Kurt and Wyatt Russell Live from SiriusXM Miami Studios

0:20Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Conan O 'Brien!

0:28Hey!

0:31How you all doing?

0:36Hello, Miami! How you all doing? Are you all from Miami? Are people from Miami? Okay, come on, you can say yes! Don't be ashamed! I'll tell you why I'm thrilled to be here, the humidity. I got off the plane and my hair expanded. Fantastic! It comes to life in humidity in LA. It's always dying. My hair is always like I will kill myself And I got off the plane here and it's just fantastic. I've never seen it. I woke up this morning. It's super high I don't know what I honestly don't know why I'm doing this movement Miami Conan This isn't helping anything at all Anyone gonna be hitting the clubs tonight cuz I hear that's what you're supposed to do in Miami.

1:17We hitting the clubs What the hell is wrong with you? I'm in Miami and it's Art Basel and I get the library crowd No, we'll be reading Reading, I tell you Did you say it's Tuesday? That's why you can't I thought people went to the clubs no matter if you're like someone who goes to the clubs Don't you go on Tuesday also? I've never been to the clubs When I say go to the clubs, I don't know what I'm talking about Is it clear that I've never been to the clubs? Thank you Thank you for your sad embarrassed silence Nothing says I don't know I just think we have to do something tonight I don't know what I'm going to do Because we're here through tomorrow night So I'm going to have to do something So maybe if we all got together as a group We could hit the clubs Make our own club These movements I'm doing now This isn't going to go not so good You're in the front row You're sitting next to this gentleman in an orange wig And you're just looking very sad when I dance like this.

2:20Come on, if you were in the clubs and you didn't know me, I wasn't famous, but you saw this guy in the corner doing this, intrigued or horrified? A little bit of both. Yes! That's what I was going for. That's exactly what I was going for. God bless you. All right, we're going to get started here. I'm going to bring out my assistant, Mr. David Hopping. Let's get David Hopping out here. David Hopping! You joining me up here? Can we go up here? All right. Now, let me explain. Usually, Sonam of Sassian assists me. She has little twins. She does. And I said, she said, she can't come to Miami. But my real assistant now is David Hopping.

3:02Because Sona doesn't do shit. She never did shit. And now that she has babies, she really doesn't do anything. She still does some stuff. No, she does absolutely nothing. She does absolutely nothing except say, where's my check? And then you just keep giving. I keep paying her. I pay her and I pay her and I pay her because I love her. I'm trying to figure out how to get to that level. Yeah. Of your assistant. Yeah. Yeah. So can we hire another assistant? Yeah. If you had an assistant, if you hire an assistant, then you could goof off. Great. Yeah. Who wants to be Conan's assistant? Yeah. Wow. That's a lot of hands going up.

3:40Now, that means you'd be subject to a lot of passive aggression. Yeah. Well, they probably do. Do you guys listen to the podcast fairly regularly? Or have you heard of the podcast? Okay, so then you know that, yeah, I'm no treat to work for. Because I'm a very needy person. I think I have a good soul, but I'm a needy person. Yeah. But then, like, on trips like this, Conan pays for everything. So that part's really nice. Yeah, that wasn't clear to me until we got here. I thought this was, like, paid by Sirius. And they said, no, Conan, you're paying for this. Yeah, you're just. Let's visit the fact that we're here in Miami.

4:15We came from LA. And I'm wearing denim. I'm wearing a denim jacket. And I don't think that's the right clothing to be wearing in this temperature. And you are wearing like an LL Bean. It's a very thick shirt. Yeah. You look like you're headed out in November in Maine. Yeah. So why are you dressed that way? I just liked this shirt. Yeah, okay. But Blay's ready. Look at him over there. Let's get there for Bley, who actually is ready for Miami. If you cross your eyes, you could see a sailboat. We should go get matching shirts. Yeah. Did you wear that shirt? Because you rarely wear any shirt with a button.

