Eric Stonestreet: 2x Emmy Award-Winning Actor

27:30and then they kind of parse it out after that and they're like well you're probably not this probably not that but come back and then read for this and so I went in and read for Brian Baumgartner's part and it was him and me and Jorge Garcia that were on tape for to get the the final part you know that part of Kevin and Brian got it I mean you know it was disappointing in the moment I'll never forget knowing I didn't get it. Devastating or? Gut-wrenching like you know awful because that's what I always tell people you have to be prepared for is is absolutely preparing for the best amount of most amount of success you can have meaning money like signing contracts that show you in year six you're gonna make this you know you test for it you sign all these paperwork and and you go in and you prepare.

28:28I always looked at auditions as my opportunity to put on a show. You go in and you're pumped and amped, and then you don't get it. And it's over. Done. And then it's on TV. And then it's an awesome show. I was a huge Office fan. I loved the show. And Brian crushed it. Like, Brian killed it. 100 % right guy got the part. But it doesn't change how disappointed I was. Why would you view auditioning as a problem that needs to be solved? Yeah, so I always looked at it because you had to find a detachment from it when you left. You have to find, like, how you can move on from it. So I, and probably somebody gave me this advice at some point along the way.

29:21I don't know that I invented it. I definitely honed it specifically to me and how I would process it But I would walk into every audition and think they got a leaky pipe and I'm here to fix your leaky pipe and If I didn't get the part Your house is gonna flood because you still got that leaky pipe and that's how I that's what I told myself It's like well you chose not to have your leaky pipe fixed can't help you with that And to what extent was that actually able to help you thinking about it that way? 100%. And also part of my process was getting rid of the sides. Back in the day, I had a fax machine.

29:55Remember the fax paper that was so thin and it was in a roll? I had pieces and pieces and pieces of that. And at one point, I looked in my closet and I had a box full of all that stuff. And I was like, I got to throw this away. So I threw that away. And then I realized, wow, that felt really good because that was really moving on from all those parts that I didn't get and being reminded of all of them. And then I just started doing it acutely. Every audition I would go in and I would print it out and I would go in and read it and then I would toss it in the trash on the way out. Not in some sort of mean way like, this sucks!

30:33But I would just, as I left the casting office, I threw it away, got in my car, and tried my best to forget about that. Although now that you've had all the success, it almost would be cool to have a box of everything. Yeah, well there's a ton. I remember some of them. But, yeah, and then I would, if I got called back to it, I'd print out the new site, you know, a new set of material, and then I'd throw that away. So you were called four times for four small roles on Dharma and Greg. Yeah. What happened each time? Yeah, that was the only contact I had when I moved to L.A. Jillian O 'Neill, I was put in touch with her through a friend who was a producer in Chicago and commercials.

31:15And she said, look, when something comes up you're right for, we'll call you in. Well, she did. And first one didn't get a call back. Second one didn't get a call back. Third got a call back. Or I mean, there might have been five. Because then I went back to producers and it's like major producers, right? Who did, who did Darma and Greg. So it was going in and meeting Chuck Lorre, which, you know, huge. And then on the fourth or fifth one, I got the, I got the part. and that was my first time on TV, you know. I told people when I moved to L.A., they were like, oh, you're going to be the next lifeguard on Baywatch?

31:54This dates when I moved to L.A. And I was like, I might be a sunburned victim on a beach on the show Baywatch, but I don't think I'm going to be the next lifeguard, which goes into my whole spiel on realistic expectations in our business and how important those are. because if I'd moved to LA and thought, well, maybe I'll be the next lifeguard on Baywatch, I'd probably be pretty unhappy because I don't think I would ever gotten that part. You always did commercial work. How key do you think that was in avoiding going after things out of kind of desperation? Well, being successful with commercials, and I owe a lot of that to a gentleman named Joe Pitka who hired me a ton of times in commercials.

32:37He gave... And kind of like the Spielberg of commercial work. He is. And you did like 50 commercials. Something like that, yeah. Campaigns. And he had his players. They called them the Pitca players. And if you were in there, I mean, people were envious that you were a Pitca player because you'd get a phone call and say, hey, you're shooting a Xerox commercial tomorrow. It's like, well, I didn't audition for a Xerox commercial. It's like, Joe wants you and just you'll get a phone call. But Joe, I told him, I'm like, man, you gave me the ability to walk into a room and not smell of desperation because I was successful doing commercials, and I had a house, and I was able to pay for it.

33:17When I walked into a room, I was like, I want this. I'm prepared to get this. I did my best to show that I would be a good business partner in those situations, but if I don't get it, I'm going to be okay. What do you think failure taught you? I guess I had thick skin. I never looked at the job as acting. I looked at it as auditioning. I don't know that I ever looked at it outwardly as failure. I think I internalized it and felt pretty crappy about myself. But I always, this unwavering sort of belief I had in my talent and the thick skin, I looked at failure as, you know, their mistake, their fault.

34:00I'm going to find my success. And I looked at it a little bit competitive for myself. Like I did kind of have, not that I was this great athlete, but I have an athletic mentality where I motivated myself. Like that made me feel more anxious and more vigor to succeed. So I think it probably pumped me up. You don't wash your jersey during a win streak. You don't switch seats when your team's up big. And you definitely don't shave during the playoffs. When things are working, you don't change them. That's why when you drink Jägermeister, you drink it ice cold. Anything else? Well, that'd just be bad luck.

34:40Drink it cold or don't drink it at all. Jägermeister. Damn, that's cold. Drink responsibly. Jägermeister liqueur, 35 % alcohol by volume. Imported by Mass Jägermeister, U.S. White Plains, New York.

34:53Now at McDonald's, a McDouble is$2.50. So you can get your gym gains on. Or just get lunch. For only$2.50. Get more value on the under$3 menu. Limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher for delivery. And what was it about Almost Famous that you've called the most meaningful step in your career? Well, movie parts are the hardest to get, you know. And it doesn't matter if it's one line or the lead. I mean, you know, the pool of actors that they're considering for films is smaller than it is for commercials and TV shows. there's just not enough time in the process to see 50 people for every part.

