00:00 So what's the plan?
00:02 We're gonna blow this wide open.
00:04 You want in?
00:06 No, no, no, no. You don't get the cool gun.
00:08 Hawk is the name of a man with a shotgun.
00:10 Spencer does your taxes.
00:12 That was good. I'm gonna let you have your little gun.
00:14 This very much fits in with a long legacy of buddy movies.
00:19 I'm curious if you were watching any during the making of it, and if you just have any of your favorites.
00:23 I haven't, but I mean, I've always loved it.
00:26 You go back to any time we reference any buddy movie, we're always trying to come up with our own lethal weapon.
00:31 Our own midnight run. Our own Butch Cassidy and Sundance.
00:34 I mean, we just talk about it all the time.
00:36 But, you know, I think I've had two of the best Boston buddy movies for sure.
00:42 Between Ted...
00:43 You can't get me thunder 'cause you're just God's fat.
00:46 And now this.
00:48 And it's a great odd pairing between me and Winston.
00:51 He's a mountain of a guy.
00:53 And, you know, he can throw people through walls, and I'm usually getting thrown through walls.
00:57 But yet, there we are right there side by side.
01:00 Like, especially thinking about Gabe from Us versus this role.
01:06 Very different characters. So I'm kind of curious how you kind of approach that.
01:09 Ah, man. So I always think about essentially what could my body lend to the script that's nonverbal.
01:17 What exactly is it gonna do and what difference is it gonna make if I play this role
01:23 rather than anyone else of a different ethnic background, size, gender playing the role.
01:30 And what is it adding? I always want to be able to add something.
01:33 If I ever see a role and I'm like...
01:36 And I do. I see it all the time.
01:38 I'm like, this doesn't do anything for this story to have me in particular play this role.
01:43 So that's a big part.
01:45 I also love when the characters that I'm doing change.
01:48 I have to see that they start off someplace, and by the end of the movie,
01:52 they're someplace completely different and have had some sort of growth.
01:55 And I imagine just show the levels of actually humanity.
01:58 Yeah, and essentially, this one was so interesting,
02:02 because I literally started shooting this movie about two and a half weeks after Gabe.
02:06 Oh, wow.
02:07 So playing this dad and having changed my body shape for Us.
02:12 If y'all are out here trying to scare people, I think you picked the wrong house for that.
02:17 And then getting this phone call, like one of the last two days of shooting Us,
02:22 from Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg saying, "Hey, we'd love to work with you. Please come on.
02:28 We're doing something really cool. We'd love to have you in there in the mix."
02:33 So I was like, "Yeah, of course." But then I was like, "Shit.
02:37 I don't really look like this action dude anymore."
02:40 So I got in the gym and started going back to doing that,
02:43 and that was a whole thing for that three-month shooting process.
02:47 This is Batman business all the way.
02:49 Got you and big boy over here running through Boston all Robined up.
02:52 I am not Robin.
02:54 The process of making a movie versus stand-up is interesting,
02:57 because stand-up is such a solo sport, and everything is dependent on you
03:00 and your own motivation and your material.
03:02 And in movies, it's a collaborative effort, and you get to lean on.
03:06 You get the privilege of leaning on people who know better than you,
03:09 like other actors who are more seasoned and directors like Peter Berg.
03:12 So that opportunity, it's exciting and it's humbling,
03:15 and it feels nice to be able to trust other people.
03:19 It's not just me alone up there.
03:20 Was it helpful just having the experience of working with Mark Wahlberg before?
03:24 Being 100% candid, no.
03:26 I was like 10th on the call sheet in Instant Family,
03:28 which was a major motion picture, but there was no intimacy between he and I.
03:34 All my scenes were in a large group.
03:36 I wasn't as starstruck as when I saw him on the second film,
03:40 but he's still Mark Wahlberg.
03:41 Actually, one scene that stands out is the dog attack scene,
03:43 which is just crazy.
03:45 What was the experience filming that, and how much of that was you?
03:48 More than I wanted it to be, that's for sure.
03:51 But I'm like, "Pete, this dog is vicious, bro.
