Lin-Manuel Miranda

24:32Like I remember being assigned I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou in ninth grade English. And I went to the library and read every Maya Angelou autobiography. And thank God you wrote four or five of them. Just like every other ninth grader. I'm going to read the collected works of Maya Angelou. I'm going to read the collected works. I mean, I have like old songs that are adaptations of her poems. Like I had my Maya Angelou phase. My wife and I, one of the things we bonded over when we started dating was that we were both like Stephen King completists. Really? Yeah. And we read the Dark Tower series, I don't think was done when we started dating.

25:03So we read it together to catch up. We are in the middle of the Brandon Sanderson stormlight. Those things are each a thousand some odd pages. She's ahead of me. She's on book four. I am like struggling through the flashbacks in book three. But then he ends them so good that you're like, oh God, what's going to happen? So yeah, that's like our lane together. is like the fantasy stuff. But I remember reading Lord of the Rings and comics. I was going to say, were you a Lord of the Rings kid? Yeah, I was not like a Magic the Gathering kid. I tripped over those kids while they were on the floor playing the cards in high school.

25:38I would always never see them around the corner. But yeah, no, like that's been, but like Stephen King was like a thing we bonded over a big time when we started dating. Later on, I mean, the Potter books were happening when we were young adults. Like were you, you were heavily inspired by Potter? I read the first three at jury duty. I remember it was like a book per day and it was around the time the fourth one was coming out. And so I sort of hopped on the train right as it was getting good. I think you told Emma once in an interview that the way Harry first met Draco influenced a bit of Hamilton.

26:10Is that true? Yeah, absolutely. It's in the sense that like Hamilton meets another person who's very much like him. He's like, he meets Burr getting off the boat, right? In our version of it, obviously. and Burr gives him the opposite of the lesson he wants to learn, right? Like Draco says to Harry, like make sure you stick to the right kind around here and Burr says to Hamilton, talk less, smiles more and then Hamilton sees his friends and goes, I'm actually going to hang with these guys. Right, right, right. So yes, I guess in that version, Lafayette is our Ron. Amazing. Jumping around pop culture, you're a West Wing fan.

26:47Indeed. What impact did that make on your life that you literally played the West Wing? Wait, wait, let me pause here. Tommy snuck a West Wing reference into this movie. Wait, tell me, remind me. Maui hits the beach and he gets on his boat and he goes, that's what I remember. That's Leo McGarry's alcoholism line. And he snuck it into a Disney movie. Five stars, five stars all the way. You even like played some of the theme, I think ending Hamilton when you walked off the hill. They surprised me with the theme, yeah. On my final baths, they played the West Wing theme. So was that just the Sorkin dialogue?

27:21Was that just the idealism of that group? Yeah, I fell in love with it on, I didn't see it in real time. It was on like Bravo reruns back before Bravo was all reality all the time. They would show West Wing at 11 a.m. Oh, back when I had cable. I had cable kids. I'm really millennial. I'm a geriatric millennial. Have you cut the cord? No cable anymore? I'm the last one. It's me. Just us. Yeah, it's me and Pat Kiernan on New York One. Exactly. I'm watching cable. Reading papers to you every morning. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so, yeah, no, I fell in love with it watching the reruns, and then I kind of caught up to it as it was happening.

27:54Then they elected a Latino president, and I was like, well, this is my favorite show for life. So, yeah, it is that dialogue, and dialogue as music really kind of made me tune in. And were you a comic book kid? I mean, like any New York kid? Were you a Spider-Man fan? Yes, but I can't claim to be like the completest. My buddy James Monroe Iglehart can tell you every variant plot. Like, I'm like a basic, like, I have the four Death of Superman comics. Yeah, that's what I was going to be like. That was a big deal. I was a big Spider-Man fan. Yeah, the Todd McArwen run back then. Yeah, any New York-centered superhero I was very into.

