Transcript of Nicholas Hoult

Hi, my name is Nicolas Holt. And I feel truly happy about being Conan O'Brien's friend.

Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school, ring the bell, brand new shoes, walking blues, climb the fence, books and pens. I can tell that we are going to be friends. The Hey there.

Welcome to Conor O'Brien Needs a Friend. Joined by Sona M'Ossession. Hi, Sona. Hi. You done coughing? It was a lot of coughing.

I always have to clear my throat.

My grandfather used to say, It's not the cough that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you often. Fun guy. Anyway, then he'd say, Good night, and shut the door. We have to go to sleep. Matt, how are you? Matt Orley. I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I have a little pet peeve. My pet peeve is that sometimes we gather around these mics, these microphones, these holy transmitters of our wise words. We're supposed to do a podcast, and then you guys start yammering, mostly, I think we know who the criminal is here at Sona. You'll start yammering about something, and we haven't begun, and you're like, Yeah, before we get started, and you'll yammer sometimes for 20 minutes. I'm thinking, Why aren't we making this the podcast? Why can't you control yourself?

This is part of my process.

Oh, I'm sorry, Marlon Brando. I didn't realize you were- Wait, I am- You have a process?

I have a prod. This is my... Can I say something, though? I think you always forget, out of the three of us, I'm the least professional- Never forget that. Oh, okay.

Never for a second. I think sometimes you Do I forget that you are an unprofessional person? Yes. Okay. A total loose canon.

Sometimes you might forget that.

You're cuckoo in the cabezza.

You might forget that sometimes.

It's never left. No. Sometimes you might forget it. Never, ever. I never forget that. All I'm saying is there are times where I'm thinking we're here. We're here to do our job, which we also love. It's fun. But you'll start gabbing and gabbing and gabbing. I'll say, well, why don't we just say, hey, welcome to Conor O'Brien. It's a friend. And we can, whatever this is, we can talk about what you're talking about. And you'll be like, Hold on, I'm not done yet. What did he just say?

What did he just say earlier? Shut the fuck up.

Monetize it or...

Monetize it or shut the fuck up. Yes. I do think- I know.

Maybe that was...

Okay, sorry. Go ahead. No, no. Please, continue.

I think, we have to talk when the microphones are on. But sometimes I just want to catch up with you guys because I'm actually your friend.

No, no, no, no. We're friends.

Sometimes it's okay to just catch up.

When we're in this room, everything must be monetized. Everything must... Adam, help me out here. When we're in this room, everything is part of the product, the team Coco product.

Can I offer a suggestion? Especially if it's coming from Sona, that she should be paid more because the product is being monetized is primarily hers.

Well, I didn't say that.

I did not say that. Do you want to weigh in? That does not represent me.

I agree with you that it's a waste. It's inefficient for there to be conversation happening off mic. But in Sona's defense, I think you're often guilty of the same thing, which is telling stories, chatting when we're not actually recording. I agree with you in theory, but I have to say I think that it's not just Sona.

I love you, Adam. Can I say something to bounce off of what Adam just said?

Can we just let this moment sit?

No, because I have something to add to it.

I invited Adam. He sits way in the corner. He's over there calculating, scheming, and I bring him over into this holy, holy area of the table with the mics. Then you stab me. He crucified me.

Through my toga? I crucified you.

He crucified me.

I just have to be my honest self. I have to be true to myself, and that's the truth.

You think sometimes I spin a yarn after we're done?

Well, now, I hate to do this, but can I add, most of the time when you do that, it is unmonetizable. Because it cannot go public. That's a good point.

That's true. I tell some real corkers.

Did you just get on me last episode about using the phrase cock of the walk and you just use corkers?

I tell, sometimes I- A real Lulu? Sometimes I lay out a real lulu of a story. No, I do tell some stories that are not for public consumption because maybe they include a name, and I don't like to sell people out. We have some delicious conversations in here. But yeah, I guess I'm guilty of the same thing.

But I do think Matt's right, though. I think you are usually thoughtful about if you're going to tell a story that is appropriate for the podcast, you will save it for the podcast. Okay.

What I'm saying, Sona, is that I want... How dare you harrump?

I was breathing.

That was not breathing. That was a harrump. If that's your breathing, I'm worried about you. Or else you have emphyema.

I'm breathing.

I think all those years in the coal have hurt you. I believe, Sona, that you should be a little more disciplined here about your work, and you should tell your tales into the microphone.

Off of what Adam just said, how often during when we were taping the show, did you hold up rehearsal? Because because you were noodling on your guitar so much? Isn't that the same thing? We both have a process.

We do. Oh, my God. You know what? That's a fair point. Oh, my God. I want to say, there are 28 years of There's 28 years where I'm making late night television, and I think there may be easily 2,000 hours of me playing whatever guitar song I want to play that day while people in headsets desperately try to get me to rehearse a scan.

What was even the conversation that you were supposed to save for the mic? We don't even know it.

What was I even saying? I don't remember.

It's just because you don't like it when I have a good time sometimes.

It is true. When Sona is having joy, I feel like I'm having a heart attack. When Sona is experiencing true joy, I have all the symptoms of a major aortic aneurysm.

It does feel like before you enter the room, we have to hurry up and get our catch-up.

That's right.

We do. Otherwise, you're going to yell at us.

We talked about a lot in about seven minutes before you walked in today.

You guys are afraid before I come in the room that once I show up, I'm going to shut everything down.

You're going to monetize our little anecdotes about how we've been and what we've been doing over the past.

That's exactly what I would do.

This is a bigger conversation about the work environment you've created and how we can't comfortably speak. I'm glad you brought this up.

Can I just say that if someone is struggling in a situation like this, better help is probably... Oh, my God. With better help, you can get online counseling.

Thumbs thumbs up. Come on in.

No, I'm just- It's not wrong.

I'm just saying- But just use offer code, Connie.

Oh, my God. Yeah. Exactly. You know what? Rap. If a therapist isn't a good fit, you can cut off that session right away, and it's no hassle to start another one.

This is like us having Miller time.

You know what? It is like Miller time. You know how it's like Miller time? When you're a bunch of buddies standing around and you know what you want when you're with buddies? You want beer that tastes like beer. Do you know what I mean?

