Ed O'Neill: 10-Month La Dolce Vita (Re-Release)

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0:57Rob Lowe:For the ones who get it done. Ed, how are you, man? Hey, Rob. Tell me you're in Hawaii. You've got to be in Hawaii. Oh, no, I'm back in L.A. What? I can't believe you came back.

1:23Rob Lowe:Hey, everybody. Thanks for downloading. and you're going to get the download in about a second when we start this interview. Ed O 'Neill, a great actor, a dramatic actor, comedy actor, married with children. I mean, come on. Al Bundy, let's go! Modern Family and on and on and on. And just one of the great rock on tour storytellers and like good dudes in the business. He and I go back to our days of Wayne's World, for those of you who are super fans of that movie. And it's a fun conversation. So let's go.

1:59Rob Lowe:I didn't think you could be dragged off of Hawaii for anything. It wasn't easy, but I got to help out here. My 21-year-old's moving to New York City. You lived in New York for many years, I would think, right, at some point? Yeah. There's nothing like being young, single, starting your life out in New York. I think it should be required. Yeah, I agree. Everybody should have to live there. Don't you think? I agree for sure. you want i mean you just have to navigate it there's nothing like that energy and you know you grow up awfully quickly when you have to really really live in new york city yeah it's great i mean i the first year i kind of hated it because i didn't know what subways and what buses and what you know i mean you don't know where to go and i'd end up in all sorts of crazy places it's an art form for sure um yeah i i had no idea i was doing a little i I mean, we've known each other, you know, peripherally, peripherally, peripherally, forever.

2:57Rob Lowe:Yeah. For many, many, many, many, many, many, many years. That's right. But as I look through my little background research on you, I didn't really realize your early football career in your life. I mean, I kind of knew you played football, but I didn't really realize the extent. Yeah, I kind of wish I hadn't. Really? Why? Well, you know, I feel it now. Really? You know, a couple of knee operations, a torn Achilles tendon and concussions, broken fingers, you know, broken collarbone. How many concussions do you think you had in your career? I couldn't count them because, you know, in those days we didn't even know what, you know, well, we called it getting your bell rung.

3:39Yes, of course. Yeah, he really got his bell rung, but that was it. yeah sometimes you'd actually see i don't know if you guys are aware of this but you can actually see stars yes and planets you know that's not i always thought that was just a saying i know i

3:54Rob Lowe:thought it was a only a but it only happened to bugs bunny yes me too but i've seen a few of those planetary yeah you literally you actually see stars in the birthday like like they do in the cartoons you know it's funny when i got cut i was the um i was with it was chuck knoll's first year right so the day i got cut he could not have been nicer the whole rooney family by the way are legendary yes nice guys yeah so uh he called me in you know i was told to bring my playbook this for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yeah, 1969. His first year. My first year and only year. So I was, you know, he was telling me how he liked me.

4:42You know, he was saying nice things and that he had to produce because it was his first year. And in some ways, I was trying to make outside linebacker. I had never played outside linebacker because, you know, in college, very few college defenses used to the outside linebackers. They use what they call a 5-4. Two linebackers with a middle guard over the center. And that was the only defense I ever played. So I was trying to learn the position and make the team at the same time, which I don't recommend. No. But anyway, he said, listen, if you want, I talked to the head coach of the Eagles 15 minutes ago.

5:26I was thinking about you coming in here. I hated to tell you what I'm telling you. But if you want, we'll rent you a car and try out for the Eagles. He said, but I've got to know right now. I've got to know right away because, you know, if you're not coming down, they're going to get somebody else in. You know, this took me, I was just standing there. I was sitting across from him. And I said, you know what? I'm done. Wow. He said, really? I said, yeah, I'm done. i don't want to play anymore i really didn't really why why didn't you want to play i played for two different colleges i had knee problems now this is the nfl this is the nfl this is it yeah nfl yeah but i was a little bit sick of i didn't say this to him but i didn't like coaches especially although i did like him and i didn't like a lot of players i mean i got to the point were alone and the players I wasn't really so thrilled about.

