Dave Franco, Vol. IV

0:00This episode is brought to you by Nordstrom. For 125 years, Nordstrom has been part of your story. The stylist who found the perfect outfit for your big interview. The first pair of walking shoes for your one-year-old. The tomato soup you shared with your sister at the cafe. These are the moments that make Nordstrom, Nordstrom. Big or small, we're here for all of it. Celebrating 125 years with new moments still add. Discover it all in Nordstrom stores and at nordstrom.com. Late night bites with friends? Already hard to beat. That first too hot bite of fries you couldn't wait for, followed by ice cold Pepsi.

0:41Now that hits different. Suddenly, the energy kicks back in, the night goes longer, and the laughs don't stop. Because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun, and more of the moment. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a Pepsi Zero Sugar today. Over three movies, I've gotten, you know, proficient enough at throwing cards that I will cut a banana in half. I can cut a banana in half with a throwing card. That's great. Yeah, yeah. And, like, people are like, oh, gosh, do you do that wherever you go? And I'm like, no, I don't just carry around a deck of cards and a fucking banana. But if you got one, let's go.

1:14Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins.

1:21Hey, guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Today on the show, it is Dave Franco. Always a delight. His fourth time on the podcast. We are talking about his new film, Idiots. This is a fun one. Thanks, guys, as always, for checking out the podcast. Remember to hit that subscribe button on YouTube, on Spotify, wherever you're doing it, however you're doing it. I appreciate you guys. Before we get to the main event today, which is, as I said, Mr. Dave Franco, a couple of quick reminders. We have an upcoming event to mention, actually, in New York City, back at the 92nd Street Y.

1:49I'm going to be hanging out with Joe Manganiello. we're talking about his entire career and his new memoir bloodlines it is always a fun time with joe uh check it out get your tickets now october 13th in new york city there are a lot more live events cooking so just check out my pages on instagram etc but also check out our patreon that's where we put our announcements and our discount codes patreon.com happy sad confused for all the info on everything i do and everything happy sad confused does uh today on the show as i said It is Mr. Dave Franco, who is always a delight. He's just one of the real ones out there.

2:23Very funny. A true cinephile. Always easy to talk to. This one has it all, including physical assault a little bit. Yeah, we slap each other. No context. You'll see. Just trust me. Or if you're listening, you'll hear it, I guess. His new film is Macon Blair's new film. It is called Idiots. it is a wild funny dramatic tale starring him Mason Thames and O'Shea Jackson Jr. well worth your time I highly recommend it it's going to be in theaters this Friday look out for it he's also got a DreamWorks animated film I forgot an island that's coming soon always very busy and always happy to support everything that Dave Franco does this is a really fun conversation so without any further ado I'll let you guys enjoy it listen to it watch it however you're doing it it's up to you here's me and the one and only Dave Franco.

3:15Dave. Yeah. We're doing the podcast. We're back again. Number three? Four. What? You are one away from the coveted five-timers club. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What's the most recent time we did this? It's been a while. Yeah. It was pandemic. Was it pandemic? Were we talking about being John Malkovich? You're a comfort movie. Good memory. Yes. Yes, but the first time was 10 years ago, 2016. And look, if you play your cards right, the fifth time you do get a hat and you join the likes of Tom Hiddleston, Claire Foy. Yeah, it's good company. It's good company. All right. Okay, let's see how this goes.

3:47Yeah. It's not like you get cocky, okay? You are a man of many talents. You're an actor. You're a filmmaker. You're a cat daddy. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We're going to get to that. Probably most importantly, the last of those three, yeah. And you're an idiot. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We're adding something else to the resume. It's rare I can say that and not be a word of retribution from the guests. Sure, sure. you can always call me an idiot even when i'm not promoting a movie called idiots i've been saying it for years and now justify no no the movie is called idiots it's awesome it's from macon for those that don't know macon is one of the one of the real ones out there really is um let's shout out macon real quick so macon he's also an actor he's in one of my favorite movies blue ruin uh this is a movie uh directed by jeremy saulnier it was his debut since then saulnier did green room rebel ridge he's like a real fucking filmmaker yeah and so is making yeah making's first movie that he wrote and directed is this movie called i don't feel at home in this world anymore melanie winsky watch the word exactly great movie and it's just like this is one of the most underappreciated movies out there he he like making has his own style where he really leans in to dark comedy but then he'll give you real violence and really his main stamp on his projects is as soon as you start to feel comfortable and you think you know where you're going he will pull the rug out from you totally and just take you in the most bizarre insane directions and it's like he's just a unique talent it doesn't feel like he's like going by like you know the the playbook of like every character needs to be sympathetic and fuzzy like these are messy people also like characters are going to go on some crazy journey and they're not going to grow they're not going to learn from we don't grow guys that's real life man and then sometimes other characters like my character in this movie they'll don't grow an inch incremental yeah yeah i mean from where you start yes i mean my character in this movie starts as a guy who skids his car into a handicap space so like fuck that guy but you know i start the movie i've dug myself this deep hole but as an actor i take that as a challenge i'm like i have the rest of the movie now to like help the audience understand who this guy is, where he's coming from, what his vulnerabilities are, and hopefully by the end, you know, you might sympathize a little with him.

