July 27, 2026
Fleet Week Is Here… And Charlotte Is Feeling Flashy with Mark Deklin... (S5 E1 "Anchors Away")
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RSS Feed Mark Deklin reveals the behind-the-scenes SATC drama that had him literally throwing up over whether to film the show or return to Broadway, why he felt pressure to make Kristin comfortable during their unforgettable scene, and the hilarious question Kristin asked during their scene. Plus, Mark and Kristin look back at filming the show right after 9/11 and reveal the one line Mark had to re-record years later for the show.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:01
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Kristin Davis, and I want to know are you a Charlotte?
00:00:06
Speaker 2: You guys, this is exciting. This is when we get to have a really interesting.
00:00:11
Speaker 3: Actor, Ron who was in an episode in two thousand and two.
00:00:14
Speaker 2: I guess that's where it aired. We probably filmed it in two thousand and two.
00:00:17
Speaker 4: Why and we actually shot it. It was the first episode you guys shot after nine to eleven happened?
00:00:21
Speaker 2: Got it?
00:00:22
Speaker 4: We can talk more about. But yes, it was significant, like there was a vibe.
00:00:26
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, this is Mark Declan. Everybody, he's great, he's here. I'm so excited. He is the longest resume in the world. But really, and I'm not going to name everything, but he was a very important part. He was a sailor in the fleet week episode called Anchors Away, which did air in two thousand and two but filmed in two thousand and one. So take me back, tell me about the Let's talk about nine to eleven first.
00:00:48
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean, well, you know, I mean for anybody, any New Yorkers, right, we know what it felt like and it wasn't obviously it was sad and tragic and scary, but it was it was also beautiful. Remember that. Yeah, Like there was sense of like we're all in this together. People were friendlier, more helpful, kinder. It was like a beautiful time to be in New York. Yeah. In fact, I was in LA the day it happened. All my LA friends were like, oh, thank god you weren't there, and I was like, no, I feel weird. I should be there. Absolutely, not like I can do anything, but just like like it's like, my I have a sick relative in the hospital.
00:01:21
Speaker 2: I should visit, right, So how did you get back? What were you?
00:01:24
Speaker 4: So? I had just Yeah, I had just been I had just actually moved to LA. I had let my apartment in New York go and I got an offer to do a Broadway show and I turned it down. I was like, no, I've committed to LA for now. I'm going to stick with this. Two days later, September eleventh, Oh no, So I called back and said, is the job still available? I want to come home? So I did.
00:01:42
Speaker 2: Was it?
00:01:43
Speaker 4: So? It was the Lion King.
00:01:44
Speaker 3: Oh my god, amazing you were in the Lion care one of my most favorite life is.
00:01:52
Speaker 2: It's so great.
00:01:55
Speaker 4: It was fun. It was I mean, that's that's a whole other experience to talk about. Actually, story from our episode that I'll share with.
00:02:01
Speaker 3: Oh listen, I need all the funny stories from this episode.
00:02:04
Speaker 2: I just remember this episode.
00:02:06
Speaker 3: I had forgotten that it was the first one back, but that makes perfect sense because I think that we as a production really felt so strongly obviously we love the city, as we all know, it's the fifth character, et cetera. And it was such a such a trauma and such a you know, everyone was going through a collective trauma, the whole country obviously, but definitely the city, and everybody was pitching in and they were all everyone had a story and everybody was doing different things to contribute, and we felt as a show.
00:02:36
Speaker 2: Like our job was to get back at it, to celebrate the city, to like show that.
00:02:43
Speaker 3: We were okay, yeah, you know, like it was super important to get back out there.
00:02:48
Speaker 4: And that love letter to the city that your show always was came through so clearly in this episode, right. I mean, obviously Carrie talks about, you know, like your boyfriend the city.
00:02:56
Speaker 2: You know what, Yeah, it's it's beautiful.
00:02:58
Speaker 4: It's beautiful.
00:02:59
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:03:00
Speaker 4: And I think anybody who has a place in their heart for New York was really touched by.
00:03:05
Speaker 3: That, absolutely absolutely, And I feel like for Michael, he's trying to think of, well, what's a fun way to like he everything needs to be like have the depth that also be fun, and Fleet Week is such a.
00:03:15
Speaker 2: Perfect funny, crazy weird thing.
00:03:18
Speaker 3: I also remember, and I don't know why I hadn't placed this in my mind and that it was the first show back, but it makes perfect sense. I just remember that it was hard. There were hard things about this show. Like I remember standing on the island in Times Square because we could only start shooting at ten o'clock at night because because of the because we were trying to film in Times Square, right, you know, bonkers, right, like insane amounts of people, cars, whatever, and we're trying to shut down things, you know, as much as you can. And so they would only let us come at ten am ten pm. So we would start at ten pm and we would go all night long.
00:04:00
Speaker 2: And it was like hard. Yeah, that's what I remember.
00:04:04
Speaker 3: And they got his rooms in the w Hotel, which is right there, right there, and we just I felt like we lived there for a week, like I felt like we were just there.
00:04:12
Speaker 2: We all got the CDs.
00:04:13
Speaker 3: Remember how the w has like the party in the lobby. We had the CDs, like I could play all those songs. They take me right back to that time.
00:04:20
Speaker 4: Oh, it's such a moment.
00:04:21
Speaker 2: It was great, but it was also hard. There was hard emotional.
00:04:25
Speaker 4: I felt like I feel you really yeah, and laughing because I remember that shot of the four of you right before you guys shove SYNTHI next to the cab right yes, And there's there's an extra behind you, guys, a background player who apparently got the note don't look at the camera. Oh no, So he's literally doing this the whole time, like the whole time, but he's right behind you, like.
00:04:50
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
00:04:51
Speaker 3: Or maybe he thinks he's looking at the view right sure, maybe he thinks he has a team of you.
00:04:55
Speaker 2: He's a tourist. That is adorable. I'm going to look back and look at that. You'll see it.
00:05:00
Speaker 3: Sometimes when I, yeah, I feel so bad because the background people when they're in a big, big, big scene, it's hard.
00:05:08
Speaker 2: It is it's hard.
00:05:10
Speaker 3: It's a naturalness to do it so many times. And if I remember that we had to do that for a long time, then you know we had to do that a really long time. But I feel like we just stood on that street corner for just like I don't know, maybe twelve hours.
00:05:23
Speaker 2: I'm sure I'm wrong, but that's what I remember.
00:05:26
Speaker 4: And that's like all night long. I think that's the thing a lot of people don't get is like how often it's a slog, right. And I'm not saying oh boo, who poor me? No, of course, but you know, you get this glamour shot. You guys looked gorgeous. It looked gorgeous, but getting there.
00:05:39
Speaker 2: Is a slog, right, And I think it was cold really well because it's the.
00:05:43
Speaker 3: First episode back, and usually we'd start in February so that it could come on in June.
00:05:48
Speaker 2: Is that right, Let's see, let's see you.
00:05:50
Speaker 4: No, I mean you probably know better than I do. I funny my memory, well my memory which leads to my funny story story. But mine involved a lot of sweat and oh I'll tell you why. But so in my mind we shot in summer, but maybe we didn't.
00:06:06
Speaker 3: I mean, I think it looks like summer, because that's the whole, the whole point, right, But I don't think it was because we had to It aired July twenty first.
00:06:14
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, So we couldn't have shot it in the summer.
00:06:15
Speaker 2: That's weird.
00:06:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's also interesting because usually we would come on in June. But I think everything is messed up because also this is the year. And I don't think this is related to nine to eleven. I think it was related to the Sopranos schedule because they started messing their schedule up. Cause sure, he wanted to write longer, so they took a little half of our episode of our season before and put it on in the winter.
00:06:37
Speaker 4: Got yeah, yeah, Yeah.
00:06:38
Speaker 3: Then they pushed our air date for the summer back to July twenty one, which is kind of weird.
00:06:44
Speaker 2: Is the end of the summer.
00:06:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think everything goes haywire at this point and time in our collective lives.
00:06:50
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Yeah, to go ahead, you're sweat? What sweat? It couldn't even hot, I don't know.
00:06:56
Speaker 4: No, So okay, So I was and I'm sure you weren't aware of this drama because you had bigger fish to fry, and I didn't want you to be aware of this, Okay. So we shot our scene on a Wednesday, which is Mattinee Day on body So I had to use one of my sick days to do our show, which is fine. We did that all the time, right, Like we used to say, don't waste your sick day being sick.
00:07:17
Speaker 2: Wow.
00:07:17
Speaker 4: So fine, and I made no secret of it. My stage manager was my friend. She was happy for me. And we had a whole string of talented understudies who could go on in my place. I wasn't putting the show in any danger except Murphy's Law came to town. So I report to Sex and the City. I think we were on forty seventh Street. Does that sound right, Yeah, something like that. So I'm in my trailer getting ready. Unknown to me, all hell's breaking whose back at my theater. Understudies are dropping like flies. Oh no, one gets sick, one gets hurt, one has to go on for somebody else who got sick or hurt, and so on. So we're down to the last guy who can go on in my place. So talented guy. He's in hair and makeup. As he's leaving, he turns to say thank you, as one should, and I guess in the act of turning while walking, he tripped. Oh no, fell on the steps, twisted. His anchor couldn't go on. What So now, if I don't go on.
00:08:09
Speaker 2: The show's on the day of you filming with us.
00:08:12
Speaker 4: I'm sitting in my trailer City Oh, and I get a call from my stage manager saying, you have to come to the matinee and I said, no, I can't. I'm about to shoot my scene. She said, I know, and I'm so sorry, but I know that you're able to do the show, and I have to protect the show because if you don't go on, the show won't go on, so you will probably get fired. You could even get sued. So I went, yeah, hold on a second, I put my phone down. I literally opened the door of my trailer and vomited on forty seven So, like, just no joke, like literally just that. So I shut the door. I was like, Okay, I have to figure this out. So I found Charles McDougall, who directed her, and understandably he was not happy with me, right, but he was cool and he kept his head and he looked at the schedule and he said, you know, you're in luck because we're shooting everything in the same location today. So I'm gonna switch the scene order. You're gonna run down, you're gonna do your matinee. The minute the curtain drops, you're gonna sprint back up here and shoot our scene. What So, yeah, you didn't know any of this, no, So I go, oh, thank you so much, thank you, thank you. Think I run down, I do the show. And this is actually one of my favorite showbiz memories because I guess word got around the theater of my situation. So when I took my bow and came into the wings, there was this NASCAR pit crew of like twenty people all there to like help me get ready. So literally, I'm in the wings and someone's pulling my wig off and the Bobby's beings out. Well, so they're pulling my gosh, I'm off, they're putting my street clothes on. They're wiping my makeup off. Wow, And I sprint right and I run up and I and I show up to your hair and makeup, and God bless them. So they're under the gun, right, They've got to have me camera ready in a couple of minutes. Oh my, it's like triage. Now, you know, stage makeup doesn't just wipe off.
00:09:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's some thick stuff.
00:09:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I'm like half of it's still on and dripping. I'm dripping with sweat because I spra into the whole way and they made an executive decision. They were like, we can't restore you and start from scratch. So they made the decision to to just paint a layer of television makeup on top of the mess. What. Yeah, and they're so good that they made it. You didn't know. Nobody knew, but I knew when I watched the episode. Now I laugh because it's not my skin. It's I'm like a wax dummy of myself in the episode. Yeah.
00:10:24
Speaker 3: Incredible. Yeah, So then just curiosity. Were they ready for you or did you have to wait?
00:10:32
Speaker 4: Because right and as you know, we do a lot of waiting. It was no, no, I went right in like you and I jumped right in and and then I had to switch gears because this wasn't my moment, this was your moment. Right.
00:10:45
Speaker 2: Well, well, I was not that happy about it. I don't know, I did.
