Busy Philipps: The Right Time (Re-Release)

23:11Rob Lowe:Why don't you do a tour? Well, I would love it. That would be my dream. I can't imagine that you can't. I mean, people go and watch Two Idiots do a podcast. Have you done that? Have you done that? I haven't yet, but I want to. I do a one-man show, though. You do? Yeah, I do that. When? I want to go. it's it's it's super fun i think the next place i'm playing is um caesar's palace las vegas my god amazing did you write it how'd you put it together i did it just like the books where i just did it on my own and and like figuring nobody knows my material or what i want to say better than me and i'll do it and if it's bad i'll bring other people in but it kind of everybody kind of liked it and it worked so it's ignorance is bliss i know nothing about it and i just went out and did it and it's super, super fun.

24:03My gosh, I love that. I want to do a show like that someday.

24:07Rob Lowe:You would be great. No, you would. You would be great. You should do that because you're a hybrid in a way, I think like me, where you're a little bit of everything and you know what I mean? You're not really a standup, but you're super funny. You know how to tell a story. You've got great experiences. It's why you were great in your talk show. It's like you should do it. You 1 billion percent should think about that. Maybe I will. Maybe that will be my thing that I will think about this week. Because you don't have enough to do already. Well, right. So I'm obsessed with the show because I love...

24:44Rob Lowe:Okay. So it brings to mind all kinds of... Josie and the Pussycats comes up for me, the girls in tails and hats and that cartoon again, way before your time. Well, I auditioned for the movie version in the early 2000s or the late 90s. Okay, well, there you go. I didn't get it. Tara Reid got it. So, you know. God damn it. I lost so many parts to Tara Reid in the 90s. See, okay, yeah. So she was your person. Every actor has that actor where they're like, Curses, foiled again by Tara Reid. Well, it was like Tara Reid and Natasha Lyonne were the two people that I lost all my parts to. And now I still lose everything to Natasha, but that's okay.

25:22Rob Lowe:She's hot as a pistol, kid. She's great. I'm obsessed with her. She's fantastic. She's pretty great. Do you see Tina on the show? Is Tina around on? Yes. I love Tina Fey. She's definitely around. I love me some Tina Fey. She might be the greatest. She's the greatest. Well, and also, Rob, you know, I've been doing this, like we sort of mentioned, since I was a teenager acting in Hollywood. I was 19 when Freaks and Geeks started. So wait, Dawson, which was first? Freaks and Geeks or Dawson's? Freaks and Geeks. Freaks and Geeks. Dawson's Creek was like a huge hit. And I was in college at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

26:05And the hit of Dawson's Creek was why I even got an agent. Because every agency in town all of a sudden wanted a teen on their roster. And every network was trying to do a hit teen show. So I just was like 19 at the right time in the right place. And in that year, that like pilot season, back when there was a real thing called pilot season, I had over 90 auditions and callbacks and callbacks and tests like for TV shows. Wow. Yeah. It was insane. And so I got that season. I got Freaks and Geeks. And then I also got a I also did a guest star on another like WB TV show that didn't get picked up. And but it was wild.

27:13Like my boyfriend at the time was Colin Hanks. And he got cast on Roswell and I got cast on Freaks and Geeks. And we both left college to be on our TV shows. Like it was like pretty awesome.

27:25Rob Lowe:That's a thing. That's a real thing. It was. It was. It was a real thing. Yeah, it was fun. Freaks and Geeks is, as you know, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. It's up there with, it might be the probably number one show where people are like, it was one season and out and kind of perfect. And if you were going to look at shows that were canceled before their time, it's probably, I hear Freaks and Geeks. I hear Firefly. is another one and then in all modesty my show the grinder those are you hear those like one season where you cannot believe that they were on the air because they were so distinctive and ahead of their time and and it's it's it's sad but it's also kind of cool like it existed it was this one thing and that was it and a lot of people i mean particularly of freaks the careers that came out of that nuts i mean i mean well yeah paul feig created it but judd executive produced it they had done heavyweights together the the movie they had been working together for a couple years and um and jake kasdan directed the pilot jake kasdan directed the grinder yeah by the way can we talk about the grinder for two seconds first of all jared paul who created The Grinder, is a good friend of ours.

28:52He's the best. And for many, many years, the best. But also, Rob, I'm going to tell you something now that's going to blow your mind, and you can text Jared later, and he will confirm.

