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Lemonada.

1:30

Okay,

1:31

actually, can you just pretend that you're listening

1:33

to a fully complete theme song here? I got

1:36

really in my head, and I tried to make it perfect,

1:38

and I couldn't. So this is going

1:40

to be the theme song right here.

1:48

Hello and welcome to another episode of Funny

1:50

Cause It's True. I'm Elise Myers. I

1:52

am so excited to welcome the incredibly talented

1:55

Andrew Rannells to our show. He is an amazing

1:57

actor and performer who has starred in many Broadway

1:59

hits, including... including Hedwig in The Angry Inch,

2:01

as well as originating the role of elder Kevin

2:04

Price in The Book of Mormon. He's given genius

2:06

performances on shows like Girls, The

2:08

Boys in the Band, and Big Mouth. In this

2:10

episode, he talks about the project he's most proud

2:13

of in his newly released book, Uncle of

2:15

the Year. Andrew also shares with us the

2:17

hilarious and heart-wrenching tale of

2:19

the worst date he's ever been on, which ended

2:21

up being featured in the New York Times. For

2:23

two highly animated people who can cry on

2:25

command, we had a very stable and

2:28

delightful conversation. So two things

2:29

that are funny because they're true.

2:31

Number one, fun fact, Andrew Rannells

2:33

is from Omaha. So we're instantly best friends,

2:36

of course. And number two, as you'll hear

2:38

in my aggressive verbal encouragement,

2:41

Andrew's take on stage versus screen acting

2:44

was very informative for me. All right, let's

2:46

get into it.

2:51

Andrew, oh my gosh, I have been waiting

2:53

to talk to you. And like when I saw your name

2:55

on my calendar, I got so freaking

2:57

excited.

2:57

I'm so excited to talk. I was

2:59

just in Omaha for 4th of July. Okay,

3:02

so yeah, you're from Omaha, right? I'm from

3:04

Omaha. So yeah, so I've been spending a lot of time there recently.

3:07

But yeah, it was just there again last week. So

3:09

I have lots of Omaha

3:11

questions for you as well. We have a

3:13

lot to catch up. So much to discuss. Yeah,

3:15

I was going to say, what do you do when you come back?

3:18

Is there any place you love to go when you come back to Omaha?

3:20

I mean, it's mostly centered around eating.

3:23

I don't know about your family, but that's basically

3:26

where everything is planned. So it's like, you know, there's

3:28

a runs a trip. There's,

3:30

of course, of course, I have a place in the old market.

3:33

So there's usually a spaghetti works trip. Johnny's

3:37

Cafe, which is like a very old steakhouse

3:39

I go to, we go to my family's

3:42

in South Omaha. So we, we

3:44

go to a lot of restaurants like in that area,

3:46

basically like older.

3:52

By the way, that laugh is Andrew seeing

3:54

the hunger all over my face. My

3:56

heart, everyone listening to this is going to be like, this is

3:58

not relevant to me. And

3:59

I'm like, I don't need. This is my favorite.

4:02

Give me all the recommendations. Oh

4:04

my gosh. I can't believe you were just here. Where

4:06

did you go to high school in Omaha? I

4:08

actually, so I'm not from Omaha. I'm from

4:10

California and I moved to Omaha for my husband.

4:13

Moved to Omaha. Yeah, so we just traded places. Oh,

4:15

wow. You moved to LA,

4:17

right? You live

4:18

in... I'm in LA right now, yeah. Did

4:20

you experience any culture shock when you moved away from

4:22

Omaha? There was. I first moved

4:25

when I was 19. I moved to New York. Oh,

4:27

wow. So I moved to New York to go to college. So I think I

4:29

was a little too... I

4:32

don't want to say dumb, but I was too excited about living

4:34

in New York that I didn't really let... It

4:38

didn't really affect me too much. You just decided. I was

4:40

super excited. I was in school.

4:43

I just, you know, was like hit the

4:45

ground running in New York. And then I was in New York for... I

4:48

only moved out to LA in 2012. So

4:51

I was in New York for a good long time. I moved

4:53

there

4:53

in 97. So

4:56

I really considered that to be New York to be home. And I still

4:58

do, I guess. But

5:00

yeah, but out here in LA, just making

5:02

my way, making my way.

5:05

Cue music. Yeah, exactly. How

5:07

long did it take

5:07

you to get on Broadway when you... once you moved there?