35:38So me getting an audition for Almost Famous, Gail Levin, casting director for Cameron Crowe, incredible lady. I auditioned for Philip Seymour Hoffman's part. And the end of the audition, she goes, where are you from, honey? I said, I'm from Kansas City. I'm just from Chicago. Two years there. She goes, well, you're very good. You're not going to get this part. I was like, well, duh, like I have one episode of Darman Gregg on my resume. Like she's like, but I think Cameron would really like you. I want you to come back and meet him. And I leave there feeling so great. And sure enough, she calls me back and I come in and I meet Cameron Crowe.

36:20And he's like, you're awesome, dude. And he's following me around in his office. I mean, like now do it, do it like this, do it like that, this camcorder. and he was like, you're great. And I left there, my blue Dodge Durango. I called mom and dad and I said, it's a good thing I have a SUV because I have to lay my head down in the back of my SUV right now. I feel so good about myself. My head, I mean, Cameron made me feel like a fricking movie star. And then they called and said I got the part. And so what it did for my career. And do you still remember that feeling? Oh, like it was yesterday.

36:56Like it was yesterday. I remember the first time I ever got cast in a commercial in Chicago. My parents happened to be back up visiting me. I was at Navy Pier, and it was before I had a pager or a cell phone or anything like that. I had to call home and get messages. And I was at Navy Pier. I called home my answering machine and got the message that I got this Northwestern football job and come booking around the corner. Woo-hoo! And they were so happy. I mean, that was my first audition I had ever gone on. But yeah, I remember the agent calling and saying, you booked it. You know, you got this part.

37:30And I couldn't believe it. But what it did for me is it gave me such confidence. I mean, I spent an afternoon with Cameron Crowe in his office over six lines, five lines. And then when it came out, it scored. I mean, the line, the scene was good. And I had no idea it would be, but I had to go over to his office again to do some ADR. After, it's just dialogue. If you watch that scene, and I added the line, your mother. So if you watch that scene, and you have a message from your mother, the camera's on my back, and I added that months after I shot the show, or the movie. And the editor, Joe, was there, and he saw me walk by.

38:17He's like, oh, hey, hey, hey, hey. Dude, you make me laugh every day. Your scene is so funny. And I'm like, thank you so much. Like, this is so cool. And Cameron's like, buddy, your scene scores every screening we have. You're the first time that everybody, you kind of relieve the tension of the movie, like this moment, this funny. And again, I'm just like, these people are so nice to me. Like, why are they being so nice to me? The movie comes out, and people love it. And then nominations come out. Like, it's the time in Hollywood where, you know, everybody's promoting their movie. I get a phone call that morning from my friend Aaron Crispin.

38:56He's like, bro, you're in The Hollywood Reporter today. I'm like, what? Why am I in The Hollywood Reporter? He's like, go get one. So sure enough, I'm like thumbing through The Hollywood Reporter, and it's Russell Crowe, best actor for, you know, Gladiator, Aaron Brockovich, Julia Roberts, and then almost famous Joe Husting editor, and it's a picture of me. He chose my scene for his advertisement. I'm like, he really wasn't lying to me. This is so cool. So that little tiny part, which Cameron Crowe would not allow me to think of as a tiny part, which then fills me with such confidence to make sure it's not a tiny part.

39:37Gave casting director something to talk about because in our business, nobody trusts their own taste, right? Everybody's like, well, I think he's good, but Cameron Crowe says he's good, so he must be good, right? Everybody's looking for some kind of validation. So it gave me immediate validations. Like Eric Stonestreet, you may remember him from Almost Famous. Oh my God, that's such a great scene. And now I'm like, verified, you know, What's the line? Let's be. Sorry. It's Hollywood. No. Modern family. What happens where you almost blow it and then take me to that call you get on the drive home from your manager?

40:23My friend Matt, core boy, he has an audition for a role in a pilot called My American Family, and he asked me for my help. he was auditioning for the role of Cameron on My American Family. So he comes over and I'm like walking through this material with him. And at the end of it, I said, man, I got to be honest with you. I'm going to do everything I can to go in and get an audition for this part. Because I didn't have an audition for it. He's like, you totally should. And so Steve had some resistance from the beginning of getting me in for the audition. And we had to kind of go above and beyond.

40:56And what's above and beyond? I had meetings with network people before on other projects that knew me just as a person. And so Steve, manager, made those calls and said, hey, can you get Stone Street in on this? Just get him seen. So then they call the casting director and say, hey, see Eric Stone Street. So I went in and Jeff was like, you know, you're very good. And I went in right for Steve and Chris and made them laugh. And that was it. called and said, hey, it's not going to go any further. And Steve and Chris, they hate hearing this because that's not, their experience isn't that. They're seeing hundreds of people for that.

41:35So my experience is very personal because I was amped up for this part. I thought I could crush it. Their experience is like, probably not what we really want. Well, two weeks pass and we get the call and they say, hey, they're still thinking about your take on cam. They want to see you again. I'm like, they said, but they want you clean shaven and they want you to dress more appropriately for the part. And you would never do that normally. Well, because of what I had told you before, is these people expected us to drive around with my backseat full of clothes. And I'm not like, I'm not going to go from a chef costume to a police costume to a fireman costume.

42:12Sometimes I had three or four auditions, commercial auditions in a day, and I'm not driving around with my closet. It's like, we're not building the set here either. So if you can't use your imagination that I'm wearing a suit, then you know maybe you're in the wrong business but it just was that trend where you had to like dress for the part of every commercial audition and I just wouldn't do it and I also loved portraying and I did this in Chicago I mean this goes back to my Chicago days I bought an oxblood briefcase and I carried that to my first meetings because I thought of myself as a businessman and I thought of myself as playing an actor and I didn't know what an actor did but I knew I should probably have a briefcase full of pictures of myself.

42:52And so I walked around Chicago with a briefcase full of pictures of myself, some staplers, staple remover, some pens, business cards. And I'll never forget my first meeting with Linda Bernasconi. She's like, what's in the briefcase? And I'm like, well, funny you ask. Headshots. I got headshots. Anybody want headshots? You know, bought it at Macy's in Manhattan, Kansas with some graduation money. But that That transferred over into that part of my career too, which was I thought of myself as an actor. Well, what is an actor? An actor isn't somebody who's just like, I didn't want to seem like I'm just jumping through hoops.