6:09You might even root for him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know you talked about this a bunch with the press store. If there's one sad part of this press store, it is that we're not talking about the shitheads. We can agree on that. Yes. So the original title of the film, The Shitheads. Yes, which is, I mean, Idiots is a great title. Don't get me wrong. Oh, yeah. How hard was the battle for the shitheads? I mean, was there like a reckoning? Was it on set? Was it afterwards? Like, oh, wait, this really just is not going to fly. So this project has been around for like 10 years. And it has been the shitheads for about 10 years.

6:42And we, you know, obviously that title is it's objectively great. Yeah. And we were like, let's hold on to this as long as we can. So we made it through our screening at Sundance and we got bought by IFC and we were still the shitheads. And we're like, there's no turning back now. Right. They can't take this away from us. and then IFC they to their credit they came to us and they were like hey we're down to ride this out and kind of be punk rock and just hold on to this title but we need to let you know that we won't be able to promote this movie in most places you can't have the word shit out in public on billboards you know and so at the end of the day it's like we spent we put so much into this film and we want people to see it and you know i was even on like the morning shows today and i was just like oh we wouldn't be able we wouldn't be here if this was the shit head no well it's the start of the s heads what would you even say we tried to ride shitheads for a while that didn't fly where are you at on the word idiot is that something in your lexicon like does allison call you an idiot on a regular basis are you i don't know where you're going with that i don't think that's a good assumption i'm projecting my wife calls me an idiot does she really oh yeah give me the context Give me an example.

7:54You're an idiot. Like, what have you done that's idiotic? What did I do just the other day? Something will come to me. Honestly, it's a daily occurrence. Is it really? Yeah. Josh, get a hold of yourself. It's my problem? It's your problem. You're clearly doing some idiotic shit that you're getting called out on. Why are you taking the purse on? You know me. If this is a daily occurrence, you're doing something wrong. It's not like she's like, you fucking idiot, get your shit together. It's more of like, with love. Oh, oh. You're an idiot. Give me the inflection of how she says it to you. Oh, it's more of like, you're an idiot.

8:27Okay, there's a little love behind it. She's smiling through it. Yeah. But there's also a little cutting in there. No, it's real. There's a basis of reality. Do you ever call her an idiot? Yeah. Oh. When she's doing what? She, I can call her out, even though I can't think of the things that she calls me out on. She has, I think there's something in her brain that doesn't allow her to open doors in the proper way. Oh, that's interesting. She pushes when you need to pull. She pulls when... That's relatable. Yeah. And I say you're being an idiot. You're an idiot. Okay. Every time she pushes or pulls the wrong way?

8:58Again, I'm not being like stupid. I'm on her side. I'm on her side. This has turned into a horrible look for me. Not only do I look like an idiot, but I look like an asshole for calling my wife an idiot. I got to bring you down with me, man. It's a double whabby. I've been called an idiot for the last two months on this press store, so I just need someone, a comrade. So in real life, no. apparently your wife is not calling you no that's not a word that comes up often um how does she scold me uh when she says my name it's like when we don't when we are calling each other pet names and she goes she goes davy does she what does she say does she call me davy or dave i've heard you i've heard her call you davy a lot in in it can be very endearing too yes but that's in like press right when we're addressing each other yes it's all it's usually babe or some other you know pet name that I'm not going to say right now.

9:50But when she says Dave or Davey, just to me, I'm in trouble. It's rare. Yeah. Yeah. I know when to perk up, though, and then, you know, apologize immediately. Yeah. Did you have any nicknames growing up? Well, Davey came about. My real name is David. And basically, my brother knew some kid in his grade named David that he really didn't like and said to me your name is not gonna be that and so I became Davey from very early on okay and so people who have known me since childhood that's what that's what they call me and that's how I know like when someone comes up to me or I hear just someone screaming Davey I'm like someone who's known me forever right yeah yeah so what do you call me though I call you each other a long time I call you Dave okay what should I what should I call you by the end of this pod you can call me Davey I feel like number four come on okay I appreciate that you can call me whatever you like idiot shithead do i call you i've never called you horowitz i don't know no do people call you that uh some do it's a mouthful yeah it's a lot it's a lot it's a lot horowitz uh joshua is just like from like my sister yeah mom that's a little formal that's a little formal yeah yeah mr horowitz works what do you like call you uh the asshole idiot i don't know we got there we got i just wanted to bring it around and have you say it again um uh i alluded to this let's get this out of the way usually it's how i end the podcast with a cat or dog question but Because dogs are so important to me, my side hustle, as you may or may not know, I do a dog show.

