This is Still Here Hollywood, I'm Steve Kmetko. Join me with today's guest, Jerry O'Connell. If you're one to pay attention to Hollywood tabloids you'd know that it's fairly rare to a child actor to keep their career thriving deep into adulthood. One versitile star, who was in his first hit film at 11 years old, has thrived for decades as an actor and has pivoted into the world of Talk and Game Show hosting. But despite the many roles and successes he has raked up in his 40 year career, his most important role is being a dad to daughters.
If you're one to pay attention to Hollywood tabloids you'd know that it's fairly rare to a child actor to keep their career thriving deep into adulthood.
One versitile star, who was in his first hit film at 11 years old, has thrived for decades as an actor and has pivoted into the world of Talk and Game Show hosting. But despite the many roles and successes he has raked up in his 40 year career, his most important role is being a dad to daughters.
This is Still Here Hollywood, I'm Steve Kmetko. Join me with today's guest, Jerry O'Connell.
Steve Kmetko
Yes, I'm still here. Hollywood. And coming up on today's episode,
Jerry O’Connell
It's so funny. At a very early age, I knew there was an outlet and I knew that was on a movie set. And I think that drives me every day into waking up and everything that I know, I'll feel most comfortable on a set. I'd say the most surreal was the most upsetting was you know, and I wasn't in the, I wasn't, you know, in Hollywood when it happened. I was in college, but when River Phoenix passed away, that was that was tragic, insane still not over it. FYI prisoners who are sending my wife mail I read it. I never give it to my wife. it sort of is pretty exciting for me. I really feel like I'm reading, reading into something I shouldn't be reading. There's a takeaway from this podcast. I read my wife's prison fan mail.
Steve Kmetko
If you're one to pay attention to Hollywood Tabloids, you'd know that it's fairly rare for a child actor to keep their career thriving into adulthood. Well, one versatile star who was in his first hit film at 11 years old has thrived for decades as an actor. Though he's also pivoted into the world of talk and game show hosting. But despite the many roles and successes he has raked up in his 40 year career, his most important role is being a dad to daughters. This is still Here, Hollywood. I'm Steve Kmetko. Join me with today's guest, Jerry O'Connell, my brother and my brother-in-Law. Both told me that we need some kind of a sign off for this podcast.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah, I think because Ecco with a KI think it's got to be something with K like K, everybody Kecia Leader.
Steve Kmetko
I think Kecia is spelled with a C.
Jerry O’Connell
I know, but you spell it with a K And you do like a, you do like a Chiron, like Chiron. There's a K
Steve Kmetko
That's a C too.
Jerry O’Connell
Oh, well, no, I mean, we're using K’s today.
Steve Kmetko:
We're, replacing all the C's with K’s. How are you, Jerry?
Jerry O’Connell
Doing well. So good to see you.
Steve Kmetko
Good to see you too. There's our sign on. You just came over from the talk.
Jerry O’Connell
I've been hosting the talk on CBS every day Eastern. 2:00 PM Pacific Time, 1:00 PM a live show. I can't believe I'm a talk show host. When I moved to Hollywood, you were the talk show host guy. I was the actor. And here I am talk show hosting. But I mean, I think it, I think it plays into the theme of your show still here. It's funny careers. You don't you have no control over them. They over go.
Steve Kmetko
I moved away to Chicago and I've been gone for 20 years. And when Jim called me and said, Hey, I have an idea for a podcast. And he asked me if I would be interested in hosting. And I missed Los Angeles a lot, you know, moving to Chicago was moving home. And I went back for my parents who were elderly. But I did miss it. It's different out here. It's special.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah, it is. I moved out here right after college. I moved out here in the late 1990s. I got to tell you, the thing that inspired me most to move out to Los Angeles, I truly believe was Three's company. I grew up watching three's company. I was obsessed with Jack, Chrissy and Janet. And they lived in Santa Monica. They hung out at the Regal Beagle. They rode tandem Bicycles up and down Venice Boulevard. I just wanted to move to Los Angeles. I just wanted to move out here.
