00:00Hi, I'm Paul Rudd, and I'm Tim Greenberg, and you are in studio with The Hollywood Reporter.
00:09But we're not in sync.
00:14All right, well, thank you guys for being here.
00:17Now, your new show, Living With Yourself, is about a man that sets out to be a better version of himself,
00:23but he accidentally clones himself in the process.
00:27Now, first of all, this is such a well-written show, and it's also a really witty concept.
00:33So if you guys can talk a little bit about where the idea or inspiration for this show stemmed from.
00:39I mean, you know, I've had the idea in different versions over the years.
00:44I think it started to gel, though, once I got married and had a family
00:49and realized that I was often the least good version of myself with the ones that I love the most.
00:59You know, and why is that?
01:00Why is it that we should be the best versions of ourselves with the ones we love the most,
01:04but we often are not, and why is that?
01:06And that was sort of a daily challenge for me.
01:08And then, you know, that sort of lent itself to this idea that I'd had in a different format of,
01:13what if there was another you?
01:14And so I think it was a way to talk about, like, the kinds of things that I dealt with on a daily basis
01:18and the way that we live our lives with our friends and our family and our coworkers,
01:22but do it in a really fun and interesting way.
01:24Yeah, I love that.
01:26Now, oh, do you want to add to that?
01:27Yeah, no, as did I.
01:28I mean, when I read them, they were all written.
01:31It's a rare thing that you get to read eight episodes of a show.
01:35Normally there's one or two, and then with a page, it's talking about where this is going to go.
01:40And I was taken with it right away, and one of the things that I could tell besides the fact that it was so well written
01:48was that it was a singular voice, and one person wrote every episode, which is rare,
01:56but that the writer had spent a lot of time with it
02:02because there is such complexity to the story, and it is a jigsaw puzzle,
02:10and you could read something in episode two, and then all of a sudden I'd get to episode five
02:14and say, oh, my God, whoa, I've just seen this, but, well, now I'm looking at it
02:18through a completely different perspective.
02:20And that kind of structure, that kind of care takes work, and so I was immediately impressed
02:29by just how much thought went into it, let alone skill.
02:33Yeah, and that is what I loved about this show.
02:35It is that it took you on a journey, too.
02:39And it was so hard for me to place what I would call this.
02:42Is it a comedy?
02:43Is it a thriller?
02:44Is it a drama?
02:45Because it really did take you through the journey of these characters,
02:48and even putting the pieces together by watching each episode together,
02:52it was really well written.
02:54Thanks.
02:55I mean, that was important.
02:56I think the tone was something that we agreed on right from the get-go,
03:01and I think some of that is in the scripts,
03:03but I think some of it is just in terms of our shared sensibility, you know,
03:06that it could be all of those things at once
03:08was, I think, a big reason to making it work
03:13and why we worked well together, and also with John and Val, the directors,
03:16that I think we all knew what the tone wanted to be,
03:19and that was kind of key from the beginning.
03:21Yeah.
03:21Now, Paula, you're on double duty for this show.
03:25What was it like having to play opposite of yourself?
03:29It was new.
03:33I'd never done it before,
03:35and there was a learning curve
03:37because while it's not a new convention,
03:40there's no one way to do it.
03:42So I think through some camera tests and rehearsals,
03:46we zeroed in on the way that it was going to work best for us.
03:51And so it turned out that not having an acting double,
03:56but instead acting out the scene as both characters for the rehearsals
04:02and blocking and camera and all of that kind of thing
04:05was the way we would start it off,
04:08and then I would record the audio for both characters.
04:13And then whichever character was driving the scene
04:16is the one I would film first.
04:18And then I would use the audio track of what I had just recorded
04:21to play through my ear in a little thing called an earwig.
04:25I'd put it in my ear.
04:27And so I would act and pretend that I was opposite myself,
04:31but I wasn't really, I wasn't acting to anybody.
04:33But I would say the line,
04:35and then somebody off camera, off screen,
04:38would hit a button on an iPad.
04:40That it had all been, all the audio tracks had been synced up.
04:43So I'd get the response.
04:44So I'd hear myself.
04:47But it was important to me because I just thought
04:49if I act opposite a stand-in,
04:51even though you would never see his face
04:52or there was, you know, there's no face replacement or any of that,
04:55I would still be going off of whatever that other person was doing.
04:59And I didn't want that.
05:02Yeah.
05:02And what was fantastic about that
05:04was he had the ability to,
05:06before making the scene,
05:08construct in his brain
05:09how it was going to go
05:12and how both sides of the performances go
05:13and all the arcs and all of that.
