Trump's Cabinet Distances Themselves from Him After Midterms | with Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Beals, Anthony Ippolito | Thursday, November 5

0:05From Studio 6B in Rockefeller Center in the heart of New York City, it's The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Tonight, join Jimmy and his guests, Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Beals, Anthony Ippolito, and featuring the legendary Roots crew. 2365. And now, here he is. Jimmy Bowen! Hey! Hey! Hey! Thank you, guys!

0:44Hey! Hey! That was over. That was good, guys. Thank you, guys. Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Oh, my gosh! Thank you very much. Thank you. Enjoy yourself. Welcome, everybody. Welcome, welcome, welcome to The Tonight Show. This is it. You're here. Thank you for watching. Well, everyone is still talking about the fallout from the midterm elections, and I think the president is actually handling it pretty well. I mean, here's a photo of him from earlier today. I don't think it's like... -"I'm going to my room. Let me know." You're not my real dad. Yeah, the White House is still in shock after the midterms.

1:32Right now, they all have what's being described as resting Patel face. And, uh... Well, get this. Following the midterms, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reportedly considering leaving the Trump administration.

1:49It makes sense that Rubio would leave in November because next month he starts his job at Macy's as Santa's little helper. So, it's just a timing thing. You can't do everything.

2:01And as the 2028 presidential race begins to take shape, it seems like J.D. Vance is now trying to distance himself from Trump. On all their Instagram pics together, he covered Trump's face with an emoji like your friend does with their baby. You know what I mean?

2:19Yeah, Pete Hegseth could be gone as well. Rubio might step down, and Vance is distancing himself. Wouldn't it be ironic if the only person who stands by Trump is Melania? Yeah. What a show we have for you tonight. He is a five-time Oscar-nominated actor. He's one of my favorites. He stars in and produces the hit series The Lowdown. Season 2 airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on FX and Hulu. Ethan Hawke is here tonight! The Lowdown! It's funny, too. It's great. You can see her in season three of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which premieres November 20th on Disney+. She also stars in NCIS New York, which airs new episodes every Tuesday at 9 p.m.

3:02on CBS and Paramount+. Jennifer Beals is joining us tonight.

3:12And our third guest, this kid is amazing. He stars as Sylvester Stallone in the new film I Play Rocky. And he is phenomenal. It is in select theaters tomorrow and opens everywhere November 20th. Anthony Ippolito is here tonight. Stick around. We'll be right back with Ethan Hawke, everybody.

3:44Thank you, Roots. Our first guest is a five-time Oscar nominee who stars in and produces the series The Lowdown. Season 2 airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on FX and Hulu. Please welcome Ethan Hawke.

4:08That's a good hit show. That's not bad, right? You set me up. They set me up, right? You did it again, right? Little boss. Little boss, guys. A little dirty lowdown for Ethan Hawke. The lowdown. Congrats on the show. Thank you. It's a hit. Welcome back to our show. You know I love it every time you're here. This is your 13th appearance on our show. Thank you for doing that. I appreciate it. That's a lot of times. That's a lot of times. How many times have you done the show? I know. 15? You look exactly the same. Yeah, right. I know. I aged, and you just look cooler and cooler. Yeah, please. But I still get the good intro music.

4:43You do, yeah. Lucky number 13. Do you get superstitious at all? Is it Ethan Hawke? Honestly, I don't. That's not my thing. It's not. I had, um... I had one superstition as a kid, which is that I played soccer for a while. Okay. And one time, for some strange reason, I had a marble in my sock, and that's the first time I scored a goal. So the rest of my soccer career, I would keep a marble in my sock. And I never scored again. But I believe in the marble. Yes. Don't ask me how I got the marble and why I had it in my sock, I have no idea. Wow. I want to try that. I stole it from some sweet young person.

5:21Yeah, yeah, he took the marble. Yeah, some kid was playing. I was, like, hiding it in my sock. But you always bring good vibes with you, especially today and for everybody, because tomorrow is your birthday. Happy birthday, my man. Happy birthday, Ethan Hawke! My man. Thank you. Yeah. I love that. How are you going to celebrate? I'm assuming, Ethan, you like to be humble. You don't like to make a big deal about Ethan Hawke. I don't like to make a big deal, but I do have to tell you something. So this year, everything changed a little bit, which is that my daughter got married. I know this. I'm so happy for you.