4:53You usually wear a really stupid T-shirt. And I meant that in a nice way. That wasn't an insult. Well, I will say last night, we got in late and we grabbed some food. And I made the mistake. You know, when you're on the plane, you want to be comfortable. And I made the mistake of wearing a T-shirt and had a dinosaur reading a book. and I will never hear the end of it for the rest of my life. Well, you always dress that way and you're 72 years old. I'm very old. And you clean up nice. You're a good looking 72 year old. Thank you. It's this generation that refuses to ever dress like an adult. So I think when I go and I have my funeral, you're going to show up in a who farted t-shirt and like a hat with like a propeller on it because it's ironic.

5:36Possibly. Quite possibly. Yeah. Yeah. I just think, you know, we're down in Miami. I wanted to look nice. And so flowers. Now, I've asked these people, and I think they're a very attractive crowd. This is a very good looking group. And I just assumed they'd be hitting the clubs. And when I said, hey, I guess I'll see you on the clubs tonight, I got nothing. Because this is a group that I think just doesn't go out. Well, if I may be so bold, maybe they are going to hit the clubs, but they don't want you to know that they're going to hit the clubs. I think that's a terrible assumption. Okay, sorry.

6:08this young woman here saw me dance. And I have to admit, you didn't seem thrilled about it. But I think over time, that dance would start to seem cool to you. She's trying to leave. She's actually trying to leave right now. She's desperate to get out of here. Now, those of you who didn't wear a Conan wig today, you feel a little shame? I mean, this guy went all the way with the Conan wig. And the rest of you probably have to feel right now like, man, I thought I was a Conan fan. And this guy, where did you get that wig, by the way? What grave did you dig up? You got it on Amazon? They didn't have, I couldn't get my hair, like the poof.

6:48So I bought a wig. But I lost a bet against my late brother. So whoever gets to see you first in person wears a dumb wig. Oh my God, that's incredible. Wait, this was, and your brother passed? Yeah, two years ago. I'm very sorry about that. Yeah. Yeah. And was he a fan as well? Yeah, we both saw him almost 20 years ago. My mom would come to my room at midnight. What are you guys doing? Are you smoking pot? And we're like, no, we're watching Conan.

7:20Which is worse. Way worse. It's so much worse. It's so much more mind-altering. She thought you were the guy from the Lucky Charms commercial.

7:32What was your late brother's name? Christopher. All right, Christopher, I'll be thinking about Christopher today. He's here in spirit, and I'm so glad that you were able to be here. Thank you so much. That's really beautiful, and I'm glad that I ruined your minds when you were children. Parents hated me because kids would stay up and say, we've got to watch Conan, and it ruined everything. My mom still doesn't understand you at all. Your mother still doesn't understand? No, she's like, what do you see in him? It's like... Well, thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you for that kick to the stomach.

8:08You know what? I have to say, that's what my father says. My father doesn't get it. He's like, what? What are you talking about? But, you know, over time, over time, I'll get to your mom as well. Yeah. After he passed, I couldn't watch Conan for a while because it was a lot to me. Oh, I can see that. And my mom, I woke up one day and she was watching your show. She was trying to understand it. So I sat next to her. It's not, I love that it's like, I'm gonna try one more time to see why anyone likes this idiot. This is fantastic. So I sat next to her. She was watching the baseball one, which is my favorite remote.

8:45The old-timey baseball one is a classic, yeah. And she looks at me at the end, and she's like, why? Why? Why? All right, I'm gonna call your mom. You should? I'll call your mom. Maybe after the show, I'll call your mom, okay? And we'll have a conversation. What's her first name? Lesbia. Lesbia, okay. I'm gonna call her and I'm gonna convince her that I'm the greatest comedian that ever lived. Please do. There's gonna be some money exchanged, so. We need it. All right, well we should get on with the show. We have a terrific show today. I just go right into it, right? I think I do. All right, let me see.

9:17Oh wait, these are not my cards. These are my cards. Ah, there we go. Oh! Secret cards. You get on the plane, you do a lot of cocaine. Come on! We've all done it! What the hell was that? I hated that. Yeah. Nixon, yeah. That's Nixon on cocaine. Let's do another line.