Oh, my God. You know what you've done to our friendship? You've fractured it. Yes.

There's a blast. Jesus, there's a blast from the past.

If you are unhappy, you should check out LinkedIn jobs.

I hear they have a good B2B model. Yes.

Okay, we just made, yes, $88. Worth it. Oh, my God. All right, you guys. My guest today, star in the Hulu series The Great. Now you can see him in the new movie Nosferatu. I'm very excited he's here. He's incredibly talented. Nicholas Holt. Welcome.

Have we started? Is this it? Yes, this is it. I was thinking about friendship on the drive here. Were you really? Yeah. Well, I was thinking about how LA is quite a lonely town in many ways. Anyway, we don't have to get into it too far.

No, we should because you live in LA now.

Yeah, well, technically down in Long Beach. Yeah. So LBC. Which everyone is for 20 years.

Where about? Belmont Shore.

You live so close to me. I'm on Naples.

Oh, my God. I lived in Naples for a little bit, too.

Oh, my gosh. Do you want to be friends?

Yes. Wait a minute. I was going to ask you guys. Hello.

You're relieved. You're dismissed.

I'm going to go have a coffee.

You still live in Belmont. What are your spots?

I live in Pasadena now, but I'm used to.

You went the wrong way. Okay. Friendship.

It's over. Friendship cancel.

He wanted to get farther away from the water and closer to the sun and just be miserable.

I do like passive. Well, there's a Huntington Library in Garden. Yeah, you want to be friends? Well, we don't go there anymore because it's too far now. I understand. I think I've lost control of this interview completely. Basically, I'm here looking for friends.

What are you looking for? You'd be an He's an amazingly cool friend to have. I have to say I am a massive fan of yours. Thanks. You seem like a very normal, healthy person, and I'm sure you don't love compliments ladled on you. No, I do. I always liked you were. Oh, you You. Okay. Well, then you're like, Well, first time I saw you was in About A Boy, which is such a great film, and you were so good in that movie with you, Grant, and it holds up. I think I've watched it many times since then. It's one of those movies whenever it's on. I love you in it. I love the story. I love Hugh Grant. It's just so well done. I love the soundtrack, blah, blah, blah. Then I saw you kill it in many roles, and then you started doing The Great with L It was fascinating. My eyeballs fell out of my head because I thought, Nicholas Holt is one of the funniest actors alive. You are so good in that role. Here's the thing, you're walking this insane line of a terrible murderer who is constantly on the verge of killing his wife, and by today's standards, just an inhuman barbarian and incredibly likable.

I thought, what judo move is that? But I loved your character in that. I thought you were absolutely hilarious in that role.

It was a dream of a role because Tony McNamara's writing is so smart. That was the thing. I discovered that character along the way as everyone else did because he wrote the favorite as well that I was in. Then after that, he said, Oh, I've got this other script. It was at that point a feature script for the great. I'd worked with El before. He because he was going to ask El to play Catherine, and she's wonderful as you know. I knew I had a fantastic time working with her previously, so I was excited about all the components. Then he turned it into a show. But when we started shooting, we only had a couple of episodes, two or three episodes. Then it was as we went, we would get more of the episodes as we shot. I'd read it and I'd be like, Oh, this is terrible. Very funny, but terrible, horrible character who's just punched his wife and all these things. But then you'd start to eke out all the things that made him human and tick and the way he is and how ridiculous he is in very humorous ways. It was definitely all down to him, his writing, basically.

Okay, yes. Great writing, but I thought you and L together. One of my favorite couples I've seen on TV in memory and also- We had the best time. Well, you could tell you guys have such a great chemistry, but also, huzzah, became... I think you put huzzah on the map. It's back. It's, huzzah, is back. And also just that self-assurance, constantly obsessed with your cock and sex. I'm just watching this and thinking- Is this the segue? I know. Is this in your journal again? Yes. No, but just like...

Cough was so aggressive. Yes.

It's a very aggressive word.

It's a very aggressive word, Cough.

Strong sounds. Yeah.

It is. But also just this musing about sex and what he's going to do next. It was just hilarious. He turned British. It's hilarious.

A real foodie. Yeah, a real foodie. One of the redeeming things about him is his foodie nature, but also he's very open. It's exactly what you see is what you get. I think that's one of the things that people can appreciate about him. It's not very common that you see someone who tells you exactly what they're thinking when they're thinking it.

He's the person who might say, I may have to murder you now, but would say it out loud and then go, Well, he probably shouldn't have said that out loud. That's the, I think that show. I mean, first of all, the acting across the board who plays the... I mean, such terrific acting, but the Minister of War, the general, Oh, Douglas Hodge.Oh.

My God. That is truly incredible, his performance, because the characters aren't described. There's not any of the bellowing and breathing and all those things that Douglas added. I remember being in scenes with him when we first started shooting, he'd hear him constantly swallowing his own burps and stuff. None of that was in the script. It was just something that he brought to the character. It was so hilarious that there were times that we had to cut and stop scenes because the rest of us would be giggling so much at just how he breathed.

He's But again, he was a great character because he's this Russian general who's drunk all the time, but also has common sense. He is the voice of reason often in a scene, but also not. I don't know. That series was so delightfully surprising, and I watched that, and then I knew that I had a Nicolas Holt obsession when, I don't know if you remember, but El Fanning came on the podcast and we were talking about the show, and I kept saying, Tell me more about Nicholas all the time. She would indulge me. She was like, Well, what? You should talk to Nicholas. I'm like, Yes, I should.

You tried to get his number from her.

I did. She gave it to me, and then it was like a suspiciously... It was a five, five, five.

That's who's been calling and breathing down the line. Now I recognize the breath.

You thought it was Douglas I just want to walk you through your career, which at such a young age, you've had such a range of experiences and so much success.

But I know that you had worked as a child, but then about a boy is when it's like 2002, I want to say.

Yeah, about that.

You're working with Hugh Grant, who, by the way, has had this... I mean, he started out as one type of performer romantic comedies, and now he's found this whole other sweet spot that I find extremely emerald. He is so good.