5:55But what I really like to do, these are the downsides of your daughter getting married. I like the family to be together. And now she's with this clown. He's an amazing guy. I know. Christian Lee Hudson. He's an amazing musician. You love your family. He plays with Phoebe Bridgers. He's brilliant. But this guy has the audacity to have his birthday the day before mine. What? So happy birthday, Christian. Happy birthday. What more do you want? What more? Take my blood. He's upstaging me with my own daughter. What more do you want? I know. You want to have your own life all of a sudden? And that's not fair.

6:31It's not fair. So no, I'm just going to go to the movies and out to dinner and try to hope it goes well. Yeah, it will. It will go well. How was the wedding? How was Maya's wedding? Well, geez. Emotional? Well, geez. How's Maya's wedding? It's... The greatest day of my life? How about that? Just go simple. Yeah. It's incredible. I mean, as being the dad walking her down the aisle... Words fail. There's certain things you go through as a person that you don't expect that just run you over. Are you emotional? Or... I'm an actor. I know. I know you. I know. But you have to be strong. I tried to keep my cool.

7:10You did. Okay. And it's... I'm lucky because this guy's an amazing young man. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I mean it when I wish him a happy birthday. I know. And Maya's really happy, and that's all that matters. That's really all that matters. Except my birthday should be... My birthday should be a national event, at least for my family. And now she's spending the birthday with Disco. Ethan, let's talk about this. Do you remember this movie Training Day? Oh, yeah. You did. This was...

7:41This is celebrating its 25th anniversary. I know. Wow. It feels like... I've been on your show 13 times. This movie's 25 years old. That must mean I'm... No, no. My daughter's married. I mean, I'm, like, mature now. You're just making more and more gems. You know, it's because every time you come on, I talk about one of your movies. I love thousands of your movies. But when I talk about you... That's a good one. This is a good one. Yeah. Yeah. You want to know something funny about that movie? Always. So... It's gonna sound a little braggy, right? But I was nominated for an Academy Award for that.

8:12Yeah, come on. Okay. But the best part of it was the morning it happened, my phone rang and it was Denzel. And he said, you know why I'm so happy that you got nominated? I was like, why? He goes, because if people nominated you, that means people saw the movie. And if they saw the movie, I'm gonna win.

8:35Yeah. And he did. He knew he knocked it out of the park. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was it like acting with Denzel when he's... Oh, Jimmy, come on. He's in the... Right? He's the pro, right? Yeah, he's a pro. I mean, that's like saying, you know, what's it like? Playing with... Playing with Babe Ruth or something. Yeah. But, I mean, he's the best there... He's definitely among the finest that ever done my job. Do you ever... Do you ever... You can clap, because this is... Yeah, he is the best. Yeah. He's phenomenal, but... I would think, like, you're acting with him. That is your job. Your job is not to admire him, which probably would be what I would do, which I do.

9:07Yeah, that doesn't help. That doesn't help. Because I'm just like, even when you go on the show, I'm just like, Ethan, what's up, man? I'm like, dude, chill out, man. I watched all his movies before I started again, and I realized that a lot of people are watching him act. They are. They're in a scene with him, and they're like, oh, my God, I'm in a scene with Denzel Washington. Yeah, of course. That's what it feels like. And so I tried to just keep my head down, play my character. I had a great director. He took care of me. And also, Denzel's a great scene partner. If you do your job, he likes that.

9:35If you're playing your character, it feeds him. And so I learned so much on that show that I've taken with me for the rest of my life. You don't unsee watching him prepare for a job, the extent of his imagination, the way that he thinks about... Because he thinks so deeply about the character, but he also is a great storyteller. And he understands what the audience is thinking, what his character is thinking, He's a world-class... It's not easy to be a giant movie star for, like, 30 years. It's not easy. Exactly. And he's been at the top, top, top of the game for a long time. That's pretty cool, man.