9:41Line it up, boys. I love these guys. My guests today are a father-son duo who are currently starring in the new Apple TV series Monarch Legacy of Monsters. I am thrilled they are here today. Ladies and gentlemen, Kurt and Wyatt Russell. Let's get them out of here.

10:02Hi, my name is Kurt Russell. Yeah. So far, so good. And I feel totally justified about being Conan. Hey, I like that. You like that. It was in question. Yes. But you stuck with it over the years. We just talked to an audience member who said his mom just doesn't get it. Now your turn, sir. Hi, my name is Wyatt Russell, and I feel a strong sense of impending doom about being Conan. Nobody's making out of this room It's actually an escape room You guys are fucked This should be an escape room We've already had like three audience members Try to get out Try to get out of here And it's like I just Did you know what's No no I just want away from this man I hope you like this room We have a fan here who's wearing a tribute Conan wig right there.

10:56Boy, that's close. It's very close. Thanks a lot, Kurt. Hey, hey, I want to meet up with Kurt Russell in Miami and have him insult me. That's one of my lifelong dreams. You know, I have to say, you have this incredible movie career. You've made so many different types of movie. Like, you've inhabited more genres than just about anyone I can think of. There's no clear, like, path line in your career, is there? It's just, you've made all these iconic movies. It's amazing. Keep going. You're doing great. And that's all our time. No, I've always been thrilled to talk to you because - I've always enjoyed you.

11:37We were just talking outside. You're actually funny and you're fun and you're nice. I don't know. You're just a really good guy. You're actually funny. I'm a really good guy. I want that on my gravestone. Actually funny. Actually funny. But you know what's amazing is that I was introduced to, your son a couple of years ago i didn't even realize it was your son uh i'm watching one of my favorite shows is black mirror and i'm watching this black mirror episode starring this young actor who i didn't recognize big beard and uh it is a acting tour de force and i watched it i was like who is that guy that guy is absolutely fantastic and then i find out it's wyatt it's it's your boy and i'm like that guy killed it you absolutely killed it and i thought and what's interesting is neither one of you started out thinking you'd be an actor you both started out as athletes yeah who got injured and then and it started with you you played baseball yeah you were child actor and then you said no it's going to be baseball right the only reason i got into acting was because my dad wasn't i did everything my dad did my dad was an actor and he looked like he was having a fun life and i wanted to get some bicycles for my sister and myself and i had a paper route And then I started to look like, thank you.

12:51Listen, he takes care of me. He does everything. He takes care of me. Could you adjust my lighting as well? Yeah, absolutely. Anyway, I had the opportunity to go in on some interviews and stuff. And I got a job. And the minimum pay scale was enough to pay for those two bicycles. So I asked him, I said, so is this pretty much it? And he said, yeah. I said, well, if you want to do it, call Hilda. up, is my dad's agent, call her up and tell her you want to, you know, keep doing it. So I did. And that was, you know, that was why I got into it. I was playing baseball. And then, yeah, I mean, that was sort of what I thought I was going to do for sure.

13:28And didn't really think about acting as something that I was going to continue with. I did like writing a lot. I liked acting. It was really fun. And the money in it was just sort of unbelievable for what you're doing. You're having fun. You're, you know, just having a good time. And then I guess that was when I got hurt out of baseball. I played three years of pro ball and I was doing well. So it was a big surprise to me. And then I said, well, what am I going to do really? I'm crying for three days. And I said, I guess, well, maybe I'll stick with that. I can always do that. And then I realized, if I'm going to do this, I've got to be really interested and I'm going to have to do this my way.

14:05And my way was to try to create characters, memorable characters where you say, I remember that character or that character in really fun stories or great stories. And then I just got lucky. I had the opportunity to work with some really great directors and some great material. And then still doing it. Who's the one? Is Snake Plissken the one that follows you around the most? Or is it you've done so many different things that you never know when you bump into someone. Is it going to be one of the Tarantino movies? Is it going to be Snake Plissken? Is it going to be? It just changes. And the biggest one I've ever had is Santa Claus.