28:31I was doing the math. You did say once that you turned down a Marvel role summer of 2016 when you were leaving Hamilton. I did my due diligence. I did some research. Can you guess it? Yeah, I think I can guess. I'm gonna guess it's Spider-Man Homecoming. They were shooting. It was that. And then part-wise, is it like Martin Starr's role? I would have been so miscast. Is that the role? It's not Martin Starr. Is it Vulture? Is it Michael's Vulture? It was Vulture. And Kevin Feige told me the entire plot over the phone. And I was like, oh, and then they get to the door. And it's her dad. And I went, oh, on the phone.

29:13Again, you're the canary in the coal mine. I was really the canary in the coal mine. And I said, when does it shoot? And he goes, basically the moment you step off stage in Hamilton. And I went, well, I would really like to, I love these movies, but I would really like to stay married. Yeah. So I cannot do this. And I mean, God, that would have been terrible. No, it would have been great in a different way. No, Michael Keaton was perfect. Like they found exactly who they needed. That scene in the car between, it would have been you and Tom. It would have been, yeah. Yeah, it would have been. And I'm very glad because Michael Keaton in that was perfect.

29:46I have no regrets. I needed a vacation so badly. So it was not life right. And I think I would have been deeply miscast in it. So speaking of that, we're talking on a very interesting day. Do you know what today is? Today is July 9th. Is that day meaning anything to you? It's when we started previews, right? Ten years ago to this day was your last performance. Oh, wow. In Hamilton, stepping off that stage. How about that? Isn't that crazy? That is crazy. So we kind of already referenced it a little bit, but like that is a moment. That is a huge shift. You're coming off of like a run like no one has ever had basically.

30:21And I'm not playing Walter. By the way, though, Kevin does say, he goes, when I told you that over the phone, that's when I knew the movie was going to work because of your reaction. So I think that's my little footnote in history was me going, oh. He should always call you with every plot just to test it out. Yes, he should. So you've talked about this shift, this amazing kind of strange moment that very few people, I mean, people have, but you had really the ultimate version of it where like you come off of Hamilton and you have this world of opportunity. And that is a blessing and it is also a curse in some ways.

30:56Did you have a mantra like what you wanted to do with your life and career coming off that stage on July 9th, 10 years ago? Sure. And it came out of a very real conversation I had with Vanessa where it was like, hey, we don't have to work to pay the rent anymore. And that's a crazy experience that I'm incredibly grateful for to be able to have that conversation in the first place. So it was sort of like, it's not the, what do we have to do? It's like, what do we want to do? And a couple of things. One, my first love was movies and directing movies. I was a kid with a camcorder in the 1980s and then a high eight camcorder when that happened.

31:35And so I really went to college to study film in theater and then fell into theater because it was financially more feasible than studying film. It's like, I can't afford a senior film. So I'm just gonna make a lot of theater. And so I really kind of treated the years after being in Hamilton as the film school I couldn't afford to go to. So I went to work with Rob Marshall in Mary Poppins Returns, not because I had some everlasting love for Mary Poppins, but I mean, who doesn't love Mary Poppins, but because I wanted to watch Rob Marshall direct a big musical movie. And I learned a lot. And then year two of that film school is working with Tommy on Fosse-Verdon, where we get to make hours of TV about the guy who was a consummate theater maker and a consummate filmmaker at the same time, and how that happened, and how he was able to do that with Gwen Verdon.

32:32And then year three is really John Chu and In the Heights and watching someone else adapt to my work and living in my neighborhood and getting to walk to set in a different part of the neighborhood every morning. And I learned a lot from all three of those directors. Like I felt ready to direct Tick, Tick, Boom by the time I'd been through those experiences. Rob is an inveterate planner. Like you have touched every scene by the time cameras are rolling. It's three months of rehearsal. and Tommy, in the way he chopped up Sam Watson's Fosse biography and said, actually, no, Gwen needs to be an equal partner in this and played with the timeline of their love story was really educational.