03:54 This is like a trained killer here."
03:57 And then they also came up with an animatronic head for the close-ups and stuff.
04:02 But no, I got dinged up pretty good.
04:05 I think everybody was secretly loving it.
04:08 Not only did I get attacked by the dog, but I get beat up every 10 minutes in this movie.
04:13 And I think everybody was secretly enjoying that.
04:16 It's probably good for the ego, just to calm down a little bit.
04:19 Yeah, but it's also good for the audience.
04:21 I mean, seeing the guy who's just relatable.
04:24 He's willing to go through anything to accomplish the mission,
04:29 and he can't stand by to see injustice.
04:31 So I think that's why audiences are enjoying it so much.
04:34 I feel like every movie has its own perks,
04:36 and this one certainly must have been just getting to hang out with a bunch of dogs.
04:39 Am I wrong?
04:40 Oh, right. Yes, it was cool.
04:42 That scene was added a little later, and those were very big dogs,
04:45 and so not as squeezable.
04:46 And they were all very focused on being working dogs.
04:49 So as much as I tried to mouth-kiss them, the Great Danes weren't having it.
04:52 But it was cool that Sissy is a dog groomer.
04:55 Your conversation with Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg,
04:58 this movie very much had that classic buddy-to-be energy.
05:01 So what were you talking about just as far as the dynamic between Hawk and Spencer?
05:04 Well, we spent a good amount of time figuring out the genre,
05:09 the genre and the tone of the film.
05:12 And then once we found that, we just leaned into it.
05:14 And we did a lot of improv.
05:16 We did a lot of improv-ing in the scenes.
05:18 The scenes were written, but then Peter's style is a lot of coverage.
05:23 But it's not a lot of coverage as in takes after takes after takes.
05:27 It's a lot of coverage as in four cameras at once going.
05:30 So you're always getting an angle.
05:33 So we could do a lot of different things and feel like we have the safety of being covered.
05:38 Peter Berg is an incredibly accomplished director.
05:40 As we all know, he's Peter Berg, who did not have to let me be as--
05:44 did not have to allow as much creativity from me as he did.
05:47 And he did not have to be as collaborative as he was.
05:49 From day one, he allowed me to make Sissy my own.
05:52 I mean, even letting me do the accent.
05:54 But he allowed me to improvise lines.
05:56 Mark and I improvised a ton of stuff.
05:58 And Mark was very open to it.
05:59 I got to write some of my own lines.
06:01 And he let me make her funny and bring some facets to her.
06:07 Because I wanted to represent for a multifaceted woman, not just a screaming lunatic.
06:11 Get that fucking sod out of my face.
06:12 What, do you work at a Brazilian steakhouse?
06:14 I mean, we were really--
06:15 I mean, the most appealing thing about it was that it was just kind of light and fun.
06:19 I mean, after making three movies all based on true stories and tragic events,
06:23 that was really heavy, especially the last one being the heaviest.
06:27 And then Mile 22 still kind of was serious in tone.
06:31 But some days Pete was trying to make a comedy.
06:33 Some day he was trying to make a drama.
06:35 And I was like, I'm super focused on exactly what we're doing.
06:38 But I think he realized that the last pass of the script for him was going to be in the editing room.
06:44 And it was just fun.
06:46 We didn't have the pressure of dealing with people who had suffered loss and loved ones and family members.
06:56 We were just able to kind of cut up and have fun, shooting in my neighborhood, all that stuff.
07:00 There was a lot of pros to this one.
07:02 Did it influence your character work?
07:04 Well, you know, grew up loving the books, saw the series.
07:09 But the series is not the genesis of this.
07:12 We kind of wanted to make it our own, but still also kind of staying true to who Spencer was.
07:17 I mean, it was the only time I had seen Boston on film or on television other than the Brinks job.
07:22 So I loved it.
07:23 You never learn your lesson, do you?
07:25 You were going to do what was right with your strong moral code.
07:30 This isn't a bar for Boy Scouts.
07:32 I thought you knew how to punch.
07:36 There were five of them.
07:37 (roars)
07:39 ♪ Bring 'em out ♪
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