14:37I mean, that was Santa Claus on Netflix was just everybody saw it. It was really fun to do. It was something I always wanted to do. kind of fun to go from snake to santa claus you know of your career they're basically the same character i've always thought what was it what is interesting about it is living in the family that we live in obviously you know goldie's an icon and kate you know nominated for an academy award it's like second crack out of the box and oliver hudson's done more work than all of us combined right and always there was this thing that uh well we used to not kiddingly i was serious about it's one of the best actor in the family is a hockey player so and along along came the hockey player okay so you you grow up and you think i'm not going to be an actor right you weren't you weren't interested in that you were interested in hockey yeah well it's like you've you've kid you've got your kids like don't want anything to do with show business it's so funny that you say that because my boy beckett when he was about six because i was trying to kept kept them away from what i did um because i was deeply ashamed of it and i mean this guy's cool what am I doing?

15:43But my son came and saw me do a big show like at the Beacon Theater. I mean, I don't know, 2 ,500 or 3 ,000 people, you know, crowd going wild, really good hot show. My son, my wife took my son was about six and he saw it. And then they're leaving the theater and she's holding his hand. And she said, what'd you think? And he said, when I grow up, I want to do something where there's no stage and no audience yeah and he was basically saying what that guy's doing i want to do the exact opposite yeah so he's really into computers uh he's a really smart kid he's gonna have i think uh he's a he's a brilliant guy he's gonna have a great life yeah and he's not he's he's he appreciates what i do but he's like uh-huh no not me right so when you were a kid that's what it was because i you know you see what it is on screen and it's fun whatever but when you're like six years old and you go to a king's game and that energy is directed towards your parents who are just your parents it's like really off-putting and scary in a way you're just you're six or five or whatever it is and i grew up with that and i was like i just want to watch a king's game with my dad but um you can't and so that really seeped in and i was like well i just don't want to do that it doesn't it's not something that interests me at that time also you don't understand like what an artistic avenue can give you um when you get older and so i was focusing on hockey it just he took me to my first rank in toronto i was three years old and mom was doing a movie and i can swear to god to you as cheesy as it sounds it's like my first real memory where i'm i was on an ice rink out outdoors in toronto i would skate from like bench to bench and it stuck with me in this way that i was like this is what i want to do and i swear from four years old i was like i'm to be a hockey player it also differentiated myself from what they did and from a very early age it's important to have your own thing especially when your parents are so dominant in a field you you want to find your own way yeah it's really important and uh and and also they never brought work home like ever so it was just having fun sports playing hockey baseball whatever it was so that was like they didn't act like celebrities around the house like movie stars Like we normally do.

17:55Like we normally do, yeah. I mean, yeah. Because I do. When I come home, I'm in full makeup. And I'm like, do you have any idea who and what I am? A little applause would be nice to come home to. We have an applause light at our table. I'm always leaning on it. Let's have a little applause. I had to learn how to do my dad's hair from a very early age. You don't get your Eggo waffle until I get three minutes of applause. but yeah i i so i i did that and um and then when came time to be he was really good a sports parent obviously playing sports and when i was about 10 he said look you're good at this and if you're still wanting to do this when you're like 12 13 then it gets real and it's not as fun anymore but it becomes a different thing and if you do i'll always support it and and i did and uh i told him yeah this is what i want to do and then we ended up moving to vancouver for me to play junior hockey and that was my career path.