29:02Rob Lowe:Please. Mark Silverstein. Yes. He came up with the idea for The Grinder. No way! And Abby, his writing partner, were thinking about it and had lunch with Jared and Andy, I think, or maybe just Jared, and kind of told him the idea. And then Jared and Andy were in pitching to Fox or whoever they had their deal with. And Jared called Mark after and he's like, I think I just pitched your idea. And they love it. And can we do it? And Mark was like, yeah, it's fine. Go for it. That's a true story. Well, tell him thank you. Yeah, but I was such a huge fan of the show. I loved that show so much. And you were so fantastic on it.

29:42It was such a great show.

29:43Rob Lowe:Thank you. I think you can get it on Hulu now. Finally. You can. You guys watch it. Watch the grinder. But you know, but they're so weird about how they put shows out on streaming or pull them. They, I don't know what that is. Probably because they don't want to pay us. I don't know. That's what I just always assume. I should have. I can't believe we didn't get you on the grind. Well, you would, we would have figured out a way to get you on the grinder. I think I was on Cougar Town at the time. You're on Cougar Town. By the way, another great name. You names. names good names follow you i just have good luck you had the single best name ever for a talk show ever ever ever ever never to be repeated ever best name ever busy tonight best ever thank you that was also ahead of its time out of it 100 it was like people always are like to me you should have a talk show i which i kind of this is what this kind of is but the the thing and i quote the great lauren michaels um where he was talking to jimmy fallon about taking over the tonight show and lauren said you know if you do it jimmy it'll be the last job you ever have right it's hard to like do in terms of like acting and having other i mean look jimmy's a very very prolific producer now.

31:06He's got so many different shows that he's producing. And I think it depends what you want to do, you know?

31:13Rob Lowe:But you loved it. I mean, did you love it? I loved it. You did love it. I loved it. Right? Yeah. It was the best. I also, you know, we did four nights a week, which I felt really strongly about because the guys always get four or five nights a week. And everybody was like, you're going to want to die. It's going to be too much work. And, you know, we had a largely, I mean, almost a hundred percent female, like behind this, you know, executive writers. And we didn't have that many writers. We were doing it for no money, like a real shoestring budget. And I, we had the most fun and I never felt like overwhelmed or that it was too much work.

31:59I mean, there were days when I was very exhausted when we would have to do two shows in one day. That was when I would need to lie down.

32:09Rob Lowe:Yes. Yeah, for sure. Early. But we had the best time and the environment was really supportive and great. And I'm really proud of what we were able to do. We gave a lot of people shots on our show behind the scenes that they maybe wouldn't have gotten otherwise. We got two writers into the union, you know, and Tina Fey was our executive producer on that, too. And she would send me notes on text in between my like run through. What kind of notes does Tina give? joke pitches you know or how to tighten up a joke or um maybe lose a joke so it's not it's not lauren lauren pitches where lauren um your desk is too big no but the but the executives had a lot of those kinds of notes like i needed to not touch my hair so much but they wondered if when I changed my nail polish color, if that would be upsetting to the audience.

33:13Not even a joke. That was the note.

33:15Rob Lowe:I'm bumped by Busy's nail polish. I noticed she's changed it. It's really triggering for me.

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33:50Rob Lowe:I remember telling my boss, it'll be good for the brand when leads were slow. Yeah, it wasn't. Cut the bull spend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title, and more. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend$250 on your first campaign and get a$250 credit. Go to linkedin.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. Law transforms agreement into reality. A word becomes an agreement. An agreement becomes a contract. A contract becomes law. Today, Harvey, the AI platform for legal work, is writing the next chapter. More than 200 ,000 lawyers and 80 % of the AMLA 100 are building with Harvey, accelerating review, sharpening negotiations, and more.

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35:15It is weird how many people have a say when you do television.

35:22Rob Lowe:Oh, yeah. Did they ever give you grief on your guests? Because that's always a big thing, as it should be, because the guests are everything about a show, really. Yeah, but it was also really strange. They had a weird list of people that we weren't allowed to have on the show. Amazing. And we could not for the life of us figure out why. And, you know, it was also so infuriating at times because they kept saying to us, like, well, you really should have the Kardashians. We were on E! The E! Network and the Keeping Up with the Kardashians was on E! at the time. You really need to have the Kardashians on.

35:56And we're like, you really need to help us book the Kardashians. We can't just book them. Well, isn't Busy Friends with Kim? I'm like, yeah, I mean, I've known Kim for a long time. I can like DM her, but that's not the same thing, guys.

