was just starting to get films. Yeah. Like starting in 1985, I was a book on a lot of movies. That was after Revenge of the Nerds. Yeah, that was shot in 83.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
No, it was before. It was in 1985. Oh, wow. I just got a lead in a film that David Byrne directed.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I want to see that. And I was just really getting, you know, I'd show up. I'd go to dailies because I wanted to.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
No, it was before that with David Byrne. And I was really getting into it. I wasn't as scared as I was. And I got called, I was in New York on a week off or something. Anyway, I was in New York. They called me in for Raising Arizona. And we just sat down and goofed around for about an hour. Really? That was the audition. And then I read and left.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I never had a more fun audition before or since. We just sat and goofed around constantly. Yeah, I was going to say we were on the same level humor-wise, but those guys are geniuses. Yeah, they are. No kidding. Yeah.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I wouldn't know how to augment any better than they wrote it. We had rehearsal time on Lebowski. So by the time we shot, we were in pretty good shape with the dialogue, and that's why a lot of people asked me if it was improvised. It was just so conversational. Because we were facile with it.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
One of my faves. It was just lovely. Man, it's just a great time, great hang. Do you remember reading that script the first time?
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
You're like, holy shit. Did they write it for you? I'll bet they did. Oh, Lebowski, yeah.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
and magpies for popular culture that just throw in and everything and it works. They've got great ears for people's dialogue, for human speech. Will worked with Barry Sonnenfeld. I was about to bring up Barry, so I was very...
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Yeah, I believe that. But back then, they were broke, and they would just know what they wanted, and they'd invent ways to do it. Like, you know, these guys from the 20s, they just, if they had a problem, they'd solve it and... Strap a camera on a board and run with it.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Yeah, more of a shortcut than anything else. The more experience they got, the... The easier it gets.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Because I feel like I'm still learning. The last couple of years have been goofy for me because I've been... Trying to be good. And it doesn't work that way. You know, like planning things way too much. And at the root of that was the fear of losing trust in myself. So I overcompensated by working way too hard. And I've just kind of come out of that in the last year or so.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
uh practically having a nervous breakdown no it it was bad uh with everything and it just finally yeah it just it just purged out of me when i went to the therapist one day and then for the rest of the day it was horrible nothing worked everything i woke up woke up the next day and it The cherubs danced around my head, but it just felt a lot better.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
And that's the one thing I didn't trust myself about. I didn't make it to Stella Adler. I didn't make it to Uta Hagen. I got into the studio, but I've never been there. And I just didn't have a, I felt I didn't have a base for everything. And it finally dawned on me, I know this stuff. Man, I've been doing this for 50 years. It's like, you know it.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I don't know. I've been doing the same role for the last... Same two rules. No, you haven't. For the last, like, four or five years. Yeah. And I haven't really had much of a chance to do everything else. Because you've been doing the Conners. You're talking about the Conners. Yeah, the Conners and the Righteous Gemstones.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Oh, my pleasure. It's just... kind of to help myself and maybe help somebody else. But yeah, I've been clean about 16 years now. And the last 16 years I've had to grow a lot into my normal age. And it's been a lot, but I'm glad I did it. Oh, that's great.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I get the same problem. I get to pad it with blank pages. Draw your own conclusions. And Cliffy the Clown. We'll be right back.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
It just, her, she and Seth wrote a bit. And we did it. I thought it was a brilliant bit. Yeah. But I just, you know, I really dug her. Yeah, she's cool. It made me feel welcome.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Yeah, I don't know how to do improv. No, but you don't need to know. I auditioned for it in 1980 when everybody quit. You did? No way. Did you really? Yeah. You know who got it? Laurie Metcalf. Oh, wow. But she was, I don't think she ever went on air. I don't know what happened, but, you know, she was one of the people they picked.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I didn't know that. Oh, it was horrible. It was open calls, and they had guys walking around in Blues Brothers costumes, like, by the score. No way. It was a hideous dream. Desperation, flop sweat.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
That used to be my favorite thing to do every year. I'd get so goddamn scared and just hit the door and walk onto the floor. It was great, man. I was a big fan of... the National Lampoon when I was in college. And when I saw a lot of the writing staff from Saturday Night Live, I was really intrigued. And it was a hit to me. I remember parties used to stop.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
when it had come on and people had watched television. For sure. Oh, yeah, that's a good point. It was a big deal.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Well, I'm almost ashamed to say Brando. Why? That's great. Yeah, no, a lot of people my age will say that. He just never seen anything like him. Yeah. And I didn't. really pay that much attention to movies. I liked them.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
And it's this 1950, 1951 movie looked more like a guy, an incredibly good-looking guy that walked off the street.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Yeah, I think people are slighting the kids today. are kind of sliding away from that stuff that I was raised with. The group theater, everything was based from that, and the Stanislavskiites, and then the sects that developed among the acting teachers. It seems like people are getting away from that now.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I was good at comedy in the classroom. And when I thought it was still cute to mug. Right. Yeah. No, it has to be necessarily really structured comedy play as opposed to like improv, but there are rules there too and it has its own structure. Yeah. And it can be terribly hard, but when it's easy, man, it applies and there's nothing like it.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I'm going right now. No, I have to. Wait a minute. I am presently going. It's warm.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
The worst thing that ever happened to me was in, well, two things happened in this show. I was doing a musical in 1985 on Broadway. Okay. And I was doing it for a while. Which one, do you remember? Yeah, Big River. And I was supposed to come out and surprise my son, Huckleberry Finn. And before, I was standing behind this flat waiting to go on, and I couldn't remember my first line.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
And I panicked. Oh, God. And I panicked. And it just wouldn't come. And the cue was there, and I was going to step out and say, ladies and gentlemen, I'm so sorry. I can't. And the line popped into my head. But that happened for four nights straight. Yeah, yeah.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Yeah. Yeah. And it's wild. It's right there. And I don't know why it happened. And the second was my son was supposed to hit me in, Huck Finn was supposed to hit me in the jaw with a stool, a three-legged stool. And one night I forgot to, I forgot to put my hand up and throw my head back and I caught it. It drove my jaw back into my head, it knocked me out. And I got up and finished the show.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
No, I finished my scene and then I had to go down the street to the hospital.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
No. No, but it was touch and go for about five days there when I didn't show up. Understudy started getting stretched out. Yeah. Let him have it for a while. Yeah.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
We also had, I think, the first or second preview of the front page. Did about five or six years ago. And there were guys that came in, sat in the front row, put their drinks on the stage and their feet up there. And then one guy got up and started going, I love you, John Goodman. I love you, John Goodman. I love... And I go, I'll just not say anything.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Please make it. And he got up. He walked out of the theater. Just drunk? That was a little frightening.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I am a huge fan of you guys as well. Yeah. Yeah, okay. I'm going to cut it short there, but thank you. I really, really appreciate you hanging out with us for an hour. I was terrified at the beginning of this. Oh, man. Really?