5:11

A while. I mean, in... If I

5:13

had been told at 19 that it would take seven years,

5:17

I think

5:19

I would have been a little discouraged. I

5:21

was like newly-ish 26 when I got my first Broadway

5:23

show, which was Hairspray. What did that feel like to book

5:26

that? Was

5:29

it just like this is everything I've ever wanted? Yeah,

5:31

yeah. I mean, yeah, plain

5:33

and simple. I was like, this is all I ever

5:35

dreamed was that I would get

5:38

to be in the show. Now, it came with, you know, a lot

5:40

had happened sort of leading up to

5:42

that. My dad died. As

5:46

soon as I got that Broadway show, my boyfriend that

5:48

I had for a few years broke up

5:50

with me, like right when

5:52

it happened. He was like, I can't

5:54

do this. You're going to go off and do... You

5:57

know, you're going to go on... be on Broadway, and I can't.

5:59

I can't do that. I can't do part of that. What

6:02

did he think? You were just never going to be successful? And he was

6:04

like,

6:04

I'm just going to write it out. I

6:06

don't know. I think there was a bit,

6:08

you know, and it happens, you know, certainly when two

6:10

people are in the same industry

6:13

that there is, especially, you know, two men,

6:15

there was a competitive nature

6:17

to our relationship, I think, even though he

6:20

was older, we did very different things. It

6:22

wasn't like we weren't competing for the same parts, really.

6:25

But, but yeah, so that was, so it was

6:27

sort of surrounded. You

6:30

know, like a lot of good things in life when

6:32

something good happens, then some other bad things

6:34

happen or some things sort of balance

6:36

out the excitement. But for the most part, I would say,

6:39

yeah, getting that show, being

6:41

on Broadway was like all I

6:43

dreamed it would be. It was very, very exciting. And

6:46

then you start, you know, you start

6:48

changing the dream a little bit. You start

6:50

moving the finish line. So

6:52

then I wanted to be in another Broadway

6:54

show and I wanted to be a lead. And then I

6:56

wanted to be, I wanted to open a Broadway

6:59

show. And then I just sort of kept revising

7:01

what my dream was. So

7:03

when you got into your role in Hairspray,

7:06

was there a bit of you that felt

7:09

let down that the dream had happened and you

7:11

didn't know where to go from there?

7:13

You know, I started

7:15

in Hairspray as

7:17

an as in the ensemble and then I

7:20

understudied three roles. OK,

7:22

so there was always kind of something to chase.

7:25

There was always, you know, there was always

7:27

something to kind of focus on. So

7:30

I pretty quickly started going on for those

7:33

understudy parts. And then I realized I was

7:35

like, oh, I don't want to understudy Link Larkin.

7:37

I want to be Link Larkin. I want to play

7:39

that part. And then when I got to do

7:42

that, when I replaced the

7:43

actor I was understudying, then it

7:45

became clear that I

7:47

was like, OK, the real, my real

7:49

goal now I've changed it is

7:51

I want to open a show on Broadway. And

7:55

you know, and some of that, I don't know how

7:57

you feel about it, but some of that sort of revising

7:59

your. your wish list is good,

8:02

right? It keeps you sharp and it keeps you ambitious

8:04

and it keeps you wanting more

8:07

and trying harder. But

8:10

it can also drive you a little bit nuts.

8:13

Honestly, I like that Andrew's dreams slowly

8:16

grew over time because I am

8:18

a very conservative dreamer. I am a

8:20

stair stepper. I've always done things little bits

8:23

at a time. So it's really comforting to hear

8:25

that he is that way too. The end

8:27

goal is always so far away. It's

8:29

like you never get to celebrate getting

8:32

to a place that you could have only dreamed of getting

8:34

a few years

8:35

ago. Yeah, yeah. So,

8:37

I mean, it's a real lesson in gratitude, I

8:39

think, is what I've learned over the years is like, yes,

8:42

it's okay to want more and to sort of hope

8:44

for more, but you also have to really sort

8:47

of constantly take stock, right,

8:49

of like what it is you have and what it is you're grateful

8:51

for and the opportunities that are right

8:54

in front of you. So that was something that did

8:57

take me a while to figure out. And,

8:59

you know, still working on that.

9:01

When you were in Broadway, in

9:04

Broadway, on Broadway, on

9:06

top of Broadway, we'll

9:08

never know, except it's on

9:10

Broadway. Did you always also have

9:13

dreams of acting in movies or

9:15

was it just Broadway?

9:16

It was just Broadway and it was at the

9:19

time,

9:21

you know, it was hard for me to get

9:23

auditions for TV stuff, even though there's a lot

9:25

of television that's filmed in New York City. I

9:28

wasn't getting seen for things. They weren't,

9:31

you know, I kind of thought like, well,

9:33

I'm in a Broadway show, so maybe I'll start, you

9:35

know, I could be on Law and Order next, but

9:37

that's not how it worked.

9:38

No, I would assume that's how it

9:41

works. I have no clue.