11:19I was going to call you out on this. Yeah. Go on. Yeah. I do a dog show. Uh-huh. I'm a big dog dad. Cat's not allowed on the show, I heard. Well, dude. Okay. So it's made by dog lovers. I don't hate cats. Okay. To be clear. Do you like cats? They're fine. Interesting. Continue. I don't know why my voice went up there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've never owned a cat. Okay. Okay. Have you owned both in your life? I've never owned a dog. Okay. so shut the fuck up. Let's go dog. I think dogs are way more than they're fine. I think dogs are great. Okay. Cats are just fucking wonderful. Really? Okay, give me the 60 second case for cats over dogs.

11:53Okay, okay. I know everyone thinks the cliche about the cat is that like, you know, they don't want to be around you and you got to earn their love. My cats meet me at the door every time I come home. They literally flop so I can get their belly. They sleep in bed with us and also I don't need to take them on walks. All I need to do is clean that litter box once a day. Right. How many times do you use your hands to pick up your dog's shit a day? That seems like a very personal question. A couple times. A couple, two to five? How many poops are a day? Tell me. Two, at most, maximum two. Okay, okay, but you're using your hands.

12:35Yeah, that's love. It's called love and affection. That's a word for it. Anyway, I do love dogs. I've just grown up with cats, and after winning Sexiest Cat Dad of 2025, People Magazine, I have peaked. I've realized I've peaked in my life. It's all downhill from here. But I really have been campaigning for this honor my whole life. Has Cat Fancy ever profiled you? That's like the acquaintance. I should know about this, but I don't. I feel like that's the famous cat magazine. You're a cat posy. I'm just not on the internet. cat fancy I'm gonna look into this yeah but I've used this new platform of mine to just put out there that first off cats are always vilified in pop culture yeah basically any animated movie that has a cat they are the villain and and then a movie like flow comes along a lot fee an animated movie and the cat is the hero and guess what John the Oscar won the Oscar and you know why because it told the truth so condescending yeah I love dogs but I'm not going on your fucking tail did you um how much how many times have you seen the movie cats I mean once and it was a wonderful experience not sober laughed a good amount I think that's the most I've laughed in a movie in a very long time that I think about it yeah I don't know if that's what they were going you You know, it's not not.

14:08There was a butthole cut out there at some point. That hasn't been released, has it? No, not that I know of. They should. It's been enough time. They can connect. You deserve the butthole cut. The butthole cut might beat the Odyssey, honestly. At the box office, that's the only thing that could surpass it. Have you seen the Odyssey? Oh, yeah. So great. Loved. Spectacle, baby. Cyclops, are you kidding me? Practical effects. Were you up for that Cyclops roll? I was.

14:36Did Lord and Miller audition you for Rocky? Could you have gotten the Rocky role? Lord and Miller auditioned me for Rocky? What are you talking about? In Project Hail Mary. Oh, for Rocky. I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Peter Fairley directed the new Rocky movie coming out. Did I go out for Rocky? No. No, I didn't get that call. Huh. I know. I should have, right? I would have been a good Rocky. Yeah. Yeah. I've done a lot of good voice work recently, Josh. You have done a lot of voice work? Not to pat myself on the back. No, I'm proud of you. I'm having fun. um have you ever done mocap performance capture no thoughts sure down absolutely okay yeah okay okay i'm not offering i don't have a mocap studio over here don't worry more happy say confused coming up

15:22if you're a fan of happy say confused a fan of mine you probably love outer banks i've loved talking to this cast over the years. And I'm so thrilled to say there's a really cool new podcast out there if you're an OBX fan. It's Outer Banks, the official podcast. This is a six-episode companion podcast that celebrates the final season of Outer Banks. It has intimate interviews with all the core players. You got Chase in there, Madeline, Madison. They're all in there. It's hosted by Ria Chufo from Chicks in the Office. I'm sure you know her. She was an original Outer Banks super fan, so she's the perfect host for this.