His recent one is coming out soon, Heretic. Yeah. I saw the trailer. It looks great. It looks amazing.

I maintain, and I have many people I think many people will agree with me, Paddington 2, and it sounds like I'm making a joke.

He's so good.

Paddington 2 might be a perfect movie. I think it has a score on Rotten Tomat of just absolute perfection. I've watched Paddington 2 several times. Looking for a flaw, there isn't one. But Hugh Grant is so delightfully, insanely over that. He's having a lot of fun. He's having such a good time.

It's brilliant. He is truly brilliant.

But you worked with him, you were young, 10, 11, 12, something like that. You're working with Hugh Grant, and he taught you by observing him, you learned from him.

I still think the other day I was thinking about, and I think a lot of my sense of humor probably stems down a little bit from him. Also just how he was on set. If He was so dedicated to the work and professional and kind and good with everyone and just really, really deeply cared about doing a good job himself and making the film good. I think I couldn't have had a better experience at that age in terms of just learning and watching people and being like, Okay, this is how it's supposed to be and how it's supposed to be done.

That you'd have to put in the work to get to the fun part you need to prepare, you need to be on it.

Yeah. Also, it's that thing of you end up on set sometimes where people won't come out of trailers this and that. There's just extra ego business going on, and there wasn't any of that. I think good to have good behavior around that.

You lost me with this whole line of reasoning. I had a trailer put upstairs in this office just so I could not come out of it. Half the time, no one wants me to come out of it. It's a win-win. I wasn't familiar with this show you did when you were an adolescent, Skins. I don't really know that show, but it became huge in the UK. That was a little difficult for you to handle because you're an adolescent and suddenly it's this.

Yeah, I don't think any of us were prepared for how well that show would do. I stand by this. Somebody was asking me about that show the other day, and I was saying, I think the reason that it did capture the moment so well is because it wasn't expected to be what it was. I feel like more commonly now when shows showing the teen way of life and whatever, and they're going to show everything and it's going to be hardcore all this stuff. There's this idea of what it's going to be and how it's going to fit into the zeitgeist early, whereas that was like, We're just going to make this show. We're messing around. It's a good bunch of people, very talented bunch and great writing, but it's like nothing's expected of it. Yes. Then it did blow up in a way that... I feel like it still gets watched by some people now. I've never actually seen it.

You were young to be experiencing that attention.

I was 16 or 17. I guess it was around then that maybe camera phones and stuff were starting to come out as well. It was a weird transition because up until then, I'd basically, most of the time, just been able to live my life very normally. I still can, mostly day the day, it's being recognized as a weird... It goes in weird waves. I don't know if you find this, but it's like, if you've had something out recently or you've been on people's screens, then maybe they recognize you. Otherwise, people just look at me like, maybe we went to school together. But at that period, because that show was very popular with my age group and everything as well, it felt like I was under scrutiny a lot. Yeah.

If you're going out, you just want to have a drink, hang out with friends, you have to accept that someone might be recording you It was a weird transition.

I didn't particularly enjoy that at all.

I think it's healthy not to enjoy that. I think there are a lot of people who would be 15, 16, 17 and think, Boy, if I could be famous right now and get that attention at an age when you want attention, wouldn't that be amazing? And so often, it's not.

I don't know. What attention do people want?

Well, let me explain my problem. You've come to the master.

Here we go.

When you talk about getting recognized, I wear a hat that says, I am Conan O'Brien wherever I go. Stop me and ask for a selfie. You've had this interesting education where you were getting probably attention and working as a child, then you're a teenager, but then you've handled it all really well. I was thinking of your performance in Mad Max. First of all, when I first saw that, I didn't even realize it was you. Yeah.

See, no one will recognize me from that.

Yeah, because you play Nux. Nux is this terrific character. You lost so much weight for that. The backstory, first of all, I love that movie. Yeah, it's a great film. I'm proud of that one. We did a parody of it when we were at Comicon once, where I play the Doof Warrior, who's the guy that we actually recreated. We shot it film style. We recreated that whole giant truck. Do you remember this, Sona? Yeah, I do. I'm hanging off the front with an electric guitar and the white face and wearing the the red onesie and shooting fire. Do you still have the red onesie? I'm wearing it now. But I'm wearing it for- The red onesie is his new nickname. I'm wearing it for medical reasons. But I'm shooting fire. They gave me a guitar that shoots fire. The real fire? Yeah. Then we were shooting it out in the desert, but they said, I remember just before we started to shoot, they... No, after the first take, they said, When you get near a telephone pole, turn off the fire. I was like, It. They were like, Because otherwise, you'll set the telephone poles off here in the desert outside Los Angeles on fire.

I went, No one thought. This is up to me. If I want to, I can take out the power grid with my electric guitar. But Anyway, we did a whole parody of that, which was really fun to do, but I absolutely adore that film. And your character, talk about being able to lose yourself in a character, you lost a ton of weight to play Nux because you're in this, everyone who survived that Apocalypse is sickly.

Yeah, Nux is meant to be essentially on his deathbed the day that you meet him at the start of the film. That was something George asked me to do, was to lose some weight. I did get a strange body dysmorphia through that where I didn't feel I was that skinny and then looked back at photos and I was like, Oh, you were very skinny. I didn't realize quite how far I'd gone with it.

What was the... I mean, everyone has their own technique, but is that a thing where literally you're working with a doctor and they're saying, Okay, you can have a tic-tac today? And then a little soup before bed.

It wasn't that. It was just not eating as much and just running tons and jumping rope and just not eating that much.

I wish there was a secret. Oh, I didn't eat as much. Fuck.

I think there is now, right? Yeah, that's true.

I'm going to get an Ozempic colonic. Oh, God.

I don't know.

Maybe it'll go even faster if I go the other- God. I don't even know what that means. Go the other way. I'm not a suppository, but a colonic. I'm just going to say a colonic. I want that for other reasons. They don't go together.

But the red onesie is going to be helpful throughout this.

Thank God I have that onesie on. When did you become- One of my mate said to give himself a colonic...

That's when you shoot the stuff up to loosen everything. Yes. He had to do that in a hospital and then lost control. They said you could do it himself. He was like, Okay, I'll do it. But then was on the floor of the bathroom in the hospital, cramping with.