18:51And that's how I gained all of my, that's where I learned how to do everything in my life. And you were, I mean, you were playing professional hockey like in Germany and had fans hanging outside your house. You would wake up in the morning and there's just fans. I mean, this is, you had real success. It was so, I mean, it was a small town. I would, real success is a big stretch. But it was pro hockey. Let's just say compared to my athletic career, you killed it you killed it but like I don't know the guy who ran the social media for the team was a bit of an idiot and he like put my address on like Facebook on my like Facebook profile and one day after we won the championship I woke up to fans outside my door like wanting to get in so at like 730 in the morning I was drinking vice beer and pretzels with like because it felt it felt like safer to let them in somehow I always let fans into the house I don't see any reason not to So that went well And then I played in Holland for a little while And then I got hurt I tore my hip apart And that's when I really was like Look, I don't want to say I shouldn't do film Because I really think it's great And I started watching movies I had a hip injury prior to this And it started to be like, maybe I won't do this forever I gotta figure out something else and I started watching movies.

20:16I started with like the AFI 100 and I love movies. I went to USC film school in the summertime, made friends that weren't hockey players and just realized like how much fun the entertainment industry can be if you do it on your own terms. I always felt like having that, you know, your son probably feels the same. Like it's like directed at you towards you. There's nothing you can do about it. It feels helpless. You get a little older and you're like, well, actually I can kind of do it my own way, which has been great. And it was like, I'll go down swinging in a ball of fire. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.

20:47He also had worked. He did a little moment in a picture, a John Carpenter movie that I did with John and Escape from L.A., and then he did... That's right. You had a scene where you're supposed to kick Snake in the shin. Is that right? Yeah. Or no, no, no. I'm sorry. You're supposed to sneer at him. You're supposed to... It's funny. You combined two stories. He kicks Elvis in the shin. You kicked Elvis in the shin. That's right. See, I thought that was funny. but it was just mistaken yeah well most of my big laughs are me just misspeaking but um but yeah that's right you as a as a child actor were in an elvis movie yeah and you got to kick elvis in the shin but i mean he was he was there and he had this small thing to do i said well you're a kid in prison but you're the only guy in here who's not afraid of snake bliskin so when i look at you you look you look back at me like you know what are you looking at buddy yeah and and and so then we found this tape or somebody sent it recently or it's on the internet or whatever.

21:46And somebody did a little thing. And then he said, yeah, what are you, what are you in for? He said, I'm in for, um, what was it? Eating, eating a hamburger, which you would know red meat. And it was the deal. You're in for eating a hamburger and I'm selling cigarettes. And so when he looked at me and came, John came over and he went, that kid's not afraid of you, man. That's really, that's really great. Right. And then we, I did a movie called soldier where the whole beginning of the movie is about these kids who are really uh they're brought up to be soldiers because they show aggression or they show this or they show that character i was playing was the one you're going to follow later on and he played him and he's really he's like one of the best things or if not the best thing in the movie and and the director once again said man he's really good and i said yeah and he had actually pointed something out to me where he thought it was a mistake i went down and talked to the director about we looked at the video he was on top of it it was very clear that this was going to be something and then i directed soldier and never got paid for it yeah

22:55now to me what i'm hearing is you both grew up with this sense that it's a craft you got to work hard obviously athletes know there's a lot of preparation there's a lot of hard work and that that all informs the fact that it doesn't seem like there's no entitlement and i've always i've always had that sense because i've been around you uh a bunch of times that you are a guy who likes to work hard you see this as a craft you see this as something that's a job and that that was kind of the way you grew up and clearly you have that too wyatt yeah i mean look growing up where we live you see entitlement all around you and it's like I don't know why the fuck you'd ever look at that and be like that's what I want to be I want to be an entitled asshole here's where you and I differ

23:47it's all I've ever wanted but no one lets me get away with it I desperately want to be entitled but yeah so I always I was in Lakewood in Culver City and hockey is played in places in California where they're not in the greatest areas like Norwalk. We had to be walked to the rink from the car by parents because they were drive by shootings in the 90s. And you saw a different side of the world. And then when I went to go play in different, you bill it. You don't like live with your family always after they left Vancouver when I was like 16, 17. I lived with different families in Chicago and Toronto.