33:19He did that with Steven Levinson, his showrunner. And then John Chu, it was magic watching him work because he's a planner and you've got Christopher Scott, who's an incredible choreographer, and the team and the corps of choreographers they have. But then he's also someone who looks up and goes, what magic is happening on the day? And so you get the shot of the superintendent with the mop in In the Heights, which is my favorite shot in the entire thing, and is not in the script. It's just magic that was happening on that day. You get champagne being sung live in an apartment because on the day he went, holy shit, it's quiet.

33:54It's never quiet in Washington Heights. Like you can never actually record live sound in that neighborhood in the summer, but it was quiet. So he was like, can we do this live? Because it was a wonder. Let's do it live. And so, you know, it's nine takes of champagne and take nine is what you see in the movie. Was there any kind of period of mourning after that film, which was extraordinary? John did an amazing job with that film. It was kind of a victim of pandemic times. A hundred percent. And I think that for me, that was the ultimate lesson in the weekend releases is not even the first draft of the legacy of the movie.

34:29And you want everything to be a big hit, but it has continued to grow in the consciousness in the years since. I was just watching a Martin Short's documentary, which is so gorgeous. And there's that great anecdote of John Mulaney being like, listen, we all grew up watching Three Amigos on a loop. And Martin Short goes, well, we lost a golden child. I was like, no, no, no, no, buddy. No one's talking about the golden child. Like, the legacy of Three Migos is so enormous. And that's been the case on a lot of movies I've worked on. Moana was like a hit, but it wasn't Frozen. Like, that was basically the conversation coming out of that opening weekend.

35:08Well, it's not Frozen. But it has gone on to just be so meaningful to so many people's lives. And I've watched that trajectory within the heights as well. And the trajectory of these ups and ups and huge ups and then downs, whatever, in anyone's career. but yours in particular is a very unusual, like if you were to chart it out, it's like in the Heights alone would be the highlight of anybody's career. I thought I was so famous in 2009. You were. But like it never left the arts and leisure page. Right, you were in a certain world, you were huge. Right. And then you have this thing that is just like once in a century thing that happens with Hamilton.

35:47Yeah. And I'm sure, like you've probably had a couple instances of like, is this it moments of like, well, what's left to do in a way? I'm 28, I'm 35, like, what's the rest of my life even look like? Yeah, it coincides with when I call my shrink and go, I'm ready to come back to work. We have more work to do. Yeah, you know, it's funny. Like, I've been seeing my shrink since I was 19, but like at moments in my life. Like, I'm not someone who goes every week. And the first time was when I broke up with my high school college girlfriend and was like, who am I? and here's all the stuff that's been building up in my brain.

36:22And you put it out on the table and you go, oh, everyone goes through that. Got it. The second time I called him was in between Off-Broadway and Broadway in the Heights. My show I'd spent, my 20s writing was on a stage and I feel the same. It didn't fix it. It didn't fix the hole in me. What's going on? Right, well, that's the key. And then I went back again, like after Hamilton came out on Disney Plus in 2020 and we were all sort of locked down and I had nothing to do but like drink from the fire hose of everyone's opinion on everything I'd ever done in my life, which is good, bad, like runs the gamut.

36:56And I was like, this is really bad. And like, I'm just home with nothing to do but reading terrible things about myself. And so like, you know, and like, I think where I've gotten to is sort of like, you know, I'm so grateful and lucky to make stuff. And so like, there are people who make stuff and there are people who talk about the people will make stuff and I'd rather be the person who makes stuff. As long as I get to make stuff, I'm happy. More Happy Said Confused coming up.

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38:27The place that Hamilton holds in your life, which, I mean, again, it's always going to be with you every single day the rest of your life. Yeah, it's the first line of the obit. And it's smart to reconcile that now. Yeah. But it's also fascinating to look back at the time when it was at its apex, right? That 2016 moment. You're coming off stage. Obama's in the White House. It's a different time. 2026, we sit here. I mean, ICE, Trump. We don't need to get super political. But it is, needless to say, a much different time. Can you kind of reconcile what this show means to you now, given where we're at versus where we were 10 years ago?