Steve Kmetko
They make it look so nice,
Jerry O’Connell
They really do. But you know what it is it is really nice. I don't know I think you're having a pretty mild winter this winter, but I mean, the weather is really the best. And it's better than the southeast Florida, any of it. I mean, it's not too cold in the winter. It's, I guess a little warm in the summer, but not as hot as it is in the,
Steve Kmetko
And there's always a breeze. It seems like you always have an ocean breeze.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. And, I'm really into it. The funny thing is, I have children now who are teenagers and we live in the Valley, which for those who aren't familiar, is sort of like the, the suburb of, of Los Angeles. And I mean, if you're my age, you remember sort of Valley girls who sort of like, talk like this. And I have two daughters who talk like this now. And it's so crazy to me because they really speak with us accent. And, you know, I think now there's more of like, what they call vocal fry, which is, I mean, it's what my children do, and it is a valley accent, and it drives me insane.
Steve Kmetko
Does it?
Jerry O’Connell
It does.
Steve Kmetko
Are you a dad who says Don't say that?
Jerry O’Connell
No, I don't. Don't yell it that way. I say, don't talk to shut up. I hate that. Do not speak like that. That's not how we speak. Speak normally. Project, like, pronounce your, like, don't do that long thing.
Steve Kmetko
And pronounce the end of the word.
Jerry O’Connell
But they're going to do whatever the heck they're going to do. It is pretty funny when they do go to the East Coast and spend some time with my family for a little bit, they do sort of pick up a little bit of a New York accent where they talk like this, this a little bit, you know, where they say things like coffee and stuff. And that sort of makes me laugh. But yeah, I have Valley Girls for Children.
Steve Kmetko
How do you like being a dad?
Jerry O’Connell
I like it a lot. It really is. It's so funny. I was thinking about parenthood.
Steve Kmetko
The movie?
Jerry O’Connell
No, I was thinking about parenthood. I was watching, this is, we're really going off topic here. My wife and I love a show called 90 Day Fiance, which is a reality show on I believe TLC. I'm sorry if I'm wrong about that, but it's on TLC. Who knows what anything is on anymore. It just ends up in your inbox. And there's a young couple on there who is expecting, and it's a guy who's marrying a girl from the far east. Because the whole point of 90 Day Fiancé is that it's Americans who meet people online, overseas, and then they meet up with each other and they have 90 days to figure out whether they're going to get married or not to get what they call a K one Visa. And they're expecting, and they said, are you excited?
And he went, you know, I, I don't think anybody is ever ready or really like, is like, excited to have kids.
I think it just sort of happens. And that's exactly what I went through. It was funny. I'm really grateful to my wife, who I don't want to say made me have kids, but it was really her pushing me. I would've, I was trying to push it off as long as possible. And I'm really happy I had kids. It is fun. It's, to me, the it's the most fun I've had which I'm a little shocked at. Now it's not fun. As like going to, I don't know, an outdoor music festival or doing drugs and watching the sunrise at the Grand Canyon, or the skinny dipping and Machu Picchu. Like, that's actually fun. It isn't fun when your teenage girls are yelling at you and complaining why you're late picking them up. That's not fun. But it has kind of completed me really. It's the most fun really.
Steve Kmetko
That sounds like a line from Jerry McGuire.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah, I know. I was thinking that. I was like, oh, I'm plagiarizing, but I was in it. So it's not plagiarism.
Steve Kmetko
No, no. It just stuck with you. That's all. And you use it now as part of your vernacular.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah, I like it. And you know, one of my daughters is said she wants to get into acting. She's a teenager.
Steve Kmetko
You okay with that?
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. I really am. I think acting is I think acting and that's the only thing I really know about showbiz. I mean, I guess I'm a talk show host now, but acting is sort of our thing. My wife and I, family business, if you will. And I think it's really good for young people to get into. Like, I was
Steve Kmetko
Very young.
Jerry O’Connell
I was very young. I was in Stand By Me when I was 12, you know? I think it's I think it's good because it teaches you about rejection really early. And you don't, you audition all the time and you get nothing, and you get, I mean, 1%, I don't even know what the percent is 0.001% of every app at that you get. And I think that's a really healthy thing. It just teaches you to be nimble. It teaches you to be not set in what your goals are. I mean, again,
Steve Kmetko
Teaches you how to be, how to take rejection. Many times. I mean,
Jerry O’Connell
Again, getting back to the theme of Still Here it, it teaches you how to sort of move, move and groove with the times.