00:10:49
Speaker 4: I know, So I'll address that, because you know, you were you. First of all, you were lovely. You were one of my favorite people I've worked with. You were gracious and I'm not just saying that because I'm on your podcast, but I remember, so I knew, like because we've all had to do some form of undress, and I think people think that like, oh, actors there, they have no shyness. They know it's very vulnerable and you feel very exposed, punintended. And so I was like, okay, I have responsibility. Kristen's gonna feel uncomfortable. Yeah, well, it's just real, right, And and we didn't know one another. It's not like we were old friends from school, so it was like I was a complete stranger. So I was like, Okay, I have to find this balance of like I want her to know that I'm not some creep who's ogling her, but at the same time, I'm a heterosexual man. And ge, you look great, you know what I mean, sweet balancing act And I just wanted to be there for you and make you feel And so the moment I knew that it was okay is you were nervous. The first two takes you were understandably very nervous. But I think the third or fourth take you turned to me and asked me. You probably don't remember this, You asked me if you had any bra lines on your boobs. And that was the moment when I said, I've done my job.
00:11:59
Speaker 2: She's come about so funny. That's so terrific.
00:12:03
Speaker 3: It's so funny the crazy things you worry about, like brawl lines.
00:12:09
Speaker 2: I cracked myself up, like on.
00:12:11
Speaker 4: Earth, I know, but it's totally real. I know.
00:12:14
Speaker 3: It's just so like, you know what, people have a lot of thoughts and feelings about intimacy supervisors whatever. They're called intimacy coaches, coordinators. Thank you, I knew there's a word. That's the thing that nowadays I would ask an intimacy coordinator, of course, because they're like your eyes, you know what I mean.
00:12:32
Speaker 4: It's such a different world after me too, and I think for the better. But there there were you know there it's such a weird thing scenes. So one of the ways we always dealt with it was to make a joke of it.
00:12:46
Speaker 2: Totally.
00:12:46
Speaker 4: If you can't, I look back. If you can't, right, that's just I look back and like, you know, I did a series where the woman played my wife. We were having a sex scene and we were just we were buddies and we were just saying the most inappropriate things to one another just to crack each other up and threw up. Yeah, you couldn't do that. Today they put up the blooperss reel and I was like, oh my god, I'd get fired for that.
00:13:05
Speaker 2: Oh they put it on the Bloopers reel.
00:13:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, because oh god, yeah, oh yeah, oh my, did you buy the DVD of that series? Like you'll see wow? And it's actually it's funny. Well that's lighthearted, right, but still.
00:13:18
Speaker 3: It would still not be okay with hr. Right, that's really interesting to think about. I mean, the thing that I think is interesting and.
00:13:24
Speaker 2: There is like a whole court case. I believe it was friends.
00:13:27
Speaker 3: There was a potential court case about them kind of making jokes in the writer's room.
00:13:33
Speaker 2: But because you know, there's a whole thing.
00:13:35
Speaker 3: About like if your show or your writing is if this is part of the show and the writing of the job, that there is a certain amount of leeway or whatever.
00:13:45
Speaker 2: Now I don't know if that would go for on set, right.
00:13:49
Speaker 3: And I mean like now when you go to work, there's a one eight hundred number on your call sheet that you can call if you're uncomfortable, and people call, which is interesting to me.
00:13:58
Speaker 4: It's interesting because it's many things, right, Like I think sometimes it's really legitimate, right, and it's a call. And you know, we've all been in those situations. I've been in situations where I was like, this isn't how it's done. There's there's a protocol here that you're not following. Now.
00:14:12
Speaker 3: Did you feel that way as an actor or did you feel worried about the women or was it directed at you?
00:14:17
Speaker 4: No, it's directed at me. I'm gonna be careful what I know because I don't know.
00:14:21
Speaker 2: Of course, I'm just so curious about the man experience.
00:14:24
Speaker 4: But it's it's lovely that you ask about that, because in the moment the men in the show I was, I was in I was as the script was being handed out. I said, they said, oh you're cool with nunity.
00:14:37
Speaker 2: Right, oh?
00:14:38
Speaker 4: And I went casual like that, oh lord, And I said, have you spoken to my agent?
00:14:42
Speaker 2: Yes, it's not Yeah, there's no.
00:14:45
Speaker 4: And so I held my guns and helped to my guns. I know, Amy, you know, I held my ground sure. And it was interesting because the guys in the show were all like, dud, just do it, just show your ass who cares and or whatever it was, and and the women were all very sympathetic. They were all like, no, you stand your ground. So, and that's because they've been put in that situation.
00:15:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I feel like agency is key, right, Like, if you're choosing to do it, yes, if you're being pushed.
00:15:16
Speaker 4: It's not okay, it's not okay.
00:15:17
Speaker 3: No, not for anyone. No, no, I agree totally. So did it work out?
00:15:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, it all worked out.
00:15:22
Speaker 2: You have to call your agent.
00:15:24
Speaker 4: No conversations happened, but it's fine. It all, it all worked out.
00:15:28
Speaker 3: It was also supposed to be like contractual agreements, that's just it.
00:15:31
Speaker 4: And you know the contracts are funny. Yeah, it'll be like like we'll show one quarter of an ass, cheek or whatever.
00:15:38
Speaker 2: The right rest is very specific. It's so hard, like nudity for some reason is so hard.
00:15:55
Speaker 4: It's vulnerable, it really really is. It's like, yeah, and I.
00:15:59
Speaker 3: Mean this was a flash, right, like I flashed my breast at you.
00:16:02
Speaker 4: It's not even it was just one as we negotiated.
00:16:05
Speaker 2: Exactly right, exactly. But I remember there were people like, we're in a restaurant. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
00:16:12
Speaker 3: But I mean it wasn't even like a sex scene where they can close the sun.
00:16:15
Speaker 4: And they did have us cordoned off of it.
00:16:17
Speaker 3: They tried, right, But I mean there were people in a restaurant, right, and I was just like flat, like it was bizarre, and I just remembered like my body didn't want to do it, like I had to force myself.
00:16:28
Speaker 4: I feel all that you did. Yeah, I was so like I was. I was, I so felt you, and I was like trying to send you all.
00:16:36
Speaker 3: The that it may it matter so much in the moment, right, because like you're you're just doing something that you know you have to do, but you're not organically feeling it. And as an actress, right, Like, let's see, we were in a sex scene, which that's a different ball of ACXE. It's a different situation, right.
00:16:52
Speaker 4: Even more awkward and even more weird than.
00:16:54
Speaker 3: Weird because you're simulating sex but you're not having sex. But then also you can usually joke through it, like you're saying, like, that's a really common thing that actors do, right, and hopefully you have a vibe with each other where you can trust each other and make it fun and funny or.
00:17:09
Speaker 2: Totally laughing at yourselves.
00:17:11
Speaker 3: But we were separated, physically separated, so I didn't even I couldn't really rely on you, like I could you were contributing in a positive way.
00:17:20
Speaker 4: But the beginning, yeah, it was.
00:17:22
Speaker 3: It wasn't like we were in an intimate, intimate scene, right, which in some ways would make it better, meaning like sometimes when you're being kind of silly, it's better. But I don't know why that day, I just didn't want to do it, Like I still feel that way talking about it.
00:17:36
Speaker 2: Like I didn't want to do it.
00:17:37
Speaker 3: But then if I can just separate myself from my own anxiety, I look back and I'm like, what is my problem? It's adorable and I'm young and beautiful and what is my problem?
00:17:51
Speaker 2: And I'm like old now? And I should feel that way. I still feel the anxiety when I think about it.
00:17:56
Speaker 4: I feel you, isn't that weird?
00:17:57
Speaker 2: Interesting? Is it not?
00:17:59
Speaker 4: Okay? Oh, it's human okay, And we're not. We're actors. We're not exhibitionists.
00:18:04
Speaker 2: It's true some of us are. No, But I mean that's a misconception, I think.
00:18:08
Speaker 4: A big miscuss. Yes, I think I think just the misconception that all actors are extroverts.
00:18:13
Speaker 2: Right, we're not respect You're not.
00:18:15
Speaker 4: I'm not either. I'm I'm gregarious. I like people. I don't have social anxiety. But I'm an introvert. I recharge my batteries alone, like and you know, I'm not like love me, love me love you know. We'll have a little bit of that, but for sure, but that's not that's not my go to place.
00:18:29
Speaker 2: No me neither.
00:18:29
Speaker 3: And I do think it's a really interesting thing and definitely like that weird. I think social media has fed the thing of like, oh, you all knew you wanted this, ye.
00:18:40
Speaker 4: You chased it right.
00:18:41
Speaker 3: No, for us, especially because we're not twenty, you know, it was a different world that we thought we were getting into, and it was like about.
00:18:48
Speaker 2: Acting and theater and not about fame, right. Yeah.
00:18:52
Speaker 4: In fact, a friend of mine years ago said, we also deal with fame in some way. But there are two types of actors. There are those who see fame as the prop and those who see fame as the price.
00:19:02
Speaker 2: Right. That's true for all of us.
00:19:04
Speaker 3: We never even I don't even think any of us, including Sarahjosca, ever thought about it, and then all of a sudden, there we were in it, and we were like whoa, whoa, mama, Well.
00:19:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, did you know, like when you joined the show, We're like, this is going to be a cultural phenomenon.
00:19:17
Speaker 2: Of course, of course not no, no, no, no, no.
00:19:19
Speaker 3: We thought it was going to be a tiny little cult thing if it went well.
00:19:23
Speaker 4: If it went well, you're lucky, it'll be a cult thing.
00:19:26
Speaker 2: Totally.
00:19:26
Speaker 3: Yes, if we're lucky, we'll get to keep doing it and it will have enough of a little audience that we will get to continue.
00:19:32
Speaker 2: And we did, we did.
00:19:35
Speaker 4: It's funny. I was thinking on the way over here about I was doing a series where I was playing a closeted gay guy and someone we hadn't aired yet, and some interviewer asked me, so are you Is your character like fabulous you get all the funny zingers and one liners. And I said no, no, no, And I gave this sort of long thoughtful answer about like, no, it's not like because he's in the closet, so he's not like out and fabulous, right, he's actually like, you know, kind of butching it up or whatever. Yeah, exactly, yea. And I said, so, no, I don't get to do like that that fun brilliant thing that like Eric stone Street gets to do on Modern Family, or you know that that Sean Hayes gets to do on Will and grace like, I'm not I'm not like that, and those guys do that so brilliantly, and that's you know, and I give and my answer was very complimentary to them because they're both fantastic actors and I know Sean well sure enough. Oh no, yeah, that all that long thoughtful answer gets taken, gets boiled down to one sentence, which is literally they quoted me as saying, I'm not playing a stereotype. I'm not Sean Hayes.
00:20:39
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
00:20:40
Speaker 4: I was like, are you That is not what I and so like fashionately, Sean and I have a mutual, very dear friend and I was able to get in touch with him and he was like, oh, don't worry about it. I know they do that all the time. Don't give it a second thought.
00:20:52
Speaker 3: But I thought, awful, you know what I think is interesting about that too, And I feel like it's the kind of thing of like you count when if you give a really long answer that's thoughtful, they can edit it down, which is then why you go like, oh, okay, I've got to give a short sound bite that cannot be misconstrued. Then people get upset when they see your interview, like why does she give such short answers? She needs to be more thoughtful, and you're.
00:21:14
Speaker 2: Just trying to exactly exactly right. They're like, he got media training whatever, God forbid, you know which, I've never had media training training.
00:21:26
Speaker 4: I know.
00:21:26
Speaker 2: I want to know who is getting media trading.
00:21:28
Speaker 3: Somebody is, someone is, but I don't know who, right, It's all of us just got thrown in and by example. Right, Okay, let's talk just for a second. I know, no, I'm loving this conversation in general, but I want to just talk a little bit about where were you in your career when this happened.
00:21:42
Speaker 2: You were on Broadway.
00:21:43
Speaker 3: Obviously you had just moved to LA and then you come back, But like, what what was it like for.
00:21:47
Speaker 2: You being on the show. What do you remember around the show?
00:21:51
Speaker 4: Well, so at that point the show was already a hit.
00:21:54
Speaker 2: Right, this is season four? Yeah? So wait season five, season five? Oh my god?
00:21:59
Speaker 4: So yeah, and I had auditioned for other parts before that.
00:22:02
Speaker 2: I hadn't got many of our I mean every New York stressful?