39:05Yeah. And I think for me, it's interesting to me that it gets tagged as like the Obama era musical. I think mainly because I debuted that first song in the White House. It's always going to be connected there. Always going to be connected in the same way that like Camelot and JFK are connected. And I'm cool with that. But it's been around. I mean, it was only around the Obama era for one year. It's been around for 10 plus years and people are still finding something in it. And I think that's because I don't think I ever painted as rosy at pictures people think I painted. For me, the big political takeaway from Hamilton is like they were flawed people.

39:45They made a flawed country. And we still live in that flawed country. And we're constantly taking steps forward and back. It feels like a really dark time right now. My big thing with Hamilton on this side of nearly 11 years of it living in the world is the joy I have in how many artists of color get their first credit on this show. I look at the Tony race this past year and I get to see Josh Henry, who started as Chris Jackson's understudy in In the Heights, as like just giving this towering performance. and opposite him is Nicholas Christopher, who was our first Benny and our first national tour of Heights and has been George Washington and Burr for us for Hamilton for years.

40:30I look over and I see Hannah Cruz, who started as Eliza on the national tour of Hamilton. It goes back to Maya Angelou, weirdly. In her second or third biography, she writes about being the principal dancer in the first European tour of Porgy and Bess. It was the first time leaving the country and seeing race relations outside the insanity that is the United States of America and moving freely through the world and being part of a company. And every time I visit with a Hamilton cast, I think, who are the Maya Angelou's in this crew for whom I am a footnote? Hamilton is a footnote. It's a stepping stone.

41:09It's a foot in the door to their incredible career and journey, wherever that takes them. And I could say that about our incredible original cast. I think of Ephraim Sykes and Ariana DeBose and obviously Leslie and Renee. But I also think of, you know, Carl Clemens Hopkins on Hacks, who was in our tour of Hamilton. I mean, there's so many people for whom it's just a foot in the door and I'm really grateful to have provided that. Expectations, as you could imagine, are sky high for your next production, which is gonna be The Warriors next spring. I don't know if that was the Walter Hill version was a big influence or book.

41:43100%, like older brother, like Friends' older brother with the VHS cassette when I was four. Totally. So gender swap, the music's already out there to a degree. I would not write that music. Where are you at in terms of like getting this on its feet and figuring this out? Yeah, Issa and I have been, I mean, Issa and I have basically never stopped working on it. The first goal was we just didn't want to solve for X and Y at the same time, right? Like, does this work as a musical is a host of questions. can we write songs that tell this story in a really compelling way, was the first, was Solving for X.

42:17And we released the album, and we got these all-stars who would never do eight shows a week, you know, Miss Lauryn Hill, Busta Rhymes, Nas, Mark Anthony, to play these voices that have been careening around in our heads. And then since then, we've just been slowly assembling the team, we think, that can solve for Y, which is, how do you sing and fight at the same time? How do you make a journey from the Bronx to California, Pony Island, exciting on a stage and surprising. And so we've got an incredible team with Jenny Coons and Andy Blankenbuehler, and they're the creative team they've assembled.

42:51And we're really excited to share it. So you referenced, you recently wrapped production on your second film, Tick, Tick, Boom, was amazing, by the way. Thank you. And his performance, remarkable. But you've collected, I guess, eight actors for Octet, which doesn't have a huge profile outside of like a smaller theater community. No, it was, yeah, it's true. It's just beloved. It's like a cult that loves Octet, and I'm in that cult, and I've seen every production. Amazing. And you've collected an amazing group. That includes the likes of Rachel Zegler, Jonathan Groff, many. They're all exceptional actors.