05:15And that was necessary to achieve what he achieved,
05:19but also I thought really amazing
05:20that to be able to have that ability going into it.
05:22I mean, it's a lot like writing
05:23where you have in your head,
05:25here's how it's going to go.
05:25And he was able to, as you've talked about,
05:28like control both sides.
05:29And so he was really able to sculpt it the way that he wanted.
05:31And I thought it turned out fantastic for that.
05:33One of the challenges for us,
05:37I think, would be the eye lines.
05:39Because that was, honestly,
05:42as soon as we'd have a take,
05:46I would kind of change over
05:48into the other guy's clothes and hair and all that stuff.
05:52And then we'd have to set it
05:54so that it looked like we were looking at each other.
05:58And that became, I think,
06:00one of the real challenges
06:03is because we didn't want it to be,
06:05oh, a single of old Miles,
06:07and then turn around,
06:08and then you see the single of new Miles.
06:10And instead, try and find those opportunities
06:13where we can get both the characters in the same frame.
06:16And even have long one-ers
06:20where both characters are moving in and around each other
06:25and there are no cutaways.
06:28And those technical challenges
06:30take a lot of time to hammer out.
06:33Yeah.
06:34And I was even going to add,
06:35some of those fighting sequences,
06:37that must have been hard to choreograph.
06:39That was actually the one episode
06:43and there's a lot of fighting,
06:45was because of that fighting,
06:46we did have stand-ins and doubles
06:49and triples and quadruples.
06:51I mean, there were five other Pauls on those days
06:55on the same outfit sometimes.
06:56Oh, my gosh.
06:56Because you need it to see flips and fights.
06:59You need to have other bodies.
07:00You can't just overlay characters.
07:05And so it did look like a scene of multiplicity.
07:10Yeah.
07:10You'd turn around and say,
07:12hey, Paul.
07:12I was like, that's not Paul.
07:13Hey, God damn it, that's not Paul either.
07:15It was weird.
07:15That's amazing.
07:17Yeah, because it is cool
07:18because of the movement in the show is so fast,
07:21especially in those fighting sequences.
07:23Yeah.
07:24How weird was it to watch it all back in post
07:27because you didn't have someone else standing in for you.
07:29So it really must have been crazy to see double.
07:32It's gratifying to see that it works.
07:35You know, you were in post.
07:38He was, Tim was in the editing room every day.
07:40I wasn't.
07:42So you saw every kind of iteration.
07:47So it was probably more startling for me
07:50because when I saw it, it was kind of done.
07:55There were also times, though,
07:57even when we were shooting live,
07:58where he would, he can't see this.
08:00He's out there in space, but we could see an overlay.
08:03And so we could see live sometimes
08:05how the performances were matching up,
08:07and it was great.
08:08I mean, you'd be sitting there going like,
08:09oh, look at that, that was great, you know,
08:11trying to stay silent.
08:12And seeing it all come together.
08:13Sometimes you could hear Val, one of the directors,
08:17you'd hear her go like, yeah,
08:18react to how great something was going,
08:20and then we'd have to edit out that little sound.
08:22But we would, kind of, before I filmed the second character,
08:28we'd look at, study this take that we'd already completed.
08:33You know, it's like if I'm going and do old Miles
08:35and we've already filmed new Miles,
08:36I would look at new Miles, what we shot,
08:39and as we're standing, kind of huddled around the monitor,
08:44say, okay, all right, so I walk here,
08:46but then, oh, look, new Miles is picking up a tissue right there,
08:51and then he's throwing it in the garbage right there,
08:54and it's on that word.
08:56And so I would just think, okay, so when I hear that,
08:59I know that my eyes have to go like this,
09:01and I'm watching where I throw it away in the trash can.
09:04So it's a bit of choreography,
09:07and there was a real charge when it did work.
09:11And thankfully, because of just the technology,
09:16even though it's an overlay and it's shoddy,
09:18you at least get a general idea of like,
09:20okay, that really does, that will work together in an edit
09:24when we can, you know, really do the timing, right?
09:27But when we'd see it on a playback,
09:30it was like, it was very exciting.
09:32During that, I think that was that particular long shot,
09:35because it all has to work in one.
09:37It was like watching, you know, a sporting event
09:39where you're going like, oh, hey, yep, we got, what?
09:41Oh, yes, yes, we got it!
09:43You know, like, oh, that worked!
09:44Because you go for two minutes,
09:46and it's like, all right,
09:46I know there's 20 more seconds of this scene.
09:48And if something goes wrong, it's like,
09:50well, the whole thing's cracked, you know, it's a one-er.
09:53Yeah.
09:53Speaking of sporting event,
09:55you got a nice little cameo from Tom Brady in this.