43:28Oh, a chef's hat? Sure, I've got one. Huh? Now I'm a chef. No, I just was playing the role of an actor, which is like, I'm going to audition for you, and then I'm going to drive over to Santa Monica, and I'm going to audition for a serial killer. And a serial killer wouldn't be clean shaven. Maybe they would. Who knows? but I'm not going to just do this. When I went in for Modern Family for the first time, I dressed exactly how I dressed and I looked exactly how I looked. And then they said, can you hone it in a little bit? And so I went to Macy's. I told the lady there, I said, hey, I got this audition for this guy.

44:03He's in a relationship with another man and he's the more paternal of the two and I need to wear something a little lighter. And so I got a lavender gingham shirt, navy pants and a gray cardigan and I said if I get this part I'm gonna come back and thank you and so that's what I wore in and clean-shaven did the audition and again they said no not going any further against Steve and Chris I was mad now because I had spent money I did exactly what I didn't want to do which is I jumped through hoops and there was no that didn't get me any success either how did that anger come out in you I was mad because I thought I I was perfect for the part.

44:44I saw them laughing. I heard them laughing. I saw, I see it. I know it. And it felt to me like they were denying it. That's what it felt like. It's like, and I knew I was late in the process, which meant they'd seen a lot of people. The character itself was a pitfall. There was a lot of pitfalls there because they said on paper, not too over the top, yet in my materials, they've written a part where I introduced a baby to Lion King music. So how do you take a character that they want on paper to not be over the top, but yet they've written this scene, which is over the top?

45:24So I knew that's where actors were having a hard time. And then that's when I just tried to rely on what I knew, which is my old saying to myself was dance with who brung ya. It's a Bob Willis tune, a Texas swing tune. Dance with who brung you, swing with who swung you. So I always tried to walk into a room knowing this is what I bring. I'm going to dance with what I got. And in that world was this physicality. I'm a big guy, yet this character, how it's written, in the world of acting, opposites work. So I softened myself, but I can't change this. And they again passed. and then two weeks more passed.

46:08And I had an audition at 20th Century Fox during that period and I had to look down there and see all these people going in for what I thought should have been my role. It was like, oh! And I recognized people and I knew what they were reading for. Ooh, see, this is like, this is the anxiety. This is where it just feels like so, so overwhelming looking back on it. But it turned out good in this case. Even now. Oh, God. I feel it. So anyway, two weeks pass, and then they call and say, okay, we want to test Eric at studio. We want to bring him in. So it went from you're not getting this part twice to you might get this part.

46:53Well, here we go again. So I go in, I do it, and they call and say, okay, you're going to go to network tomorrow. So I pass the studio test. Now it's another level because what's growing is my expectation and the number of people I'm performing for. So you go into Dana Walden's office at 20th, and there might be eight people in there, plus Steve and Chris, plus casting and casting associate. And she's as big as it gets. She might be running Disney after Iger. Yeah, right. Yeah. So I left there. They call and say, you're going to test tomorrow with Jess. I'd read with Jesse for the studio test, and now for the network test, I'm going to ABC, which is 12 minutes from my house.

47:30So I go in, and sure enough, it's just like this mini theater. I did my classic line, which I would say when I knew I wasn't in front of the same people, which is like, I've done theater for less people than this. Laugh, ha, ha, ha. And then did the scene. And Jesse tells a story on this line that I had done in the audition that I always got a laugh on. I didn't get a laugh at Network. And then he said, then you pulled out a Z-snap. And I'd never done a Z-snap before. And Jesse was like, oh, no, he's pushing. you know and I felt it too I'm like what where did that come from I didn't mean to do that uh and then I left and Jason Weiner had been hired as the as the director of the pilot at that point Steve McPherson was the head of ABC and I I don't I have can only trust that it's true there was debate on whether I was right for the part which is what my suspicion was the whole time it's like Well, is he physically right?

48:33And Jason Weiner told me that the then president, Steve McPherson, stood up and said exactly what I had been thinking the whole time. And he said, funny is funny. Hire the mother. And I got the part. And so I drive home. It's raining. And Steve, my manager, calls in at that point. He says, hey, Eric, I just want to tell you that you've been doing this a long time. and I know this is important, this role is important to you and this show is important to you. And there's just no doubt that there's good days and there's bad days, buddy, and this just happens to be a good day. And I was like, you mother...

49:15Well, what? Hold on, what? He goes, you got the part, bro. You got it. And the next day I had a friend coming in town from K-State Theater. He was the set designer at K-State and he was just coming in town by chance. And I told him, I'm like, I got this part. I think it's big. And then Levitan and Lloyd said, hey. The creators of the show. The creators. And said, hey, do you want to come see the pilot? And I said, sure. I hadn't seen it. So we go over to 20th Century Fox. It's like these two pivotal moments. We walk in and we watch the pilot. And we walk out. And I'll never forget him looking at me going, you're going to be famous.

49:59You know you're going to be famous. That is a huge, that's going to be a huge TV show. I was like, you never know, you know. All my years of not getting too excited and trying to stay even keeled. You know, I'm like, we don't know. And then Ed O 'Neill called me and told me it's going to be a hit. He said, Eric, that show's not on for 10 years. I don't know what the f*** I'm doing in this business. And that's when I believe, like, okay, maybe it's going to be real. Maybe it will. And I think your longest job up to that point was something like eight days. And it's one thing to get the role. It's a whole other thing to then find out the back nine episodes are getting picked up.

50:38So that was the key. People always say, what's the most important day? And people automatically think it's the day I got the part. But see, again, I never looked at that. I always thought I should be prepared to get the part. So getting the part was my job. Like that was my job. I was in control somewhat of that. Meaning doing as good as I could. So I never got that excited when I got jobs. I just was like, well did my work. But when they picked up the back nine is when then you could start to see like a second season, a third season, a fourth season. And then it starts to become like, oh, this is like all those TV shows I've grown up watching.