43:23So this is fresh in your mind. And it's interesting. You were talking a little bit about wanting to be the person that makes the thing rather than the person that talks about the thing. And that sounds like it's very much on your mind with this film. 100%. This internet addiction story. this. Can you talk to me a little about the themes that are resonating here for you? It's a brilliant musical by Dave Malloy, who, you know, wrote Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, which is where I first saw Pippa Sue. Actually, I was going to say on the stage, but it was in a tent eating pierogies because it was like this amazing, funky, off-Broadway show that began at Ars Nova.

43:58And so he's written this brilliant musical about a recovery group for internet addicts. And I kind of describe it as like Chorus Line meets The Matrix. Like it's these eight people, they all have different reasons for being there. One is addicted to games. One is addicted to porn. One is addicted to, you know, there's a woman who had like a racist meltdown that went viral and is addicted to reading negative things about herself. Her song is called Refresh. Amazing. And so it was, I really just first was like respectful of like that journey of the show and its trajectory in the world. And then once they got to the phase where they were licensing the show, I went, can I please make this as a movie?

44:45Because more people should know about this incredible score. It's only gotten more prescient with the advent of AI and the conversations we're having now around technology. was already talking about AI and all these things back in 2018 when Dave was writing it. And so, and I think the other thing I learned on Tick, Tick, Boom was I really love making movies where I'm working with actors in a space and we're figuring it out together. Well, that's what, you've referenced this. This is interesting because I would imagine you're not wanting for opportunities. You could work on a bigger scale, I'd imagine.

45:18And I've been offered some big ones. I would imagine. And I just think I don't want to be in effects meetings all day. Because I've seen it. I've seen the animation meetings. I've seen Tommy working out the effects for this film. You don't need Rob. Rob Marshall knows how to make that kind of movie. Rob Marshall knows how to make that. They're the best in the world at it. And let me make the funky little thing that no one else can get made. We independently financed Octet. We just raised the money because we really believed in it and believed it should exist as a film. and that there were things film could do that were unique to this property and then I think will hopefully advance the theatrical life of the show.

45:56Is there a movie musical that's not held in high esteem that you go to bat for with friends and family that you say like, people missed this one, people didn't give this one its due? Anything come to mind? There's a ton. Well, it's funny, like there's also, I have two different lists I'm trying, competing, aching to share with you. There's like the list of the like musicals that are so good, but the adaptation doesn't capture what made them great. and I think I'm allowed to talk about them. I think the people who made them no longer are with us. Man of La Mancha is a great musical and has a great lead performance by Peter O'Toole and Sophia Loren, but that movie doesn't hang, but it was all I had.

46:32So I adore that movie.

46:37I think Chorus Line is one of the best musicals ever written. The bones are there. The bones are there. The movie just like, it was like, it doesn't work for me. I always bring up guys and dolls. Brando's singing is not the best. They call you a lady. There was room for doubt. You know what? That is one I'd go to bat for. Me too. I love it. I think it's legit great. It also is like, it's this kind of filmmaking that doesn't really exist anymore. And they just trust a long tracking shot to introduce Times Square in that movie. And he's thrilling in that. Yeah, they had to sew his syllables together to make it work.

47:18but like, I'm also not like the absolutist of like, like bring back lip syncing. If someone else can sing it better than like the actress who's gonna act the hell out of it, like never enough in The Greatest Showman. Right. God bless Rebecca Ferguson for being like, get an opera singer in here. I'm playing an opera singer. I'm gonna bring your film down. And like never, and she looks incredible delivering that song. Like whatever makes the movie work wins. We're not doing a live show. Do you understand, we referenced like Jellicle Ball and I feel like it's okay. No one's really going to bat for, sadly, the Cats adaptation years ago at this point.

47:53But when you see something like that, you're like, oh, I get why. From a filmmaking standpoint, this just didn't... Even with the best of intentions, great cast. Yeah, God bless. What's brilliant about Jellicle Ball, though, is without changing word of text and changing the people who are performing it, you solve the show. You're like, oh, it's a naming ritual. And in this queer drag culture where everyone creates their own names and creates their own houses and creates their own clans, suddenly the world of Cats makes sense. Like, it makes sense in a new third way. Yeah. That is thrilling. The original production was so genius because as soon as you walked in, you saw a giant Campbell's soup can and a giant tie.