Why did they say do it yourself? Oh, my God. First of all, this story is much better if you identify your friend. I can't.

That's very famous.

It's got to be Hugh Grant. It's Hugh Grant. Hugh Client cramping, shitting all over the floor. You heard it here, folks. Let's get that out there.

It's not cute.

Too late. I'm editing your It's not out, and we're replacing it with an AI, Yes, it It was definitely him.Oh, we got the sound bite.Hey, thank you. Now we're good. You got very seriously into motorcycles at some point.

That was for a role. I learned to ride bikes for a role. The first thing I did with L called Young Ones, that Jake Paltrow directed with me and L and Cody Smith-McFee and Michael Shannon. A great group. But yeah, my character rode motor cycles and that. I learned to ride for that and then got into it for a little while and was riding a lot and getting on track and all that stuff. But I've stopped. It's It started to feel a little bit... Well, I fell off a few times. That started to feel a little bit dangerous. Then I got more into car racing, so I've been doing more of that because it feels a little bit safer. Yes.

You're in a cage.

Yeah, you got a whole roll cage, helmet. I mean, you wear a helmet, obviously, on the bikes, but you've also got this hands device. Have you heard of this? I think it stands for Hands, Head and Neck Saver. It's like underneath your harness is this thing that then connects to your helmet to stop your head if you do crash from moving too far. It saved loads of lives.

So you have seriously... First of all, as a kid, you were interested in cars?

Yeah, I grew up watching it with my dad and racing him with my dad and stuff, and he would build cars as one of his hobbies. So I was always interested and excited by them. So now I'm lucky where I got the opportunity to go and race around a track.

You just took a serious course. What's the course that you just took?

Oh, the course of Balotte, the Ferrari. Yeah. So now I'm waiting, hopefully. I've done some of their track attacks at the Ferrari Challenge, and those have gone well, and then next will be the actual race. But track attack is when everyone's out there trying to set the fastest lap thing time.

Now, explain to me the appeal, because I'm not a gear head. I enjoy a nice car, but when I first made money and could buy any car I wanted, just so you know who you're talking to. And I'm a writer on The Simpson, and I go out and I buy a Ford Taurus SHO. That's the Ford Taurus that has the stick shift.

Yeah, stick shift's great.

Yeah, but it looks exactly like a Ford.

You missed the Ford Taurus part of it.

Well, I had a stick shift, and I was like, Okay. Having fun.

It's got a sweet Yamaha 6 in there. But yeah, I remembered thinking, this is so cool. People would say, you're driving around in a Ford Taurus and you're 28 years old, and you told us you were going to get this really cool car, They went, yeah, but if you look inside, it's got a stick shift. The common reaction was, it's a Ford Taurus. You look like you're going to work Whole Foods to buy some produce.

Not even Whole Foods, like Big Lots.

Okay. Let's not get dicky about grocery stores. But anyway, that's the degree to which I'm probably not a gearhead, but you participated in and won a race recently, didn't you?

Yeah, I got the fastest time. I don't know how to describe the... The feeling of it is something where it makes you very present because you have to be. You have to be, right. It's a weird mix between having a lot of adrenaline, but then having to counteract that and calm yourself and be extremely focused for periods of time, where you're doing things that are against human instinct. Because for instance, at the track where you're coming up through turns two and three and it's blind, and so you can't see where you're going, and you have to keep your foot pinned to the floor and you're going about 130, 40 miles. Accelerating It's really into the curse. Yeah. And you're going up, you're turning left, but you can't see exactly where you're aiming to come out. And then there's walls on either side. So you're going through there like 140. And it all goes well, luckily for me this time and everything was fine. But there's a weird feeling where you're like half of the muscles in your leg are trying to pull up and stop you from doing it, and the other half are overriding it to be like, no, you have to do that to get quick.

But then once you've done it once, you can do it again, and then you keep on building up and you start to get- Muscle memory. Muscle memory, and you start to feel the car and you don't become one with the car. That's just a stupid thing to say. But you start to- I did with the tourist.

I had sex with my tourist. Was that not clear? Wait a minute. Never mind. The car was not on when I became one. When my car was not even on and I was not in it when I became one with it. This is why you got stick shift?

I thought it was fairly clear by the way you're talking about it.

I'm going to keep explaining what happened. Okay, but...

I was going to go so far with it, and I've raised myself.

I just like to take this time to apologize to you. It's fine.

Don't worry, Nicholas. This never has to air. It's interesting. It's going to sound like I'm making a joke, but I'm not. I understand what you're saying, because if I'm in front of a large group of people, there is an adrenaline rush, and I am sometimes doing things that are against my better nature. But I also think this is going to be really funny if I do this thing that's potentially quite embarrassing or foolish. So there's this push me, pull you, but I also like to be in control, but I also like the potential chaotic loss of control, and it's all at the same time. That's the closest I've come to that.

Yeah, no, it's exactly that. But it's not going 100. But then it's flow state and it's very meditative and it becomes... But let me ask you something then. So when you're about to make a joke or take a risk, how often do you doubt it before you do it? If you doubt it, do Do you just abort or do you override?

This is one thing I found is that if I'm thinking about it beforehand, it's not going to be as good. If you do it then, it's not as satisfying, it's not as good. For some reason, the audience knows it, too. I don't know what that's all about.

No, I get what you're saying, because when you were first talking about the Ford Taurus, I was in my head, I was reaching for some joke about there being a condom on the. It was there somewhere, and then I was like, Oh, and Then I thought about it too much, and I was like, This isn't the time or place. That's just bury it.

But then I went there. You showed a lot of restraint and caution, and you held your tongue. Then me, the older man who should know better.

Well, just because I couldn't formulate what the idea was.

No, I didn't formulate it well either. I have me fucking a torus. You just said, I fucked my car.

There's some star sign joke in here, too.

There was no...

We'll have an I'm an Aries. I'm an Aries, yeah.

My point is- What's that joke?

What's the one where it's like, I don't know. I broke up with my ex and someone says, Why? And I go, Oh, because I'm a Sagittarius and they're a cunt. Sorry, I'm You can't say that. Beep that one out. No, you can say it. That used to be my favorite for a while. I think you're allowed to say it in the UK.