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51:48Which is the coolest feeling. Coolest feeling. I talked to Modern Family creator Steve Levitan, and he said, Eric's a worrier. His mind doesn't stop. He's a person who feels he needs to fix things. He has this sense of justice. Your thoughts? Yeah, I could have almost written Steve's description of me based on that. The thing I'll say about Steve, and I get emotional, because those two guys changed my life, man. Steve and Chris, they changed my life. And Steve and I, we share some of the same qualities, but he's a worrier. He cares, you know, has a deep care. And he, he took the time to see that a lot of that can manifest into a not great way.

52:49And he took the time to know that like, you know, doesn't make me a bad guy that I have a sense of justice and want things to be right and that I care and that I can't not worry about everything. And that's what I would say to anyone going on to be on a sitcom for 11 years, is you can't worry about everything that's going on. Because what Steve doesn't know is crew members would tell me and talk to me about all that stuff. Because they identified me as the guy to go and talk to about it. You're not going to go to Ed O 'Neill. You're not going to go to Sophia. So a lot of the things on set trickled to me.

53:32And then I, being me, my father's son, I have the choice to make. Well, do I try to make change for people or do I look at some money in the eye and say, well, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm an actor. And that's what he said. He said on set you took the responsibility of having to look out for everyone in your mind when he didn't have to. And he said that he prefaced it with saying I say this in the best way possible. Well, and I would just disagree that every once in a while I did have to. That's all I would say. I mean, I would say he's mostly right that I didn't have to. But remember, information doesn't always trickle up.

54:17Steve and Chris are the bosses. There's someone in there that doesn't want Steve and Chris to know stuff. And that all trickles down, right? And so sometimes the stuff that didn't trickle up needed to get there somehow. And that's how I felt what my role was every once in a while. And one of the things he said he loved about you was the fact that, like, you guys would occasionally get into it. And, you know, he could always trust you to speak your mind. And, like, that's not always the case with somebody you work with where you actually always know where you stand. I just was never the type of person that would walk on set and make conversation to make conversation.

54:56like I always felt having an authentic moment with me meant way more than me pretending in that moment to care what you did over the weekend we're going to get to what you did over the weekend and we're going to talk we're probably going to talk about it but we're going to talk about it in an organic way in a real way that's a conversation that's not me talking at you so that you don't talk to me that's a lot of actors I feel a lot of actors will just talk at you to keep you at a spot a space and then you never get to you never really get to know them because they just keep you here well I look at relationships as we're going to grow here you know we're going to have a good a good time but let's I don't have to pretend like I'm super excited at 6 30 in the morning uh how was having Kobe on set that was awesome Kobe uh we I'd met him and just casually said to him one day, because he was a fan of the show, I knew he was, I said, Kobe, you should stop by sometime and just hang out and watch us rehearse and shoot.

56:03He's like, I'm going to do that. And then one day somebody was like, hey, did you hear Kobe's coming to the set today? I'm like, no. Are you for real? Like, yeah. So he came and watched us. It's the episode where Julie and I are redoing a house, wearing a yellow Western shirt and a bandana. And Kobe came and spent the entire day and at one point I was like man that's so cool you came and he was like well you told me to come sometime and I'm like yeah I know I did but I didn't know he's like yeah I thought he said I woke up and I wanted to laugh and when you're Kobe Bryant it just means you go watch the show you're a fan of we did a taping with him a while back and the one thing I remember is like he made you feel like you were the only person in the room when he was talking to you.

56:49Awesome, awesome guy. My last interaction with him was we were in Las Vegas with Paul and my friend Stacy and we're walking into catch and he's walking out and he always had the security guy with him and I start walking right towards Kobe because I know he knows me and it's not going to be like get away from me but that security guard immediately gets his hand up and Kobe's like man man like dap me up it was great. Why do you hate the word weird? You know, I think weird is a lazy word. I think people use weird to describe something they don't care to investigate or understand. And I think probably because when I was a kid, people probably, you know, I thought people were weird.

57:34I had to learn what, I'm no different than anyone else. Like, I had to learn that weird is me not being willing to go a little deeper. because you just classify someone as weird and you typically move on. Some people look at weird as like a badge of honor, and I don't take that away from them. I always felt like weird was a reflection upon the person calling me weird more than it was about me. And it probably stems from me wanting to be a clown, throw the discus, play football, raise pigs, and put on my mom's makeup, you know, and stuff like that, just like an eclectic kid. And so whenever I hear someone say, oh, that kid's weird, I just think, well, you're probably a lazy person.

58:17Go talk to that person. Why do you think you got in fights a lot as a kid? Well, because I was overweight and fat. And that led to fights, how? Yeah, people making fun of me. I was bullied, and then in fourth grade, fifth grade, I kind of changed the paradigm where I was like, now I'm going to control the situation and you call me that name and I'm going to pummel you. That's why I think I inherited my dad's temper. He had a temper. A temper in what way? I mean, a fuse. He lived a life with rules that sometimes you knew and sometimes you had to kind of predict. And if you circumvented them or broke them or whatever, I mean, there wasn't a fair amount of warning when you were in trouble.

59:18I look back and think probably, well, there probably was a lot of warning. I just wasn't keen to the warnings. And I find myself now saying, like, I'm cool until I'm not. Like, I give warning flares. Like, hey, I'm feeling backed into a corner here. What would your dad do? I mean, he was a, he was a yeller. Like, he, he yelled. I mean, I can only say this now because he's passed away. He never, like, really liked me talking, talking about him, even though there's nothing really bad to say about him, other than, you know, he, he yelled. Care and concern in my house sounded like this. What in the damn hell happened?

59:59Like, that's are you okay, right? Damn it, what did you do? Are you okay? That's how that sounded. So, you know, you kind of have to calibrate that and learn, never question whether my dad loved us, loved me. My dad was authentic. But then you move to Hollywood and you deal with these unauthentic, inauthentic people playing a role like who my dad was. And I call it their shtick, right? And all these directors you've heard about, screamers, yellers, or whatever, they couldn't have held a candle to my dad, right? But they're playing that role. And I was so armed and prepared for those people. And I do my best to be the best version of everything great my dad was and try to curtail the things that I wish he wouldn't have done or said or been like.

