As far as possible. Yeah. So she then called the office and said, really? I thought this was my day off. And they went, it is. And then things fell into place for her. And her comeuppance, can I tell the story? Do you remember your comeuppance? Probably not.

That's such

a good one. No, I do. You do. Oh yeah. Here's Mary's comeuppance. she. Which was

by the way, genius.

Genius, yeah. She, everyone was enjoying all the food in Austin, but going, oh my God, we're gonna gain weight and all of this stuff. And I was

supposed to be in shape.

Yeah, and you were. Which I was. And you were in shape and all of that. Mary goes to the wardrobe department, says, here was, I would love you to do. Once every two or three days, take his pants, his Levi's or whatever, the same pair that you kind of wore all the time as a character, take it in about half inch, every two or three days.

But leave, but make sure to leave the same number on there. Yeah. Right? Don't fuck it up and like get a different pair of pants and have a different number. So.

So you would come out. This

is a two and a half week long process.

Yeah. Yeah.

And she knew somehow that I was like sneaking fried chip in Austin during that time. Oh,

that's great. So you were concerned about

your work. I was concerned because I started asking people, I go, do I look bigger to you? No? No, you look good, you look good. I said, really, I don't look big. And then I was doing this. Stretching that. Yeah, I was doing this, I walk around. Doing

squats, yeah. I'm like this, trying to

stretch it out. Maybe they wash it too much. Don't wash my pants anymore. And

everybody's really good about keeping the secret. We're dying laughing. Then finally, towards the end of that two and a half weeks, Ed getting worse and worse for you, she said, okay, go the full monty. You know, just really take it in. And they could hear screams inside.

Yeah, dude, because it only went up to my knees at that point. I literally, it was a night shoot. I'll never forget it. I went from a 32 and I think it was down to a 27 or something. And I got it to my knees and I literally felt red rage. At myself. You fat, like you undisciplined, you know, and I trot, and I was jumping, trying to pull it up and pull it up. And finally the door slams open and I scream, wardrobe, I have to take it out on somebody else. Cause I'm an actor. And there was Mary and like 30 people right outside the door. Cracking up. What's wrong, Josh? What's wrong? No, they weren't even saying what's wrong. They were cracking up. But she did say... Pointing. Yeah. She did tell you to check your

front pocket. And there was a note inside the pocket. What was that? I don't remember that part. They said, gotcha. Oh,

baby. Maybe you're right. The gotcha was on it.

I was very proud of her. That's very good. That's really good,

actually. When you're a young actor, who's looking up to other actors, and Woody was one of those actors, and here, Sean was one of those actors. Nick was one of those actors that you literally look at, you go, God, if I could do work that's that dangerous, that's that visceral and emotional and dangerous. You

know, you did work with Sean and I believe nominated in your work with Sean.

Milk? Yeah. I worked with him on Milk, yeah. Part of that role came out of you and me and your wife and Eddie Vetter and Sean seeing into the wild, or maybe no country, in Toronto. And then we all had a night together. And then Matt Damon was supposed to play my role in Milk, and Matt had a conflict. And then I, and then Sean said, what about Josh? And I think that came out of that night. Which was quite a night,

by the way. You're so compelling and interesting to watch. Like everything you've done, I just like I'd love watching. You know, you're playing W, like I got to admit it first, I'm like, how's Josh Brolin playing Bush? You just couldn't seem more different.

Yeah.

Yeah. What a performance that was. Thanks man. What a fucking performance. Oliver too,

who you've worked with

in a big way.

That was at that point, you trust somebody. You just trust that they're going to. I remember he wanted to do something much more like hammering. I was like, why? Isn't it more interesting to look at this guy and have that, see the humanity in him and be even more confused about this guy who ended up, who was the forever misfit who ended up as president. What's that? And then look at what we're dealing with, the ultimate misfit. That's, you know, it's a parallel, for sure. But it was fun to get into that. It was fun. I literally left my house once. I went from my house to work to my house to work. Because I was so scared about not getting it right, just staying in it, staying in it. I never understood that thing about staying character and staying until that. And you're like, you don't want to talk to anybody. You don't want to just want to stay in that zone.

You are really good, from my point of view, impersonator, mimic, whatever, dialects. Did you work on Bush a lot? Or was it

forever? Forever. I mean, that's the... Were you just listening to his speeches? Just listening to his speeches and trying... What was it? What's the... There's that thing on the computer, garage band, and I would tape myself and then listen to myself. I did the same thing when I did Tommy Lee Jones and Men in Black 3. It's an impossible accent. It's literally the most insane, schizophrenic, and Lee created and structured accent, because you have this guy who's like, yeah, he's a cowboy, but then he also went to Harvard. And there's a confusion in there that is so personal to him, and contrast. So he has this little, this cadence that I couldn't figure out. And I literally for like days, maybe even weeks, trying to get one sentence. And it's the same thing with, it wasn't as tortured with, cause when you got it, I remember I used to walk around and I'd go, there was a word, America. America. And I would do it all the time on the set and Elizabeth Banks would follow me around and go, America, America,

America. Yeah. That's when, I remember when Bush said his explanation for why, you know, they flew into the towers. They hate freedom. They hate freedom. They hate freedom. I look forward to a day

where women and fish can coexist. You're like, what the fuck

did he just say? What? As an ocean advocate, I appreciate it. And rights. So, yeah. There you go.

But then, you know, and then Sam Rockwell also, he did it later in the movie that he did with Christian Bale, what was it called? Vice. And he was great. He was fantastic. Very different. But fantastic. It's funny. That's the one thing about being a director that I got off. Because being an actor, you know, I'm not a very competitive guy. I think I am innately. But when you're with somebody and then you so you're with actors, it's different like old school people. It's different. Then you got your new actors and there's always this kind of weird. vibe. There's like a thick kind of viscous air, you know what I mean? And- Of

competition?

Of competition or something. So anyway, my point is that I never really enjoyed working with actors. A few, but not a lot. And when I was directing, it was so much fun to work with actors. Yeah. Because I think I love celebrating people and yet with actors like now, they're waiting to be celebrated. They're waiting to be caressed. Do you know what I mean? And then when you're directing actors, they look like they're just shitting their pants and they're, you know what I mean? There's insecurities and all this that you're seeing and they don't even know they're not even conscious of it. And you're coming up and hopefully being able to facilitate them. being more comfortable with being naked and exposed. And that was really, really fun. That's

so cool. I'm so happy for you, man. Can't

do that as an actor, you know.

Hey man, you know what you should

do? You're just a little like your ear being

insecure.

Can I help in any way? You seem really secure in the scene that you're doing with me. It must be demeaning for you.