9:42

They were like, nah, it wasn't until

9:44

I was in the Book of Mormon and the Book

9:46

of Mormon became sort of not only a big

9:49

hit in New York, but then also people from Los

9:51

Angeles knew about it and were talking about

9:53

it and Trey Parker and Matt Stone who wrote it, you

9:56

know, who had this massive, massive,

9:58

you know, success. and films and television,

10:01

like they brought

10:03

a lot of attention to the show. So it wasn't really

10:05

until after that that I started

10:08

getting opportunities on television

10:10

and in films.

10:11

How are they different Broadway versus

10:13

acting on a set? Well,

10:16

like right as I was about to leave the Book of Mormon,

10:19

well, sort of around then, I was going to Los

10:21

Angeles to film a pilot of a television

10:23

show with Ryan Murphy and I met Laura

10:25

Linney, who Laura Linney, I was like, I'm

10:28

such a huge fan of. I've since forced

10:30

a friendship with her, but

10:31

she's like my number one doppelganger. Every

10:33

time someone sees me, they're like, you look like Laura

10:35

Linney, like not right now, obviously like a hot

10:38

garbage, but like when I get dressed, when I get

10:40

dressed, they're like,

10:42

do you know who Laura Linney is? So

10:44

I looked at him like, oh my God, we look very much alike.

10:46

That's

10:47

so crazy. You do. You

10:49

really do. She's fantastic. Obviously

10:51

a fantastic actor, but just

10:53

also a really amazing human and

10:55

very has always been very kind to me. When

10:57

I asked her, I was like, so I'm about to go do this

10:59

thing. And I had been

11:01

working on television. Don't get me wrong. I

11:04

had done, I had done a whole season of girls

11:06

at this point, but I was still, but I was

11:09

still doing the Book of Mormon at night. Anyway,

11:11

Laura's assessment of the difference between

11:14

stage work and film work was

11:17

this, and it is true. She was like,

11:19

when you're in the theater and it's supposed to snow, you

11:21

pretend that it's snowing and on

11:23

film, they just make it snow.

11:25

And

11:28

it's really true. Like when I got to LA

11:30

and all of a sudden, like all of the faucets

11:33

on the set work, I know that sounds really simple,

11:35

but like there was running water and all

11:37

of the light was like, oh, all of this

11:39

is real. And usually like

11:42

on stage, it's like there's a level of disbelief

11:45

that you have to like, it's, you know, something

11:47

that you, you work with, you

11:49

work within those parameters. And then when you're working

11:52

on a lot of TV and film, it's like they

11:54

just make everything happen for you. And you're

11:56

like, oh, okay.

11:57

Did you find that you had to like

11:59

pay? you're acting

12:02

down because of that?

12:04

Very much, yeah. I, the first day that

12:06

I worked on Girls, um,

12:08

it was a scene just between Lena Dunham and

12:11

I, and Lena was directing

12:13

the episode. You know, I had gotten the part,

12:15

and I had auditioned for the part, and gotten the part, and so

12:17

I knew that they wanted me there. But

12:20

I had never spoken dialogue

12:22

in front of a camera before, so I was very, like,

12:25

on that level. Um, so I was

12:27

really nervous, and I asked her after

12:29

a couple of takes, I was like, can I see what it looks like?

12:32

Which is kind of a big no-no.

12:34

Or in my case, you can just, you know, invite

12:36

your husband to set and have him secretly record

12:38

the playback. I don't know. You don't do that.

12:41

And she very graciously was like, yeah,

12:44

you can, you can see it. So, so we watched

12:46

a couple takes of it, and I just quickly, I was like,

12:48

okay, I don't need to make... I'm naturally

12:50

very animated, and I look like a

12:53

precious moment. Like, I, like, my face

12:55

is kind of, like, large, and so

12:57

I... I look like a precious moment.

13:00

So I very, so I very quickly learned. I

13:02

was like, okay, dial it down. Dial

13:05

it down, Rannells. Take it easy. I

13:07

love that. I,

13:09

I really like... It's

13:11

funny, I'm the opposite. I'm very an expressive

13:14

person, but I feel like

13:16

I am expressing any moding more than

13:18

I am. I have basically one, and it's

13:20

just like...

13:21

Like that. That,

13:24

or, like, I look angry. And anytime

13:26

I, I have to deliver something, they

13:28

have, like, I just get so many directions thrown at me, and

13:31

I'm like, that's exactly what I'm doing. And they're like,

13:33

your face did not change at all. And I'm

13:35

like, I think that that's impossible, and

13:37

you're lying to me. Because clearly, I did two

13:39

different things.

13:40

Ha ha ha ha. Yeah,

13:43

it's, it's a real, it can be very

13:45

eye-opening when you're like, you think you look... I mean,

13:47

everybody, I suppose, experiences this, that

13:50

like, you think you look cool, you

13:52

think you look one way, and then you see the photo,

13:55

and you're like, oh, that's

13:57

not at all what I was feeling. That's not at all what I was feeling.