1:01:01It's like my dad did the best he could, you know, and with what he was given. And I tried to have as much forgiveness. And, you know, he and I got to a place in our life definitely where we transitioned from father and son to...

1:01:20To be friends, you know, like I really feel like he had a lot of respect for me. I had a tremendous amount of respect for him. We had the classic moment where I raised my fist to him, like when I was 16, 17 years old. we squared off in the pig pen up by where I grew up and he just said, make it your best shot because if you don't knock me out, I'm coming after you. And I'm just standing there in my army green John Rambo jacket, rubber boots and ready to punch my dad for yelling at me because I ripped a bag of pig feet on the fence climbing over it. and I'd had enough. And he told me, take your best shot, bud.

1:02:20And I think it was that moment and a couple others that he knew I wasn't scared of him, and I think he appreciated it. So what happened when you... I lowered my fists. I put them down quietly, and I walked away. I got on my Huffy bicycle, and I rode and laid in a ditch for about five hours. What do you think he taught you? Well, he taught me work ethic 100%. He taught me loyalty. He taught me generosity. He was a very generous guy. He was a complicated guy, just like everyone's dad is, you know. But you've just got to be willing to meet them where they are. My dad always, you know, was a do what you can, when you can, how much you can type of guy with charity and donations and things like that.

1:03:22Taught me how to, you know, be nice to, you know, to everyone. He taught me how to set parameters, you know. Why do you think your drive to succeed came from your dad? Well, he was successful at life. And he was able to provide a life for my mom and myself and my sister and my brother that gave us opportunity. And I wanted to be able to take care of a family, people around me, like he did. He set an example of, as a man, this is what you do. You go to work, and you provide, and you give your loved ones opportunity. And so I also wanted to show him that I was really good. At K-State, I did a play called All My Sons, and at the end of that play, Joe Keller kills himself.

1:04:28and you know here I am 20 years old playing the role of a 70 year old guy in a play or whatever and it ends with me going upstairs and you hear shotgun blast and that's the end of the play and I'll never forget my dad who had seen me in prelude to a kiss and just some wacky stuff and see me being a clown or whatever and we're backstage at Nichols Hall at K-State and he just he's kind of just standing there and he just said well Eric I sure never knew you could do that and that I think that was the beginning of just you wait and see what I can do I mean and he was you know my mom they're my biggest fans and obviously thanked them in my first Emmy speech and gave them the trophy and wanted them to wake up every day and know that that's a reminder of the platform that they created for me to have success on.

1:05:35Like, they set that in motion. Early, when I said I wanted to be a drummer, I had a snare drum. When I said I wanted to learn karate, I had a karate gi. when I said I wanted to do this, I did that. Never thinking that I was the weird kid, right?

1:05:58Yeah, I just think like any guy, I wanted my dad and mom to be proud of me. You've been pretty open about your family's pretty extensive history with cancer, right? But it's obviously pretty much everybody's afflicted with it in some way, shape or form. But your dad was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia about four and a half years before he passed. You had said he decided on his own terms that he was done. How so? Well, he got to the point where he had to go for a weekly transfusion, like to stay alive. And I kept begging him to do that because selfishly I didn't want him to die, right? But I also had very quiet moments with him where we go back to that friendship and me saying like, at some point I know dad it's not going to be about me and mom and your family and my sister and everybody, that it is about you.

1:07:11And when it's that time, I got your back. I will be honest with you and I won't fight you. I won't try to talk you into doing anything that you don't want to do. But until then, I'm going to be you to you and how you were to us as kids and push you because your life is nothing like it was for you. He was outside, always doing something, working his machines, you know, piddling around in his barn, whittling, making toys, you know, just constantly going. It's not that anymore. It might be going to the doctor. It might be getting up and sitting in your chair and sitting outside and listening to the birds.

1:08:01He might be going to Costco or Sam's Club and putting you in the little remote control thing and wheeling around there. He loved people. He never met a stranger. It might just be that, but let's find some joy in that. And he did for three years, three and a half years. And he always knew, he always was curious about what death would be like for his type of cancer. He was always asking his doctor. and his doctor was great, Dr. McGurk. And he just said, you know, if you stop getting a transfusion, your body will just, in about a month, a month's time, just go to sleep. And we were out at my property in Leavenworth.

1:08:46Lindsay and I have a piece of property out west in Kansas.

1:08:55and the SWAT team, the FBI SWAT team trains out there every once in a while and they decided they were going to do some smoked bologna and I told dad, hey they're making smoked bologna, we're going to do smoked bologna sandwiches. So he and Darcy, the caregiver who you've met and we'll see, they drove dad out and had smoked bologna sandwich and boy he thought that was about the best thing he'd ever tasted in his life, and did some training on the shooting range. And Dad, he looked so pale, but he told me literally, Eric, I don't have any more fuel in the tank.

1:09:40So weird that that's where we were. and then the whole ride home and that next day he came to grips with that month time period that the doctor had always told him he's like once you decide you have a month to live and it took him 24 hours to work through that he was going to die in a month and then after that he was talkative and fun as much as he could be. Welcomed visitors. He loved loud noises, big booms. He had a little cannon that took, he pulled a string and it shot a 10-gauge blank off. And so when people would come, we'd say, Dad, do you want to do the cannon? Yeah. So we'd get the cannon up and pop.

1:10:26And he'd just laugh as much as he could. And passed away at the house there.

1:10:35and when the funeral home came to get him, got the cannon out, and when he left the property, boom.

1:10:51I just...

1:10:59You know, I just wanted to make him proud and just thought he was such a good guy. That's when he passed away and I saw him take his sort of last breath. That's all I could keep saying in that moment was, you're such a good guy. And you know you've made him proud. The Vincent A. Stone Street Family Fund. And that ties into kind of the thinking behind that. Yeah. And he loved kids. He loved helping out kids. And Kansas City Hospice was such a great... Talk about angels on earth, people that have dedicated their lives to helping people in their final chapter. So we seeded that fund to try to help kids that are at the unfortunate end of their life.