36:11Rob Lowe:Like what they're really saying, it happens a lot, by the way. And I find it happens a lot only in the world of marketing, frankly, and publicity. And like I was happy to do a lot of the of that extra work that I wasn't getting paid for just because I really believed in making a late night show for. a different audience, you know. It was genius. No, it was great. So cool. Yeah. But it, you know, it's also just, it was a bummer that we had, you know, it was a bummer that the business part of it is so businessy and that there are things that they never filled us in on. If they had come to us and said, you know, listen, we're dealing with this hole in the budget and there's some shakeups and whatever, it would be helpful if you went down to two nights a week, like we would have done, you know, I would have kind of done anything to keep it going a little bit longer because I felt like toward the end it was really hitting its stride.

37:14But I am grateful to do my podcast now, as I'm sure you are, because it's just, yes, there's no intervention. We just do it.

37:25Rob Lowe:Yeah, you just do it. And you also have, you can talk about whatever you want. There's no timeframe. Yeah. Speaking of which, so in my notes package on you. There's a great story I have to ask you about this, this Sharon Stone thing. Is this a real thing when you were a little? Oh yeah. You have to tell me the Sharon Stone story because this sounds mental to me, but also great. It was like the, it was like the greatest thing. I am one of those people and Rob, I feel like you are too. We're just, this is based on just nothing. Just based on my being a fan of yours and like knowing you a little bit and through for people.

38:00Like just the wildest stuff has happened to me in my life and always happens to me. Yep.

38:06Rob Lowe:100%. My agent has been my agent. My agent, Lori, has been my agent since I was 21 years old. And she says, I have a huge file busy of it only could happen to you. But so when I was a teenager in Arizona, I had auditioned. Auditioned. I mean, this is there was a toy fair that was coming to town and they had uh and it's like a corporate it was like a corporate fair for where they show the toys for the next convention it was a toy convention convention it was a toy convention but they call it the toy fair and i don't know if it was like in the local backstage magazine or whatever there was an open casting call you could go as an actor and audition to be it one of the representatives of the either Barbie, the Barbie brand, or there was Cabbage Patch Kids.

39:05I mean, there were like all different places you could get put. But they really wanted actors to do it. And their idea was always, I did it a couple years, actually. And their idea was that they would dress the actors up like a life-size version of whatever toy they were selling. and that would somehow make the presentation not very boring when you're giving them the statistical facts and figures of how their sales are going to improve with cool teen skipper with the color change hair. So anyway, I got the part. I got the part. I nailed it. and it was actually not Barbie. It was the Clueless doll from, not the movie, the Clueless TV show.

39:54Mattel was doing a doll line from the Clueless TV show that came after the Clueless movie. And I was dressed up like Cher, the character, and did my whole presentation like, teen girls are going to go, or like preteen girls are going to go crazy. But I was like the hit of the circuit because I did a really good impression, obviously, of Cher from Clueless. And I guess Sharon Stone was close friends with the then CEO of Mattel. And she came one day. There was just like all a buzz in the Barbie world. Like, what's going on? What's going on? and my marketing rep for Mattel is like, well, the rumor is that Sharon Stone's coming through today.

40:47She's in town and she's visiting like with Jill, the CEO, and she's going to come see all the dolls, just like walk through and see it. I have to say, wow. It was like kind of an amazing thing to see just because they build these huge sets for each toy and then they dress women up like a life-size version wearing the exact same thing as the doll. It was all very surreal. Like one year, a friend of mine did it in Arizona and they built a mini ice skating ring for her inside and she was ice skating because there was like a new ice skating Barbie. So anyway, Sharon Stone comes through and she comes in with the CEO, which is a big deal.

41:36and my marketing girl's like, okay, go ahead, do your thing. So I start doing my thing. And then at a certain point, the CEO just like puts her hand up, like that's enough, you know, you've, you've done it. And Sharon Stone was like, that was wonderful. You're, you're, you're very talented. I think you're going to be a big star someday. and legitimately threw her scarf like over her neck and walked out of the room. And I was like, did that did that happen? Sharon Stone.

42:11Rob Lowe:And this was like, wow, 1997. This is the height of Sharon Stone. This is like I had seen this woman's vagina. Yes, I was floored. floored also by the way she was so flawlessly most beautiful person i had ever seen up she was a movie star yeah like the most movie star of a movie star i had ever seen in my life yep and maybe to this day i'm not gonna lie yep and yeah and she just she's sort of like just decreed you know she's like you're gonna you're very talented you're gonna be a huge star someday and like threw her scarf and walked out of the room and i felt like well now she anointed you that's what it felt like couldn't let her down had to go but i love i i love so many things about this story but the thing i love i think even more than the sharon stone of it all is the notion of auditioning for a toy fair in arizona because yeah look i'm from ohio i'm from dayton ohio that's exactly the kind of stuff I did as a kid.