10:00Leaving a day spa, no less,
10:03how did you swing that,
10:04and what was the process of having him on set?
10:06We asked him.
10:09Yeah.
10:09And he, first he had to finish a little something called winning the Super Bowl,
10:14but once he was done with that,
10:16he was able to get back to us.
10:17Getting to the Super Bowl,
10:18and then winning the Super Bowl, yeah.
10:20Yeah.
10:22He became only more of a perfect clone while we were shooting.
10:27We asked him, and he eventually said yes.
10:30That was, you know.
10:31He wrote an email, you know, right?
10:33Yeah.
10:33That's great.
10:34But it was very, it was really exciting because while we were filming it,
10:39we thought, well, who else, who else can we use?
10:42Because the odds that Tom Brady are going to say yes to being in our show
10:45are probably slim.
10:48So we're elated that he said yes, first of all,
10:51and he was a great man.
10:53That was a really cool day.
10:54But he also is the perfect example of somebody who just,
11:02it seems to be a 10 in every category.
11:05And so while we came up with other people that could possibly,
11:10that we could go to to play that part,
11:14they all seem like second choices in a way because Tom Brady's...
11:21Compaired.
11:21Yeah.
11:22Comparatively.
11:22Yeah, yeah.
11:23It's he, yeah, he's the benchmark right there.
11:26He's everything, yeah.
11:27I mean, he's my life.
11:27Everybody else has six rings and is playing at 42 and...
11:32And now he's doing it again.
11:33What are they, 5-0, 6-0?
11:35Yeah.
11:36Yeah.
11:37As a diehard Chiefs fan, though, Paul, how'd you feel about having Tom Brady?
11:41It was really, really, it was, it was, it was pain.
11:46It was hard because I'm not a Patriots fan and I'm a Chiefs fan, as you say.
11:52This was not that long after the Chiefs lost to the Patriots in the championship game.
11:57So, it was a series of emotions and, you know, ultimately the football fan in me won out
12:11because I don't care, and I've had this conversation with my son, who is not a Patriots fan.
12:19To be a fan of the sport, or to be a fan of just any sport, you have to just respect and be impressed
12:32by the abilities of anybody that excels like that.
12:38And so, I was really excited to meet somebody who was just that good.
12:43And he was a, I mean, really like a lovely guy.
12:47He was a great dude, and I got to, and he was very open talking about the team,
12:52talking about, you know, being Tom Brady.
12:56I said, you know, like, what is that like to live in Boston and be Tom Brady?
13:00Yeah.
13:02You know, get it, and he's forthcoming about so many things and was so easy to be around
13:09that, you know, I came away, it's like, I'm a Tom Brady fan.
13:13That guy is pretty, pretty awesome.
13:15So, going off the premise of the show, if you guys were to clone yourselves, what would
13:22a new and improved version of Tim Greenberg and Paul Rudd look like?
13:28I don't know if there is one.
13:30I'd be six inches taller.
13:32Yeah, me too.
13:33I think I would be less quick to anger, perhaps.
13:40I would be less, you know, I'd be more willing to go take that dance rather than sit in the
13:46corner and not have as much fun as I probably should have.
13:50I'd probably be annoying because of it, you know, the on guy, but, you know.
13:57What about fears?
13:58Would you have any fears that would be eradicated?
14:00I mean, that's kind of the whole thing, you know.
14:03I mean, yeah, about a thousand fears.
14:05I mean, I think that's the difference between the two characters is the new one doesn't have
14:09as much fear.
14:09He doesn't have as much fear of failure or of anything, of, you know, getting burned from
14:14the stove.
14:14And so it opens him up and allows him to be, you know, open to the world and to be unselfish.
14:20I think that selfishness is driven by fear, really, you know.
14:24So that would be great, but I also feel like that person would get to be tiresome after
14:29a while, you know.
14:30So I'll try to get there.
14:32How about you?
14:33Nothing.
14:33You don't need to clone me.
14:35I think you're right.
14:36He doesn't.
14:37No, I mean, I think the first thing you said about quick to anger, you know, I think
14:41patience, I would like to maybe have a bit more.
14:45I feel like I've had more of it at other points in my life.
14:51So that's a, that's, I've actually said that.
14:54And everybody's like, yeah, same.
14:56Sweet dick alike.
14:59And yeah, certain fears, fears hold us back in every single way.
15:05And if we can get rid of those, we can do a lot of really good things.
15:09Well, I think I am looking at the best version of both of you guys.
15:12And again, you did a wonderful job creating the show, acting in the show.
15:17And thank you guys again for being here.
15:19Thank you so much.
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