Yeah, so I say- Apologies to anyone who's offended by that.

You can change that word for other words. They were a dick, but it's funny at the beginning.

Hey, Sona. So unexpected. I just want to make sure people know Sona said that. Okay, there you go. Now we're good. You know what's funny? Why is it you have better material than I do? This is frustrating. But it is funny how I did have an experience that I really loved. We shot a travel show in Berlin.

I'm going to Berlin in a couple of weeks. Let me know where we are. Is it for work? Yes.

Okay. This was a while ago. I won't be going there anytime too soon. But we shot a segment where I believe I'm in a very, very fast BMW. It's latest model, fastest model, and we go on the Autobahn. And what I always heard about the Autobahn is you can go as fast as you want. There are no speed limits. That's not really true. There are sections of the Autobahn where I would crank it up as fast as I could go, but they're short. Then it's like, no, no, no, this part, you have to slow down to like 55 kilometers an hour, whatever.

And I was What was the fast as you went?

I have to look it up. 55. It was 55. No, we went. I think it would not be impressive to you. It was impressive for me that I'd have to find the speed that we got you, but I was impressed. It was an impressive speed for you.Unimpressive speed for you. They were sweating anyway.

A lot of the time on-I'm a bit of a pervert.

Ever since the torus. No, I want to say it was-I think you got up to 121 or 126 miles per hour. Which to me, you said you've done two... What is it?

The fastest we went on track in the Ferrari challenge car was 170, I think. But that's weirdly everyone always says.

I was pulling a trailer. The first day, I want to say. It had three horses in it.

That was through the drive-through. That's what everyone always asked, though, and they're like, How fast you go on track? A lot of the tracks, you don't go that fast because the The brakes aren't that long. It's not the sitting going fast in a straight line that's the difficult bit anyway. That's why everyone can put their foot to the floor and go up through gears. It's a bit getting through the corners quickly, which is the scary and difficult bit, and how well the brakes work. The first time using the brakes in a race car, you just kick your foot to the break as hard as you can. They stop quick. It's impressive. But then trying to get that right whilst you're turning and releasing them. Then you go into the pits and they look at your time and they're like, well, this is why you were slow because you hit the break one car length too early, but traveling at 170 miles an hour. 0.1/10. But then you didn't release it at the right pressure. So you lost two-tenths of a second and then this and this. Suddenly you see why the details of it. And I think that's one of the reasons I like it as well.

I've said this before, but in acting and filmmaking, there's lots of subjective things in racing that's very objective. They look at it and they go, This is why you're slow. So do that better. And you'll be quick and you're like, Okay.

No, it is refreshing because It's something that I find refreshing about sports, not participating in this so much, but is watching them is that things can be measured. In comedy, no matter what you do, people go like, not my cup of tea, or someone can like it, someone else can hate it. It's just this miasma. It's this soup. You can never quite say, no, empirically, this wins because how can you do that? That's true of all the arts. Sometimes when I watch the Oscars or any award show, I think this is so crazy. How can we be comparing all of these things and who's deciding and what does that even mean? It always seems ridiculous to me Let me ask you something.

Career-wise, was there ever a measurement that you hoped to attain that you were like, Oh, if I attain this or reach this or this happens, that'll be a good barometer of like, I'm good. Oh, of course. I've done it. What was it? Sorry. What was it? Is it right now?

Welcome to the Nicholas. If I could get Nicholas Holt to ask me questions as if I were interesting. That's my EGOT. No, I remembered my career has been a series of me thinking, if I could get to this point, then I'd never worry about anything again. And That goes back to me being 22 and just thinking, if I could just make a living as a comedy writer, and then I did. I'm like, Okay, well, the minute you attain something, you have disdain for it. But when I What's next?

What's the next level then?

For me, I think cover of men's health in a speedo. Just super cut.

You should pivot.

You should pivot.

On the The bonnet of the torus.

Washing it. Making sure it's extra clean.

I think it's time. No. Sixty-one-year-old men of my complexion who work out intermittently are seen as sex symbols.

This country's already going through enough.

I think this country can handle more. No, I think- That's what the country needs. It's a man of the hour. No, it's funny because I was very young and a writer on Saturday Night Live, and we won an Emmy when I was there for a season that I've been working on. We won, and I was in my 20s, and I remember thinking, Wow, I won an Emmy. This is going to change everything. And of course, it doesn't change anything. None of these things change anything, really. It's just been this constant education and reeducation and reeducation. It's all an illusion. You just keep going. And I think your analogy would be there's not going to be any point in a car where you're going to say, I'm satisfied, right?

You're going to keep-I mean, I guess if you go and win, it can get... Oh, that's right. The trophy or something, then you can be... But then, of course, that's- Then it's like you got to do it again. It's like you've done it, you've got to do it again, or you've got to go to a different track and do it again. You got to defend.

Yeah, there's always- Did you stand on top of the car when you won the race? No, I didn't. What are you supposed to do? There are all these iconic things you're supposed to do when you win.

I got on the podium and they gave a bottle of champagne. I'd never done that before, the spraying champagne thing, and I did a terrible job. It popped, it didn't really squirt anywhere. Then I saw the other guy on the podium, one of them hit the bottle on the ground. I did that to try and get it to fizz, but a load fell out, and then it was just all a bit of a mess. Because when you see people spraying champagne, it looks cool and awesome. I'm like, Yeah.

Did they take your trophy away?

They should have It was an absolute disgrace.

You could see them taking your car with a tow truck. They took the car back.

Then I'm like, I can fix this. I can do better. I'm shaking it, I'm sticking my thumb in there. By then, there's not enough in there. It's not fizzy enough.

Then everyone's left. You're there late at night. The sun's gone down. You're there with a Diet 7 up shaking it.

Come on. I still do it every morning.

I'm sorry, I'm curious. Does I need this translate. Does your driving ability translate to you on the 405 freeway? No. Does anything like that translate? Are you an amazing driver going 55 miles an hour on the highway to get your oil changed?

No, I don't think so. I just get bored sitting on motorways, stop, start, and whatever. It's a completely different. I like to think that maybe my reaction time and if something happened, my car control would be good. But I've luckily never had I had to use it on the road.