6:23Rob Lowe:Interesting. So I just said, I'm done. And that was it. That was it. Now, is this the same team that eventually had mean Joe Green and like L.C. Greenwood? Yeah, they won four Super Bowls right after I was gone, by the way. I mean. And you know, I'll tell you a funny thing about that. It's just a kind of funny story you'll appreciate. Two brothers used to come to the practice sessions every day. Our practice session was at St. Vincent's College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. And these two guys would show up every day. They had notepads. They had names and numbers. And these were fans. Dennis Miller and his brother, Jimmy.

7:10Come on. I swear to God. And they stopped me coming i was going to ed o 'neill youngstown ohio get over here from youngstown ohio you look

7:23Rob Lowe:like a chicky chickerson from the 59 that's right and so uh you know you meet the kids the kids are all out there they're looking you know you've got the uniform so they're asking for autographs and i remember saying to these kids look i'm not really on the team i'm a rookie i'm trying out you don't want my autograph and they would say well you might be famous someday so i'd sign it and i often wonder if anybody ever saved those autographs would that be would you rather have ed o 'neill's autograph on a first season of married with children final season of modern family or steelers rookie jersey for sure i want the steelers rookie jersey yeah yeah the steelers are notorious apparently to this day because they've, they're such a successful franchise, um, that they are like really slow to change.

8:16Rob Lowe:And I hear that like, they're one of this few locker rooms where you can like still go in and get like hostess ho-hos and shit like that. They're like, when, when I was, uh, when I was, the day I was cut, the, uh, equipment manager came in to my room and uh he said listen we've got a lot of great stuff for you you know they try to make it easier on you oh i said what kind of stuff he said like swag you know we've got like great hats and t-shirts and jerseys and game jerseys and shorts and i said i don't want any of that shit he said what are you talking about i said i don't want any of them why would i wear it that's rinky dick if i made the team i'd wear it i'm not wearing it because i got cut that's a good point and they said well your your your shoes your cleats are down in the stadium in your locker you'll want to get your cleats before we i said why i'm never going to play again i'm never going to use they must have looked at you like you were insane i just left them by the way that's the best they're my favorite uniforms in all of football by far yeah they're great and Do you know the story of why the logo is only on one side of the helmets?

9:33Rob Lowe:No. So, and it's one of those things that I'm not sure people really fully realize, but they are the only team in the league whose logo, and it's that amazing Steelers logo, which I think is actually an emblem of a steel union or something. Because I can remember having refrigerators as a kid in Ohio from Pittsburgh that had that logo on it. but it wasn't the Steelers logo, but it was that same logo. But, yeah. So it's the only, it's the only, uh, helmet with a, with a logo on one side. What they get the logo for the very first time ever. Yeah. And the equipment manager's job, they get it right before a game, right before a game.

10:14Rob Lowe:And the equipment manager is like, I don't have enough. I don't have enough logos. I don't have enough. And they just put them on one side of the helmet. Oh, that's it. So they put them on one side of the helmet for that game. game and then everybody's like you know what this is kind of cool and that was it you know that's so funny i love all that sports stuff know that and i'll tell you another funny story about it that happened recently when because they've always always been trying to get me to go to the games you know like come to the games you know you come out we'll introduce you and i said no i watch it on tv so once uh sofia vagar got married uh that was down in uh the breakers hotel in west palm beach the wedding was four days you know and i know it cost about four million dollars to put it on and uh she told me well i'm selling it you know i'm selling it what do you think yes to europe and everything she made money yeah on the wedding she's no dummy but i'm at the reception and uh this guy comes up to me and he says uh i don't want to bother you mr o 'neill you know you're trying to enjoy yourself you know but i work for a man who's your biggest fan and he's afraid to come over and bother you and i'm just wondering if that would be okay and i said where is he he said he's over there by the fountain so i look over there and i said that's franko harris he said yeah so i i said come here so he comes over like a kid you know he's like i said you know i i was a rookie the year before you got there he said yeah i said you know that he said yeah we got in all about it i said you came from penn state right i was there two weeks you won four super bowls why am i your idol you know what is he really he looks like he can still play by the way and he yeah he looks absolutely i met him recently couldn't believe he looked exactly as he did but university of ohio is where you came from first but that's not ohio state that's something different correct it's ohio university in athens ohio okay that's right I played for a guy named Bill Hess.