00:22:07
Speaker 4: Was what stressful? The audition process?
00:22:10
Speaker 2: The process?
00:22:10
Speaker 4: Yeah?
00:22:11
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, so you were just like it's going to work out. I'm going to keep going.
00:22:17
Speaker 4: Not I didn't feel like, oh, Sex and the City is going to work out, right. I just felt like I auditioned a lot, something like I'm auditioning for this, and I'm auditioning for this commercial and this, you know, and uh and and but I remember it being a very pleasant audition and it wasn't grueling or long, and I felt good about it. But you know, uh so when I booked it, I was really happy. And I had just at the same time, I mean, my TV career hadn't really taken off yet, but I had just done a FedEx commercial with Steve Carell.
00:22:49
Speaker 2: Wow.
00:22:51
Speaker 4: And It's funny because so I had two very small things that I started getting recognized for. One was this FedEx guy. So one more, I was living on in Theipper West Side and I had ordered me tickage and it was early I think I was partying the night before and I answered the door and I'm bleary eyed and this I'm signing for the package. And the guy looks at me goes, hey, you're the fed Ex guy. And I looked up. I said, no, man, you're the fat guy. And we started laughing. And then same thing, like I you know, obviously this Sailor wasn't a huge role, but it was sort of an iconic moment, and to this day people will be like, no, way, you know you're the sailor or.
00:23:28
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
00:23:29
Speaker 4: They'll say, show me your tits, you know.
00:23:32
Speaker 2: How what do you say?
00:23:36
Speaker 4: Well, I don't show them my tits.
00:23:38
Speaker 2: And probably a good thing. Probably a good thing, So don't go round flash.
00:23:42
Speaker 4: And before me too, I would have but not really, no, not really no. And my kids roll their eyes. They hate when people recognize me.
00:23:49
Speaker 2: Mind you too, It's good, it's healthy.
00:23:51
Speaker 4: They should hate it.
00:23:52
Speaker 2: It's interesting, right right, yeah.
00:23:54
Speaker 4: And I always I try to be like sensitive to that.
00:23:56
Speaker 2: We too, so do I.
00:23:57
Speaker 3: I have a no picture rule when the kids around, and I feel so guilty about it.
00:24:02
Speaker 4: No, you shouldn't feel guilty. I'm no.
00:24:04
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just I don't want them to feel like that. The other work thing matters more.
00:24:09
Speaker 4: You want them to have a normal life.
00:24:11
Speaker 2: I did as much as I can, So go ahead, go ahead. I don't so.
00:24:15
Speaker 3: So you had the FedEx thing, which is crazy it love it.
00:24:19
Speaker 4: And uh so, yeah, but this was this was the first, the first TV thing that I started really getting recognized.
00:24:26
Speaker 2: Got it? Because you feel good.
00:24:29
Speaker 4: Sure you.
00:24:33
Speaker 3: Tell me.
00:24:34
Speaker 2: I love to hear other people's experience, you know.
00:24:36
Speaker 4: Okay, as an analogy, I'm going to tell you a story. I was doing a series with John Voight years ago, and he played my father and we, you know, we had a funny relationship. Politically we're not on the same team. Yeah, he's character, but he's got a good heart. And we became friends and I actually, I really love I have a place in my heart for John. I love. But and we would debate politics and it was we had a great respectful you know. But once one time he and I were walking through the Dallas Airport together and he couldn't go five feet without someone? Can I have a picture? Can I have an autograph?
00:25:09
Speaker 2: Sure?
00:25:10
Speaker 4: So he did. I'll never forget this, Christen. It was like a conductor, he said. I said. I said, does it bother you? And he said no, I'm used to it. He said, you want a little taste. That said, what do you mean? So this woman started walking toward us with her phone out, her camera whatever it was, and without missing a beat, he reached out, took the camera from her hands and said, of course you can have a picture with Mark Declan, and I saw her wheels going, like the hell is Mark Declan. She had no clue, but then I saw her decide I do want a picture with him, right because he must be important. Wow, So now she's hugging up on me. John is the photographer. I see someone else go, I don't know who that is, but I need a picture. Yeah, And within five minutes, I'm being mobbed. I can hear buzz, literally buzz, people going Mark Declan's in the airport. Oh my god, it's Mark Declan. They had no clue who I was. Interesting, And it went on for about five minutes and then John said if he had another and I was like, yeah, it's kind of weird. So he turned the camera back on himself and I was forgotten instantly, like I never existed.
00:26:07
Speaker 2: That's super interesting, but it was a great.
00:26:09
Speaker 4: Lesson in how smoke and mirrors it is. Yeah, right, yeah, anyway, I don't know if that answers your question.
00:26:14
Speaker 2: No, it's really interesting.
00:26:15
Speaker 4: It's a weird thing.
00:26:16
Speaker 3: So you've had this incredible career with like everyone and their brother, which is super interesting to me. But take me back again, because I'm trying to place like was our.
00:26:25
Speaker 2: Show and you're on a Broadway play. It's like a lot going on.
00:26:29
Speaker 3: Did you feel the momentum Was it like the momentum was picking up in your career?
00:26:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, because because I had you know, I was a theater kid, right, Like I was Shakespeare, Like that was really what I was mostly doing. And then I was doing a lot of off Broadway and regional and I was dabbling in film and TV. But I didn't really have a TV and film career, but things I had started going to La more and more and working in La more and more, and so that's why I had made the move, but it hadn't really gotten traction yet. And this was right around the time when I started to get traction and I started to Yeah, I started to feel like it's an interesting thing, right because these past few years, our industry has been in a weird place.
00:27:08
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, it's a mess.
00:27:10
Speaker 4: It's a hot mess, and it's a mess, and we're all having to get creative about all right, what else do I do? How do I make a little dough?
00:27:17
Speaker 2: It's so sad. It makes me so sad.
00:27:19
Speaker 4: I mean, we could have a whole podcast about that. Yeah, crew members who aren't.
00:27:23
Speaker 2: There there was an apprenticeship.
00:27:25
Speaker 4: Right, like young young crew members coming up in the industry would would train with master older guys. That's just not happening anymore.
00:27:33
Speaker 2: Well, because there's not enough work for everybody.
00:27:35
Speaker 3: So, you know, I know, it's it's hard to know, how are the young people going to learn all the things?
00:27:41
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, It's just a different world.
00:27:43
Speaker 3: But also the thing that really stresses me, and I don't know how much this is true in New York in LA. The people who are the you know, crew people that we would normally just like have such a wonderful picture.
00:27:54
Speaker 4: And work with them on many different projects, they're.
00:27:56
Speaker 2: All leaving town because there's no production. It's horrible.
00:28:00
Speaker 4: It's the saddest thing. And so so getting that sense like back in those days, yeah, you could get traction, you could get a sense of like I'm not where I want to be yet, but I feel a trajectory, I feel momentum. The industry the gross industry term was heat, right, like you got heat right now? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you don't it's hard to feel that these days.
00:28:21
Speaker 2: Well yeah, I don't know.
00:28:22
Speaker 3: I don't even know because I'm obviously in a different position, thankfully, but also like you're just for me. I'm always trying to figure out, like what do I want to do that makes me happy, because happiness is important, Whereas when you're young, you're just like hungry, hungry. I just felt hungry for anything.
00:28:37
Speaker 2: At that point. I had no kids.
00:28:39
Speaker 4: I was like whatever, and well, of course you change everything.
00:28:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it does.
00:28:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, but so take me back again for you because I'm so curious. So okay, so you've got the FedEx thing.
00:28:48
Speaker 2: You come do our show. People want you to flush flash your breast, but you're your breast, my breast. I don't know, but you know what I mean.
00:28:53
Speaker 4: They're like when you said the same thing, She's like, you were on Sex in the City and you took your shirt off for Charlotte and I said, no, she took her shirt off for me.
00:29:01
Speaker 2: Oh that's funny. Why were you talking to Wendy Williams Because I was.
00:29:04
Speaker 4: Doing a series at the time. This is like in these years later.
00:29:07
Speaker 2: Was on her show.
00:29:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, not personally and said, okay, god, we're having dinner as we on No, no, no, I was doing a series in twenty twelve or something, and I was on her show Got It, but she was like, I remember you from Sex and the City.
00:29:23
Speaker 5: Wow, Wow wow.
00:29:36
Speaker 3: So and then you've been on so many shows like Frasier, Love Frasier, My god, do you feel I was on some other sitcoms before and during kind of Sex and State, like I want to friends whatever. I felt like I learned so much being on all the different sets, because they're so so.
00:29:54
Speaker 4: Different, so different, and you want like, you know, it's funny. We just lost James Brooks, right, and so said I did a pilot with him, and you know people called him the comedy doctor. Yeah, and it's true. There was a moment in our pilot. I'll never forget this. I wasn't It wasn't my scene we were shooting. It was Seth Green, and I forget who he was in the scene with. But as he was talking, he was folding laudry. It took a place at a laudamat and and he wasn't getting to laugh. He wasn't landing the joke. But you know he's a that's a funny guy. Yeah, but it wasn't landing. And Jimmy just got up and he said, oh, it's because you're folding the towel the wrong way. Oh, and Seth went what and he said, yeah, you're folding it this way. You need to fold it this way.
00:30:37
Speaker 3: I mean, the man could a crazy Oh come on, no, no, no, And then he did it.
00:30:42
Speaker 4: He furled the towel the other way, and the audience went nuts.
00:30:45
Speaker 3: It was insane, insane. It was insane, imane. Will and Grace with him, and I was dying of nerves. I'm a nervous thing.
00:30:52
Speaker 2: Right, Like I look back, I'm like, why am I so nervous all the time? But we Yeah, can we just say that, like totally.
00:31:00
Speaker 4: I know so few people who really are that's a.
00:31:02
Speaker 2: Good point, like okay, and confident, right.
00:31:07
Speaker 4: Like I have. I have things about me that I'm that I'm confident.
00:31:10
Speaker 3: But we're all nervous, I know, right, and for me, and it's hard because I you know, obviously criticize myself for it, but also I'm nervous because I really want to be good and I want to contribute to whatever I'm doing, which of course I feel like it's good or I wouldn't be doing it, you know what I'm saying, Like it comes from a place that's good, that you want to have, right, Like you want that excitement, you.
00:31:30
Speaker 4: Want to be a team player, contribute to the team.
00:31:32
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and I will and Grace.
00:31:34
Speaker 3: It's such a great, great show, right, and you know I wanted to be a part of it. But also sitcoms for me were meaning traditional three camera sitcoms, right, which we were not. They like to say that Sex and City is a sitcom, it's not really as a.
00:31:45
Speaker 4: Comp it's a comedy.
00:31:47
Speaker 3: Yes, it's a single camera comedy, yes, which is a little different.
00:31:50
Speaker 4: It's a different animal.
00:31:51
Speaker 3: It's a different animal as an actor, for sure. So this was you know, a traditional you know, multicam.
00:31:57
Speaker 4: Which we don't get enough of these days.
00:31:58
Speaker 2: I know they need to come back. There was a moment in time where they were like they're coming back, They're coming back. But anyway, so I go on the show.
00:32:03
Speaker 3: I knew Jimmy, I knew Eric, I knew Debora, I knew everybody, right, and Bobby Canavale was playing my gay best friend.
00:32:10
Speaker 2: We were like, uh, you know, weird couple.
00:32:13
Speaker 3: That was because he was dating his character was dating Eric's character, right, So it was it was I knew everybody, which was great, but yet the the actual physical element of walking out. You're doing this show. It's like a theater kind of but yeah, they're laughing, right, so so you're you're in this weird thing. But then they're filming, so like, I didn't know they would do this thing more. When I walked out, everyone would clap for so long that I would just be like, I don't.
00:32:40
Speaker 4: Know what the sorry. Before Sex and the City, I feel like, like, were you already, Kristen.
00:32:47
Speaker 2: Yes, I was. I was. I feel like it.
00:32:49
Speaker 3: Might have been after Okay, I feel like, yeah, which was adorable and so sweet, but I didn't know because it's going to ruin the joke right, like the next joke, like timing and everything exactly.