10:09Congrats on that. 25 years. That's a fantastic movie. You're always doing something different. Oh, wow. One of the reasons why I love you. This thing is called Midnight Radio. It's a podcast. This is on wherever you listen to your podcasts, but iHeartRadio is doing it. But it's not a video podcast. This is audio only. Right. Can you tell, explain a little bit about this? This is fun. It's been a little homemade project that I did with my friends who did Black Phone and Sinister. It's a little scary. It's a little, think like an 80s call-in radio program, Art Bell, mixed with The Twilight Zone.

10:43Okay. Yes. Yes. Things get weird. Things get spooky. Things get cool. Because when we grew up, it was all call-in shows. Oh, yeah. And remember, people would say, Art Bell had this show, Coast to Coast, and people would call in and say, you know, I saw a ghost last night. He said, well, tell me about it. Did she have hair? Did she not have hair? He knew everything about ghosts and the paranormal, and he knew everything about extraterrestrial and Area 51, and our show kind of imagines a talk show host like that who starts getting in some really weird calls. Yeah. It gets really good. It's audio only, by the way, so we don't have a clip that we can show, but I was thinking maybe it could be kind of fun.

11:21Give us a little teaser of what... You want me to give you a taste? Would you guys... All right. All right, so here's the deal. We got it. We got it. It's called Midnight Radio, right? So you got to bring the lights down. We bring the lights down? Can I get a little support? You know, like a little think Twilight Zone, think Stanley Kubrick. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Can I use your mic? Yeah, of course, please.

11:44Night has fallen across these United States, and all the day folk have drifted off into dreams. But not you. You're a person of the night. Maybe you're working the late shift at a gas station just off the turnpike. Maybe you're sitting on your porch nursing a glass of whiskey. Maybe you're driving alone in the desert, and my voice is the only comfort for 100 miles in any direction. Either way, you're here with me, someone eager to listen. It's midnight in America. and this is Midnight Radio. Whoa! Come on! Yeah! Yeah!

12:34That's how you do it right there! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That is fun! Thank you. No, it's a good time. It's fun. The writing of it is really smart. And I think if you listen to it, you have a good time. It is very Twilight Zone-y, by the way, which I know you love, and I love it as well. I do, too. Let's talk about your show, by the way, The Lowdown. Very great. This is season two. It's open to rave reviews. Plug your ears if you don't want to hear something great about you. I want to hear something great about it. It says, The Lowdown takes one of TV's best crime shows that makes it even better.

13:02The Lowdown, Ethan Hawke's hilarious, crazy detective show is must-see television. This one says, For the love of television, please watch The Lowdown season two. And I will say, it is 100 % fresh on Rotten Tomatoes! That's how you do it, my friend.

13:26How do we set up the lowdown and who you play and you're great at it? All right, I play a bookstore owner in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He's kind of a hot mess, but he sidebars as an investigative journalist. He's obsessed with telling truth to power. And he tells the truth hard. And you know this, anybody who tells a lot of truth gets punched in the face a lot. And that does happen to Mr. Lee Raybon, who's my character on the show. It's so good you have Tommy Lee Jones joining the cast this season. I mean, talk about legend. All right, listen, if you're... I was born in Austin, Texas in 1970, and if you're a Texas kid, it wasn't just my idea of what an actor was, it was my idea of what a man was.

14:07I saw him in Co-Miner's Daughter. Yes, Co-Miner's Daughter. The fugitive, men in black, no country for old men. It wasn't difficult for me to imagine him as my father because it's like, yes, sir. I grew up with him. Yeah, it's a dream. It's super fun to watch. He was also incredible to work with, too. He is, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, for real. He's a legend. Come on! Ethan Hawke, everybody! The Lowdown airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on FX and Hulu. Jennifer Beals joins us after the break. Stick around, everybody!

14:51Our next guest is a talented actress who you can see in Season 3 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which premieres November 20th on Disney+. She's also starring in the series NCIS New York, which airs new episodes every Tuesday at 9 p.m. on CBS and Paramount+. Please welcome Jennifer Beale.

15:15Jennifer!