1:11:55So we thought, well, there's about 65, 70 kids in Kansas City that end up in hospice every year. And some of them have desires and wants and dreams. And we thought, well, Dad would want to help out with that for sure. So we've been able to make a few wishes come true for kids. Your mom, a two-time cancer survivor. what did going through that experience with her teach you humor I mean when she first had was diagnosed with her kidney cancer I mean I was in LA and just feeling so far away from everything and called her every day tried to keep her positive and make her laugh and you know it taught me that I knew that if I ever found the success I found that and got asked to lend my name and my face to an organization that I wanted it to be something with respect to cancer.

1:12:56And that's when I, you know, Stand Up to Cancer reached out to me pretty early on, and it was an absolute yes. And it always is a yes when they ask for something. How has kind of your recognition of that impacted how you live your life? Well, I try my best. I'm just like everybody else. I try to watch what I do and how I act and stay relevant. but I have my shortcomings with things too. But the good news with leukemia, we sort of did the genetic markers, and Dad's leukemia isn't necessarily something that, I mean, genetically and hereditarily that I have to worry about. But this thing, cancer, and Stand Up to Cancer does such a great job of it at the Game 4 of Every World Series, where you hold up the card and say who you're standing up for.

1:13:50Through that, with my mom and my sister and my dad, and I had an uncle who had acute leukemia, and through my dad's death, the thing that I've learned and that bums me out is in this world where we all have all these differences, we all can look across from each other and find a reason to not like them or feel different about them the one thing we never talk about is that you and I have something very much in common and that we're going to have to deal with grief and bereavement and the loss of a parent or the loss of a loved one and I just now tell people everyone that I can like find the commonality because we We all walk around knowing this thing is coming or has come.

1:14:45And we all have to deal with it. And you'd think that we would find some sort of unity in that. Because, you know, my dad's death hit me. So-and-so's dad's death or mom's death is going to hit them. And you'd think we'd be able to, like, find compassion with each other no matter what we think of each other politically, skin color, whatever you want to think of. We're all the same. So lighter topic, can I hear this Jimmy John's character that I hear you do? Well, that's from what you're talking about there is my time in Chicago where I had to listen to the strong Chicago accent that they're all in denial that they have.

1:15:34you know but that's a what what you're talking about there is is is my friend Henry when I lived in Chicago he got his car broken into and he had a voicemail on his answering machine that has my mom's and dad's favorite story because it was his name was Henry Osterkamp so you got all these A's in the Chicago accent that you have to hit and you have to enunciate the T at the end of sentences so he comes home and he's like you got to come up and hear this message because he knew i was such a fan of the accent and people in chicago and it went something like this hello uh mr oster camp hi this is detective tom caccavelli chicago pd belmont station calling in regards to your car break-in at 11753HertSook.

1:16:32Like, all these A's. So that has been a character now that I've done forever. Levitan said he wanted to create a show around it, and you weren't interested. Well, it's not that I'm not interested. It was right on the heels of Modern Family, and COVID happened. I mean, tell Steve to call me. I might be interested. So he said he was half waiting on you to call him back about it. And he's like, I just, he just wasn't interested. That's sad. Well, he's the one that can make shows happen, you know. So, yeah, he loves my accent that I do. Our friend Jimmy John, who owns Jimmy Jans, who I had gotten to know through the Napa Wine Auction,

1:17:19he has a whole different version of Chicago accent and that's what Steve loved that I would do. But yeah, we should do that show. How was filming the WhatsApp commercial? It was fun. It was great to be back with everybody. It was very exciting. You know, it's weird to get back in those clothes. Just jump right back in. And it was weird coming from here because I've been living in Kansas City for since Modern Family ended, basically. and probably harder to get yourself to leave kansas city after you have a setup you like so much right it is it is and um but what i realized it does is it highlights everything great about our business the entertainment business and it highlights all the douchebaggery of our business It amplifies it because I'm here, I'm dealing with people from here, and I'm going into the store and having all these authentic real moments, and then I go to Hollywood, and you're reminded of some of the types of people that you deal with.

1:18:24But then you're also offered fruit on a big board. Would you like some lychee and kiwi, sir? It's like, oh, yeah, this is what's great about Hollywood. It's like nobody's offered me a fruit board over at Jolly Ridge when Darcy and I are lemon or mowing. So it's really fun. It just amplifies it. It's like leaving here and going back and doing something is almost more fun than it was living there doing it. Do you think the ship has kind of sailed in terms of a modern family spinoff or still potential? I don't think it's potential anymore. Why not? Well, they had their chance. You know, Chris Lloyd and a couple of the writers wrote a really great script that spun Jesse and I off in our life in Missouri.

1:19:10And they said no. They just said, we don't want to do it. And I think it hurt Jesse and I's feelings. I think it hurt Chris Lloyd's feelings. I mean. How did it get to you? Well, because I love my character. I love the show. I love Jesse. We had a great working relationship. We had amazing chemistry. We didn't know each other, and we built these characters that Steve and Chris wrote and our writing staff cultivated. And I guess because we weren't maybe done. Like, I would have kept going. I think everyone would have kept going a year away from being done with the show. Like you give everybody a year's time to be like, do you want to go back?

1:20:02Everybody says yes. And maybe even ABC at the time would have been like, yeah, come back, come back, come back. Because the world shut down and everything was different and this and that. But, you know, I think Jesse and I were maybe felt like they thought of us as the old, old, old guys or something like that. That didn't seem worthy of keeping that, you know, those characters going. It just felt a little hurtful. But people make business decisions. I mean, we can't get involved in that. I mean, again, it's like... Why? Well, I'm not the one getting fired if they do a Modern Family spinoff and it fails.

1:20:41And those are TV executives that have to make those decisions. And I get it. I think it would have been a slam dunk. I don't think it would have not been successful. because you had one of the creators who had really taken such great care of making sure that show was great for so long, willing to do it. It wasn't like two ancillary writers that were just being like, hey, we're looking for a money grab here and want to do a spin-off, and if it lasts a year or whatever, we made a couple hundred thousand dollars or whatever. And Levitan seemed conflicted about his decision not to join. Yeah, he didn't.