12:28Okay, I remember. Then I transferred to Youngstown State, where I was born and raised. And I'll tell you something about that goddamn team.

12:42Our mascot, I guess you'd call it, right? The name, like, it was the Penguins.

12:47Rob Lowe:Sure, so many Penguins in Ohio. Youngstown State University Penguins. Yeah, the Ohio Penguins. They're everywhere when you go to Ohio. And I said, how in God's name did you name a team in Ohio Penguins? And they said that in the 1930s, they had a basketball team that was playing Slippery Rock Teachers College, and the gym was underheated. It was cold. And the players were trying to keep warm before the game when they were having a shoot around, and they were flapping their arms. Hence the Penguins. somebody said you look like penguins well i'm glad you became an actor and i know your brain your cerebellum is is happy that you became an actor yeah that's that's the point um what was your what was your sort of inroad did you did you come out of new york yeah i i started doing theater in college youngstown state and then uh the youngstown playhouse right a couple other playhouses.

13:47Oh, I want for you.

13:47Rob Lowe:Do you remember, Ed, do you remember a thing called the Kenley players? Of course. John Kenley. Oh, yes. Did you work for him? Here we go. Okay. I am. Was he driving his little cart around? The cart? I can't. You totally know. So I'm obsessed with the Kenley players. So with the Kenley players. I'm sure he liked you. Oh, he did. But I was almost even too young to be liked. No, I was a little too rough trade. Yeah, yeah, you were way rough trade for him. He was something, man. That was a, you know, you get Burt Reynolds playing the Rainmaker with Miss America. Okay, okay. I saw Sally Duncan as Peter Pan.

14:25Rob Lowe:I saw Shirley Jones on a clear day. You can see forever. I saw Vincent Price and Oliver. I mean, so the Kenley Players was at a time when there really were no, there were no touring Broadway companies. There weren't, it did not exist so what you did was john kenley had a circuit of theaters in the midwest that were the memorial hall so huge huge halls like you know 1100 seats 2000 seats and he would have a series of plays that would come in in the summertime and it was the as close as any of the people in dayton ohio warren ohio cincinnati columbus ever got to legitimate theater and massive stars would come in and, and he would pay them their rate that they were making on their TV shows.

15:13Rob Lowe:Right. And that's what he did is he was like, he would take Anson Williams and his hiatus from happy days and say, have you ever wanted to do death of a salesman? No, it wasn't dramas. They were always musicals. And there were some good restaurants in the one in Warren, Ohio, you know, where that theater that I knew, I only knew about his one theater. Yeah, it was Warren was the number one place. You can imagine the playing Warren, Ohio. Yeah. So John in the, in his career in the Midwest, he was responsible for so many people's careers. I auditioned for him for Oliver and never got a job with the Kenley players, but, but that, but his work made me want to be an actor.

15:52Rob Lowe:And he was by all accounts, just a tremendous person. Oh yeah. I mean, he was a legend, you know, in the, in that area. Legend. And I love people. It's funny when I bring the Kenley players up, people either lose their minds and want to talk for a thousand years about Ben Stiller. And I were talking about this because his parents did the Kenley players circuit almost every summer. Well, I never I never worked for Kenley either. I mean, I just knew, you know, of him. Yeah. And I would read the papers and see whatever the show was. I was in Hawaii. You know, pandemic was happening. I was there 10 months.

16:30I know. So I'm on my little, I got this little motor scooter, the old one, you know, like the Dolce Vita. Yeah, perfect. Sure. The Quadrophenia. And I'm down by the beach house. There's nobody there. Beautiful. Sun's going to set. And a golf cart comes down and there's a young kid driving it and an older woman in the back sitting alone. And I sort of said, hi, because I had to wait to go by them. and she said are you ed o 'neill and i said yeah and she said you know i'm from youngstown i don't live there anymore but i met you years ago at the youngstown playhouse when i because i did plays there 10 years before you started but my husband and i remained patrons of the theater so one night you were opening in a play and we went to the play and you know they have afterwards you meet the actors and have a glass of wine yeah and you were so nice to me and on the way home in the car i said to my husband that young fellow could make it but he'll never leave youngstown because most guys most people never did right and i said well i got out by the skin of my teeth i said what's your name now and she said grohl i said not you know david grohl lives here she's that's my son i mean what a small world right that's david grohl's mom i said you were telling me just a minute ago how well i've done i said did you fly in on this private jet you know i how but how do