24:21And you just live with other people. So you get to see a real sense of like what the world is like. Obviously, it's not a real sense of the world is like in you know in los angeles where we live so yeah i that that's like it's like my greatest fear in the world is somebody being like what an entitled making me think about worst fear you're making me think about norwalk it was like of course i was probably the only parent that said no go ahead you'll be fine right yeah you get shot just walk it off hey it's hockey

24:53you're a kid you're supposed to get shot every now and then what are you talking about you're an awful dad turns out terrible terrible father i love tarantino's movies and i know that you've been in uh in a couple and and what's interesting is i read this interview with tarantino where he said kurt's one of the only guys i can talk to because he's making a movie about la and 68 69 kurt knew all these people you experienced that world and he said you informed so much of like he picked your brain about what was la like back then because you started out doing you know disney films early on yeah and tell of it did a lot of television yeah well just working you know working actors my my brother neil is a tv head and i swear to god i wake up this morning And he's like, ask him about being on Lost in Space.

25:44And I'm like, no. You should because it's a good one for your world. My character's name was Guano. Yeah. But they finally figured out after the show, you know what Guano means? Yeah. Bad shit. I play Michael Ansar as kid. That was one of the first experiences I ever had where I was kind of like, yeah, I know what I want to do here. And I, because Michael Ansar was bald. Yeah. And we were, you know, it was Lost in Space. You're not on Earth. You're somewhere out there. And I went, oh, great. I know what I want to do. And I don't know how, I don't remember how I convinced her. I said, I want to be bald, too.

26:18Right. So I got to be, I got to play a character that was, you know, looked, I looked like that. We were clearly not from Pacoima, you know. From a different planet. But Big Pa, Big Pa knew all those, wasn't a lot of that based on Big Pa? Your dad had worked in early, what, in film, but had he done television as well? No, my dad, my dad, you know, worked for a long time. He put, you know, shoes on his kids' feet and food on the table by being an actor, and he did everything. It worked for a long time. But he was, you know, we kind of looked at each other as plumber actors, you know what I mean?

26:49Just take your work pail and go to work. You know, but with Quentin, we talked a lot about stuff. He loves the history of Hollywood. Yeah. And he probably knows it as well as anybody. And so he does, it's more than picking your brain. It's where you're going to go out and have a good time. And he used a lot of the conversation, I think, the things that he has learned over the years from many different people. And it was very nice that he made a dedication in the book that he wrote about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. And he did have me come over to his house to read it. And it was really interesting because I think he wanted me to read it in the lair, you know.

27:22And it was right in the heart. He loves living where he lives in the heart of Hollywood as it were. And, you know, it was a great feeling. And I must say, I said to him, I said, I don't know if there's anybody alive who can appreciate this as much as me because it was like my life. You know, it was like completely I understand everything about it. You know, I have a fascination with that era. So there's a clip you can see online. I guess someone in like 1966 just drove along Sunset Boulevard. Now, today everyone has a phone. but back then it was very rare for people to you know have a a color film camera and someone just shot out their windshield driving along the sunset strip in 1966 and it's a different world and i've looked at that thing so many times i love time travel and that's just an amazing you look at that la and we don't live in that la anymore it's it's gone but it's so strange and so different i i love why i love watching those videos it is a sense of nostalgia that you're like oh wow and you're living back in that time i'm sure you go back in that time and you're like this is a fucking nightmare get me back in 2023 but i love i yeah i know those ones where you kind of like they put it on the hood of a car and they just kind of drift through los yeah they drive through la and you see what the cars look like how the people dress what it is strange to me to live long enough to see that there really is a difference as time goes by because it always kind of feels the same to me you know but you're why i was telling me this is cool because we have something fun for you but you're a you're a pretty serious history buff yes you like love i love reading history yeah this is good i gotta get a geeky said it could be totally false no i don't think it is i don't think it is no i think this one's pretty bear so um uh there was a time where i wasn't working very much and um i subscribed to ancestry.com um like like a 75 year old grandmother yeah uh and so i got obsessed with uh like following the history of our family yeah it was like oh you know our history of family is cool and so you go back a couple generations keeps going back and it gives you these like heat leaf hints right yeah this is also i'm getting paid by ancestry.com right now and i enjoy driving a porsche