Steve Kmetko
You know, I was looking at clips of Jerry McGuire getting ready for today. And I couldn't, I hadn't, it's been a while since I saw it. I saw a, I went to a screening, I remember, I think it was at Columbia Pictures. And I really enjoyed the movie. And then I went on the junket and interviewed Tom and Cuba. Looking at it. I forgot all the people who were in it. You know Cuba. Tom. Renee.
Jerry O’Connell
Sure. Renee Zellweger.
Steve Kmetko
Yeah. Who's going on to win a couple of Oscars?
Jerry O’Connell
Sure. Bonnie Hunt.
Steve Kmetko
Bonnie Hunt.
Jerry O’Connell
Jay Moore.
Steve Kmetko
What was the young kid? The little boy?
Jerry O’Connell
Jonathan Lipnicki. That's It.
Steve Kmetko
Yep. But, it, that movie's a classic.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah, it was a classic. It is a classic. I've been really fortunate. I've been a part of I mean, a couple of classics.
Steve Kmetko
Stand By Me Has Thought of,
Jerry O’Connell
Thought To Being Stand By Me is a classic. Yeah. Yeah. Jerry McGuire's a classic. I mean, I think it's a classic Scream two you know is people still talk about it. They're doing, the whole cast is doing conventions still to this day, you know? People make a living from being in that movie. I've been really fortunate. I had a I had a hot streak there for
Steve Kmetko
Yes. Nice resume
Jerry O’Connell
For a minute. Yeah.
Steve Kmetko
What do you remember from Stand By Me?
Jerry O’Connell
I remember how much fun I had doing it. I remember being a young adult. I was 11 when we made it. That's young. And I remember pretty much immediately realizing that up until that point in my life everything that I was doing that was getting me in trouble, speaking out in class speaking out when not being called on, being loud, talking too much, having too much energy, not sitting on my hands. All those things that I was always getting in trouble for, were celebrated on a movie set. Come in with energy, have more energy talk out of turn, come up with suggestions, come up with ideas. There are no bad ideas. It was the only place that my personality was celebrated up until that point in my life. This is in the mid-eighties, so they called me hyperactive.
Jerry O’Connell
I guess now there's other words for it. Other more medically accurate terms, but a.
Steve Kmetko
ADHD
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. But then they called me Hyperactive. And I remember on my dad's bookshelf, he had a book, why Is Your Child Hyperactive? It's like some book that I think some coworker gave to him, you know, like, Hey, here, you get Pro Kitty, yours. It's crazy. Here's a here's a book. I mean, I remember the first day doing a scene the first day, and it was a scene where we were the four boys. It's, you know, it's Stand By Me. It's about four boys who go to look for a dead body. And I remember we were doing one scene where we're in a junk yard, and I remember we were doing something and I started ad-libbing. I started as my character goofing around a little bit. At the end of a take, something happened and I was goofing around, and Rob Reiner yelled, cut and started walking right toward me, you know, cut. And he was a big guy. He's, yeah, he's a big guy. He's a presence, you know? So, you know, the boss yells cut and starts marching towards set. And I was like, oh, man, here it goes.
He's going to yell at me and say, you know, Hey, what are you doing? Just stay the lines. Shut up. Sit on your hands, stop talking out of turn. And he came to set, and he went, Jerry. And I was like, oh, man, here it comes. And he went more of that. Hey fellas, you see what he did? That's what I need. I need more of that. Just like that. Every take action. And I was celebrated Steve. I was. And it made me realize, wow, I don't have to hide who I am here. I don't have to change who I am. I don't have to hold anything in.
Steve Kmetko
And a lot of the business here in Hollywood is about being celebrated and being appreciated. And that helps your self-confidence,
Jerry O’Connell
Feeling free, really. Not feeling I constrained in life, in your personality. So, it's so funny, at a very early age, I knew there was an outlet and I knew that was on a movie set. And I think that drives me every day into waking up and everything that I know I'll feel most comfortable on a set.
Steve Kmetko
Do you ever run into some of the people you worked with?