18:07Rob Lowe:you oh look i'm from dayton dayton ohio you're from youngstown yeah you wanted to be an actor i wanted to be actor what what do you think it is about the people that that leave and the people that don't by the way there's nothing wrong with staying nothing no but i think you want to get out but if you want to have a you know you they're not making movies in tv in dayton or in youngstown so if you really want to do it you got to go so and you know uh luke you know um luke perry yeah luke was from mansfield yeah what what do you what do you attribute to that thing that made you want to go you just knew you had to do it i guess so right you know it's been so it's been so long i I mean, I remember we had a local theater in my neighborhood.

18:50You know, you could walk to it, and it was called the Belmont Theater. And I used to go a lot. I think I saw Real Bravo like 20 times. You know, I saw Spartacus. That's a long movie, five times. And I remember coming out saying, boy, I like Kirk Douglas as Spartacus, but I love that Crassus, that General Lawrence Oliver. And it was Olivia. The 80s. The 80s.

19:16Rob Lowe:The 80s. The 80s. The 80s. The 80s. The 80s. I would see these movies and then I would tell all my friends in my neighborhood the movie. I'd go through the whole movie. And then if they had a chance to see it, they'd usually say, it wasn't as good as the one you told us about. You're a natural-born storyteller. Well, I remember when I met you, the first time I met you, do you remember what I said to you? You couldn't possibly. I said, you've missed your calling. You're a funny yatt. you know your impressions are great thank you and of course you always were playing straight sort of dramas right you didn't do a lot of comedies or maybe later you did yeah not early that's for sure no you know we worked together on the west wing and west wing in wayne's world too and wayne's world you're amazing in wayne's world what i love about your cameo in wayne's world is you are literally so demented like i don't know what's going on with is it stan nikita's donut shop yeah stan mckita's donut shop i was the manager right you're like all of a sudden out of another movie which is great because it's yeah it's one step away from silence of the lambs it's amazing well i started the one out with if you stab a man in the dead of winter i would do it you steam you can see steam rising from the wound and that's is that a mike that must be a mike myers i think that's a mike uh yeah piece uh so so funny you know i was gonna be in wayne's world too and you know you and i shared for many many years the great manager bernie brillstein oh yeah who loved you loved you loved you talked about you all the time and um and we you did a table reading of of wayne's world 2 which is was a notorious train wreck and it was um you know and i'm not directing was penelope directing that no no no no no no no that was way before penelope directed wayne's world one wayne's world two is i believe steve sergic if i remember correctly was that the one walkin was in well in the part that i was supposed to play because i mean if you're not going to get me clearly the next person you go to is christopher walken and and we did a table read and i'll never it was a disaster and i remember looking up at the then head of the studio sherry lansing who was like yeah i knew sherry stone-faced and then looking over at bernie and bernie was just sweating and literally looked at me and gave me the like no way face and somehow you know because he he also managed lauren he got me out of that movie um and it was it was uh it was not and and i'm not speaking out of school both dana and michael tell you it wasn't wasn't the happiest moment in their lives but i know but i know i will um the notion that that that uh chris walken ended up playing a part i was supposed to do It was so insane.

22:16Rob Lowe:Well, you know, when I did Saturday Night Live, I only did that once. It was not my cup of tea. You're kidding. I would think you would. I don't know why. It was just, well, first of all, Lauren and I had absolutely nothing in calm. Right. Because I was doing Married with Children. Oh, yes. And, you know, Lauren didn't want to touch that with a 10-foot pole. No, no, no. That's, yes, for sure. You know, he doesn't want to go there. So I said, well, what are you going to do? Why am I here? why am I even doing this? The thing about Ed O 'Neill on the show is it reminds America of their middle class upbringings.