00:33:00
Speaker 6: And Jimmy was there, and Jimmy, you know, that man could just make you unbelievable feel I mean a wizard and a genius and a sweetheart sweet I mean just so supportive, you know. And he he told me a couple of things like like I think at one point he told me to count to five in my head before I delivered some line. And every time if you did exactly what that man said, you would get the biggest laugh you'd ever Doe music. It was insane, like his knowledge, his way of talking to you, like I don't it's so crazy, and we're so lucky to have had him and to have gotten to work with him, and you know, he's somewhere shining down on us.
00:33:42
Speaker 2: You know. He was such a sweet sweet Did you watch the Comeback?
00:33:46
Speaker 4: I didn't.
00:33:46
Speaker 3: He's in it, he's playing I know, I need so many credible.
00:33:50
Speaker 4: Especially with the whole AI thing that's happening, like so many people have been like, if you watch the I've.
00:33:54
Speaker 3: Got to see it's so good. Michael Patrick and Lisa did just a tremendous job. And the fact that Jimmy's there playing himself and I didn't know that he was sick. I think a lot of us didn't know that he was sick.
00:34:02
Speaker 2: So it's because he.
00:34:03
Speaker 4: Wasn't the kind of guy who'd be like.
00:34:05
Speaker 2: No no, no, no no no.
00:34:07
Speaker 3: But he is just lovely to see him and he's himself but and so sweet, and he gives this beautiful ending talk to Lisa's character about AI, and it's it's great. It's so great, and I love that Michael created that so that we have it, you know, on film.
00:34:23
Speaker 2: But anyway, back to your career.
00:34:24
Speaker 4: Michael's writing.
00:34:25
Speaker 2: Michael back to that.
00:34:27
Speaker 4: Too, because did he write this episode. He did write this.
00:34:30
Speaker 2: Yes, that's actually splash.
00:34:35
Speaker 4: The dubbing thing. We welcome back to this. But you well, you.
00:34:40
Speaker 2: Know, I don't know.
00:34:43
Speaker 4: Well, do you remember when when it was TBS that acquired the show, right, yes, and so we all had to go back into the recording studio and re record our lines to dub out the profanity.
00:34:53
Speaker 2: You had to do this too, of course, everybody wow, And so.
00:34:58
Speaker 4: I remember, and this is what this is what uh, this is what Kim and I were laughing about a couple years ago because in this episode stop you were on I was on with Kim Cattrell Netflix on Netflix.
00:35:08
Speaker 2: It got it many many years later.
00:35:10
Speaker 4: Many years later. It was in twenty twenty.
00:35:12
Speaker 2: Two, got it, got it, got it?
00:35:14
Speaker 4: Okay, So in this episode, you guys have that scene in the diner where she's trying to say pussy, but you guys don't want to say in front of the baby. Well Charlotte doesn't, right, Yes, yes, I don't know if carry yeah, maybe maybe they didn't care as much.
00:35:26
Speaker 2: They didn't look like that.
00:35:27
Speaker 4: One of you comes up and obviously this is Michael Pater King's writing, you come up with soush ye, which is very clever phonetically right, because the words are kind of similar, right. And so what Kim and I were laughing about was I didn't get so lucky when I had to go in and dub my line. My famous line was show me your tits, and they of course change it to boobs. And if you think about the mouth shape, those two words are nothing like.
00:35:51
Speaker 2: Also, isn't that weird? Though? That one's okay? And when is it like what?
00:35:55
Speaker 4: Of course it's random and arbitrary, but you know, I'm pretty good in the booth like lip sync. I can tell you I could not make that work.
00:36:03
Speaker 2: Well, no one could. I'm sorry.
00:36:05
Speaker 4: No one watching it will ever believe that sailor said show me your boobs, but I.
00:36:09
Speaker 3: Do think and not everyone listening is going to remember this. So basically, so the show was on HBO and we could say whatever we wanted and that was part of the whole joy of it. Then when we end, TBS gets it, everyone just remembers it on eat right, they don't even remember that TBS like did things like this. So TBS, who's also in the Warner Brothers. You know, TV World syndicates it, but we had to clean it up, and I think whole storylines were cut, Like you remember that, it was like very so I had one line.
00:36:39
Speaker 4: I'm sure you guys must have been in the booth.
00:36:41
Speaker 3: For but I think what had happened back in the day, and I totally could be wrong. I would love someone to fill me in on this. I remember going and looping stuff as it was happening, just in case someday we might get syndicated.
00:36:55
Speaker 4: Do you mean that was forethoughts?
00:36:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I don't know if we really could have imagined that it would be what it is, right, So I don't know for sure, and I just remember its going like how is this going to work?
00:37:06
Speaker 2: Whatever? But also we're so happy because we got paid more, you know what I'm.
00:37:08
Speaker 4: Saying, paid more and you get a wider audience, like it's right, which I.
00:37:11
Speaker 2: Don't think we really. Yeah, I mean, nothing's wrong with it. I think the only thing wrong with.
00:37:15
Speaker 3: It would be like does the show hold up because we weren't making the show for that, right.
00:37:20
Speaker 4: Well, the show's called Sex and the City exactly.
00:37:23
Speaker 3: Right, right, So what sad sad version is going to be on TVs, and I do think it was exactly. I think it was kind of sad, but then E gets it as things are loosening up, I guess, and I think E also it was like dubbed, meaning some of the words, and then I think some of the storylines still weren't on in it. And then time goes on and eventually Netflix gets it as it originally was, which is kind of amazing. And now, sadly, like last week, it's off Netflix, I know, and it's only on HBO that I know of, because I think that we're in this crazy holding pattern, not knowing if the merger is going to happen, and so I don't know what the plan is. No one really tells us what the plan is, which is kind of frustrating.
00:38:05
Speaker 4: Because does anybody tell us what any of the plans are?
00:38:08
Speaker 3: Never?
00:38:09
Speaker 2: It's so hard and there are.
00:38:10
Speaker 4: I mean, at the DJ right now, they're fast tracking some mergers that probably violate antitrust laws, but they're sliding them through.
00:38:20
Speaker 2: So I know. But all of the states are going to sue.
00:38:23
Speaker 3: They're suing, right, So it's a whole big fight about Paramount Brothers, and I just want HBO.
00:38:28
Speaker 2: To be okay. That's where I care about. I care about HBO being okay.
00:38:32
Speaker 3: And I want people to be making shows at making movies so all of us can work and the crew can get paid.
00:38:38
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, Right, that's what we all want. Yeah, yeah, I.
00:38:43
Speaker 4: Mean I posted something during the strike and I was like, look, I know there's a perception that reactors are spoiled brats and we're all rich, and it's not true, and we all want to get back to work. Nobody's happy that we're on strike, and nobody's happy with the current state of the industry. We all want to get back to work.
00:39:00
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:39:00
Speaker 3: Well, I think AI is just a huge, huge threat, and that is the one good thing that I think happened from the strike was people becoming more aware of the kind of existential right. But do you remember they almost settled the strike early, Yes, and they said, oh, we're not going to negotiate AI now, we're going to hold it till later.
00:39:16
Speaker 4: H No, were you personally aware of what a threat it was at that point, because it wasn't. No, like like I was aware of it. I was like, I was like, oh, yeah, that could be a threat, right, but it was not during the strike, Yeah, because it was an ancillary issue, and all of a sudden, you know what it was? They one of the contracts they brought back. The language was essentially, I'm badly paraphrasing, but it was essentially like, if you work for us, we own your image in perpetuity and.
00:39:40
Speaker 3: We can do whatever we want to do with that. And that's the moment a studio. Right then you would all of your your self would be gone because they would have it and they could pull it out whenever they wanted, and you were insane.
00:39:52
Speaker 2: It's insane, I know.
00:39:54
Speaker 3: So now, the last job I did in Toronto that I was telling you about, there's a whole addendum, like an added on contra about the AI.
00:40:01
Speaker 2: But then what was great in.
00:40:03
Speaker 3: This particular job, which I'm probably not supposed to talk about, but we so you had to sign the thing and I was so scared. It was the first time I've had to sign it. And the lawyer's involved, and luckily because our union negotiated all this stuff, there's a lot of things that SAG negotiated that are like controls and you know, controlling the situation. Right, So I signed the thing but I'm still really nervous about it. And I get to the set and the special effects director is there, and I said, what are we doing? Are we doing the AI? Because I had to sign this very scary document. He was like, absolutely not. I do not believe in it.
00:40:34
Speaker 2: Everything at all.
00:40:35
Speaker 4: Everything was practical, yes, wow.
00:40:37
Speaker 2: Well special effects practical right, So special effects but practical not AI.
00:40:41
Speaker 4: Right.
00:40:42
Speaker 3: So the artists, the special effects artists that we're doing their work because we also want them to continue to have a job, right.
00:40:49
Speaker 4: And it's it's about more of the job security. It is about that, right. But it like I would say, look at look at like the Lord of the Rings movies versus the Hobbit movies.
00:40:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, big.
00:41:00
Speaker 4: I mean there are a number of differences why one worked and one didn't. But one of the big ones that the Hobbit relied so much on digital technology, whereas Lord of the Rings it was all practical, right, Like they were making glassware, Gondrian glassware, and they were there were there were there was chain mail under tunics that you never saw, but you felt it. Yeah. Bernard Hill talked about who played Theodore when they brought him his breastplate. The designers had made a whole heraldic story inside the breastplate of the history of his ancestors. Incredible that no one ever saw. Bernard Hill said, when I saw that coming toward me, that was the moment that I became theodoin Wow, Like it just did it for me.
00:41:42
Speaker 2: That's some deep lore.
00:41:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah and deep right, And.
00:41:46
Speaker 2: I can peek out and I can tell very impressed.
00:41:50
Speaker 4: But as a film lover, yes, I'm also a token lover. But but aside from that, as a film lover, I love when you can feel the depth of yeah, yeah, craft and.
00:42:03
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I think that's something where because of what we were talking about earlier, we were trained for theater, as I was.
00:42:09
Speaker 2: I though I don't get to.
00:42:11
Speaker 3: Use it very often, but whatever, I mean, I'm using it, but not the whole thing, right, because like we.
00:42:15
Speaker 2: Have training and then we use like a little section.
00:42:18
Speaker 3: But that's okay because that's what we love, right, and that's what we wanted to do. So we were like, you know, slaving ourselves a way to learn like voice movement, like you also did fight choreography. Incredible do you still do it?
00:42:34
Speaker 4: Like how? Yeah, it's funny. I fell into it a little bit by accident, but it's you know, we were talking on the elevator about it being a small world. So one of my favorite gigs was I when Kevin Klein did sirr no Oh incredible. I choreographed this sword.
00:42:50
Speaker 3: Fi Daniel Sinjatas in this episode he's the other sailor.
00:42:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's a great guy. And he was also in Uh oh, my god. I love it with Jennifer Garner, and it was an incredible experion. But I fell into it like I had trained, you know, I had I had conservatory classical training, and you know, I'm an athlete, like I was pretty good at that sort of thing. And so I certified with the Society of American Fight Director and I was off in the Fight Captain and you know, like I was. I would play Timbolton, that would and I was doing a production of Romeo and Juliet and Terrence Man, big Broadway star and God bless him for this. He so I was playing Tibolt and I was the fight Captain and then we went to the next incarnation of that show. He said, I want you to take over the fights, and I want you to make it bigger and better. And I said Terry, I'm not a fight director. He said you are, and it was like it was great, so and then I kind of got a reputation for being good at it. A girl I was dating at the time was doing a pre Broadway workshop and there was a moment where there was a moment of violence that happened, and Nick kit Enner, the director, was like, does anybody know a good fight director? My girlfriend said, oh, I do. So I came in next thing I knew. Now I'm a Broadway fight director and just sort of like it just sort of like unfolded in an.
00:44:06
Speaker 2: Organic that's amazing.
00:44:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I love it. It's it's it's fun stuff.
00:44:10
Speaker 2: That is fun.
00:44:11
Speaker 4: I got you a pilot for George Lucas.
00:44:12
Speaker 2: I got to, oh my god, George Lucas.
00:44:14
Speaker 4: I got to like play a Jedi and have a thing.