15:19Welcome back to the show. Thank you. Congrats on two brand-new giant hit shows. I want to get into both of them. But first off, I have to say, you just walked out. Obviously, they played Maniac. That song is going to be following you for the rest of your life. And I'm okay with that, because I kind of am a maniac, so... Yeah, I know. But when you hear that and you see clips of you from flashdams... Do people think that you are a dancer or a trained dancer? Oh, my gosh. It's probably one of the biggest misconceptions about me. I get so much more credit than I deserve. I'm basically mildly coordinated.

15:59I took, you know, a couple of dance classes when I was 18. I mean, I did. I danced all the time, like, at clubs and with my friends and things like that. But you're never professional. No, my gosh. Absolutely not. When you go to a wedding, do people expect, like, oh, she's gonna do the bit? Yeah, well, when I go... Here's the chair. Are she gonna spin on the floor? Here's the chair. Do the bit. Yeah. No, I was acting. I was acting in a movie. I don't do the bit every time I go up. Well, it was really... Actually, it was really challenging, because after the movie, like, everybody had these expectations, and it sort of took the joy away from dancing for me, because I am so shy, and I would dance for myself, or to be with someone else, or, like, small groups of people.

16:44And then to have these expectations was really kind of challenging. And sometimes it would get a little weird. Like, I... You're like, I don't even want to go out anymore. Well, there's that. But I was at a friend's wedding. It's funny you say wedding. But I was at a friend's wedding, and I thought, okay, I am dancing at my friend's wedding. That's why they invite you. You have to dance. Exactly. You have to dance at the wedding. Not you. I mean, everyone. Everyone should dance. It's fun. Be a fun guest. Yes. But it's like, you know, it's like the 90s, and there are these little Instamatic cameras on the table.

17:11and my husband and I are dancing together and out of the corner of my eye, I see this guy who was sitting at our table with one of the Instamatic cameras and he's taking pictures of us and he says to his friend next to him, I got her! Like that? Ew. And it made me, it made my heart sink and my husband looked at me and he said, don't worry, he said, I got you. And at the end of the evening, because then I saw the guy pocket the Instamatic and at the end of the evening, my husband presented me with the Instamatic, and he had pickpocketed this guy. And he said, he said, I got him. Good for your husband, good.

17:52Yes, yes. For all the people. Such a beautiful, beautiful active look. But you know what? No, but I have to, I was going to bring it up to you because I think you embraced it, and you did this great Lululemon ad. Yes, yes. Last month, and it was so fun and joyous to watch you. I almost didn't do it, honestly. Because... Well, because I... PTSD? Yes, a little. They wanted me to dance in it, and I... I just didn't... You know, I wasn't sure about that, and the director asked me, why not? And I... Yeah. You know, I'm on a Zoom with, like, 30 people. I didn't want it to be, like, a therapy session.

18:25So I said, let me... Let me get back to you. Let me think about it. Let me get back to you. But I talked to my friends, and... And also, there's a wonderful performer named Metta who was starring in the piece. She's a singer, songwriter, and I was familiar with her work because I co-founded this company called Runamok and we have this incredible subset called Drafting and we had featured her in Drafting, so I knew about her work and I really wanted to work with her. And I really wanted to not only reclaim my own joy, but offer it up to other people. So I said, okay, I'm not going to do a ton of choreography, but I want a piece of this, um, you know, ad to be, like, childlike dancing so that people don't feel like they have to be classically trained dancers to experience the joy of dance.

19:14Yeah. Because it's, you know... It's fun. Movement to music is... It's like medicine. It's like prayer. It's like... It's so beautiful. Yeah. And I think we kind of did that. Oh! It's so fun. I know you... And what people don't realize, that we shot that in Paris during the heat wave, so it's like 100 degrees and there's no air conditioning. But we just didn't care. We were having so much fun, and it was such a joyous time. I know you love music because I said hi to you before the show and I went into your dressing room and you were cranking Taylor Swift. Yes, yes. And dancing to Taylor Swift.