13:59

It's not it at all. Not at all the

14:02

same level, but I was doing a music

14:04

video with Megan Treanor and it was like

14:06

a Christmas, like it's like a Christmas acapella

14:09

made you look and everyone got

14:11

to pick their own Christmas outfits. And

14:13

I was like,

14:14

you know, I'm so out of my element. I'm with

14:17

actual celebrities sitting here and I feel so

14:19

out of place that I'm going to pick the goofiest thing so

14:21

that I can kind of hide behind that, you know? Okay.

14:24

And I picked this like Christmas tree onesie

14:27

thing, but it had a hood. So the hood

14:30

was like the top of the Christmas tree and

14:32

they just kept having to cut because the

14:34

little, it just kept coming over my eyes.

14:37

And finally they were like, you need to change your outfit

14:39

because you think that you look Christmas-y

14:42

and you just look like you're like trying to hide

14:44

and this is not working out. And

14:46

so I was like, okay, that was like the first realization.

14:48

Like I am not translating on camera the way that I think I

14:50

am and I cannot hide behind things. I

14:53

have to really either commit to like being in

14:55

this or leave because this

14:56

doesn't, this halfway does not

14:58

work at all. So what did you

15:00

end up putting on then? Did they have

15:02

another option for you to? I think I

15:05

changed out and just put like a regular Christmas sweater.

15:07

Correction. I actually just took the hood

15:09

off. So I was still a Christmas tree, but

15:12

I was the only person that knew that. And

15:14

I was very scared because I felt very exposed because

15:17

it's acapella too. So I was like singing with like just,

15:20

it was just very scary and I ended up working out

15:22

great and it sounded amazing. And I just looked like

15:25

everybody else on set, which I should have just started

15:27

with that. But yeah,

15:29

I just, I felt like I needed to hide and I didn't

15:31

know if like when you were on set, if you felt

15:34

any of that,

15:34

like if you wanted to blend in more

15:36

or if you felt very comfortable kind of right

15:38

away.

15:39

It's pretty exposing. I mean, I was so

15:42

lucky that that first scene was with Lena

15:44

and it was just the two of us sitting at a bar

15:46

talking. So she and

15:48

I didn't know her at all. But

15:51

we hit it off right away when we started

15:54

and she just made me feel very

15:56

much at ease and we were improvising a lot

15:58

and we got to sort of play around. with it, and Judd Apatow

16:01

was also on set that day. He was the executive

16:03

producer and Jenny Conner, who's

16:05

the show runner. They all just sort of allowed

16:09

me some space to kind of relax

16:11

into it. So by the end of the day, when we

16:13

finished, I can't say

16:15

that I felt confident about what I did,

16:18

but I at least felt, I wasn't nervous. And

16:20

so much is out of your control. Like on

16:23

stage, I and any actor

16:25

who's performing throughout the audience, for better

16:28

or for worse, you're in control of what you're

16:30

putting out there. There is no editor. There

16:32

is no like, if you mess up, that's

16:35

on you. But in this case,

16:37

and especially because we were improvising so much,

16:40

it was any,

16:42

I didn't know. I didn't know what they were gonna pick.

16:44

I never thought about that.

16:46

So I was like, well, you might as well just throw

16:48

out a wide net, we'll see how it goes. And then somebody

16:51

else controls your performance and

16:53

pieces it all together. And so it's not,

16:56

you don't get to decide what the final take is.

16:58

I would not have ever thought about that comparison

17:00

between being on a stage and knowing, like

17:02

it's a pretty black and white. I nailed that.

17:04

Or I didn't versus on a cutting

17:07

room floor. Yeah, or I didn't versus

17:09

like a cutting room floor of like, I can only

17:11

do so much and relying on

17:13

the eyes of the editors and everybody else

17:15

for it to pass through.

17:16

It was a hard lesson. Cause then like, you know,

17:19

going back and watching episodes of, or,

17:21

you know, anything that I've done to be like, and I wish they would

17:23

have used that other one, or I'm sure

17:25

that I'm sure there was another take.

17:28

Sometimes when I nail a take

17:30

and I want them to use that take, I will

17:32

like passively, aggressively say out loud,

17:34

like, wow, that was a really good one. That

17:36

one felt really good. I think that was for sure

17:39

the one. And then I just hope that that

17:41

sticks in their subconscious when they're picking the takes later.

17:43

I mean, it works both ways. I mean, sometimes

17:46

you look much better than you deserve. You're

17:48

like, wow, I'm amazing. Yeah, I'm

17:51

really good at this. And then other

17:53

times you're like, I wish that I had, you know, they

17:55

had picked something different. I picked a different take.