1:21:17Yeah. I mean, because they have a whole different relationship, Steve and Chris. Their relationship was unique for a TV show. But the problem is, is we had a great thing. And so when you ask someone, do you want to do a spinoff? Your first reaction is, why wouldn't I want to work in this utopia more? Then you start to think about it. And Steve's concern, and understandably and rightfully so, is it has to be great. We can't dilute the brand by doing something just to do it, which I completely get and understand. My point was always like, we had the right people in place. It would have been great.

1:21:58If ABC would have said, let's do it, I think we'd be on right now. I do. That's not to say it can't then. I don't know. I don't know how it works anymore. I really don't because it's been so long. Maybe not. I mean, I wish we would do like a Christmas special or something like that. And there's been talk of that. Like a couple writers have had that idea of like doing sort of like British sort of versions of Christmas specials, like a two-hour movie every once in a while. That'd be fun. Where do your desires lie in terms of, you know, professional work moving forward? I'm in the process of pitching the show right now.

1:22:44and hopefully there'll be some good news with that soon. You're super excited. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a group of people working with, yeah, Peyton Manning, Omaha Productions, Eric Tannenbaum, great producer. They came to me with a couple ideas and I picked one. It's a little bit of a love letter to my dad and to father and son relationships, finding the relationship at the end of, you know, sort of the end of your dad's life that you never knew you were gonna have. Funny, comedy, something we all relate to, but hopefully somebody will be smart and pick that up. But I have a desire to work.

1:23:26I mean, I wanna work. I love this being my home base, and I think it's pretty cool that I've re-tethered myself to where I started. I went and did this whole career, 20-plus years, and found my success, and because of Lindsay and because of the pandemic making because of my dad's health, I found my way back to where it all started. Well, and to your credit, that was something that at least you had a little bit of interest in back in the day in terms of eventually ending back here. And it has to feel like super satisfying and rewarding to have earned the ability to make that happen. Yes, it does.

1:24:03And my dad so quietly one day said perfectly, we're sitting in the living room and he said well Eric I sure never thought you'd come back home and it's such a simple sentence and I it's really stuck with me because I didn't either like I had no plans of living in Kansas City you know a few things happened to start that effect and that all brought me here and it's perfect. How often do you text with Roger Goodell? You know more than people you would think more than people would imagine. I give him I like to give him s**t. Okay give me give me examples. Well you know I'm not a fan of some of the rules in the NFL.

1:24:51He all to his credit he always supports his officials. He always supports the rule of the game. He's very knowledgeable on the rule of the game. Shockingly so. How so? If I make a comment about a flag, he'll, within a minute, tell me what the rule is. Oh, no way. Oh, 100%. And if he doesn't, he'll forward me on an email to the head official. Like that happened not that long ago. Not a complaint, but a genuine question. Is it called a broken tackle if a running back bursts into the end zone through a tackle? Is that a missed tackle? Just something that popped into my head. I wanted to know the answer to that.

1:25:38And he's like, great question. I don't know the answer to that. And then he CC'd me to the head official. And the head official gave me the whole dissertation on what the rule was. I can't spout it off to you right now, but I got the answer. What do you like about Commissioner Goodell? You know, he doesn't care what necessarily people think of him. I can't imagine being him. And when I met him and got to know him as a person, personally, and see how he treats people around him, behind the scenes, no cameras, I'm like, Roger, why do you let people think you're such a d***? Like, you're a nice person.

1:26:18Like, you love your wife. Your wife and kids love you. I love you. You're funny. He busted my balls the first time. So he called me and invited me to the Super Bowl because the girls were a fan of Modern Family. And you turned them down. I turned them down. I said, I'm not going to the Super Bowl until the Chiefs are in it. And he said, OK, if you want to wait that long. And I'm like, oh, mother f***er, all right. I see how it is, commissioner. I called him commissioner. And he said, if you call me commissioner, I'm going to call you Coach Cam. And so I call him Roger. And listen, people have their opinion of him.

1:26:50again, I'm going to judge it how I see it. And I feel like I'm a pretty decent judge of character. You don't get to be as successful as he is and as good at his job without making a whole lot of people mad and doing a lot of things that people don't like, without question. But man to man, person to person, how I see him interact with people around him, quality individual, cares about his family, loves his family, nice to me, wonderful to Lindsay. And that's how I'm going to judge him. And, you know, that's how I hope somebody judges me. I can't let you out of here without a Taylor and Travis perspective.

1:27:29Oh my gosh. I'm happy for both of them because doesn't it just seem like they're perfect for each, I mean, honestly, perfect for each other. I've known Travis. I'm not going to say we're best friends, but again, talking about like my interactions with someone, I see him as such a good quality human being based on how he treats my sister, how he treats my mom, how he treats the boys, how I watch him interact with people. I know what he is on the football field. I know how much his teammates love him. I know how much Brett Beach and Coach Reed love him. And Taylor, it's not easy to be with the most popular person in the world, but if there is anyone who can do it and do it with cool, it's Travis Kelsey because he is who he is all the time and he's so confident in himself.

1:28:24He's such a quality, funny guy, funny guy. I had a very, I reminded him of this when I saw him in Vegas a couple weeks ago when I went to training camp and I was doing the Randy Reed thing where I was playing Coach Reed's brother, I said, hey, Travis, you want to improvise? I'm going to come up to you and talk about Himalayan sea salt, and you just roll with me. It's like, I'm just going to say that you've got Himalayan sea salt up in the cafeteria. You put it on your vanilla ice cream. He's like, all right, bro, yeah, let's roll. And you watch that. And that's him just rolling with the punches.

1:28:54I'm a pretty good improviser, pretty good actor, and Travis is hanging right there with me. And after that, I told him, I said, look, man, you're a small market team, I guess, whatever you want to say, because we weren't winning Super Bowls at that point. It was the year we were going to win our first Super Bowl. I said, but you got it. You've got the gift. You can do whatever you want to do. When you're done with football or during football, you're talented, like for sure. I mean, not that it matters that I think it, but I blessed him at that moment and said, you're awesome. You're natural. And he's like, I totally remember that.