19:45Yes. Are you a Swifty? I think I may kind of be beyond a Swifty. Oh, really? Not, I mean, well, because Swifties know all of the words. I don't know all the words, but I think I'm like the top 0.05 % listener. On Spotify? Are you really? I am, but I love... What do you love about Taylor? Oh, well, I've loved her since the banjo days. And I love the songwriting. I love the way she sings. I love the way she tells the stories. I love that she is so kind to her fans. I love that she's a great business person. And I love philosopher Taylor. Like, I'm pretty sure that there could be a university course, the phenomenology of time, according to Taylor Swift.

20:27because the way she deals with time in her songs is so fascinating, the way it creates consciousness. I'm going to write an essay. Yeah, yeah, you have to do it. I'll write an essay. Welcome. I have to talk about your shows. Not only are you in NCIS New York, but you also get to play a goddess in Disney's, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Do you know much about Greek gods? I was a total Greek nerd. Really? Are you really? Yes, yes. Total Greek mythology nerd, Like, to the point where I would pray to Hermes before the 100-yard dash, and I would crush it. So it sort of reimbursed the place. Yeah.

21:04So it must be fun to do that. Oh, it was so much fun. It's so much fun. It's a great show. The problem is you know so much, and it's, you know, you just want to not be the spoiler and go, well, actually. Yeah. Actually, this happened. Yeah. It's beautiful. It was a beautiful group of people to work with, too. It's a fun show. Then NCIS, New York, by the way, debuted number one, Not Too Shabby. Come on, bud. Yes, I know. We had LL Cool J on the show last week talking about it. I know. He's... He's incredible. He actually is funny. He says how much he loves working with you. Oh, I love working with him.

21:35He's incredible. He's an incredible, number one, like, incredible leader. Like, he really takes care of everybody. He really makes space for all of the actors and everyone's ideas. He takes care of the crew. And I've never seen anyone work so hard. Like, for his time off, he's doing a residence. in Las Vegas. That's right, he is. Yeah, because why rest? Why rest? Yeah, why not? He's LL Cool J. He's got to do it. Yeah. Come on, man. Jennifer Beals, everybody. New episodes of NCIS New York air every Tuesday at 9 p.m. on CBS and Paramount+. We'll be right back with Anthony Ippolito. Come on back.

22:23He's got a world on content. Our next guest is a very talented actor who stars as Sylvester Stallone in the new film I Play Rocky, which is in select theaters November 6th and opens everywhere November 20th. Please welcome Anthony Ippolito.

22:47And a welcome, oh, my goodness. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the show. This is your first late-night talk show. Thank you for doing this. Thank you for having me. I'm happy you're here. You're a Long Island boy, right? Yes, sir. Yeah, and you were into... You were going to play baseball? Is that what you think? Yeah, yeah. I played baseball my whole life. It was a huge part of my life. Loved some baseball movies. That's why I have to mention Fever Pitch while I'm sitting here. Hey, go ahead. Please? No, yeah, thank you very much. Yeah, directed by the great Farrelly brother. Peter Farrelly. Absolutely directed to you in I Play Rocky.

23:22And you give a crusher performance in this. Congratulations. I play Rocky. I saw the trailer. It went viral. Everyone was talking about it. And it's like, it's a story about Sylvester Stallone trying to get Rocky made and actually what he went through. Yeah. And honestly, for a second, I didn't even know. I thought it was Sylvester Stallone. I'm watching this. It's not an impression. It's levels above. It's not. It's him. You even sniff like him. Like, how is he doing this? How did you... Honestly, it's phenomenal. If you stay through the whole credits, by the way, there's bonus things at the end, but one of the things that I was touched by, I watched they have a clip of Stallone on The Tonight Show promoting Rocky, talking to Johnny Carson.

24:09And he said, watch this. It's quite a story in itself. If they'd made a movie about how this movie came about, you wouldn't believe it. Would you welcome, please, the star of Rocky, Sylvester Sly Stallone. If I had known it was going to be this difficult, I wouldn't have done it. Really? Yeah, because I think it was a classic case of blissful stupidity. If they made a movie about how this movie was made, you wouldn't believe it. You are in the movie that is about the movie. And here we are on The Tonight Show talking about it. So welcome again to The Tonight Show. Anthony, thank you. It's an honor to be here.