00:44:16
Speaker 2: It never went incredible, but still you had.
00:44:18
Speaker 4: But it was a fun experience.
00:44:20
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
00:44:21
Speaker 1: You guys, this is so much fun that we're going to have to have a part two. So join us later in the week on Are You a Charlotte
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Kristin Davis, and I want to know are you a Charlotte?
00:00:06
Speaker 2: You guys, this is exciting. This is when we get to have a really interesting.
00:00:11
Speaker 3: Actor, Ron who was in an episode in two thousand and two.
00:00:14
Speaker 2: I guess that's where it aired. We probably filmed it in two thousand and two.
00:00:17
Speaker 4: Why and we actually shot it. It was the first episode you guys shot after nine to eleven happened?
00:00:21
Speaker 2: Got it?
00:00:22
Speaker 4: We can talk more about. But yes, it was significant, like there was a vibe.
00:00:26
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, this is Mark Declan. Everybody, he's great, he's here. I'm so excited. He is the longest resume in the world. But really, and I'm not going to name everything, but he was a very important part. He was a sailor in the fleet week episode called Anchors Away, which did air in two thousand and two but filmed in two thousand and one. So take me back, tell me about the Let's talk about nine to eleven first.
00:00:48
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean, well, you know, I mean for anybody, any New Yorkers, right, we know what it felt like and it wasn't obviously it was sad and tragic and scary, but it was it was also beautiful. Remember that. Yeah, Like there was sense of like we're all in this together. People were friendlier, more helpful, kinder. It was like a beautiful time to be in New York. Yeah. In fact, I was in LA the day it happened. All my LA friends were like, oh, thank god you weren't there, and I was like, no, I feel weird. I should be there. Absolutely, not like I can do anything, but just like like it's like, my I have a sick relative in the hospital.
00:01:21
Speaker 2: I should visit, right, So how did you get back? What were you?
00:01:24
Speaker 4: So? I had just Yeah, I had just been I had just actually moved to LA. I had let my apartment in New York go and I got an offer to do a Broadway show and I turned it down. I was like, no, I've committed to LA for now. I'm going to stick with this. Two days later, September eleventh, Oh no, So I called back and said, is the job still available? I want to come home? So I did.
00:01:42
Speaker 2: Was it?
00:01:43
Speaker 4: So? It was the Lion King.
00:01:44
Speaker 3: Oh my god, amazing you were in the Lion care one of my most favorite life is.
00:01:52
Speaker 2: It's so great.
00:01:55
Speaker 4: It was fun. It was I mean, that's that's a whole other experience to talk about. Actually, story from our episode that I'll share with.
00:02:01
Speaker 3: Oh listen, I need all the funny stories from this episode.
00:02:04
Speaker 2: I just remember this episode.
00:02:06
Speaker 3: I had forgotten that it was the first one back, but that makes perfect sense because I think that we as a production really felt so strongly obviously we love the city, as we all know, it's the fifth character, et cetera. And it was such a such a trauma and such a you know, everyone was going through a collective trauma, the whole country obviously, but definitely the city, and everybody was pitching in and they were all everyone had a story and everybody was doing different things to contribute, and we felt as a show.
00:02:36
Speaker 2: Like our job was to get back at it, to celebrate the city, to like show that.
00:02:43
Speaker 3: We were okay, yeah, you know, like it was super important to get back out there.
00:02:48
Speaker 4: And that love letter to the city that your show always was came through so clearly in this episode, right. I mean, obviously Carrie talks about, you know, like your boyfriend the city.
00:02:56
Speaker 2: You know what, Yeah, it's it's beautiful.
00:02:58
Speaker 4: It's beautiful.
00:02:59
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:03:00
Speaker 4: And I think anybody who has a place in their heart for New York was really touched by.
00:03:05
Speaker 3: That, absolutely absolutely, And I feel like for Michael, he's trying to think of, well, what's a fun way to like he everything needs to be like have the depth that also be fun, and Fleet Week is such a.
00:03:15
Speaker 2: Perfect funny, crazy weird thing.
00:03:18
Speaker 3: I also remember, and I don't know why I hadn't placed this in my mind and that it was the first show back, but it makes perfect sense. I just remember that it was hard. There were hard things about this show. Like I remember standing on the island in Times Square because we could only start shooting at ten o'clock at night because because of the because we were trying to film in Times Square, right, you know, bonkers, right, like insane amounts of people, cars, whatever, and we're trying to shut down things, you know, as much as you can. And so they would only let us come at ten am ten pm. So we would start at ten pm and we would go all night long.
00:04:00
Speaker 2: And it was like hard. Yeah, that's what I remember.
00:04:04
Speaker 3: And they got his rooms in the w Hotel, which is right there, right there, and we just I felt like we lived there for a week, like I felt like we were just there.
00:04:12
Speaker 2: We all got the CDs.
00:04:13
Speaker 3: Remember how the w has like the party in the lobby. We had the CDs, like I could play all those songs. They take me right back to that time.
00:04:20
Speaker 4: Oh, it's such a moment.
00:04:21
Speaker 2: It was great, but it was also hard. There was hard emotional.
00:04:25
Speaker 4: I felt like I feel you really yeah, and laughing because I remember that shot of the four of you right before you guys shove SYNTHI next to the cab right yes, And there's there's an extra behind you, guys, a background player who apparently got the note don't look at the camera. Oh no, So he's literally doing this the whole time, like the whole time, but he's right behind you, like.
00:04:50
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
00:04:51
Speaker 3: Or maybe he thinks he's looking at the view right sure, maybe he thinks he has a team of you.
00:04:55
Speaker 2: He's a tourist. That is adorable. I'm going to look back and look at that. You'll see it.
00:05:00
Speaker 3: Sometimes when I, yeah, I feel so bad because the background people when they're in a big, big, big scene, it's hard.
00:05:08
Speaker 2: It is it's hard.
00:05:10
Speaker 3: It's a naturalness to do it so many times. And if I remember that we had to do that for a long time, then you know we had to do that a really long time. But I feel like we just stood on that street corner for just like I don't know, maybe twelve hours.
00:05:23
Speaker 2: I'm sure I'm wrong, but that's what I remember.
00:05:26
Speaker 4: And that's like all night long. I think that's the thing a lot of people don't get is like how often it's a slog, right. And I'm not saying oh boo, who poor me? No, of course, but you know, you get this glamour shot. You guys looked gorgeous. It looked gorgeous, but getting there.
00:05:39
Speaker 2: Is a slog, right, And I think it was cold really well because it's the.
00:05:43
Speaker 3: First episode back, and usually we'd start in February so that it could come on in June.
00:05:48
Speaker 2: Is that right, Let's see, let's see you.
00:05:50
Speaker 4: No, I mean you probably know better than I do. I funny my memory, well my memory which leads to my funny story story. But mine involved a lot of sweat and oh I'll tell you why. But so in my mind we shot in summer, but maybe we didn't.
00:06:06
Speaker 3: I mean, I think it looks like summer, because that's the whole, the whole point, right, But I don't think it was because we had to It aired July twenty first.
00:06:14
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, So we couldn't have shot it in the summer.
00:06:15
Speaker 2: That's weird.
00:06:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's also interesting because usually we would come on in June. But I think everything is messed up because also this is the year. And I don't think this is related to nine to eleven. I think it was related to the Sopranos schedule because they started messing their schedule up. Cause sure, he wanted to write longer, so they took a little half of our episode of our season before and put it on in the winter.
00:06:37
Speaker 4: Got yeah, yeah, Yeah.
00:06:38
Speaker 3: Then they pushed our air date for the summer back to July twenty one, which is kind of weird.
00:06:44
Speaker 2: Is the end of the summer.
00:06:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think everything goes haywire at this point and time in our collective lives.
00:06:50
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Yeah, to go ahead, you're sweat? What sweat? It couldn't even hot, I don't know.
00:06:56
Speaker 4: No, So okay, So I was and I'm sure you weren't aware of this drama because you had bigger fish to fry, and I didn't want you to be aware of this, Okay. So we shot our scene on a Wednesday, which is Mattinee Day on body So I had to use one of my sick days to do our show, which is fine. We did that all the time, right, Like we used to say, don't waste your sick day being sick.
00:07:17
Speaker 2: Wow.
00:07:17
Speaker 4: So fine, and I made no secret of it. My stage manager was my friend. She was happy for me. And we had a whole string of talented understudies who could go on in my place. I wasn't putting the show in any danger except Murphy's Law came to town. So I report to Sex and the City. I think we were on forty seventh Street. Does that sound right, Yeah, something like that. So I'm in my trailer getting ready. Unknown to me, all hell's breaking whose back at my theater. Understudies are dropping like flies. Oh no, one gets sick, one gets hurt, one has to go on for somebody else who got sick or hurt, and so on. So we're down to the last guy who can go on in my place. So talented guy. He's in hair and makeup. As he's leaving, he turns to say thank you, as one should, and I guess in the act of turning while walking, he tripped. Oh no, fell on the steps, twisted. His anchor couldn't go on. What So now, if I don't go on.
00:08:09
Speaker 2: The show's on the day of you filming with us.
00:08:12
Speaker 4: I'm sitting in my trailer City Oh, and I get a call from my stage manager saying, you have to come to the matinee and I said, no, I can't. I'm about to shoot my scene. She said, I know, and I'm so sorry, but I know that you're able to do the show, and I have to protect the show because if you don't go on, the show won't go on, so you will probably get fired. You could even get sued. So I went, yeah, hold on a second, I put my phone down. I literally opened the door of my trailer and vomited on forty seven So, like, just no joke, like literally just that. So I shut the door. I was like, Okay, I have to figure this out. So I found Charles McDougall, who directed her, and understandably he was not happy with me, right, but he was cool and he kept his head and he looked at the schedule and he said, you know, you're in luck because we're shooting everything in the same location today. So I'm gonna switch the scene order. You're gonna run down, you're gonna do your matinee. The minute the curtain drops, you're gonna sprint back up here and shoot our scene. What So, yeah, you didn't know any of this, no, So I go, oh, thank you so much, thank you, thank you. Think I run down, I do the show. And this is actually one of my favorite showbiz memories because I guess word got around the theater of my situation. So when I took my bow and came into the wings, there was this NASCAR pit crew of like twenty people all there to like help me get ready. So literally, I'm in the wings and someone's pulling my wig off and the Bobby's beings out. Well, so they're pulling my gosh, I'm off, they're putting my street clothes on. They're wiping my makeup off. Wow, And I sprint right and I run up and I and I show up to your hair and makeup, and God bless them. So they're under the gun, right, They've got to have me camera ready in a couple of minutes. Oh my, it's like triage. Now, you know, stage makeup doesn't just wipe off.
00:09:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's some thick stuff.
00:09:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I'm like half of it's still on and dripping. I'm dripping with sweat because I spra into the whole way and they made an executive decision. They were like, we can't restore you and start from scratch. So they made the decision to to just paint a layer of television makeup on top of the mess. What. Yeah, and they're so good that they made it. You didn't know. Nobody knew, but I knew when I watched the episode. Now I laugh because it's not my skin. It's I'm like a wax dummy of myself in the episode. Yeah.
00:10:24
Speaker 3: Incredible. Yeah, So then just curiosity. Were they ready for you or did you have to wait?
00:10:32
Speaker 4: Because right and as you know, we do a lot of waiting. It was no, no, I went right in like you and I jumped right in and and then I had to switch gears because this wasn't my moment, this was your moment. Right.
00:10:45
Speaker 2: Well, well, I was not that happy about it. I don't know, I did.
00:10:49
Speaker 4: I know, So I'll address that, because you know, you were you. First of all, you were lovely. You were one of my favorite people I've worked with. You were gracious and I'm not just saying that because I'm on your podcast, but I remember, so I knew, like because we've all had to do some form of undress, and I think people think that like, oh, actors there, they have no shyness. They know it's very vulnerable and you feel very exposed, punintended. And so I was like, okay, I have responsibility. Kristen's gonna feel uncomfortable. Yeah, well, it's just real, right, And and we didn't know one another. It's not like we were old friends from school, so it was like I was a complete stranger. So I was like, Okay, I have to find this balance of like I want her to know that I'm not some creep who's ogling her, but at the same time, I'm a heterosexual man. And ge, you look great, you know what I mean, sweet balancing act And I just wanted to be there for you and make you feel And so the moment I knew that it was okay is you were nervous. The first two takes you were understandably very nervous. But I think the third or fourth take you turned to me and asked me. You probably don't remember this, You asked me if you had any bra lines on your boobs. And that was the moment when I said, I've done my job.