48:31You're like, oh, we're in Cat's Eye View. And we're witnessing a secret ritual. Like, let me explain to you, for those who wonder why this thing ran for 19 years, we felt like we were witnessing a secret ritual. we were seeing the sexiest dancers on earth acting like cats. And it felt like we were witnessing this thing we weren't supposed to be witnessing. It really was like this voyeuristic, incredible thing that also required like no prior knowledge. Right. Like we're just here, we're watching the cats go. And then Jellicle Ball comes along and it adds this other layer that like, Like Rum Tum Tugger as a song is like, all right, this is about a cat who's named Rum Tum Tugger.

49:16Rum Tum Tugger in a walk-off. Suddenly. Suddenly you're like, oh, all right, Rum Tum Tugger, get your best life. So it really is a genius adaptation, but like that other one ran 19 years for a reason. Like it's amazing to like get to see both versions. Where are you at on kind of the so-called jukebox musical, like the Mamma Mia's of the world, et cetera. Can they work? I think they rise and fall on the wit of their adapters. I've seen a lot that are not for me. But I'm a huge fan of Ann Juliet because I thought David did an incredible job of surprising us with when those needle drops are. And as someone who grew up with all those Max Martin tunes, like when the guy turns to her and goes, I love you, and she goes, I think I did it again.

50:02You're like, yeah. I remember thinking, oh, this is how my parents felt about Mamma Mia. Because I didn't grow up with ABBA, So I was just really confused by that show. I was like, what's going on? What's this mega mix? I don't know these songs. But when I saw it in Juliet, I was like, now I get it. Is there, I wanna come back as we kind of like careen towards the end that like, when I think of the decade that's come since Hamilton, you kind of referenced kind of trying to figure out what your ethos was. Also part of it, when I look at some of the credits, it's like, Lin is living his best life.

50:31He's like living like fantasy camp. Like he gets to do like a Star Wars little bit. He gets to do DuckTales. He does a WrestleMania thing. Like, is there an aspect of that where it's like, yeah, like these amazing opportunities. I'm a little in my Shaquille O 'Neal era. Like, I'm doing side quests. Why not? I think the only, I think, again, I think the work I try to make is like the work that I would be thinking about forever if I didn't make it. Like, that's the impulse for working on Warriors, for making Octet as a movie. and then there are the things that come along where you'd kick yourself forever if you didn't get to be ringside with Dom Mysterio or get to be on set with JJ while he's making one of those massive things.

51:14We end every Happy Say I Confused episode the same way with our profoundly random questions. Ready for this? Dogs or cats? Dogs. My condolences. I know your dog was very close to you. Thank you. Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out how to write. That was the thing. I'm someone who's not superstitious about writing, but our dog crept into our life and she was the first listener on everything and just would sit there while I was singing to myself. And so I'm still struggling with how to write without her. I can imagine. What do you collect? I collect, what do I collect? I mean, I'm right now, you're talking to me the day after my producer, John Skidmore on Octet sent me the He-Man Castle Grayskull popcorn.

51:56I mean, better late than never, right? But like, I, you know, I got the cup. I got the, I'm a, still got all the He-Mans. Still got all the G.I. Joes. At my parents' house. Did you? I just had Danny McBride on the podcast. You know, he's written, he's going to do a G.I. Joe movie. Danny McBride. This is very exciting. Is he playing Duke? Like, who does he play in that? Is he Sergeant Slaughter? Well, in the fantasy camp for Lynn, who does Lynn play in G.I. Joe? Snake Eyes. I don't have to say a word. You don't even know if it's me in there. Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow? Obviously. Favorite video game of all time?