1:29:31I totally remember you telling me that. He's great. And why wouldn't you love Travis Kelsey if you're Taylor Swift? How about sitting next to Sandy Koufax? What a legend. That's a cool story because I was getting grief because I'm from Kansas City and a Dodgers season ticket holder and I had season tickets at Kansas City that my mom and sister went to and I had Dodgers season tickets that I went to. And I'm like... You're living in LA. Yeah! And I'm 14 minutes from Dodgers Stadium. It's like I can't fly home for every Kansas City baseball game. And if I want to enjoy the pageantry of the sport, that's my option.

1:30:04So I just decided I'm going to get season tickets. And people were giving me so much grief. Well, I became friends with Mark Walter, the owner of the Dodgers. And I said, you know, Kansas City's coming to town. I want to come to the game, but I don't know what to do. And he said, here's what you're going to do. You're going to sit in the owner's box, wear your Kansas City Royals hat, and Sandy Koufax is going to be sitting next to you. And if anybody gives you any trouble about that, then it's their problem. So he invited us in, and sure enough, there I am with Sandy. I got to spend a little bit of time with Sandy at a friend's house, and his wife is from Kansas City.

1:30:39Great people, wonderful human being, just a legacy, humble, shy. But, man, what a treat to get to know somebody like that. How do you become part owner of the Royals? That happened because the Royals sold, and I thought, well, I'll just make a phone call and see. Literally, it was like you pursued it, right? Yeah, I just had a friend get me Mr. Sherman's number, and I just said, you know, any interest? And he said, sure. So I jumped in, and it's just, you know, just for legacy. I mean, it's generational. It's like, when are you ever going to get to have, say, you have any ownership or participation in any kind of professional sports team?

1:31:23So I just thought it was an opportunity to take advantage of when it happened. What do you think of the stadium stuff that's going on? You know, it's rough because I get both sides. Being from Kansas City, I know how much people love going to the K out in the middle of nowhere in the sports complex. I get it. I also get that Mr. Sherman and the ownership group thinks that downtown baseball is the right answer. You know, people complained about when we got a new airport in Kansas City because everyone loved the old airport. And now it's like, oh, man, we have bathrooms at our airport. We have restaurants at our airport.

1:32:03My point is, is they have to find a way to do it. And I'm no part of that. Like, it's, you know, I'm a dumb actor. I'm going to support the royals and chiefs no matter where they are in the metro. First time in this interview, you sound like a politician. Right. because there is no answer I can have that's going to satisfy anyone. And here's the good news is I'm a fan. My opinion doesn't necessarily hold any more weight than anyone else that goes to the games. I love the Kansas City Chiefs. I love the Kansas City Royals, and I will support them with whatever the people that are getting paid and elected figure out where they exist.

1:32:48You said there aren't many places that make you happier than Arrowhead Stadium. You have a suite, I think, right above where you used to have season tickets. And you're at pretty much every home game. Every home game. I don't miss every home game. Or we don't miss a home game. Yeah, those season tickets stem from me being homesick from school one day when I was in high school and calling my dad or junior high, I think, and saying, can we get season tickets to the Chiefs? They just advertised there's a no alcohol section. and I knew that would interest him because his problem was with his sort of temper he didn't want to go and put himself in situations where he was dealing with some kind of a drunk because it he might throw fists that's just how it was and so I was like well there's just no alcohol section and he got us two season tickets and we sat right down on the second row section 130 or 131 I can't remember what it is right on the aisle and our suite is right above it most fun you've ever had with the Randy Reed character?

1:33:49The Patrick Mahomes prank thing, that's again where I walk up to Patrick and say, hey, just pretend like I, you know, there was a bug in your room and I set that all up and then you can watch that clip where I'm like, you know, he's like, man, there's a cricket in my room or something like that. And he was great. Like they were all, oh, one of my favorite moments is with Jarek McKinnon because a lot of these guys have no idea They're rookies or new to the team, and they don't know that the guy from Modern Family is a fan of the team or whatever. And Coach Reed giving me the access he gives me, which the only rule is don't get ahead of us on the field, meaning when they're running plays, I can't be here.

1:34:28I can be back here, but I can't be here. Only rule. Thank you, Coach Reed. And you guys have kind of become buddies. Oh, he's the best. If you told 16-year-old Eric that I was friends with the general manager of the Chiefs and the head coach of the Chiefs, he just wouldn't believe it. But Jarek McKinnon was new to the team. and I've got one of those hyper ice things, and I'm like rubbing myself, and Jarek McKinnon's like sitting on the sideline on a knee with his helmet on his hand, and I walk up to him. I'm like, hey, and I got it on, and it's vibrating in my hand. You need it anywhere? And he's like, no, man, I'm good.

1:35:04Like just looks up at me like, why the f**k is a coach asking if he can massage me right now on the sideline of a practice. He was so funny and so cute. And then when offensive linemen would be tired and take a knee, I'd go over and sit on their knee. And those new guys had no idea what I was doing. And it's like, what the hell is going on? That was a first, you know. That was Brett Veach. It's the idea I had a long time ago. And then I told Brett Veach about it, and he implemented it. And I can't say enough good things about Brett Veach, the general manager of the Chiefs. He's a great human being, a great guy, and he's the one that said, we'll get Coach on board and you do that.

1:35:47But Randy Reed's retired now. Retired? Yeah, he's retired. He's living off jet ski money, baby. He doesn't get to Kansas City anymore. Thanks for doing this, Eric. This is so fun. That does it for my conversation with Eric Stone Street. As part of our day with him, we toured his 80-acre property in the Kansas City area, and sure enough, little surprise to me, he did, in fact, try and screw with me. So we're out driving along in his Polaris, touring his property, trimming branches. He has me get out to trim one. And of course, as I'm doing that, he puts a fake snake behind me. So if you care to see me look like a fool, which, as most of you know, is a pretty common occurrence on In Depth, Go to youtube.com slash Graham Bensinger.

1:36:42You can also see a tour of the house he and his fiancee, Lindsay, are building on their property. And if you have a minute, give us a rating and review. Thanks again for listening.