43:19Rob Lowe:Exactly. And people always go, how do you become an actor? How do you, my kid wants to be in acting. How do you, that's how you do it. That's how you do it. That's how you do it. Truly. I also think, you know, my parents made me, made me work, get jobs. I always worked and I worked at California pizza kitchen for a long time as a hostess and in high school and then before I got Freaks and Geeks. And I think that the work ethic part of this job is not to be underestimated because I'm sure you've heard this before, but I remember my friend who was a manager used to say, in order to have longevity in Hollywood, you have to be talented, you have to generate goodwill, and you have to be hardworking and a person can get by for a period of time with only one of them or only two of them.

44:23But if you don't have all three of those qualities, your career will not last you your lifetime. Like it will be short lived. Yeah. I 100 % agree.

44:34Rob Lowe:Cause I've, I can just look back on my life and go of those three things. Okay. I need to do, I need to be using the first, second, or the third. You always have to use, you may not have to use all of them at the same time, but there comes a time where you have to, you're going to have to be able to have all three gears, 100%. 100%. And also, like, I mean, how many times have you heard about actors or directors even, or writers, where you're like, oh, that guy is super talented, but you know what? He's not pleasant to be around. I would not want him on my set. And then those people just slowly fade away because ultimately no one's got time for that or, you know, or somebody who doesn't want to work hard, doesn't want to show up.

45:19Rob Lowe:And, but here's the, my favorite is they always couch it under a euphemism. He's he or she, he's super picky, which means he doesn't, they don't like to work. They don't like to work. They don't like to work. God bless. But you know, you know who I had a great talk with about this is Michael Caine. And you know, you're young enough that you may not even remember there was an era where michael cain was sort of considered a hack like there were jokes there yes there were jokes about he'll show up in anything just write him a check he doesn't give a shit blah blah blah blah blah blah like in i would say there was there was there was a period of time for sure and we talked about this mike he and i and and you know now he listen he always he like i think he won the oscar for alfie so he's always had a great career i'm not saying that but he worked all the time is what I'm saying.

46:12Rob Lowe:He worked all the time. He wasn't super fussy about what he did. He literally, I think would do like jaws three and then, you know, go and work with Woody Allen when, when that was to do. And it's not a thing, not a thing to do now, but it was a thing to do then. Um, and he said of his peers that he came up with, he said, he says, I wasn't the most talented. I wasn't the best looking. and uh but what i all my peers either forgot how to act because they were too picky they literally forgot how to act yeah because they're always looking for everything had to be perfect everybody had to be a fancy director everything had to be you know the greatest thing ever and those things come around so infrequently that when they did come around they had forgotten how to act the other instead and the other people drank themselves to death or whatever but it's like if you just kind of keep your head down and work you know you end up being who michael is today this you know as you should be a revered you know genius yeah and i also think that people i think actors get really caught up in being cool yes and it's like well i don't even know what that means quite frankly but that changes decade to decade it does yeah it changes i mean quicker now even than that.

47:36Rob Lowe:Yeah. Year to year. And, and I think that if you can just try to focus on things that, like, I mean, like I have criteria, you know, like I have things that I feel really strongly about, like that when I'm thinking about my work as an actor, but I've also cultivated all these other, you know, the writing and podcasting now and, and these other things so that I don't have to be reliant on being just an actor for hire, which I was for so many years reliant on that. And, you know, bless Tina Fey for keeping calling me because she's really been my like fairy godmother. Yeah, everybody needs that. And but you're right.

48:24Rob Lowe:The my son is a young actor, writer. And I told him that, you know, he could you know, I give my blessing to do whatever makes him happy, obviously, but the days of being an actor for hire in our business are over. No, but when I was young, we all did that. We worked out, we went to the beach and we waited for our phone to ring and our auditions. That's literally what we did. No, I mean, when I started out, I remember having an idea for something and pitching it to my agent or somebody at the time like and them saying like look i mean i guess we could try to find a writer to work with you and yes like i but i don't even know what that would be you know i it wasn't a thing it wasn't to be at all and i remember when judd when seth rogan you know who's like a year and a half i think younger younger than me at that age you feel like it's so much younger now we're like we're essentially the same age right um but i remember when seth was telling me like oh yeah judd's gonna read this script my friend evan and i wrote together and i was like what what are you talking about like it never had occurred to me you wrote a script huh yeah i it was really you know and then and i think but but it was fantastic like the those that The opportunity of having, you know, Judd and Paul and Jake being sort of at the, you know, top of the chain in my first job was just so fortuitous because they really listened to our ideas and they really took all of us seriously.