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah, I run into Will Wheaton a lot. I stay in touch with him. I run into Corey Feldman a lot. I stay in touch with him. Rob Reiner, every now and again, I stay in touch with a producer behind the scenes who's one of the founders of Castle Rock, which was the production company that was behind Stand By Me. And all those movies that Rob Reiner did back in those days,
Steve Kmetko
Misery, I think Misery was one of them.
Jerry O’Connell
Misery Few Good Men. I mean, all of them. The list goes on and on. When Harry Met Sally,
Steve Kmetko
There's too many to remember.
Jerry O’Connell
There was a lot, you know. And there's a guy named Andrew Shiman that I stay in touch with. Keifer Sutherland. I love running into him. He played the Bad Guy In Stand By Me. So I stay in touch with everybody on social media. I stay in touch with the Phoenix family River Phoenix, who was in Stand By Me has sisters and their mom and I stay in touch with them on social media. But it's
Steve Kmetko
I interviewed him when he was a kid. Wow. what was the movie he made with Christine Lahti, Judd Hirsch.
Jerry O’Connell
Running On Empty.
Steve Kmetko
That's it. Yeah. I interviewed him.
Jerry O’Connell
He was up for an Academy Award.
Steve Kmetko
Yes, he was. Yeah. Very talented young man as a tragedy. What about Jerry McGuire?
Jerry O’Connell
Jerry McGuire was really interesting for me because you know, I was in standby me. It was a huge hit. I didn't really come from a showbiz family. I didn't really come, I didn't have a good, I didn't come from a showbiz family. They didn't my parents didn't know how to really follow it up after that, you know? I'm not complaining. I love my parents. I saw him yesterday. We went to brunch. Hi, mom and dad. You know, you would think that after Stand By Me. That'd be it. A career is made. But I went to college. I went to high school. I went to college.
I started doing a lot of commercials in college. I went to college in New York. I went to New York University, and I auditioned for commercials all the time, and became quite successful at doing commercials. And you could make a lot of money doing commercials. And I really, I earned a pretty good living doing commercials.
And i wasn't really acting in the, what they call the scripted world, which is movies and tv. And I got a television show for Fox at the time. This is at the beginning of Fox when they only did programming, I think Sunday through Thursday. They didn't have programming Friday, Saturday, or Friday or Saturday nights, you know, and they only had, like, I, they still only have two hours of programming. But I did a science fiction show for Fox at the time. And I got an agent I got, I signed with William Morris. It was a big deal. I was back, you know, and one of the first auditions that my new William Morris agent got me was for Jerry McGuire to meet Cameron Crow, who wrote and directed Jerry McGuire. And I auditioned for the agent who was the agent who fired the football player and all that stuff.
And I was I was 21, you know, I was young. And I got along in the audition process as the agent, and I was really just copying my agent at William Morris that I had just signed with, who was a pretty fast talking, really good agent. And I met Tom Cruise for a screen test. Screen tests are really big deals. They give you a script. You meet Tom Cruise. I mean, that's a huge deal. And when you see Tom Cruise, it's surreal. It's Tom Cruise. And by the way, he looks like Tom Cruise. He sounds like Tom Cruise. He feels like Tom Cruise, but you are talking to him. It's almost interactive. This is before ai. So, I mean, it was really something special, but I read for it. And, but physically, you know, I was 20, 22, 21, 22 maybe.
Yeah. 22. And there was a role for a recent college graduate, a first raft, the first, first number one in the NFL draft pick. And they saw me, and I think physically, they thought there's our man. He's just, he doesn't look, he looks more like a young athlete than he does, like an agent who's a contemporary of Tom Cruises. You know? And when I read as the agent part in the screen test, I just felt like it wasn't like it. No one was laughing. There were other producers in the room, and it just didn't click. And I remember I was waiting out by the car, by my valet. I rented a car, and I remember thinking, wow, that didn't go well. I didn't get that. You could just feel it. And an assistant came out and said, hey, will you come back in?
And so of course, I ran back in and I thought they were going to say, hey, that didn't go well, let's try a couple other. And they said, will you read this part? And they gave me, and in acting, they call it cold sides, so it's like a cold script, so you haven't rehearsed it. But it's funny, I knew as an actor, when you got a cold script, that was a real opportunity because there were zero expectations on you. You know, you didn't have time to prepare so you could read lines. And basically, when you got a cold script, your job as an actor, these are actor tricks. I'm giving all the actors listening right now. Your job is to do whatever they tell you to do. And if you, do it, I mean, if they say, go left, go hard left. If they tell you to do it with a Russian accent, I mean, just come out and do like full, like Boris, like all completely Boris, go crazy with the exit.