Yeah, that's good. You just knocked wood in. I don't think this is wood. What do you mean?

I think this is- This is definitely wood.

This is definitely wood.

I thought this was an expensive piece of wood.

I don't trust Eduardo. I think he chipped out on us. He found something cheaper than wood.

Might be particle board.

It's better for the sound, right? Yeah.

He gets it. Yeah. You get it. I don't get it. How do you like living in Los Angeles area. We were talking about this a little bit when you first showed up, but it's so interesting. Maybe it's the grass is always greener, but having 100% Irish jeans, I always find myself yearning for it to be cloudy and rainy here in Los Angeles. But for years, I've noticed that people from the UK, Brits, they want to be here. They are not interested at all in a cloudy day. They want to get red faced. I Do you know? Do they? Well, I think so. Yeah, they love tanning. They love... Do you think I'm on to something here? I think you're onto something.

Well, you know what? The reverse of that would be my wife was like, when we first met, she was like, Oh, I love... She's from here. She was like, Oh, I love rain. I love cloudy days, whatever. I was like, Oh, cool. We were back in London for a while shooting some of the great for six months, and I think it was rainy and cloudy and cold for most of that time. She quickly realized that she didn't enjoy that. There's something about if you grow up in the sun where you have this idea of rain and gray and cold and all this. But actually, when you put her in it, she was like, no, this isn't it.

You're happy. You like it here.

I like being in the sun. I miss London. I miss pubs and the theater and friends and a lot of the things about the lifestyle and being able to walk more places. I do miss it. But the thing about my job is I'm always on the road in different places. I'm finding this a nice base at the moment.

I want to make sure we get the word out on Nosferatu. Where did you shoot this? Where did you shoot Nosferatu?

We shot it in Prague.

Oh, my God. See, that is why I do a travel show is that for years and years and years, for 28 years, I sat at a talk show desk and talked to people like you who said, Oh, I just got back from Prague.

Yeah. Have you been there for the show?

No, I've never been to Prague. I want to go there.

You should do an episode going there. Yeah, I will in like, alignment with Nosferatu coming out. Yeah.

Oh, so you want me to travel to get the word out on Nosferatu. Thank you. All Sona, could you book me a flight to Prague? Sure. And get me a... Good. Really good. Really good acting. All done. Bye. Could you have a shirt made that says Nosferatu in theaters now? Let's see that. Can you screen print it? Oh, wow. You've got a laser printer. What machine makes this? Do all your machines make noises like that? Yeah. Your guillotine probably That's my burger.

I'd like to hear the guillotine.

Yeah, let's hear the guillotine. Splort.

Splort? It needs to be a little bit of a…

Yeah, it's a wet… He landed on his tongue. I don't know what happened there. It's a punch to a skinny thing, isn't it?

Didn't realize the French Revolution was so humorous.

Yes. Benny Hill in the French Revolution. Boing, boing. Okay, you made Nosferatu, directed by one of my favorites, Robert Eggers. I love his stuff.

He's incredible, isn't he?

Absolutely incredible. I I mean, I'm excited to just see the look of the film. He always achieves.

I agree with you. I'm such a huge fan of his. I love his movies. I love the performances in his movies. He is, I think, a real auteur a filmmaker and one of the greatest working and alive. You know what? I was thinking about this the other day as well. He's so dedicated to the craft of filmmaking in terms of technically, emotionally, historically, what he creates. There were moments where he was watching old films to try and figure out what was the best snow we could use because he shot all on a film. Like you said, the look is so important in terms of telling the story. He was like, Why is the snow good in these movies? But it's not good in these. Then he found some old stocks snow that isn't made anymore. Fake snow from the '90s, whatever. They managed to locate- That's asbestos. Just enough. I'm breathing this asbestos in and I'm like, God, this movie is beautiful and it's worth it.

There's a reason they don't use it anymore.

So he's poisoning myself. God, it looks good on screen. It's just his dedication to the details of historically, but also exploring the occult and the emotional aspects of this story. It's something he wanted to make since he was eight years old, and there was a play of it he did at school, so no one could have told it better.

What are the Eggers movies that you were really drawn to?

I mean, The Witcher was the first one I saw, and I met him after that, which I just thought, all his movies feel so real, which is a weird thing because I'm not necessarily a horror fan?

It's so funny because I had the opportunity to interview Jordan Pio, and he was asking me, What horror films do you like? And I said, I don't like someone jumping out of a bush, stabbing, jump scared. And someone chasing someone else with a chainsaw. I cited the witch as an example and Eggers as an example of there's a wide shot early in the film, it's fall and it's New England, 17th century New England, and the wind is blowing and you just see these trees slightly undulating, and it's terrifying because of the implication of what... Something malevolent is out there. He He managed to make trees in the fall in New England very frightening. I responded to, there's so much in the witch that it's so much of its tone and so much of it is... Then there are, yes, there are little moments that are frightening It's fascinating, but when you think about it, there's so little violence, there's so little action, but your heart's in your mouth the whole time. Yeah.

Oh, he's a master of creating tension. I think you're going to love it. I think I'm excited for you to see it because it's the tension he creates, but it is visually stunning. And the score and the sound is imposing and fills your bones. But then there's this weird thing where it's like you're watching it, you can't take your eyes away because it's like looking at Rembrandt every scene, every shot. But then there's also this thing where you want to look away because so this is scary. Something's coming, something's happening. It's a really interesting exploration of the evil that we all have within ourselves, but also externally coming and how that affects us. I'm excited.

I think it's a really good special movie. What was the period? Is it 1890s?

Yeah, in Hamburg, Germany. It's a Gothic tale, I guess. But then, yeah, going back to his movie is, of course, The Lighthouse. William Defoe's in this one as well. Him and Rob were so brilliant in that movie.

We did a travel show in Dublin last year, and we drove around and we went to Wicklow, which there's this great iconic lighthouse, and I got all made up as William Defoe in the lighthouse. I have this long, insane speech that we shot in black and You're doing promo for the Lighthouse, then.

So you can do something that's right. You better make another shirt.

What I'm saying is, go check out the Lighthouse.