00:11:59
Speaker 2: She's come about so funny. That's so terrific.
00:12:03
Speaker 3: It's so funny the crazy things you worry about, like brawl lines.
00:12:09
Speaker 2: I cracked myself up, like on.
00:12:11
Speaker 4: Earth, I know, but it's totally real. I know.
00:12:14
Speaker 3: It's just so like, you know what, people have a lot of thoughts and feelings about intimacy supervisors whatever. They're called intimacy coaches, coordinators. Thank you, I knew there's a word. That's the thing that nowadays I would ask an intimacy coordinator, of course, because they're like your eyes, you know what I mean.
00:12:32
Speaker 4: It's such a different world after me too, and I think for the better. But there there were you know there it's such a weird thing scenes. So one of the ways we always dealt with it was to make a joke of it.
00:12:46
Speaker 2: Totally.
00:12:46
Speaker 4: If you can't, I look back. If you can't, right, that's just I look back and like, you know, I did a series where the woman played my wife. We were having a sex scene and we were just we were buddies and we were just saying the most inappropriate things to one another just to crack each other up and threw up. Yeah, you couldn't do that. Today they put up the blooperss reel and I was like, oh my god, I'd get fired for that.
00:13:05
Speaker 2: Oh they put it on the Bloopers reel.
00:13:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, because oh god, yeah, oh yeah, oh my, did you buy the DVD of that series? Like you'll see wow? And it's actually it's funny. Well that's lighthearted, right, but still.
00:13:18
Speaker 3: It would still not be okay with hr. Right, that's really interesting to think about. I mean, the thing that I think is interesting and.
00:13:24
Speaker 2: There is like a whole court case. I believe it was friends.
00:13:27
Speaker 3: There was a potential court case about them kind of making jokes in the writer's room.
00:13:33
Speaker 2: But because you know, there's a whole thing.
00:13:35
Speaker 3: About like if your show or your writing is if this is part of the show and the writing of the job, that there is a certain amount of leeway or whatever.
00:13:45
Speaker 2: Now I don't know if that would go for on set, right.
00:13:49
Speaker 3: And I mean like now when you go to work, there's a one eight hundred number on your call sheet that you can call if you're uncomfortable, and people call, which is interesting to me.
00:13:58
Speaker 4: It's interesting because it's many things, right, Like I think sometimes it's really legitimate, right, and it's a call. And you know, we've all been in those situations. I've been in situations where I was like, this isn't how it's done. There's there's a protocol here that you're not following. Now.
00:14:12
Speaker 3: Did you feel that way as an actor or did you feel worried about the women or was it directed at you?
00:14:17
Speaker 4: No, it's directed at me. I'm gonna be careful what I know because I don't know.
00:14:21
Speaker 2: Of course, I'm just so curious about the man experience.
00:14:24
Speaker 4: But it's it's lovely that you ask about that, because in the moment the men in the show I was, I was in I was as the script was being handed out. I said, they said, oh you're cool with nunity.
00:14:37
Speaker 2: Right, oh?
00:14:38
Speaker 4: And I went casual like that, oh lord, And I said, have you spoken to my agent?
00:14:42
Speaker 2: Yes, it's not Yeah, there's no.
00:14:45
Speaker 4: And so I held my guns and helped to my guns. I know, Amy, you know, I held my ground sure. And it was interesting because the guys in the show were all like, dud, just do it, just show your ass who cares and or whatever it was, and and the women were all very sympathetic. They were all like, no, you stand your ground. So, and that's because they've been put in that situation.
00:15:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I feel like agency is key, right, Like, if you're choosing to do it, yes, if you're being pushed.
00:15:16
Speaker 4: It's not okay, it's not okay.
00:15:17
Speaker 3: No, not for anyone. No, no, I agree totally. So did it work out?
00:15:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, it all worked out.
00:15:22
Speaker 2: You have to call your agent.
00:15:24
Speaker 4: No conversations happened, but it's fine. It all, it all worked out.
00:15:28
Speaker 3: It was also supposed to be like contractual agreements, that's just it.
00:15:31
Speaker 4: And you know the contracts are funny. Yeah, it'll be like like we'll show one quarter of an ass, cheek or whatever.
00:15:38
Speaker 2: The right rest is very specific. It's so hard, like nudity for some reason is so hard.
00:15:55
Speaker 4: It's vulnerable, it really really is. It's like, yeah, and I.
00:15:59
Speaker 3: Mean this was a flash, right, like I flashed my breast at you.
00:16:02
Speaker 4: It's not even it was just one as we negotiated.
00:16:05
Speaker 2: Exactly right, exactly. But I remember there were people like, we're in a restaurant. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
00:16:12
Speaker 3: But I mean it wasn't even like a sex scene where they can close the sun.
00:16:15
Speaker 4: And they did have us cordoned off of it.
00:16:17
Speaker 3: They tried, right, But I mean there were people in a restaurant, right, and I was just like flat, like it was bizarre, and I just remembered like my body didn't want to do it, like I had to force myself.
00:16:28
Speaker 4: I feel all that you did. Yeah, I was so like I was. I was, I so felt you, and I was like trying to send you all.
00:16:36
Speaker 3: The that it may it matter so much in the moment, right, because like you're you're just doing something that you know you have to do, but you're not organically feeling it. And as an actress, right, Like, let's see, we were in a sex scene, which that's a different ball of ACXE. It's a different situation, right.
00:16:52
Speaker 4: Even more awkward and even more weird than.
00:16:54
Speaker 3: Weird because you're simulating sex but you're not having sex. But then also you can usually joke through it, like you're saying, like, that's a really common thing that actors do, right, and hopefully you have a vibe with each other where you can trust each other and make it fun and funny or.
00:17:09
Speaker 2: Totally laughing at yourselves.
00:17:11
Speaker 3: But we were separated, physically separated, so I didn't even I couldn't really rely on you, like I could you were contributing in a positive way.
00:17:20
Speaker 4: But the beginning, yeah, it was.
00:17:22
Speaker 3: It wasn't like we were in an intimate, intimate scene, right, which in some ways would make it better, meaning like sometimes when you're being kind of silly, it's better. But I don't know why that day, I just didn't want to do it, Like I still feel that way talking about it.
00:17:36
Speaker 2: Like I didn't want to do it.
00:17:37
Speaker 3: But then if I can just separate myself from my own anxiety, I look back and I'm like, what is my problem? It's adorable and I'm young and beautiful and what is my problem?
00:17:51
Speaker 2: And I'm like old now? And I should feel that way. I still feel the anxiety when I think about it.
00:17:56
Speaker 4: I feel you, isn't that weird?
00:17:57
Speaker 2: Interesting? Is it not?
00:17:59
Speaker 4: Okay? Oh, it's human okay, And we're not. We're actors. We're not exhibitionists.
00:18:04
Speaker 2: It's true some of us are. No, But I mean that's a misconception, I think.
00:18:08
Speaker 4: A big miscuss. Yes, I think I think just the misconception that all actors are extroverts.
00:18:13
Speaker 2: Right, we're not respect You're not.
00:18:15
Speaker 4: I'm not either. I'm I'm gregarious. I like people. I don't have social anxiety. But I'm an introvert. I recharge my batteries alone, like and you know, I'm not like love me, love me love you know. We'll have a little bit of that, but for sure, but that's not that's not my go to place.
00:18:29
Speaker 2: No me neither.
00:18:29
Speaker 3: And I do think it's a really interesting thing and definitely like that weird. I think social media has fed the thing of like, oh, you all knew you wanted this, ye.
00:18:40
Speaker 4: You chased it right.
00:18:41
Speaker 3: No, for us, especially because we're not twenty, you know, it was a different world that we thought we were getting into, and it was like about.
00:18:48
Speaker 2: Acting and theater and not about fame, right. Yeah.
00:18:52
Speaker 4: In fact, a friend of mine years ago said, we also deal with fame in some way. But there are two types of actors. There are those who see fame as the prop and those who see fame as the price.
00:19:02
Speaker 2: Right. That's true for all of us.
00:19:04
Speaker 3: We never even I don't even think any of us, including Sarahjosca, ever thought about it, and then all of a sudden, there we were in it, and we were like whoa, whoa, mama, Well.
00:19:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, did you know, like when you joined the show, We're like, this is going to be a cultural phenomenon.
00:19:17
Speaker 2: Of course, of course not no, no, no, no, no.
00:19:19
Speaker 3: We thought it was going to be a tiny little cult thing if it went well.
00:19:23
Speaker 4: If it went well, you're lucky, it'll be a cult thing.
00:19:26
Speaker 2: Totally.
00:19:26
Speaker 3: Yes, if we're lucky, we'll get to keep doing it and it will have enough of a little audience that we will get to continue.
00:19:32
Speaker 2: And we did, we did.
00:19:35
Speaker 4: It's funny. I was thinking on the way over here about I was doing a series where I was playing a closeted gay guy and someone we hadn't aired yet, and some interviewer asked me, so are you Is your character like fabulous you get all the funny zingers and one liners. And I said no, no, no, And I gave this sort of long thoughtful answer about like, no, it's not like because he's in the closet, so he's not like out and fabulous, right, he's actually like, you know, kind of butching it up or whatever. Yeah, exactly, yea. And I said, so, no, I don't get to do like that that fun brilliant thing that like Eric stone Street gets to do on Modern Family, or you know that that Sean Hayes gets to do on Will and grace like, I'm not I'm not like that, and those guys do that so brilliantly, and that's you know, and I give and my answer was very complimentary to them because they're both fantastic actors and I know Sean well sure enough. Oh no, yeah, that all that long thoughtful answer gets taken, gets boiled down to one sentence, which is literally they quoted me as saying, I'm not playing a stereotype. I'm not Sean Hayes.
00:20:39
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
00:20:40
Speaker 4: I was like, are you That is not what I and so like fashionately, Sean and I have a mutual, very dear friend and I was able to get in touch with him and he was like, oh, don't worry about it. I know they do that all the time. Don't give it a second thought.
00:20:52
Speaker 3: But I thought, awful, you know what I think is interesting about that too, And I feel like it's the kind of thing of like you count when if you give a really long answer that's thoughtful, they can edit it down, which is then why you go like, oh, okay, I've got to give a short sound bite that cannot be misconstrued. Then people get upset when they see your interview, like why does she give such short answers? She needs to be more thoughtful, and you're.
00:21:14
Speaker 2: Just trying to exactly exactly right. They're like, he got media training whatever, God forbid, you know which, I've never had media training training.
00:21:26
Speaker 4: I know.
00:21:26
Speaker 2: I want to know who is getting media trading.
00:21:28
Speaker 3: Somebody is, someone is, but I don't know who, right, It's all of us just got thrown in and by example. Right, Okay, let's talk just for a second. I know, no, I'm loving this conversation in general, but I want to just talk a little bit about where were you in your career when this happened.
00:21:42
Speaker 2: You were on Broadway.
00:21:43
Speaker 3: Obviously you had just moved to LA and then you come back, But like, what what was it like for.
00:21:47
Speaker 2: You being on the show. What do you remember around the show?
00:21:51
Speaker 4: Well, so at that point the show was already a hit.
00:21:54
Speaker 2: Right, this is season four? Yeah? So wait season five, season five? Oh my god?
00:21:59
Speaker 4: So yeah, and I had auditioned for other parts before that.
00:22:02
Speaker 2: I hadn't got many of our I mean every New York stressful?
00:22:07
Speaker 4: Was what stressful? The audition process?
00:22:10
Speaker 2: The process?
00:22:10
Speaker 4: Yeah?
00:22:11
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, so you were just like it's going to work out. I'm going to keep going.
