Name: Thursday Afternoon Monday Morning Podcast 12-14-23 | Bill Burr & Adam Driver
Uploaded: 2023-12-15T00:24:00.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Thursday Afternoon Monday Morning Podcast 12-14-23 | Bill Burr & Adam Driver' from Bill Burr on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-12-15. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Thursday Afternoon Monday Morning Podcast 12-14-23 | Bill Burr & Adam Driver' from Bill Burr on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-12-15. Transcript available.

Thursday Afternoon Monday Morning Podcast 12-14-23 | Bill Burr & Adam Driver

Hey, what's going on? It's Bill Burr.
It's time for the Thursday afternoon,
just before Friday, Monday morning podcast.
And you know, whenever I'm videoing,
that means I have a special guest.
A very special guest, to the point I wear a sweater.
Huh? The importance of this man.
He's done everything, movies, television, Broadway.
He's been nominated for, like, everything.
You know him from Star Wars, and God knows everybody.
I saw him in this amazing Broadway play called Burn This.
He's got a movie coming out called Ferrari with Michael Mann, Christmas Day.
Please welcome Adam Driver. Jesus Christ.
Thank you.
How are you?
I'm good. I'm good. How are you?
Sorry. We had a little confusion before this started.
I was like, when is the movie coming out?
When is this podcast coming out?
So, first off, great to see you.
Good to see you again.
I am very excited about this movie,
because, you know, there has been movies about F1 and that type of stuff,
but this seems like it's going to dig further.
You're playing Enzo Ferrari?
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
And this isn't just going to be,
it's not like Days of Thunder meets Italian supercars, I'm assuming.
No, no, no.
If people are expecting it to just be nonstop racing, it's not that.
There is racing, for sure, in its shot really well,
because it's a Michael Mann movie, but it's also because-
You're fighting for the competition, you're fighting for the same girl,
and Robert Duvall's in it.
Yeah, exactly.
I raised Robert Duvall in 1957.
Yeah, there we go.
But it's a very character-driven movie, just like Michael Mann's movies are.
Right.
So hopefully by the time that somebody actually crashes, you care that they
live or die.
Well, one of the few books I've read in my life,
I was saying, I read this, that wasn't a sports autobiography.
I read this book called The Limit, and it was this amazing story.
Basically, it was a history of F1, kind of like how dangerous it was in the
1950s.
And I looked up some of the worst of these crashes,
and it would be literally like on straightaways.
They would just have spectators standing behind like a yellow rope.
And it's a straightaway, so they weren't expecting centrifugal force to affect
it.
But then they would hit each other, and they would go into the crowd,
and so many people would die, and nobody got sued back then.
But this book was called The Limit.
It was about the first American to win the F1 championship.
And as much as it was about the race and the danger and everything,
there was this one story that kind of gave me a hint
into the complexities and the drama of Enzo Ferrari,
the guy that you're playing was when Phil Hill was the name of the guy,
the American driver, when he got his first car,
the last driver had just died.
And so they're calling you up, and he couldn't believe he got the call.
And when he got the call in the floor pan,
there was a hole like the size of a quarter in the floor pan of it.
And they're like, all right, it's your car.
And he asked why the floor pan, why it had the hole in it.
The last driver got decapitated and bled out in the car.
So they just drilled a hole, and they hosed it out.
And I love where aerodynamics was, that they didn't weld it shut.
And then he just, it's like, all right, dude, you're up next.
And it was just like, I mean, I feel like, you know,
when I watched like those World War II movies,
when you were in one of those giant bombers,
and you were like in that little bubble at the bottom,
I feel like that job, you know, like this is the racing version of that.
So what I got excited about when I heard this movie,
that it wasn't just going to be like, you know,
them just going around a track in some weak story to surround that,
is that they're actually going to get into this guy,
Enzo Ferrari, and that it's Michael Mann.
Am I on the right track as far as like?
Yeah, completely.
I think like the death rate of the Ferrari team in the late 50s,
probably from 1955 to when our movie starts, 1957,
was something like 50%.
You know, the goal was to kind of get thrown from a car
as opposed to get stuck in a car and burned to death.
And they didn't have seatbelts or, you know,
it wasn't because of them being absent-minded,
it just wasn't part of the racing culture at the time.
You know, aerodynamics was kind of new,
mid-engine vehicles were something that Enzo was very adverse to.
He was very much of the philosophy that the ox pulls the car,
TV was entering F1 for the first time,
so that was a completely new transition.
And also, in our movie, Enzo, you know,
he has this woman that he'd been,
that he had a child with named Lena Lardy,
who he had a kid with.
The son was about to be confirmed.
He didn't know if he was going to be confirmed as a Lardy or a Ferrari.
And everybody in the town knew who he was,
except his wife, Laura, who he ran the business with.
His son, who was on his way to be an engineer,
died when he was about 21.
So it's very much a...
Didn't he name the Denali after him?
Oh, he made the Enzo after...
The Enzo after him.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, okay.
Or the Dino, sorry.
The Dino.
Yeah.
Okay.
You know, I just saw one of those recently,
and it's this episode one of season five of Kojak.
No, I watch...
I live in the past.
I can't deal with today...
Kojak, like the Kojak Kojak?
Kojak Kojak.
Yeah, yeah, right, right.
Which, by the way, my three-and-a-half-year-old son loves.
Oh, really?
Yeah, he just...
There's something about it.