17:57

Yeah, but at the end of the day, I mean, so you can only.

17:59

You know, you just have to put out,

18:02

you know, your best every time. Yeah,

18:04

that's kind of it.

18:05

Was that show Girls

18:07

specifically a lot of improv

18:10

or was that just the first episode?

18:12

It was a lot of improv. Yeah. I

18:14

mean, the scripts were so brilliant that

18:17

there wasn't often need to do

18:19

anything. But I think there

18:21

was always sort of the flexibility

18:23

of saying like, well, if it doesn't feel right coming

18:26

out of your mouth, if you want to say it in a

18:28

slightly different way or, you know, rearrange

18:31

some things just to make it more like

18:33

your character, like that's fine. There

18:35

was always room to sort of do that. Lena

18:38

and I, I think I got

18:41

maybe a longer leash sometimes with her

18:43

in scenes just because we really

18:46

like to do that together. We like to

18:48

sort of, you know, improvise and

18:50

riff off of each other. And

18:52

everyone in that cast was very good

18:54

at doing that. So I think we

18:57

all got to sort of play, you know, and that's not every

18:59

show,

18:59

you know, not

19:01

every show does that. Yeah, I was gonna say,

19:04

did you like, did you ever get into

19:06

a scenario after that show where you

19:08

were like, this is the norm, and then you

19:10

tried to improv and they were like, nothing.

19:12

No, no, yeah, you learn

19:15

pretty quickly, like on a set that, you know, whether

19:17

or not that's going to be acceptable or not. Really?

19:20

Did you get into that situation? Well, especially if

19:22

you're like guest starring on something and you're like,

19:24

there's just not your guest. I mean,

19:26

that's literally your and someone else's

19:29

on someone else's set and someone else's show. So

19:31

you really do have to just follow their

19:33

lead. Also,

19:34

I've heard like, if you can't improv plot,

19:37

you have to improv character because like the

19:39

plot is set. And so you can't do that. That's

19:42

a perfect way to say it. Yeah, you can't don't be

19:44

changing that. Okay, time for

19:46

a quick break. When we come back, Andrew tells me

19:48

whether or not he can cry on demand.

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22:27

Earlier, you said that you're very emotive.

22:30

Can you make yourself cry in command for shows and stuff?

22:32

I'm not asking you to do that right now, but is that in you?

22:35

— Yeah. Yeah. — I love that.

22:37

Anytime someone can, I'm like, same, but

22:39

not because I'm an actor, because I'm just like,

22:41

I'm a crier. — It's the same thing. I

22:43

mean, if you're a person—I think naturally, yeah,

22:49

if you're a person who sort of can access that

22:51

pretty quickly and you feel

22:54

things like that, yeah, if there's a camera in

22:56

your face or—I mean, the nice thing about

22:58

doing it on stage is you've got a ramp

23:01

up to do it, right? You're doing the whole

23:03

show. I did a show

23:05

many years ago called Falsettos on Broadway, and it's

23:08

a really beautiful musical, but it's also a really sad

23:10

musical. And I never struggled

23:13

getting to that point at the end of having to

23:15

be really emotional, because you've got two hours

23:18

to back you up.

23:19

— I never thought about that. At this

23:21

point, you could just title the episode. I never thought

23:23

about that, because I've said it about seven

23:26

times up until this point.

23:27

— One camera sometimes,

23:29

yeah, it's tricky to sort of—but if the

23:31

writing is good, and

23:34

it's warranted—I mean, the worst

23:36

thing you can do to an actor in a script is to say,

23:38

like,

23:40

they cry. Like, he cries.

23:43

You're like, damn it. — It's like telling

23:45

somebody, like, be sexy, be funny.

23:47

It's like, well, I can't—I

23:50

can't just, like— — That's

23:51

the worst. Oh, that makes me want to vomit.

23:53

— Be funny. — Anytime I go anywhere,

23:55

and they're like—I'm, like, technically on

23:57

paper like I'm a comedian. So they're like, just

23:59

be—

23:59

funny, you know, like you just take this moment

24:02

and I'm like that could mean that's not how

24:04

it works.

24:08

I never thought about the difference. There's so many differences.

24:10

I like this is such an enlightening

24:12

conversation because I have performed

24:15

on stage a little bit. I've acted a little

24:17

bit but not enough to really know the difference because

24:19

both of them just felt like I blacked out because I was so

24:21

nervous. I'm like it's it's so

24:24

fascinating to hear like you

24:26

go through the journey of the emotion

24:28

when you're on stage because it's completely in order

24:31

but then filming a show it's

24:33

chopped up and rearranged you know

24:35

first filming schedules

24:36

and you have to bring

24:38

yourself to that place immediately.

24:40

Is that hard? Like how do you prepare

24:42

for that kind of on-camera work?