Get the costume on as well.

I'll send you the script. What I loved about that, I guess what I loved about that movie is the performances are amazing, but also you're paying attention to the button on someone's weird suit, which is somehow evocative. He manages to get all that stuff right. Now, I'm thinking, Gothic, Nosferatu, late century feel day with the visuals.

Oh, the costumes, Linda, the costumes that she created are all impeccable and stunning. But it is all that detail. Again, it's like his historical knowledge of everything going on. Because he leads from the front with such passion, everyone around just really wants to bring their best and do their best to serve his vision. But then I would text him thinking he'd be asleep about something in the middle of the day here, but which middle of the night in London. He'd be like, Oh, I'm up. I'm researching which cigars your character should smoke in this scene and whatever. He'd be like, Dude, go to bed. It's 3:00 or 4:00 AM in London. What are you doing? But he's just constantly so in the zone of what's right for the story in every- Smoking thousands of cigars.

He's vomiting. I've got to get the right one. Well, listen, I am a huge fan of yours as a person, but I just think your performances are off the charts great. This movie is made for me. Oh, yeah, Bill Scarsgard? Yeah.

Oh, his performance is magic as well because he's created this monster, Count Orlock, but he's given it such history and rooted in something very real. It's terrifying, it's scary, but it's also real.

I'm curious because my work is always I make something and then we see it either instantly or 10 minutes later, and then I never see it again. Your work is you work really hard on something You craft it, you make it, you have some control over some facets of it. Then this long period of time goes by, I would think, before you see it. How apprehensive are you about, Okay, now it's time for me to go see myself in Nosferatu?

I don't like that. I always equate it to when you're at school and you did a test and you're waiting for the results to come in. There's that nerve-wracking feeling where you're like... It depends also how you left the shoot in terms of your overall feeling there. Did you feel like you gave a lot of variation on each scene in the edit, if they want, they're going to have options. Did you feel like you explored everything you could have done? Then that's a different feeling as opposed to if you walk away from something and you go, I think I missed a bit here, or actually, that could have been better. Suddenly, then you're looking back and you're like, Oh, no. It's an odd feeling waiting for something to come out and not something I look forward to, particularly.

I'll say from my vantage point, your work is excellent. Trust me, I think a word from Conor O'Brien carries a lot of weight in the industry.

The car fucker.

Red onesie, the car fucker. Five stars. Five stars from the tourist fucker.

Absolutely thrilled that you could be here today. I do want to be your friend. I doubt it's going to happen.

We can definitely be friends.

No, I have a bad feeling.

You gave me the sheet. You made me say it. I don't think so.

I'm going to say it's not going to happen on your end. I'm going to say you're the one that's going to just see.

Just keep calling and breathing down the phone. I'm always waiting. Nicholas. That's the only reason I've still got a timeline.

It's me. But congrats on the new film, No's brought to. And thank you so much for stopping by and for being so funny and terrific. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Peace out, Tupac. Oh, God. No one expects that. What? What's up, Matt? Gurley, what's the plan?

Well, we're going to do another staff review.

I love staff views because as the... What is my title at this company? Am I CEO? No. Am I chairman? No. Am I...

I feel like you're just talent. You're the head of the boss, man. You're the boss, man.

You're Are you admitting I have talent?

I'm saying you're not someone who's making like, Hey, guys, let's wheeling and deal in decisions.

I'm doing it. I do that, but that's all I do. All I do is come in to meetings and go, Hey, guys, let's do some wheeling and deal in Then Adam and Fedrovitch and Ross are all like, What? I'm like, Yes, I'm wheeling and dealin. They're like, Just... They just pushed me out of the room, and I've got my shirt buttoned down.

You're the face of this company.

Yeah, and what a face.

Yeah.

Okay, let's move on. I like, as the grand poobah, I like talking to the employees and telling them how I think they could do better.

Okay, so today we have Eduardo, who is currently hiding behind his monitor.

Eduardo, don't hide. Be a man about this, Eduardo. Can you step away from the machinery that you employ as the- Who's going to watch the levels? Adam. Adam is over there checking the levels. Do the levels. Have a seat, Eduardo. Is this your first time at the table?

I think for the hoppening, I was interrogated.

Just have a little seat there, Eduardo.

Buckle up.

Buckle up. Okay, now, Eduardo, if you don't mind, this is a very large company, huge company. They literally have tens of thousands of employees. Your full name, please.

Eduardo Perez.

Okay, Eduardo Perez.

As I said before, Eduardo Perez.

There you go. Let me help you. Eduardo Pérez. Perfect. No. Eduardo Pérez. Eduardo, you are... I'm going to start by buttering you up before I chop you down. You made this beautiful studio that we're in, state of the art. You're a very talented guy, and I applaud you for your work.

Thank you. I did it with the help of many other individuals. I can't take all the credit.

They're not here right now, but you did a fantastic job, and you've done, as far as I can tell, mostly a really good job here. It's excellent job. Describe your duties. You have to make sure that the equipment is all functioning. Duties. Well, duties, yes.

Hey, your staff review is next. Take it easy.

My duty is relative to this show. Yes. I engineer. I make sure that you all sound as great as you can.

Who has the most challenging voice of the three of us?

Be honest. Honestly, I would say you do.

What's challenging about it?

You're very dynamic. You get very excited and loud, but sometimes because of your bits- It's called being a rageaholic.

I explode in rage. No, I know that when I have an idea or I want to push something through and punch it, you probably have to ride all the dials. All the time.

I'm constantly, exactly, riding your levels the most, of all three of you. Sometimes a guest will match your energy, and I'll have to ride you and the guest.

Yeah, that can happen sometimes. That happened with Doris Kearns-Goodwin. She started talking about Lyndon Johnson, and she was shouting. Then I was doing bits, and she was doing bits. You know it was also difficult to record sometimes? Jimi Hendrix. That's right. The great artists are sometimes hard to capture.

You've been doing this for so long that I'm surprised you don't know how to talk into a microphone properly.

I don't care about the devices around me. I do see myself as a pure, truly artistic cloud that just emanates energy, goodness, and genius. Then these machines, they aren't my concern. These are the concerns of others. Is it Eduardo Perez?