There's cars, there's shooting,
there's good-looking women,
and there's this gorgeous woman,
she just comes walking out of the elevator,
she walks by two Porsches,
and then gets in the, whatever,
the Denali,
I thought it was called the Denali,
I have no idea,
that early 70s one,
and it's gray, too,
which is a really unique color,
and then, of course,
somebody gets shot next to a yellow Pacer,
which I thought was interesting
to have all of those cars
and then just have that in there,
but anyway,
what I love about your career,
other than that, you know,
you're amazing at what you do,
is like you just seem to be working with like,
you work with directors that are also like,
I think have the same approach that you do,
or so you just seem like you,
like it's,
you want to do,
you're always going for something great,
so I always know that if,
you know,
if I'm scrolling on Netflix or whatever,
and if I see your face,
whatever it is,
it's like,
you're like, fuck.
No.
No, I know this guy is,
this guy doesn't just,
you know,
this isn't going to be fucking Police Academy 6,
and he's buying a house in Malibu,
like that thing,
like, hey,
you know,
it's about time I get paid,
I'm doing Con Air Part 9,
which I don't fucking,
I don't judge anybody anymore,
the way they're not fucking paying anybody,
everybody's doing commercials now,
you're one of those guys,
so you get to work with Michael Mann,
who,
it's amazing,
I've been watching,
I mean,
basically been watching his movies my entire life,
and I thought he had way more,
so before I came in here,
and I looked at the ones that he did,
it's,
he doesn't have nearly as many movies as I thought,
it's just that he just hit so many home runs,
you know,
like,
I actually,
like last year,
I went back and I watched like Thief,
which I think was his first one,
and obviously I saw like the heats,
you know,
and all of that,
which,
you know,
the Insider,
last,
the Mohicans,
Insider I loved,
Collateral,
Ali,
you know,
I think they have staying power,
and they're timeless,
because he makes,
he's so specific,
so every time you watch them,
even Heat,
I've seen probably 200 times,
and every time I watch it,
I always see something different about,
oh God,
it's such a great detail that I never picked up on before,
and it's the same with this,
I don't think it's,
it's kind of impossible to watch this once,
I mean,
it's very possible,
but.
So what's that like when you get in,
you're with the guy,
okay,
you're working with somebody who's a legend like that,
it's a director,
they obviously know what they're doing,
and then he gives you a direction,
and you're thinking of going in a different direction,
is there anything in your head going like,
well that was Michael Mann,
I can't,
I can't say,
hey,
I was thinking of.
You have to try it,
I would say,
because it might be a good idea,
but then at the same time,
he is also trying to figure out how to communicate with you,
just like you're trying to figure out how to communicate with him,
and you can't keep each other from each other,
like you can't,
you can't keep it like,
oh,
I'm secretly going to do something else,
if you disagree,
then you kind of have to talk about it.
Have you ever tried that?
Yeah,
secretly disagreeing and then doing something?
Or someone gives me a direction,
and I'm like,
okay,
maybe I'll just,
and in the moment,
I don't want to do it,
so I'll just do something else,
just because,
because it's film,
so if we don't,
if it doesn't work,
we'll just go back and do it again.
Right.
You know,
I don't want to get too in my head if it,
the minute somebody,
you start trying to think of it externally from myself,
then I get totally lost,
and it's kind of like a benign rebellion,
if that makes sense.
It's not like I'm rebelling against,
I like watching things where I get the sense
that maybe the actor will leave the frame.
You know,
I don't know what,
so long as they feel like they're breathing,
and the minute they get in their head,
I feel like I can sense it.
And if I do something and someone doesn't like it,
then we'll just do it again.
You know,
that's the luxury of film.
Not all directors that work that way,
but with Michael,
I know that,
you know,
if he doesn't get what he wants,
then we'll just keep doing it until we get it.
He just grinds you down.
In perpetuity.
All right,
well,
how come people don't seem to understand
that a person wouldn't want to watch themselves?
Because when I saw that whole bullshit,
it's just like,
why would you want to sit there?
Because I have a theory
that if you're looking at the side of your head
while you're talking,
it's like that Native American thing
where they didn't want to get a picture
that takes a piece of your soul.
There's like something
that you should never do that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean,
some people watch themselves
and they benefit from it.
And I've started to do that now too
where now I've started to watch things
that I'm in
just because I realize
that even when I watch it in retrospect,
I don't like it.
And I feel like I could have had a time
when we were putting it together
to fight for the part a little bit.
Like protect your performance.
Because usually before,
I'm like,
okay,
I did it.
I absolve all responsibility.
It's your movie.
I'm going to go away now.
I like that.
That's like denial.
Yeah.
Yeah,
yeah,
yeah.
It's a way of coping,
I think,
with when it doesn't work,
then I don't,
then it's not my responsibility.
Is that trauma inspired?
Because that's how I go through life.
Right.
I just keep marching forward
to stay,
because if I slow down,
like the fog
of what has happened in the past
catches up to me.
So I just keep going,
like,
all right,
you know,
I don't need to look at it.
You know,
I'm sure it's fine.
Yeah,
yeah,
yeah.
No matter what it is,
it's going to make me cringe.
I wish I was that way,
but I'm not.
I get all obsessed about a detail
and go over and over again
and I'll drive myself crazy
and everybody else around me crazy,
asking them to explain
what the thing was
as opposed to just fucking watching it.
But at the same time,
I also came from theater
where you don't get to see
what it looks like extra.
You're only,
you know,
you're on a stage
and you do it
and always at the last performances
that I'm sure you feel
this was stand-up.
I mean,
maybe not.
You get,
you do it for so long
and every time you do it,
it's something new
and then it just gets better and better
and you become more relaxed.
There's a part where you're like,
oh,
I need to be over here
at this part of the stage
when I say 