24:45

Yeah and it's it's a horrible feeling

24:47

when you you know it's like now is the time

24:49

to do it and maybe

24:51

it's not there so sometimes you have to manufacture

24:54

like like I've certainly been in positions where I'm

24:56

like well I can't quite

24:59

I can't quite get there in this

25:01

second and especially sometimes on film sets

25:03

where like you know you've got a bunch of people

25:05

around you you know the clock is ticking

25:07

you've got it the lighting has taken a long time

25:09

to set up like there's a lot of other pieces

25:12

around you that are are as

25:14

equally important as to what you're trying

25:17

to do and when

25:19

they say go and it's not there it's

25:21

a horrible horrible feeling so

25:23

like over the years I've learned like

25:26

you got to have some things in your back pocket

25:28

that can get you there some like things

25:31

to remember and some things to think about

25:33

and it feels a little emotionally

25:37

manipulative because like to yourself

25:39

that like yeah here I am like thinking

25:42

about something really awful that's either happened

25:44

to me or something that could happen you know that could

25:46

happen to me that is getting me to this place

25:49

and your body doesn't know the difference

25:51

okay so as it turns out I've been preparing

25:54

for this my entire life because I do this on a daily basis

25:56

without anyone even asking me to so

25:59

So making your like, I would have to remind

26:02

myself sometimes after falsetto

26:04

is like, you're okay. Everything's

26:07

okay. Like you just spent 45

26:10

minutes crying and being very sad.

26:13

But when that curtain comes down, like you got

26:15

to, you got to shake it off. That's crazy.

26:18

Because your body thinks that something is

26:20

wrong.

26:20

Yeah, it's, it's so fascinating to hear

26:23

your journey. And I'm curious,

26:25

what are you most proud of as you talk about all

26:27

this, as you think back on your career so far?

26:29

Like, I mean, I'm really proud

26:32

of, of getting to write. I'm really,

26:34

I was very proud of my first

26:36

book and very proud of this, this book that

26:38

just came out in

26:40

May, called Uncle of the

26:42

Year. I have always kept

26:44

a journal, but I would write essays sort of for myself

26:47

and sort of turn, you know, personal

26:49

stories into these essays just kind of for

26:52

me. And I didn't really share them with anyone.

26:54

It was just always something that I did. So

26:57

then when the opportunity came about

26:59

to actually get to write

27:02

and to get to share it and to publish, you

27:04

know, work that I had done, that was something

27:07

very unexpected. And I did not see,

27:10

I did not see that

27:12

in my future. And the fact that I've

27:14

gotten to do it is like, yeah, it's really,

27:16

I think it, I think in many ways is

27:18

the thing that I'm most proud of because

27:21

it's, it was just

27:23

super, super unexpected. And

27:26

it's been, you know, luckily met with, with

27:29

a lot of support and a lot of, a lot of

27:31

love. And it feels

27:33

because there is no character. It

27:36

is just like stories from my life and things

27:39

that I'm sharing about my past and

27:41

my present. And

27:43

that's obviously super

27:46

vulnerable. I was going to ask, is this feel

27:48

more vulnerable than acting? Yeah,

27:50

it was, it's sort of, it, you know, it's still

27:52

as scary, you know, before this book came out, I was

27:54

like, well, there's a lot of information, personal

27:56

information in this book that I don't

27:58

know how it's going to be received.

27:59

and I don't know how people are going to react. And I

28:02

was so pleasantly surprised with the first

28:04

book, and I was hoping that that

28:06

would be the same case with this book, and luckily

28:09

it has been. But yeah, it's putting

28:11

yourself out there.

28:12

You know, it puts you in a very

28:15

vulnerable position.

28:19

All right, time for one more break, and then we'll hear more about

28:21

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30:52

Do you remember what it was like

30:54

the first day that your your first book was live

30:57

for people to kind of buy and read? Do

30:59

you remember that day or what that felt like?

31:01

I had

31:03

a little bit of a warm-up in the first essay

31:05

that I wrote was published in Modern Love in the

31:07

New York Times. And it

31:09

was a super personal

31:12

story about the night my dad

31:14

died, about how he the night that

31:16

he he had a heart attack and he and

31:18

he died, but he was in a coma for a few days before

31:21

he died. But while that was happening

31:23

in Omaha, Nebraska, I

31:24

was on a pretty awful first

31:27

date with a guy and ended

31:30

up like, had sex with him, was like,

31:32

I don't know if I should have done that. Like, I

31:35

was like wrestling with all of these things in my head

31:37

of like, I didn't really want to do that. Why did

31:39

I do that? Like, it just felt like that was the

31:41

thing to do. And as I'm sort of thinking

31:43

about this, and this man is still in my apartment,

31:46

I look at my phone and I have all of these messages

31:48

being like, dad's in a coma. No.