Eduardo Perez, yes, that's right.

Eduardo, you do a very good job. We were courting certain celebrity recently. I believe it was Kaitlyn Olson, of course, and very talented, wonderful. She comes in and we were all excited to talk to her. Then there was an issue, and I hate to bring this up in your review, but it felt like you weren't ready to go when it was time to go. What happened, Eduardo?

That is correct. Right as we were about to get started, the software program that I normally use just completely froze. I got the... Gourley would know this well. Anybody who's used a computer before?

Yeah, and I'm actually pretty fluent in this. I was doing a bit before, but which one is it?

It's called console.

Yeah, console. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. What happened? Be specific and really get into the minutiae because I can match you. Sure.

The spinning wheel of death It's weird.

We all know what that is. It means it was buffering. Exactly.

It wouldn't go away.

Why are you talking to me like I'm a child?

Wait, I'm sorry. What was buffering? Excuse me. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay.

Can you seriously use the real terminology? Because you're talking to me like I'm an idiot I have worked in show business for a long time, and I know a lot about television. I also know about the audio aspect of things. So let's have a real intelligent- It's not even that complex. Well, just please. Let's get into it. The computer simply froze. That's all you've got?

That's all that happened.

Okay.

And I had to just hit... I had to restart the whole system. What? Yes.

That's all you did?

That was it. Then I had to load up Pro tools. I had to load up console.

You have to load Pro tools. You have to load console. But my question is, did you try anything else before you went to what anyone would do, which is unplug it and then plugging it back in again? I did, yes.

I tried to force quit it and tried to reboot it.

Did you try the force?

There is no try. There's only do.

Do you know how to force quit?

Yes, of course you do. What's the shortcut? What's the shortcut? What's the shortcut? What's the key stroke for a force quit? Control Alt, force quit. Listen, can I tell you something? I believe that was the easy thing to do, and it took a long time. Caitlin had to sit here for a little bit because- I feel like it was a minute. Excuse me. It was longer than a minute. It was at least a minute and 15 seconds.

It felt like eternity for me.

I'll tell you that. I could tell she... She's a lovely person, but she was thinking of leaving. I could tell.

She handled it like a champ. I was more nervous about your energy than I was about her energy, to be honest.

This guy's never had a single hiccup for how long has he been working here?

I know, but can I say something? Prince, anytime anyone in his band hit one note that was a little bit off, he would find them. He would find them. But he's a psychopath.

No, that's not the- Are you comparing yourself to Prince? Yes. It's the same thing. You do podcasting.

What are you talking about?

I'm just saying you wouldn't know what's wrong because you don't- I hear the music just the way Prince did.

I think each in our fields, I am the Prince of podcasting You're certainly a little prince. I'll say that. I'll tell you this. I just question, did you panic and force quit? Because there are other things you could have tried first. No. What? I don't know. You You could have gone to Ultra. Sorry? Ultra.

What's Ultra?

What are you even fucking talking about? Ultra. It's a parallel system that you can use. You can access it, and then you can go to Hibernet. If you had used Ultra and you had gone to Hibernet, don't... Hey, Sona, you're just laughing because you're embarrassed. You don't know anything. You could have knocked it all down like three generations.

What was I thinking?

Did you try compression?

Compression? Oh, yeah. Compression. Pleanior compression.

Well, listen, next time, look to me and I can help you. You got it. Okay? Yeah. I do like the work that you're doing. Thank you. I'm very lucky to have you. Thank you. I'm very fortunate that you've done such a beautiful job. This table, this is your baby.

This is one of my babies, yes.

You put this table together. Any time one of us, it's happened, Sona's always bringing various soups from home, soups that your mother made, soups from the home- She's never once brought the soup. You know when you come in with your soups from the old country, Oh, my God. Listen, and you spill. How did it take you to this? Have you noticed that when... Just bang me up on this. Admit, first of all, you bring in a lot of soups from the old country. Just admit it.

It doesn't make you bring soups from the old country.

But listen, spills, whenever a liquid spills, you freak. I do freak out. Because there's a lot of very expensive electronics underneath this beautiful table. Under the hood, yes. Under the hood. When you were building this table, did you know that, first of all, clumsy sometimes with my drinks. Sona, of course, ubiquitous soups.

I had a feeling. I tried to impose a rule that would prevent drinks, but I was quickly outnumbered.

I ingest a lot of fluids to keep the old pipes lubricated, so to speak.

You were the first one to spill all over this, and it was like a full glass of water.

Okay, I did spill a full glass of water. However, how many times have you been in here with She drinks it out of a stone bowl, and it's some Romanian stew or potash, right? Am I wrong? You come in and you've got that big spoon. It's crazy big, like the Flintstones.

You know what's funny is I'm thinking of hush, which would come with a hoof.

What? How many times? I said once she was having some of this hush, and I said, What you got there? She said, You want some? She said, You want the hoof? You want the hoof, remember? I said, No, I don't want the hoof.

I'm trying to share with you. That's all I'm trying to do.

Well, anyway. Great staff review. You're welcome. I finally got you to admit that you do bring tons of... You bring Hosh in in a big stone bowl that's been frozen for years because it's from the old country. Got you, Sona.

Oh, my God.

Eduardo, thank you for all your work, and you are impeccable. Thank you very much. My only question is, how valuable could your job be if you can walk away from it completely and everything's fine?

I built it so that- Oh, you built it.

Yeah. Okay, you're such a good surgeon that halfway through the surgery, you can walk away for a peer review. Yeah.

You know what? I'm with you on this because he did plug in and plug out and plug in. That's what I would have done. I could do what you do.

Yeah. Also, what do I do? I guess I'll reboot the whole thing.

Konan O'Brien needs a friend. With Conan O'Brien, Sonam of Cessian, and Matt Gourley. Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and nick Liao. Theme song by the White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy know. Take it away, Jimmy. Our supervising producer is Erin Blair, and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brenda Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent Booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Brit Kohn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Konan? Call the Team Coco Hotline at 669-587-284. Com. And leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. You can also get three free months of Serious XM when you sign up at siriusxm. Com/konan. If you haven't already, please subscribe to 'Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.

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