24:44How do we get into any of it? How do you explain some of the stuff Sylvester Stallone went through to make Rocky? Oh, man, he encountered a ton of adversity growing up. Well, he was born in a birth accident. He had some facial paralysis and some motor nerves on the side of his face. I didn't know that either. That's why... And it created a bit of a slur, and, you know, he was ridiculed growing up a bit. Believed, yeah. Yeah, and made it very difficult for him. And he was a struggling actor, and then he started writing, and he wrote this incredible screenplay called Rocky that some of you might know.

25:21Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you know any of this story going in? Did you know any of this? I knew bits and pieces just growing up myself as an actor. I had heard some things. And so when I read an article that Peter Farrelly was doing this movie, I was like, man, this is... I want to be a part of this if I can. That'd be cool. Did you get to talk to Sylvester Stallone? Yeah, I did. I did. He's the greatest. He was very sweet and was willing to take some time and share with me what that period of time was like for him growing up. Because, you know, it was a very tough, dark period of time. Very lonely in a lot of ways.

25:57And so I just really appreciated his vulnerability. Peter Farrelly did such a great job, too, in this, you guys together. But he's setting up. I felt so bad because, you know, you think, oh, Sylvester Stallone, he's the most famous guy. But everyone has a story. Everybody in the world has a story. But to see his story and to see him even auditioning, and the casting directors are giggling at him and laughing at him. It's just heartbreaking. And you're like, poof. And then everybody scores in this movie. It's funny. It's charming. It's like, but it brings that hope that you got when you watched the original Rocky, where at the end, you're like standing up.

26:32You're like, yes, I hope this is a hit. Come on, man, let's make this movie. I'm rooting for you all the way through. Your look was insane. The way you stood, the way you ran like him. Oh, thank you. How would you even practice that? I spent a great deal of time watching every piece of footage I could find from him. At the time that we were looking at, he wasn't a very known actor yet. So I looked at things. He was in an episode of Kojak. He was in The Lords of Flatbush, Death Race 2000. So here and there, he was in some stuff. And I just tried to piece together whatever I could find. Did you punch meat?

27:10Yeah. Yeah. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a split. One is Sylvester Stallone, one is you. You can't even tell the difference. You stood like him. The attention to detail in this film is mind-blowing. This is you as Sylvester Stallone.

27:34But the story of how they ended up in Philadelphia, the story about how they didn't have the scene to get Mickey back, there's so many things. I'm like, it's phenomenal. It's almost like watching them filming the movie then, but it's shot now. It's so well done. It's very meta. It is insane. But it's so not even you. Like, talking to you, it's bizarre to me, because I just saw this film, and you aren't you in this. You're him. But you got to do a lot of iconic, rocky things. I mean, you got to walk up the steps, run up the steps. That was incredible. they had to move the statue, because there's a statue there.

28:14You can't have that in the movie. Well, it wasn't there yet. Of course. Yeah, I couldn't. This movie doesn't exist. There is no Rocky statue. There's no Rocky. That's wild. They took the statue down. Yeah. And did you drink eggs? Yeah. Don't recommend it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But how did it feel to do all that stuff and kind of... It felt incredible. As an actor, you go, this is what you want. It was so surreal and so inspiring. I feel like I got a crash course on what this man was able to overcome. And it was just a real privilege to be able to work with such a great cast. Like, I was, you know, Tracy Letts is so terrific in this.

28:47He's phenomenal. Yeah. Ana Sofia Robb, Stefan James, P.J. Byrne, Toby Kebbell, J. Duplass, Matt Dillon. Yes.

28:59Phenomenal job. Knocked it out of the park, buddy. Thank you. Anthony Ippolito. I play Rockies in select theaters tomorrow. It opens everywhere November 20th. Come on back. Come back, so put your place in so much as a conversation. Three jeans with a special presentation. Hey, I like the ride for me. It's recreation.

29:24My thanks to Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Beals, Anthony Ippolito. And the roots right there from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thank you for watching. Stay tuned for Late Night with Seth Meyers. Good night, everybody. Bye-bye!

30:20Thanks for listening to The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. Don't forget to subscribe to get the latest episodes weekday mornings wherever you get your podcasts. Watch The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon weeknights on NBC and streaming on Peacock. We'll be right back.