22:55Rob Lowe:I try to run from those memories. Yeah, and so Chris was doing the following week. Oh. So I heard because, you know, they had that meeting before we shot our show, the meeting of the next week. You know, they do that. and Chris shows up and he's sitting in the back with sunglasses on smoking something and you know Lauren goes through his bit this week we have the wonderful Chris Walken Chris, just want to tell you that if you have anything you think is amusing or something you'd like to try please let us know we're open to any suggestion anything you think that might be amusing and Chris said Well, bears are funny Likewise, bear suits I can't believe you were telling me this story Do you know that story, right?

23:50Rob Lowe:Yes, I have heard this story It's one of my favorite stories It's true I mean, I heard it like the next day After it happened Bears are funny Likewise, bear suits And bear suits as well And you know, honestly, Rob I think he ended up as one of the best guests. That was Mr. Belvedere. Oh, you know, the Continental. The Continental. And it was the name of the hotel, right? Welcome to the Continental. My wide-eyed, ruby-lipped doe. You know, Rob, one time I ran into Chris. Well, you know, I worked with Chris in Dogs of War. Oh, wow. With Tom Barringer. We played Mercenaries. Yeah, that's a good movie.

24:35And they were the stars. I had a smaller role in them. I was one of the mercenaries. But anyway, you know, I got to know him. And so he was doing Hamlet at Stratford. And I saw him. It was a Monday, so they were dark. And I had just read their review. It was in the Daily News or something. And it wasn't bad. It wasn't glowing, but it wasn't bad. But they did say, this Walken, he may have a Hamlet in him, you know. So I see him walking down the street. You know how he is. The hair is like flowing in the wind. He's got that stride. I said, Chris, how are you doing? I'm just reading about you. Let's get a drink.

25:15I said, it's 10 o 'clock in the morning. I was on my way to play handball at the West 63rd Street Y. He said, oh, well, too bad. It's my day off. So I said, well, you've got some nice reviews. You know, congratulations. Great role. He said, you know, when you do Shakespeare, the critics, you know, they want that thing. You know, the Shakespeare thing, I refuse to give it to. Fuck them. I don't do the thing, you know. I got no idea what he's talking about. I said, well, you know, you came out okay. And he said, do I not look Danish?

25:56Rob Lowe:I said, you do look Danish, as a matter of fact. Do I not look Danish? Bersuits are funny.

26:30We'll be right back. theaters. Xfinity. Imagine that. Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas. Learn more at Xfinity.com slash same day wifi.

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29:01You were in The Unit, right?

29:04Rob Lowe:That's David Mamet's adaptation. Yeah. So for those of you, okay, so here's the way it works in TV. You get great showrunners. the showrunner is the same as a director and a writer it's the person who runs the show they write it they do everything they're the god right and every once in a while you'll get a movie person or a tremendous writer um to come in and do a tv series david mammoth gets convinced wants to do a cbs procedural which is a very specific genre yeah right it's not hbo it's not showtime so i must see tv it's early 2000s down the middle cbs programmer procedural by david excuse me fucking mammoth so you've got to walk me through this one i've known david since 1980 we live next near each other in chelsea in manhattan he had a brownstone i had a slum but we were close so he called me and he said uh you know i'm doing this thing and i'm trying to delegate you know because it's a fucking impossible thing you know everybody's got it there's too many fucking chiefs i said yeah sure i'll do it so so it was a guy who was in a plane it was a private jet and there was something wrong with it sure and the pilot was dead of course and you don't know how he died you don't know if he was assassinated poisoned whatever and i'm at the controls i can't fly at a plane no and i'm somewhere over like wisconsin at 38 000 feet and i'm on the radio and they have these you know delta force guys that intercept the radio and they're they're trying to talk me down but at the same time they're trying to find out who i am right because they think they start to think i'm a black ops guy you know yep that that the air force wants dead yep so they're trying to save me and meanwhile the air force is jamming the frequencies someone's jamming so when i show up on the set to do it they have a mock-up of a of this plane and the pilot the poor guy playing the pilot is dead you know so So the director, I didn't know the guy, nice guy.