50:15and I mean, I didn't bring them anything because again, I was like still in this other headspace of like, I'm just going to have to audition and get these parts. But it, it did help. I think for me to start thinking about the possibilities in the future,

50:33Rob Lowe:you couldn't have better people and they started it. They, those guys, you know, Evan and Seth Rogen and they and people in from that school really made this sort of actor the hyphenate actor hyphenate thing. Yeah. A real thing. And I like you know I think I spent too long in my 20s sort of feeling like it's such a boys club and why can't I be in it you know. Right. But ultimately, like, I think that the way that I've found my own voice, it was exactly the path that I needed to take, you know, because I'm just so much clearer about the things that I want to say as opposed to trying to say a thing to get a laugh out of someone else.

51:24Yeah.

51:25Rob Lowe:Oh, for sure. For sure. And that's what I always like about you and all the stuff you do is it's clearly coming from a very unique, fun point of view. And that's the key to anything. I mean, that is the key. Literally.

51:46Rob Lowe:I love getting a chance to catch up with people who I don't normally see all the time, who I like, like Busy. It's one of the great things about doing this show. How great is she? She's funny, smart, hyphenate. She's the person you want in your foxhole. For sure. Anyway, you got questions? I got answers. Let's hit the lowdown line. Hello, you've reached literally in our lowdown line, where you can get the lowdown on all things about me, Rob Lowe. 323-570-4551. So have at it. Here's the beep. Hi, Rob. This is Gail from Missouri, Kansas, Georgia, and Nebraska. Those are all places that I've lived, raised a family, and made lifelong friends.

52:38So when I go on a road trip to one of those destinations, I literally listen to your podcast like I've been doing all day today. And it got me wondering, when was the last time you went on a road trip and where did you go? Thank you so much for your fun and interesting conversations. They really help make the miles go by quickly. Bye-bye. Gail, thank you for that.

53:00Rob Lowe:But, okay, sometimes the universe talks to you in unexpected ways. You have convinced me I need to go on a road trip. It's something I've been thinking about for a long time because I haven't done one in a long time like I did when I was a kid. And they're such a big part of my memories. I don't know if they have Stuckys anymore out on the road, but that used to be the best. 25 miles to Stuckys, 15 miles to Stuckys, 5 miles to Stuckys. And then you go in there and they, they sold all that crap that was just amazing. Trinkets and then, and then what were the pecan rolls? I think they had, um, right.

53:38Rob Lowe:Stucky's pecan rolls. Let's go. I'm dating myself anyway. Um, yeah, I would, I, my favorite one I probably did when I was a kid and we drove from Dayton, Ohio and our VW van. Um, and we went all through, uh, the black Hills of South Dakota, saw Mount Rushmore, yellowstone and then all the way back to ohio it's a lot of time in the car my memories of it were you know this is no smartphones no tablets i had a book and my imagination and i look back on that and i feel so sorry for kids today i really do it's like okay yeah they can watch frozen for the billionth time. But they're not using their imagination.

54:25Rob Lowe:They're not dealing with how to deal with boredom. And not to go totally far astray, but I think the biggest thing in raising kids today and having kids is their lack of ability to sit alone and deal with boredom. We had to. And boy, do you have to do that on a road trip. I did also once rent a Winnebago the first year I was on the West Wing and I damaged it right away getting out of the driveway and then ripped the bicycles off the back going over that famous bridge that you see in all the car commercials up at Big Sur but it was so fun there's something about it I'm just saying you're so on it there's something about a road trip way better than some fancy trip on a plane.

55:10Rob Lowe:So thank you for inspiring me. I'm going to hit the road trip and I think it's going to be through the deep South. That's where I want to go next. Thanks for calling. I hope you enjoyed the show. We'll see you next week on Literally. Don't forget to subscribe. Come on, subscribe. You want all this. You don't want to just cherry pick stuff. You want the whole Megillah. I know you do. Do it. Don't forget Parks and Rec election. If you're a Parks and Rec fan, wherever you get your podcasts and I will see you next week on Literally. You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe Produced by me, Rob Schulte With help from associate producer Sarah Begar Our coordinating producer is Lisa Berm Our research is done by Alyssa Graw The podcast is executive produced by Rob Lowe for Low Profile Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross and Joanna Solitaroff at Team Coco And Colin Anderson at Stitcher All of the music you hear is by Devin Bryant Thanks for listening We'll see you next week on Literally with Rob Lowe.

56:14Rob Lowe:This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher.

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