00:22:17
Speaker 4: Not I didn't feel like, oh, Sex and the City is going to work out, right. I just felt like I auditioned a lot, something like I'm auditioning for this, and I'm auditioning for this commercial and this, you know, and uh and and but I remember it being a very pleasant audition and it wasn't grueling or long, and I felt good about it. But you know, uh so when I booked it, I was really happy. And I had just at the same time, I mean, my TV career hadn't really taken off yet, but I had just done a FedEx commercial with Steve Carell.
00:22:49
Speaker 2: Wow.
00:22:51
Speaker 4: And It's funny because so I had two very small things that I started getting recognized for. One was this FedEx guy. So one more, I was living on in Theipper West Side and I had ordered me tickage and it was early I think I was partying the night before and I answered the door and I'm bleary eyed and this I'm signing for the package. And the guy looks at me goes, hey, you're the fed Ex guy. And I looked up. I said, no, man, you're the fat guy. And we started laughing. And then same thing, like I you know, obviously this Sailor wasn't a huge role, but it was sort of an iconic moment, and to this day people will be like, no, way, you know you're the sailor or.
00:23:28
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
00:23:29
Speaker 4: They'll say, show me your tits, you know.
00:23:32
Speaker 2: How what do you say?
00:23:36
Speaker 4: Well, I don't show them my tits.
00:23:38
Speaker 2: And probably a good thing. Probably a good thing, So don't go round flash.
00:23:42
Speaker 4: And before me too, I would have but not really, no, not really no. And my kids roll their eyes. They hate when people recognize me.
00:23:49
Speaker 2: Mind you too, It's good, it's healthy.
00:23:51
Speaker 4: They should hate it.
00:23:52
Speaker 2: It's interesting, right right, yeah.
00:23:54
Speaker 4: And I always I try to be like sensitive to that.
00:23:56
Speaker 2: We too, so do I.
00:23:57
Speaker 3: I have a no picture rule when the kids around, and I feel so guilty about it.
00:24:02
Speaker 4: No, you shouldn't feel guilty. I'm no.
00:24:04
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just I don't want them to feel like that. The other work thing matters more.
00:24:09
Speaker 4: You want them to have a normal life.
00:24:11
Speaker 2: I did as much as I can, So go ahead, go ahead. I don't so.
00:24:15
Speaker 3: So you had the FedEx thing, which is crazy it love it.
00:24:19
Speaker 4: And uh so, yeah, but this was this was the first, the first TV thing that I started really getting recognized.
00:24:26
Speaker 2: Got it? Because you feel good.
00:24:29
Speaker 4: Sure you.
00:24:33
Speaker 3: Tell me.
00:24:34
Speaker 2: I love to hear other people's experience, you know.
00:24:36
Speaker 4: Okay, as an analogy, I'm going to tell you a story. I was doing a series with John Voight years ago, and he played my father and we, you know, we had a funny relationship. Politically we're not on the same team. Yeah, he's character, but he's got a good heart. And we became friends and I actually, I really love I have a place in my heart for John. I love. But and we would debate politics and it was we had a great respectful you know. But once one time he and I were walking through the Dallas Airport together and he couldn't go five feet without someone? Can I have a picture? Can I have an autograph?
00:25:09
Speaker 2: Sure?
00:25:10
Speaker 4: So he did. I'll never forget this, Christen. It was like a conductor, he said. I said. I said, does it bother you? And he said no, I'm used to it. He said, you want a little taste. That said, what do you mean? So this woman started walking toward us with her phone out, her camera whatever it was, and without missing a beat, he reached out, took the camera from her hands and said, of course you can have a picture with Mark Declan, and I saw her wheels going, like the hell is Mark Declan. She had no clue, but then I saw her decide I do want a picture with him, right because he must be important. Wow, So now she's hugging up on me. John is the photographer. I see someone else go, I don't know who that is, but I need a picture. Yeah, And within five minutes, I'm being mobbed. I can hear buzz, literally buzz, people going Mark Declan's in the airport. Oh my god, it's Mark Declan. They had no clue who I was. Interesting, And it went on for about five minutes and then John said if he had another and I was like, yeah, it's kind of weird. So he turned the camera back on himself and I was forgotten instantly, like I never existed.
00:26:07
Speaker 2: That's super interesting, but it was a great.
00:26:09
Speaker 4: Lesson in how smoke and mirrors it is. Yeah, right, yeah, anyway, I don't know if that answers your question.
00:26:14
Speaker 2: No, it's really interesting.
00:26:15
Speaker 4: It's a weird thing.
00:26:16
Speaker 3: So you've had this incredible career with like everyone and their brother, which is super interesting to me. But take me back again, because I'm trying to place like was our.
00:26:25
Speaker 2: Show and you're on a Broadway play. It's like a lot going on.
00:26:29
Speaker 3: Did you feel the momentum Was it like the momentum was picking up in your career?
00:26:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, because because I had you know, I was a theater kid, right, Like I was Shakespeare, Like that was really what I was mostly doing. And then I was doing a lot of off Broadway and regional and I was dabbling in film and TV. But I didn't really have a TV and film career, but things I had started going to La more and more and working in La more and more, and so that's why I had made the move, but it hadn't really gotten traction yet. And this was right around the time when I started to get traction and I started to Yeah, I started to feel like it's an interesting thing, right because these past few years, our industry has been in a weird place.
00:27:08
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, it's a mess.
00:27:10
Speaker 4: It's a hot mess, and it's a mess, and we're all having to get creative about all right, what else do I do? How do I make a little dough?
00:27:17
Speaker 2: It's so sad. It makes me so sad.
00:27:19
Speaker 4: I mean, we could have a whole podcast about that. Yeah, crew members who aren't.
00:27:23
Speaker 2: There there was an apprenticeship.
00:27:25
Speaker 4: Right, like young young crew members coming up in the industry would would train with master older guys. That's just not happening anymore.
00:27:33
Speaker 2: Well, because there's not enough work for everybody.
00:27:35
Speaker 3: So, you know, I know, it's it's hard to know, how are the young people going to learn all the things?
00:27:41
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, It's just a different world.
00:27:43
Speaker 3: But also the thing that really stresses me, and I don't know how much this is true in New York in LA. The people who are the you know, crew people that we would normally just like have such a wonderful picture.
00:27:54
Speaker 4: And work with them on many different projects, they're.
00:27:56
Speaker 2: All leaving town because there's no production. It's horrible.
00:28:00
Speaker 4: It's the saddest thing. And so so getting that sense like back in those days, yeah, you could get traction, you could get a sense of like I'm not where I want to be yet, but I feel a trajectory, I feel momentum. The industry the gross industry term was heat, right, like you got heat right now? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you don't it's hard to feel that these days.
00:28:21
Speaker 2: Well yeah, I don't know.
00:28:22
Speaker 3: I don't even know because I'm obviously in a different position, thankfully, but also like you're just for me. I'm always trying to figure out, like what do I want to do that makes me happy, because happiness is important, Whereas when you're young, you're just like hungry, hungry. I just felt hungry for anything.
00:28:37
Speaker 2: At that point. I had no kids.
00:28:39
Speaker 4: I was like whatever, and well, of course you change everything.
00:28:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it does.
00:28:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, but so take me back again for you because I'm so curious. So okay, so you've got the FedEx thing.
00:28:48
Speaker 2: You come do our show. People want you to flush flash your breast, but you're your breast, my breast. I don't know, but you know what I mean.
00:28:53
Speaker 4: They're like when you said the same thing, She's like, you were on Sex in the City and you took your shirt off for Charlotte and I said, no, she took her shirt off for me.
00:29:01
Speaker 2: Oh that's funny. Why were you talking to Wendy Williams Because I was.
00:29:04
Speaker 4: Doing a series at the time. This is like in these years later.
00:29:07
Speaker 2: Was on her show.
00:29:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, not personally and said, okay, god, we're having dinner as we on No, no, no, I was doing a series in twenty twelve or something, and I was on her show Got It, but she was like, I remember you from Sex and the City.
00:29:23
Speaker 5: Wow, Wow wow.
00:29:36
Speaker 3: So and then you've been on so many shows like Frasier, Love Frasier, My god, do you feel I was on some other sitcoms before and during kind of Sex and State, like I want to friends whatever. I felt like I learned so much being on all the different sets, because they're so so.
00:29:54
Speaker 4: Different, so different, and you want like, you know, it's funny. We just lost James Brooks, right, and so said I did a pilot with him, and you know people called him the comedy doctor. Yeah, and it's true. There was a moment in our pilot. I'll never forget this. I wasn't It wasn't my scene we were shooting. It was Seth Green, and I forget who he was in the scene with. But as he was talking, he was folding laudry. It took a place at a laudamat and and he wasn't getting to laugh. He wasn't landing the joke. But you know he's a that's a funny guy. Yeah, but it wasn't landing. And Jimmy just got up and he said, oh, it's because you're folding the towel the wrong way. Oh, and Seth went what and he said, yeah, you're folding it this way. You need to fold it this way.
00:30:37
Speaker 3: I mean, the man could a crazy Oh come on, no, no, no, And then he did it.
00:30:42
Speaker 4: He furled the towel the other way, and the audience went nuts.
00:30:45
Speaker 3: It was insane, insane. It was insane, imane. Will and Grace with him, and I was dying of nerves. I'm a nervous thing.
00:30:52
Speaker 2: Right, Like I look back, I'm like, why am I so nervous all the time? But we Yeah, can we just say that, like totally.
00:31:00
Speaker 4: I know so few people who really are that's a.
00:31:02
Speaker 2: Good point, like okay, and confident, right.
00:31:07
Speaker 4: Like I have. I have things about me that I'm that I'm confident.
00:31:10
Speaker 3: But we're all nervous, I know, right, and for me, and it's hard because I you know, obviously criticize myself for it, but also I'm nervous because I really want to be good and I want to contribute to whatever I'm doing, which of course I feel like it's good or I wouldn't be doing it, you know what I'm saying, Like it comes from a place that's good, that you want to have, right, Like you want that excitement, you.
00:31:30
Speaker 4: Want to be a team player, contribute to the team.
00:31:32
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and I will and Grace.
00:31:34
Speaker 3: It's such a great, great show, right, and you know I wanted to be a part of it. But also sitcoms for me were meaning traditional three camera sitcoms, right, which we were not. They like to say that Sex and City is a sitcom, it's not really as a.
00:31:45
Speaker 4: Comp it's a comedy.
00:31:47
Speaker 3: Yes, it's a single camera comedy, yes, which is a little different.
00:31:50
Speaker 4: It's a different animal.
00:31:51
Speaker 3: It's a different animal as an actor, for sure. So this was you know, a traditional you know, multicam.
00:31:57
Speaker 4: Which we don't get enough of these days.
00:31:58
Speaker 2: I know they need to come back. There was a moment in time where they were like they're coming back, They're coming back. But anyway, so I go on the show.
00:32:03
Speaker 3: I knew Jimmy, I knew Eric, I knew Debora, I knew everybody, right, and Bobby Canavale was playing my gay best friend.
00:32:10
Speaker 2: We were like, uh, you know, weird couple.
00:32:13
Speaker 3: That was because he was dating his character was dating Eric's character, right, So it was it was I knew everybody, which was great, but yet the the actual physical element of walking out. You're doing this show. It's like a theater kind of but yeah, they're laughing, right, so so you're you're in this weird thing. But then they're filming, so like, I didn't know they would do this thing more. When I walked out, everyone would clap for so long that I would just be like, I don't.
00:32:40
Speaker 4: Know what the sorry. Before Sex and the City, I feel like, like, were you already, Kristen.
00:32:47
Speaker 2: Yes, I was. I was. I feel like it.
00:32:49
Speaker 3: Might have been after Okay, I feel like, yeah, which was adorable and so sweet, but I didn't know because it's going to ruin the joke right, like the next joke, like timing and everything exactly.
00:33:00
Speaker 6: And Jimmy was there, and Jimmy, you know, that man could just make you unbelievable feel I mean a wizard and a genius and a sweetheart sweet I mean just so supportive, you know. And he he told me a couple of things like like I think at one point he told me to count to five in my head before I delivered some line. And every time if you did exactly what that man said, you would get the biggest laugh you'd ever Doe music. It was insane, like his knowledge, his way of talking to you, like I don't it's so crazy, and we're so lucky to have had him and to have gotten to work with him, and you know, he's somewhere shining down on us.
