We are live here in Central Park, New York City. My favorite city in the world, the greatest city in the world, quite frankly. And I'm sitting in one of my favorite parts of said city because I need — not I want, I really do need — access to green space. There are other parts of the city that have good green space. Parts of Brooklyn that have great parks. Further on the west side, closer to the highway here on the Upper West Side, we've got Riverside Park. Kind of fabulous. Yeah, and there are other parks further up north. And at the very northern tip of the island up in Inwood is a really good park, the name of which I forget, but I've been to that park. It is spacious and glorious and fantastic, and it's all the things that you want in a park.
There he is.
You know, any day above ground is a good day, my brother.
You're the second person to say that to me today.
You know, I set the bar low. I'm not disappointed, you know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was out with our pal last night. We went to go see a TV show premiere with Tito.
Yeah, Titus and I went to go see East of Eden, the first two episodes.
For those of you who don't know who we're talking to here, this is Julio Vasquez, one of the greatest actors working today and one of my favorite people and my good friend.
It's so good. Yes, so it was, first of all, I love going to the Paris Theater, and that's always a good time. That's where I did the intro to Heat last week, was it? Yeah. And I did not really realize until seeing it last night that Zoe Kazan, little baby Zoe Kazan, who's all grown up now, wrote this. She's the showrunner. She wrote this. She's the kind of creator of this. I mean, she's been working on this project for years and did, I gotta say, an outstanding job.
I want to see it. I saw her and Paul Dano at — this is going to sound like a real douche name-drop — they were at Ben Stiller's birthday party and she was telling me about it. And I was like, you can drop that name because I was there, too.
You were there. That's right. Yeah, you were there. But she told me about it and like, wow, that's a really ambitious thing that you wanted to do. Years ago at Labyrinth, we did this Tennessee Williams event and she came and read some letters between her grandfather and Tennessee Williams that were extraordinary.
For those who don't know young Zoe Kazan, and for people watching this or listening to it, you've seen her work in film. She's been working since she was a kid and she is the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, depending on who you are. And controversial guy. Like it's complicated for a lot of people, but she is the multi-talented, multi-hyphenate granddaughter of Elia Kazan.
Yeah, very, very talented. And married to an actor that I just adore, Paul Dano.
He was there last night. I think Titus might have said hi to him, but yeah, very talented and a good dude, sweet dude. Just a, you know, I'm going to the Paris to see a Montgomery Clift extravaganza.
Yeah, we talked about this. There are two films I think that are showing. There's A Place in the Sun and I forget the other one, Wild River. But A Place in the Sun is going to screen at 3:00 in the afternoon, and I'm like, that's tough. Yeah. So Wild River is at 6:15, so I'm doing Wild River.
Good. Okay. Nice one. I'm looking forward to it. Your skin looks amazing, honey. I don't know what your skin regimen is like these days, but it's extraordinary.
Thank you. I was literally thinking about this today because you know who else is talking about skin online is — oh Jesus Christ, I'm having such a senior moment, you all — Josh Brolin is talking a lot about his skin routine and I thought I want to get in on that game too because yes, I do take steps to take care of my skin, so thank you.
No, listen, you get one skin.
Yeah, yeah. I take care of it. Like I've got SPF on as we speak.
By the way, these five things you do. I love when you're sitting there with your dog and your thermos. Look at that.
Look at her. Look at her. Baby girl, are you going to say hi to the people? She's very busy. You're going to have to leave a message.
Very busy. Thermos and the coffee and the whole — I love this. This is my office, man. This is reporting from HQ right here. Yeah.
You know, I've always thought that about you. You really live life, George.
Look, something happened after COVID when I came back to New York after leaving New York, because I was here for 22 years and then I moved in 2016 because I was mad and my mother was ill, and came back three years later after my mom got better and I got an opportunity to come back. And I see New York, you all, now through a renewed set of lenses that are filtered through a lot of gratitude. I have a lot of gratitude because I now know what it was like to not have this and then to come back to it, and I don't want to lose it again. So having lost it and now having it again, it is that much more precious to me and I don't take it for granted.
No, but my view of you is even bigger than that, in your zeal for life. And yeah, you know, without going too much into my personal life at the moment, as you know, I'm having a hard time finding that zeal. I mean, I have it, but it's a little bit muted for personal reasons.
You have this thing where you're like every day, man. And it's beautiful, George. You really are.
Oh, thanks, buddy. Look, as far as I know, some people may have notions that suggest otherwise, but as far as I know, this is our one shot. And I'm going to enjoy this while I can. And I also have been around a lot of different circles and I've seen what it's like. I've lived as someone who struggles to make rent and find food. And I've also been around a lot of people who have enough money for multiple lifetimes. And my takeaway from all of that is that it's a perspective. I am generally the least wealthy person of most rooms that I enter. But at the same time, I'm paying rent. I got food in my cupboard. I have access to movies. This is my yard where they mow the lawn for me. And look, it's seriously like this is my yard. We all pay a ton of taxes to live here. But look at what we get. And we get to go to the Paris Theater. We've got access to all of this yummy stuff. There's a new exhibit I just came across, a little promo I want to go see. Like, look at what we get. This is great. This is nice.
Huh? And you introduced Heat.
Oh my god. Did I tell you about that?
And who was there? Who was sitting there?
Well, all right. This is going to be very — I've got to keep this on the DL.
Yeah, no, that's okay. You know, it's funny. I think it's just you and me talking and I realize people are watching. Yeah, then the people are going to watch it later because this is like an unscheduled live and we've got like 16 people watching, but this thing's going to live on Substack and then I'll probably throw it over to YouTube as well so other people will see it. So I got to be careful. But yes, I was asked to keep it quiet about — well, there was a famous person in the audience and that person has a certain privacy that we want to respect. So yeah.
Oh yeah, that's right. Okay.
Yeah. Unlike me, who's like a shameless — yes, I was there.
Oh, a camera. Let me take off my shirt.
Watching The Shards, okay. I'm just going to say it since we're letting it all hang out here. I'm done with Ryan Murphy Productions. Here's why. I have given so many chances to so many different shows that have come out of the Ryan Murphy fun factory, where it's like a fun idea and it seems glossy, and he does have a real talent for dipping into or resurfacing with a subject matter that is very titillating to a certain generation, like mine and older. Like he's clearly an elder Gen Xer, and so he knows, like, if you liked American Horror Story you might like The Shards. Like if you liked the Monster series, the limited series, American Horror Story — I have tried. I enjoyed maybe the first two or three seasons of American Horror Story. And I have tried every other. I have given him at least two episodes' worth of my time and I find myself going like, why am I doing this? Because sometimes the idea is there but the execution and the real long-haul follow-through is lacking. Like all the writing stopped after the first 15 minutes.
Well, I'm not that far into it and it's one of my favorite things. I like the actors in it. I like the lead kid. I think he's terrific.
And I think there's a lot of talent in his shows. I'll give him that. Yeah.
The art direction is beautiful. Extraordinary. And the attention to detail is beautiful to look at. Extraordinary. And I'm happy to see Wes Bentley in that really cool part, you know? I mean, I'm a fan of Wes Bentley. I don't know Wes, but I think he's — I remember seeing him in American Beauty, you know, and thinking, oh, this guy's really good, you know. He did this part, man, which he could have really gone over the top and he didn't. It's so restrained and it's creepy. Yeah. He's not gilding the lily at all, you know? It's creepy. And I am enjoying — I mean, a total non-actor — but Jordan Roth, who's like Wes Bentley's kind of keeper.