31:51

So I then had to like

31:54

figure out

31:54

what do I what

31:57

what is my next step here? What am I how

31:59

do I How do I get to Omaha?

32:01

How do I get this naked man out of my apartment?

32:04

Is the next one. There's so

32:06

many levels to this. I'm not laughing at the

32:08

situation. No, no. I'm just like, my body's

32:10

in shock.

32:11

It's very, it was funny. And

32:15

you know, bless him, that man was

32:17

like, wanted to help. He

32:19

was like, well, let's, let's

32:21

get you a plane ticket. I'm coming with

32:24

you. Let's get here. Can I help you? He

32:26

was doing all of the nice things, but

32:28

he was doing it while fully naked.

32:30

No. And I

32:32

was like, I have to get you out of here.

32:35

Number one, let's put some clothes on you, my friend.

32:38

Number two. Please put on some pants

32:40

and please leave. We don't, I mean, but

32:42

it was a very strange situation

32:45

in that we had just done this very personal

32:47

thing together, but we didn't really know

32:50

each other. And then here we

32:52

are sharing this huge life-changing

32:54

event. And

32:57

we still don't really know each other, but like there was

32:59

this intimacy that had just occurred

33:02

that like, it was very strange.

33:04

So I wrote that and it was, it

33:07

was met with, with a

33:08

lot of positive

33:11

comments. And then there were, you

33:13

know, it's the New York times. It's a huge

33:16

readership. And the comments

33:18

really like went off the rails to the point

33:20

where like they had to like cut off the

33:22

comments. They were like, we're taking it. Yeah,

33:25

well, I mean, the good, the good ones were good, but

33:27

the bad ones were, there was a lot of people

33:30

who had problems with like me being gay.

33:32

That was a big one. Like just the next

33:34

was like how I behave towards the man.

33:37

Like that was how could you be so mean to him?

33:39

That was a big one. A lot

33:41

of people didn't think they should have published it. They were like,

33:43

you're just, you just published this because he's on

33:46

television, like he's on girls. And

33:48

that's the only reason you published it. Like it ran

33:50

the gamut. So I was, by

33:52

the time the book came out, like a year later,

33:55

I

33:55

was ready. I was like, okay,

33:59

this is gonna be. rough and people are going to

34:01

shake your confidence like things it

34:03

kind of made me more

34:05

determined I think because I got through

34:07

it I

34:08

like got through all those comments I got through

34:10

all of the sort of you know negative

34:12

side of it and ultimately the positive

34:16

response really outweighed

34:18

yeah the negative response so I was like I'm

34:20

just gonna stick to that so by

34:22

the time the book came out I had learned

34:24

to not take it personally and also to

34:26

not read the comments yeah that's

34:29

you're smarter than I am I like

34:32

glutton for pain so I read one bad comment I'm

34:34

like I knew it confirming

34:37

everything in me I feel about myself and you're like it's

34:39

making me stronger and I'm like what

34:43

no I can't read the comments

34:45

I can't read the comments

34:46

oh yeah I shouldn't read the comments I do

34:49

but I shouldn't but oh speaking of there's a campaign

34:51

to get you on tik-tok I told

34:53

everyone that I've made it like my personal mission me

34:56

yeah it's Gutenberg right that's the show

34:58

yes yeah yeah yeah I saw you

35:01

and Josh on a promo

35:03

for it and it was I think he was on his tik-tok and

35:06

everyone was like trying to get you

35:08

on the app and I was like guys I'm talking to

35:10

him next week it's my personal mission so

35:12

if you want

35:15

to be on tik-tok there's a whole world

35:17

waiting for you just and ready I

35:20

think I think well thank you for

35:22

I think Josh Gad

35:24

will be my tik-tok guide that's

35:27

fine that's great I think when

35:30

we get into rehearsals which happens very

35:32

quickly he's gonna he's gonna help

35:34

me because I never I feel

35:37

so out of touch with that and I know that's not new technology

35:40

I know that tik-tok has been around for a long time

35:42

it's relatively new the

35:45

content which you post on that app is so different

35:47

than other platforms so it's

35:49

intimidating I totally get it

35:51

it is yeah but I'm sure Josh

35:53

will will strong arm me into joining

35:55

tik-tok at some point

35:57

I'm alright with applying some peer pressure here

35:59

I think

35:59

Hearing about the essays you write in

36:02

your book is so fascinating. I'm writing a book

36:04

with short stories and essays and

36:06

I wanted to ask you all those questions because it's like, I

36:09

share so much about my life that sometimes I feel

36:11

like there is no veil. So people come up to

36:13

me on the street, they talk to me and they're talking

36:16

to me about personal stories of my life, not a character

36:18

I've played. It's terrifying. It's

36:21

beautiful and I love that I get to do it but it's

36:23

also very scary and so it is very vulnerable

36:27

talking about yourself so intimately

36:29

to strange strangers sometimes especially like

36:31

with you and your book and uncle of the year is a

36:34

short stories essay book

36:36

as well, right? Yes. Did it feel because

36:38

you had that experience like with the first one

36:40

that you're like

36:42

you knew kind of where to find that line

36:44

or you felt more comfortable sharing more? Like what was that

36:47

like doing it the second time around?