00:33:42
Speaker 2: You know. He was such a sweet sweet Did you watch the Comeback?
00:33:46
Speaker 4: I didn't.
00:33:46
Speaker 3: He's in it, he's playing I know, I need so many credible.
00:33:50
Speaker 4: Especially with the whole AI thing that's happening, like so many people have been like, if you watch the I've.
00:33:54
Speaker 3: Got to see it's so good. Michael Patrick and Lisa did just a tremendous job. And the fact that Jimmy's there playing himself and I didn't know that he was sick. I think a lot of us didn't know that he was sick.
00:34:02
Speaker 2: So it's because he.
00:34:03
Speaker 4: Wasn't the kind of guy who'd be like.
00:34:05
Speaker 2: No no, no, no no no.
00:34:07
Speaker 3: But he is just lovely to see him and he's himself but and so sweet, and he gives this beautiful ending talk to Lisa's character about AI, and it's it's great. It's so great, and I love that Michael created that so that we have it, you know, on film.
00:34:23
Speaker 2: But anyway, back to your career.
00:34:24
Speaker 4: Michael's writing.
00:34:25
Speaker 2: Michael back to that.
00:34:27
Speaker 4: Too, because did he write this episode. He did write this.
00:34:30
Speaker 2: Yes, that's actually splash.
00:34:35
Speaker 4: The dubbing thing. We welcome back to this. But you well, you.
00:34:40
Speaker 2: Know, I don't know.
00:34:43
Speaker 4: Well, do you remember when when it was TBS that acquired the show, right, yes, and so we all had to go back into the recording studio and re record our lines to dub out the profanity.
00:34:53
Speaker 2: You had to do this too, of course, everybody wow, And so.
00:34:58
Speaker 4: I remember, and this is what this is what uh, this is what Kim and I were laughing about a couple years ago because in this episode stop you were on I was on with Kim Cattrell Netflix on Netflix.
00:35:08
Speaker 2: It got it many many years later.
00:35:10
Speaker 4: Many years later. It was in twenty twenty.
00:35:12
Speaker 2: Two, got it, got it, got it?
00:35:14
Speaker 4: Okay, So in this episode, you guys have that scene in the diner where she's trying to say pussy, but you guys don't want to say in front of the baby. Well Charlotte doesn't, right, Yes, yes, I don't know if carry yeah, maybe maybe they didn't care as much.
00:35:26
Speaker 2: They didn't look like that.
00:35:27
Speaker 4: One of you comes up and obviously this is Michael Pater King's writing, you come up with soush ye, which is very clever phonetically right, because the words are kind of similar, right. And so what Kim and I were laughing about was I didn't get so lucky when I had to go in and dub my line. My famous line was show me your tits, and they of course change it to boobs. And if you think about the mouth shape, those two words are nothing like.
00:35:51
Speaker 2: Also, isn't that weird? Though? That one's okay? And when is it like what?
00:35:55
Speaker 4: Of course it's random and arbitrary, but you know, I'm pretty good in the booth like lip sync. I can tell you I could not make that work.
00:36:03
Speaker 2: Well, no one could. I'm sorry.
00:36:05
Speaker 4: No one watching it will ever believe that sailor said show me your boobs, but I.
00:36:09
Speaker 3: Do think and not everyone listening is going to remember this. So basically, so the show was on HBO and we could say whatever we wanted and that was part of the whole joy of it. Then when we end, TBS gets it, everyone just remembers it on eat right, they don't even remember that TBS like did things like this. So TBS, who's also in the Warner Brothers. You know, TV World syndicates it, but we had to clean it up, and I think whole storylines were cut, Like you remember that, it was like very so I had one line.
00:36:39
Speaker 4: I'm sure you guys must have been in the booth.
00:36:41
Speaker 3: For but I think what had happened back in the day, and I totally could be wrong. I would love someone to fill me in on this. I remember going and looping stuff as it was happening, just in case someday we might get syndicated.
00:36:55
Speaker 4: Do you mean that was forethoughts?
00:36:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I don't know if we really could have imagined that it would be what it is, right, So I don't know for sure, and I just remember its going like how is this going to work?
00:37:06
Speaker 2: Whatever? But also we're so happy because we got paid more, you know what I'm.
00:37:08
Speaker 4: Saying, paid more and you get a wider audience, like it's right, which I.
00:37:11
Speaker 2: Don't think we really. Yeah, I mean, nothing's wrong with it. I think the only thing wrong with.
00:37:15
Speaker 3: It would be like does the show hold up because we weren't making the show for that, right.
00:37:20
Speaker 4: Well, the show's called Sex and the City exactly.
00:37:23
Speaker 3: Right, right, So what sad sad version is going to be on TVs, and I do think it was exactly. I think it was kind of sad, but then E gets it as things are loosening up, I guess, and I think E also it was like dubbed, meaning some of the words, and then I think some of the storylines still weren't on in it. And then time goes on and eventually Netflix gets it as it originally was, which is kind of amazing. And now, sadly, like last week, it's off Netflix, I know, and it's only on HBO that I know of, because I think that we're in this crazy holding pattern, not knowing if the merger is going to happen, and so I don't know what the plan is. No one really tells us what the plan is, which is kind of frustrating.
00:38:05
Speaker 4: Because does anybody tell us what any of the plans are?
00:38:08
Speaker 3: Never?
00:38:09
Speaker 2: It's so hard and there are.
00:38:10
Speaker 4: I mean, at the DJ right now, they're fast tracking some mergers that probably violate antitrust laws, but they're sliding them through.
00:38:20
Speaker 2: So I know. But all of the states are going to sue.
00:38:23
Speaker 3: They're suing, right, So it's a whole big fight about Paramount Brothers, and I just want HBO.
00:38:28
Speaker 2: To be okay. That's where I care about. I care about HBO being okay.
00:38:32
Speaker 3: And I want people to be making shows at making movies so all of us can work and the crew can get paid.
00:38:38
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, Right, that's what we all want. Yeah, yeah, I.
00:38:43
Speaker 4: Mean I posted something during the strike and I was like, look, I know there's a perception that reactors are spoiled brats and we're all rich, and it's not true, and we all want to get back to work. Nobody's happy that we're on strike, and nobody's happy with the current state of the industry. We all want to get back to work.
00:39:00
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:39:00
Speaker 3: Well, I think AI is just a huge, huge threat, and that is the one good thing that I think happened from the strike was people becoming more aware of the kind of existential right. But do you remember they almost settled the strike early, Yes, and they said, oh, we're not going to negotiate AI now, we're going to hold it till later.
00:39:16
Speaker 4: H No, were you personally aware of what a threat it was at that point, because it wasn't. No, like like I was aware of it. I was like, I was like, oh, yeah, that could be a threat, right, but it was not during the strike, Yeah, because it was an ancillary issue, and all of a sudden, you know what it was? They one of the contracts they brought back. The language was essentially, I'm badly paraphrasing, but it was essentially like, if you work for us, we own your image in perpetuity and.
00:39:40
Speaker 3: We can do whatever we want to do with that. And that's the moment a studio. Right then you would all of your your self would be gone because they would have it and they could pull it out whenever they wanted, and you were insane.
00:39:52
Speaker 2: It's insane, I know.
00:39:54
Speaker 3: So now, the last job I did in Toronto that I was telling you about, there's a whole addendum, like an added on contra about the AI.
00:40:01
Speaker 2: But then what was great in.
00:40:03
Speaker 3: This particular job, which I'm probably not supposed to talk about, but we so you had to sign the thing and I was so scared. It was the first time I've had to sign it. And the lawyer's involved, and luckily because our union negotiated all this stuff, there's a lot of things that SAG negotiated that are like controls and you know, controlling the situation. Right, So I signed the thing but I'm still really nervous about it. And I get to the set and the special effects director is there, and I said, what are we doing? Are we doing the AI? Because I had to sign this very scary document. He was like, absolutely not. I do not believe in it.
00:40:34
Speaker 2: Everything at all.
00:40:35
Speaker 4: Everything was practical, yes, wow.
00:40:37
Speaker 2: Well special effects practical right, So special effects but practical not AI.
00:40:41
Speaker 4: Right.
00:40:42
Speaker 3: So the artists, the special effects artists that we're doing their work because we also want them to continue to have a job, right.
00:40:49
Speaker 4: And it's it's about more of the job security. It is about that, right. But it like I would say, look at look at like the Lord of the Rings movies versus the Hobbit movies.
00:40:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, big.
00:41:00
Speaker 4: I mean there are a number of differences why one worked and one didn't. But one of the big ones that the Hobbit relied so much on digital technology, whereas Lord of the Rings it was all practical, right, Like they were making glassware, Gondrian glassware, and they were there were there were there was chain mail under tunics that you never saw, but you felt it. Yeah. Bernard Hill talked about who played Theodore when they brought him his breastplate. The designers had made a whole heraldic story inside the breastplate of the history of his ancestors. Incredible that no one ever saw. Bernard Hill said, when I saw that coming toward me, that was the moment that I became theodoin Wow, Like it just did it for me.
00:41:42
Speaker 2: That's some deep lore.
00:41:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah and deep right, And.
00:41:46
Speaker 2: I can peek out and I can tell very impressed.
00:41:50
Speaker 4: But as a film lover, yes, I'm also a token lover. But but aside from that, as a film lover, I love when you can feel the depth of yeah, yeah, craft and.
00:42:03
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I think that's something where because of what we were talking about earlier, we were trained for theater, as I was.
00:42:09
Speaker 2: I though I don't get to.
00:42:11
Speaker 3: Use it very often, but whatever, I mean, I'm using it, but not the whole thing, right, because like we.
00:42:15
Speaker 2: Have training and then we use like a little section.
00:42:18
Speaker 3: But that's okay because that's what we love, right, and that's what we wanted to do. So we were like, you know, slaving ourselves a way to learn like voice movement, like you also did fight choreography. Incredible do you still do it?
00:42:34
Speaker 4: Like how? Yeah, it's funny. I fell into it a little bit by accident, but it's you know, we were talking on the elevator about it being a small world. So one of my favorite gigs was I when Kevin Klein did sirr no Oh incredible. I choreographed this sword.
00:42:50
Speaker 3: Fi Daniel Sinjatas in this episode he's the other sailor.
00:42:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's a great guy. And he was also in Uh oh, my god. I love it with Jennifer Garner, and it was an incredible experion. But I fell into it like I had trained, you know, I had I had conservatory classical training, and you know, I'm an athlete, like I was pretty good at that sort of thing. And so I certified with the Society of American Fight Director and I was off in the Fight Captain and you know, like I was. I would play Timbolton, that would and I was doing a production of Romeo and Juliet and Terrence Man, big Broadway star and God bless him for this. He so I was playing Tibolt and I was the fight Captain and then we went to the next incarnation of that show. He said, I want you to take over the fights, and I want you to make it bigger and better. And I said Terry, I'm not a fight director. He said you are, and it was like it was great, so and then I kind of got a reputation for being good at it. A girl I was dating at the time was doing a pre Broadway workshop and there was a moment where there was a moment of violence that happened, and Nick kit Enner, the director, was like, does anybody know a good fight director? My girlfriend said, oh, I do. So I came in next thing I knew. Now I'm a Broadway fight director and just sort of like it just sort of like unfolded in an.
00:44:06
Speaker 2: Organic that's amazing.
00:44:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I love it. It's it's it's fun stuff.
00:44:10
Speaker 2: That is fun.
00:44:11
Speaker 4: I got you a pilot for George Lucas.
00:44:12
Speaker 2: I got to, oh my god, George Lucas.
00:44:14
Speaker 4: I got to like play a Jedi and have a thing.
00:44:16
Speaker 2: It never went incredible, but still you had.
00:44:18
Speaker 4: But it was a fun experience.
00:44:20
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
00:44:21
Speaker 1: You guys, this is so much fun that we're going to have to have a part two. So join us later in the week on Are You a Charlotte