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Thank you for the invite, man. It's been wonderful. Anytime. Thank you. Thanks, Pat. That was fantastic. Thank you, John, very much.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
My pleasure. Thank you. It's America's favorite podcast. Thank you for welcoming me into your pod. This is cool.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
No, I sabotaged my own education. The only time I got lit up was... doing plays and I decided to make that my major since I was inches from being thrown out of school. And everything took off after that and as soon as I found out how wonderful it can be, then I started to want to learn. history, English, whatever I needed to pull out of my bag of tricks when performing a role. Oh, wow.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
It was called Southwest Missouri State University. Now it's called Missouri State University. But then you moved to New York. Is that true? That is true. I took the Amtrak from St. Louis to New York in August of 1975. Holy shit.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I was a frightened hick. The main thing I wanted to do was take classes with Uta Hagen and get into the actor's studio and learn some more. And did you get in there? I did not. I left about... Month and a half later, doing a dinner theater, non-equity dinner theater version of 1776. What dinner theater? The La Comedia Dinner Playhouse in Springboro, Ohio.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Hi, I'm John Goodman, grizzled show business veteran, and you're listening to SmartLess.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Well, that's what I was going to say. You got the glasses clanking and the forks going. Yeah, and the-
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Well, I couldn't get hired for their next shows, but my girlfriend did. So I went down there just to get out of New York and work as a waiter in the dinner theater. Wow. That's amazing. For the summer, but I cut the grass. I did all kinds of odd jobs and made enough money to pay off my student loans that summer. Whoa.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
No, not at all. I just left. It was a horrible winter, and I was broke, and I couldn't get arrested as a waiter or Anything else? I got one night's work as a bouncer in a club called the Adam's Apple, and they had this German head bouncer who was telling us how to rip guys' mouths open when you got their head down on the curve, and then you stomp the back of their head and their teeth come out.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Jesus Christ. Check, please. Yeah, I had to show up the next day. So then where did you go at that? That's the only job I had in the city.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Well, it was also, at the time, it was... Ford, the city, dropped dead. They were defaulting on their loans. The city was just going to hell. The subways were terrifying. You know, the graffiti, all the stuff. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I was a kid from the suburbs. Yeah. But I was determined to live there because I dug it.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
Yeah, I came back, and then I got my card about... Like a month after that. Your equity card or SAG card? Yeah, my equity card doing a bus and truck of the robber bridegroom. Oh, my God. That is so... And so how old were you? You were about 20? What, 24? Yeah, 23, 24.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
No. The way I look back on it now, it unfolds itself like it was a calling. I mean, I used to get kicked out of, when I'd get kicked out of a class, they'd send me to the library, and I would sit there and read plays. And I'm like 14, 15 years old. I have no idea why. Was anybody in your family doing that? No. My brother was a fan of theater. He's a bit older than me.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
And we'd go into Clayton, Missouri, and pick up the New York Times every Sunday, literally. It weighed a ton back then. And I would go to the Arts and Leisures and basically to look at the Hirschfeld cartoons. And then I'd just start following what shows were up. I had no idea why. You just enjoyed it.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I had to have attention. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, learning was... Learning bad, attention good. Yeah, I had the same problem.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
I had a series of little breaks. When I got back from... The tour, at one time, I had a bunch of pictures, you know, resumes, stapled them all together, and in desperation, I was sending them out to theaters. One guy at Great Advertising picked up my picture, called me in, I got the gig, and he set me up with commercial agents. And then... I couldn't not get them for some reason.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
By that time, I was hanging out with a lot of real, real actors at a place up on the west side. Yeah. I got to hate myself for doing commercials. I was all screwed up and I was really getting into drinking at the time. And I resented doing commercials because other guys were doing what I thought was real work. Right. So I didn't care. I think that's why I got so many of them. Right, right, right.
SmartLess
"John Goodman"
The lighting alone, man, would take forever to set up. And it had to be just right and the product just right.