36:48

If it's not my

36:50

story, I don't tell it. You know, there's a

36:52

lot of stories about my

36:54

nieces and nephews about my boyfriend's kids

36:57

that like were just not my stories

36:59

to tell. Totally. So yeah, you

37:01

do have to kind of always keep yourself in check

37:04

especially writing when I

37:06

wrote a couple essays about like, you know, past relationships

37:09

and even sort

37:12

of involving, you know, ex-boyfriends and things

37:14

like that. It was like, well, how do you do

37:16

that? That's

37:19

the trickiest area is exes. You

37:21

want to share your version of events

37:23

but you have to make it very clear that it is your

37:26

version of events. Yeah. So I'm not

37:28

speaking on behalf of, you

37:30

know, anyone that I dated. Yeah, this

37:32

is just this is how I recall.

37:35

I mean, you know, and you know,

37:38

the most fun when you get to the legal

37:40

pass of your book, Elise, it's like, it's

37:42

why I'm terrified. I'm so scared.

37:44

It's really wild because then they start pulling

37:47

out things that you're like, Oh, I didn't even think

37:49

about that. Like, interesting. I

37:51

didn't think about that one. And you've got like, you know,

37:53

a few lawyers going through your book and being like,

37:56

this person, when was the last time you talked to this

37:58

person? Where are they right now? Is it true

38:00

that you worked here with them? And

38:02

you have to really think about, if

38:05

they didn't want to be named or

38:07

they don't want to be involved, how do

38:09

you go about that? How do you best

38:12

protect yourself and protect them so

38:14

that you can still tell the story

38:17

and still be honest? In terms of storytelling,

38:21

legally, there's

38:25

a handful of things you have to change, right? It's

38:27

like timeline, physical description,

38:30

name, obviously. Timeline

38:32

is a good one to, if you say, if

38:34

you just changed the years a little bit or you

38:36

changed the months, or you changed

38:39

the season that something happened, that

38:41

can often be, I'm not giving legal advice, by

38:43

the way.

38:43

No, this is legal advice. I'm taking it as

38:45

strict, you're my lawyer. For

38:48

legal reasons, I would just like to clarify that Andrew Reynolds

38:50

is not my lawyer. It's just things

38:53

that I had to learn along the way that I was like, okay,

38:55

so if you change, physical

38:57

description, if you change the name, if we change

39:00

the timeline a little bit, change maybe the

39:02

city where it took place, just

39:04

like a handful of things that then,

39:06

you still get to the heart of the story,

39:09

but the details are then, if somebody

39:11

really wanted to do a deep dive and try to track

39:14

someone down, it would be harder. It would

39:16

be much harder. The time is really throwing me because that's

39:18

where all my problems have come, is the time. That's

39:21

where, that's the biggest way people find the

39:23

people I'm talking

39:23

about is because I'm like, what year was

39:26

that? It was seventh grade. Like I'm

39:28

an idiot and I'm like, why does this keep happening

39:30

to me? Okay,

39:33

that makes a lot of sense. Thank you. I'm

39:36

just, anytime someone's like, who's your lawyer? I'm gonna just be like,

39:38

just call Andrew. Again,

39:41

not my lawyer.

39:42

Andrew Reynolds is,

39:44

he doesn't have a degree, but he's watched

39:46

a lot of television. He

39:48

has written books, so. He can

39:50

guide you on that one. This was

39:52

my favorite. Oh my God, it

39:55

was so good to meet you. Oh my God,

39:57

you too. Hope I get to talk to you again. Next time I'm in Omaha.

39:59

Yes. We should connect and go to one of your

40:01

a million like spots that you eat

40:04

at. I'll drag you all over Omaha. Yeah,

40:06

please. I have lots of questions for your husband

40:09

as well. Oh my God, great.

40:10

He's ready for it.

40:12

You can all hang out. Perfect. Okay.

40:15

Well, thank you, Andrew. Have

40:16

the best day and I'll talk to you soon. Thank

40:18

you. Okay, that's it for

40:20

this week's episode. Thank you so much for listening.

40:22

Make sure you check out Andrew's newest book, Uncle

40:24

of the Year. And if you like this show, give

40:27

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40:31

cause it's true. Bye.

40:33

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