15:55I've been listening to this show, and it's really helped me kind of cope in the best possible way with this bittersweet ending. We're so thrilled. Look, five seasons. We've been gifted with such a special cast, such a special show. This show is fantastic because it goes into not only the fan favorite moments over the years, looking back at the special relationships, the special storylines. Yes, it looks at this new final season, but it really captures, I think, the magic that made Outer Banks so special. The cast talks about their experience bringing these roles to life. They revisit their journeys through all five seasons.

16:28They get nostalgic. They laugh. They get emotional. And they unpack some of the biggest fan favorite storylines. If you're an OBX fan, this is the one for you. You can watch Outer Banks, the official podcast, only on Netflix or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. That's Outer Banks, the official podcast. Check it out. So some of you may think what you see and hear in the podcast is the total me. The truth is I get super stressed like everybody else. Work challenges, the health of a loved one, it can all feel pretty overwhelming. That's why I'm so happy Rula is an ongoing sponsor for happy, sad, confused.

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18:42Where were we? Let's promote this movie a little bit more before we go on too many more tangents. So, Makin's on the short list. This comes around. Title page. Oh, that's interesting. I'm going to flip the page. It's definitely a road trip comedy. It's definitely cut from the same cloth. I feel like there's a little midnight run in there, hangover in there. Even like Pulp Fiction vibes. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, sure. Like, what jumped out at you as the excitement for you for this one? Well, first off, so I was originally talking to Macon about this movie nearly 10 years ago. And at that time, I was just too young to play this role.

19:18And so we just kind of amicably parted ways. And then consciously uncoupled. There we go. And, you know, eight years passed and I reached out to him. I was like, dude, I'm old now. Let's go. Like, whatever happened to that movie? And he was like, oh, it almost went and it fell apart. And I was like, OK, no pressure. But if I can help in any way, I'd love to come on as a producer, try to help get the money. And he said, all right, let's do it. And so my first couple calls were to O'Shea Jackson Jr., who I had worked with a handful of years ago on a Quibi project. Loves Quibi. R.I.P. The$2 billion experiment that went down in six months.

19:55Quibi's out of business. Nobody told me. I need to end my subscription. I know. To be fair to Quibi and this project that we did, this was also directed by the Farrelly brothers. It had Bill Murray in it. It had Daryl Hannah, Jimmy Tatro, O'Shea Jackson Jr. Come on. That's a great team. Could you smell the room where they were burning money like Quibi? Like where they were just like. The truth is yes. It was pungent. We had the 60 second defense of Cats. 60 second defense of Quibi. Go. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I met O'Shea on that project, and it has never seen the light of day, but I think the reason that we did that was so we could meet each other and then do Idiots, you know, seven years later.

20:37I love him. So then I recently worked with Mason Thames on Regretting You, which is like, you know, a very weepy drama, basically the opposite of this movie, The Idiots. But I just saw – I saw something in Mason where I was like, this kid is so natural. like he's incapable of having a false moment on screen and up until that point he really only played the good guy he was always the hero and i was like oh i want to see your dark side man that's part of the fun of this yes you get to see like well without giving too much away let me just i'm jumping around but let me just give you the premise of idiots that leads into what i was going to say about mason so basically it's like two down on their luck guys played by me and O'Shea and we're a couple of shitheads we pair up to take this troubled teen to rehab and so we are the last two guys that you want supervising your child who is in this vulnerable place but the twist is you realize that Mason's character is so much worse than us he is full psychopath and just to see Mason pull this off and just do it in like such a quiet creepy way where I think if you cast this wrong, it's someone who leans too far into the villain side of it and it becomes kind of cartoonish.

21:57But Mason's like, he's like this still reptile. And he just kills it. And it's really fun for people to see this different side. In a way, it kind of reminds me, I mean, like talking about your own career, I feel like you have a very innate likability that you traded on early on. Like you kind of played a lot of early douchebags. Totally, totally. And people were like, but he seems so sweet. But that was kind of fun to see you as an asshole. I think people didn't even say he seemed so sweet for a while because because I'm not on social media. I realized realized like, oh, people can't see the real me as often as other people kind of, you know, however they put themselves out there on social media.

22:36And so they're really just looking at my work and they're kind of like putting, you know, whatever opinion on me that they want based on the roles I play. So I played a lot of assholes and douchebags early on. And so everyone was like, yeah, fuck that guy. He must be like that. Did you like actually feel that like in the world? In what ways? Concretize that for me. How were you? Did you feel like people judging? You know, meeting people and them being like, oh, you're a nice person and being surprised by that. Yeah. But then like, you know, I've been doing this for nearly 20 years now and I've done enough interviews now that I hope that people get a sense of who I really am.