52:30Oh, that's a good one. It's probably the most hours logged is NBA Jam. Yep. That was like every day of college. We had it at the Campus Center. Four quarters was four quarters. And Ewing would just go crazy. I think like the programmers had a bias towards Ewing. So like I'm thrilled the Knicks won in real life, but the Knicks have been winning in NBA Jam for a very long time. No, as a... Ewing and Starks. Yeah, Ewing, Starks, Oakley, that era, that was me. so I feel a little lighter on my feet these days. Do you? Absolutely. It's, yeah. I think it was, Michael Che was like, it's like reverse 9-11.

53:04Oh my goodness. Like everyone in the city is like, hi, how are you? Nixon 5. Nixon 5. There'll be a lot of tattoos that say that now, I think. What's the wallpaper on your phone? The wallpaper on my phone is my friend's kid, Natalie, flipping the bird. She's seven. She's just showing off the gems on her finger. Obviously. So she's just kind of casually doing this. The Dakota Johnson Memorial question. She asked me this. I ask everybody, would you rather have a mouthful of bees or one bee in your butt? I'll take the mouthful of bees. Interesting. Minority opinion. Yeah. My first bee sting was deep in my ear, so I just feel like I could handle it.

53:44How long do I have the... We haven't really gone to figure this out yet. I was going to say, I would do the bee in my butt for 30 seconds. Right. But if it's 30 seconds each, I'll take the mouthful. Okay. We'll arrange that afterwards. The removal feels easier. Last actor you were mistaken for? Never happened? When I was young, I got Freddie Prinze Jr. and he was so dreamy and I'm so grateful. And I think the last one I got, when my son was little, he thought I was Ray Romano. Oh my God. Time has not been behind. Worst note a director has ever given you as an actor? um when i uh my first tv gig was as a bellhop in the sopranos and um the director was great and um gandolfini was great um one of the other actors uh came up to me while i was getting makeup and he was like hey kid when you do the line do it with like a real like fucked up latin accent so we have something to react to and he walked and i my heart dropped and he walked away and the makeup guy goes, ignore him, he tries to note all the actors.

54:52By the way, what's fucked up Latin accent? I don't know, I didn't do it. And finally, in the spirit of happy, sad, confused, an actor who makes you happy would be? Jack Black. Great. Joy, every time. Movie that makes you sad. I'm going to go with a little scene one called The Saint of Fort Washington, starring Matt Matt Dillon and Danny Glover, and it's about homelessness in New York. And it's one of those masterpieces you can only watch once because it's so devastating. It's like, I have a list. It's like, Requiem for a Dream. That's totally. Staying to Fort Washington. There's just those movies that are like, you're like, this is a perfect movie.

55:28I can never watch it again because I cannot expose myself. Dancer in the Dark. Yes, 100%. Great movie, can't watch it again. And finally, a food that makes you confused. You don't get it.

55:42I'm a collector of I have a group chat with two people Chuck Wendig, the writer Chuck Wendig and my friend Miranda Bergen and the name of the group chat is I'd Eat That and whenever a weird food comes out we send it to each other and it's like would you eat it or would you not eat it they sent me a Dorito flavored liquor and I pass it on to my wife saying my birthday is January 16th. I have it. I have two bottles of it. It's gross. But it smells just like Doritos. But the last one of those I had, because we sometimes buy them, was I had a pizza-flavored soda. It was bad. It was just like watery tomato sauce.

56:24It was terrible. It really confused me. We've gone too far in science. We'll end there and go full circle. Congratulations on Moana back in a different, bigger, if it's possible way. You know, it's going to be great. A new audience, bring back the old audience. It is a spectacle that demands to be seen on the big screen. So congratulations all around. Thank you. And I'm especially happy that it got you on the podcast finally. A long time coming. Yeah, hopefully first of many. I'm really a big fan of the show. Please, I appreciate it. Thanks, man. Thanks. And so ends another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused.

56:59Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't pressured to do this by Josh.

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