23:10But just going back to playing these roles that are like so outside of myself, these really villainous characters sometimes, it's fun. It's fun. It's juicy. You really get to sink your teeth in. I think about roles like, you know, this role I play in Love Lies Bleeding. I have a dirty mullet rat tail, and I'm just the biggest piece of shit ever. And I'm just like, oh, I can just lean in. And it's one of those things where when you're watching a movie like that with an audience, when they start like clapping at your demise, you're like, I did a good job. But then like even in an animated movie like Hoppers that came out this year, like, God, I get to play this unhinged, juicy bad guy where I remember in those recording sessions, we had a lot of conversations of like, is this too far?

24:04Is this too scary for kids? and we we finally found the line of what was too far and it was when the animators they put together this sequence where my character was doing like the backwards exorcist walk and this isn't a pixar children's film and they're like oh okay not only are the kids scared the adults are scared as well we draw the line at the exorcist but like my friend who i grew up with she's a three-year-old daughter they went to the uh to see hoppers and my friend calls me after and she's like she's like okay in my daughter's three years of life you in hoppers is literally the scariest thing that's ever happened to her fuck you and i go that is the best review i've ever gotten um apropos of nothing but i was watching i was like watching the credits for in addition to having a large von trier thank you which i i figured it out yeah because of his movie antichrist oh and the idiot that's what i thought well it's a double it's double Wait, why Antichrist?

25:01He directed Antichrist, man. Lars, have you seen Antichrist? Yes, I have. Have you? Yeah, I have. Yeah, there's penis involved. Well, so the reality is in Antichrist, there's D going into V during opening credits. Yeah. That's a swing. I respect it. You know what's not as palatable? is later on in that film is the most gnarly moment in cinematic history when Charlotte Gainsborough uses scissors to cut off her most sensitive part. And that haunts me. If I close my eyes, I can see it now. And that will never leave my mind. So beyond the large Montreer shout-out, Allison is credited with a voice role.

25:48Yes. Well, who does she play? There's a little montage where we show Mason Thames character being a little shithead on the internet okay and she's in that as a reporter talking about Mason's character in courts telling the telling the judge to quote gargle them that's Allison got it yeah yeah she's up for her best supporting actress it's it's it's in the works has she seen this more than you've seen masters of the universe who saw which more equal okay two times two times each you know what got a couple that That's right. Do you visit each other on set when you both are working, or is it kind of like a sacred space where you do your thing?

26:27Honestly, not really. It's one of these things like, not that it's uncomfortable going to someone else's set. It's just kind of like, you do your thing.

26:38When it's something cool, when it's something really fun, like I remember her visiting me during Now You Three Me, and we were doing like a really cool fight sequence. She's like, I'll come and just see you fling your body around for a couple hours. Yeah. You didn't come just to see what Jared Leto was doing with Skeletor? Oh, man. I would have liked to see it, but no. If you wouldn't have met Jared, you would have met Skeletor, I think. True. The guy goes method. That's amazing. His wild going method is Skeletor. That's respect. I do consider you guys in the power couple rankings. I appreciate that.

27:13I appreciate it. I put Matthew Rhys and Kerry Russell up there. Oh, yeah, man. Where do you rank yourself? Like in the Zendaya, Tom Holland, the Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons. This is for me is rarefied error. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Where do you consider yourself? You're going to make me rank our own power couple-ness? Or like which of those could you beat to death in a fight? Just a straight up physical fight? Thunderdome. You can go into Thunderdome against Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons. Okay. Here's the thing. Allison's a badass. She's kind of gotten me to her gym more. I'm not saying I'm a badass.

27:47I am not near that level. But I'm getting stronger. We're giving ourselves slightly better odds than maybe a year ago. But I think we're getting our ass beat by most of those people. If I'm being honest, I don't know if either of us have ever been in a real physical fight. Have you? Look at me. I know, but I was just hoping for an anomaly of a story. Has anyone ever slapped you? Only in scripted bits, not for real. sure sure sure you can slap me at the end if you want i would love to okay i'm gonna give you like a medium slap it's not gonna be like nothing but it's not gonna be full on do you want to do it now or at the end you tell me i'll take it now let's just get it out of the way how about like how about i'll give you one now and then we can lead up to like slightly harder later okay yes give the people something to look forward to here we go okay ready this is gonna be nothing okay okay how'd it go first time you've ever been slapped for real thank you for that Josh it's nice to try new things here's what I'm going to do though it's my new kink Dave Franco slapping me here's what I'm going to do though I gave you one and you felt how hard that was I'm going to give you the opportunity to slap me and you go as hard as you want later okay I did the interview I'm sweating that's okay I want it more Happy Say Confused coming up

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