And there is no wrong way when you have a cold script. And by the way, I'd learned that from failing a number of times with cold scripts. But they said, we want you to play this role of this young quarterback that's in the script. And he's from Odessa, Texas. This was like right around the time of like Friday night Lights. So, man, I went in there and I just like, completely like, did like a full, like Texas, I mean, full on. And I just thought like, I'm just going to do an imitation of Sam Elliot. I'm just going to do Sam Elliott. Like, how would Sam Elliot, what would like WWSD? What would Sam do? And I did a complete Sam Elliott imitation and tried to go completely calm around Tom Cruise, who was for sort of frenetic and being Jerry McGuire in these scenes.
And, and I got the role, and it really changed my career. I mean, you know, that was an Oscar nominated, I mean, Cuba Gooding Jr. Won the Oscar, you know, the screenplay or something else was nominated. A few things were nominated. And it was a hot movie Yeah. When it came out. And that, I'm sorry it took me so long to tell that story, but it's just, it was like, just like right time, right place stuff. And at that point, I had auditioned so many times and done a lot of bad auditions that I knew when put on the spot in an audition and told to read a brand-new scene, I knew exactly what to do. It's, and it's funny. So, while I was a young guy, I was 22. I wasn't green at that point. I had done thousands of commercial auditions and done enough bad auditions to know that when someone gave you a new script, exactly what to do, you know, it was it was funny. I knew the tricks.
Steve Kmetko
Well, it's hard to understand but people say failure is the key to success.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. It's funny. I remember I had auditioned for TV pilot before that, about a car that has superpowers, like a New Night Rider show. It's so funny. They had given me; I came in there and I had prepared for one role. There was like two young men who find a supercar in a junkyard. And I had prepared for one role. And when I went in there to screen test, they said, no, no, no. We, we don't want you to do this role. We, we want you to do the other role. And I don't really remember, but one was like the nerd guy, and one was the cool guy. And I think I was auditioning for the cool guy, or maybe I was auditioning for the nerd guy. And when they gave me the other part, I didn't know what to do. I didn't prepare for it.
And I remember afterwards my agent called me up and was like, what did you do? They said you were really nervous and you were stammering in there and you didn't do it. And I should have like, not cared like I should have. Like, and if I played the cool guy, I should have done it. Like, hey, Fonzi, like, oh, hey, you know, played it cool. Or if I was playing the nerd guy, I should have like really like needed it up. And, you know, and I knew after that point to never do that when given a cold script again, you know? And it's so funny, the next cold script I was given was in the audition for Jerry McGuire. So, everything happens for a reason. I guess
Steve Kmetko
We'll be back for more in a moment.
Jerry O’Connell
I don't want to bum everybody out listening or watching this, but I'm a little bit of a failed actor. You know, I acted for many years. I was acting, I was acting. I still continue to act. But it's funny, I my acting career has gone through a couple of downturn downturns, you know, and currently I'm in an acting downturn. I don't care who you are, I don't care who you are. When you meet Tom Cruise, you are thinking the whole time, I can't believe this is Tom Cruise, is this real life. It's almost like it's surreal. I mean, I don't care. I would even, I would imagine even Barack Obama, I mean king Charles meeting, Tom Cruise, it's got to be like, whoa,
Steve Kmetko
How about being a talk show host? Now you have to be yourself. That's different than having a script.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. It's interesting. I got to give a shout out to my really good friend, Horatio Sands, who's an actor who was on Saturday Night Live for many years who told me we did a movie together in 2000. And he said to me, you should go to improv school. Everybody's doing it. And I was like, improv school. I'm already on tv. Like I'm going back to school. And he's like, you should always go back to school. And I went and I've I went to Upright Citizens Brigade, which is an improv theater school here in Los Angeles, here in, also in New York. They, they probably have a school in Chicago as well. Sorry, I don't know the exact details of, but Upright Citizens Brigade is an improv school. I went to, and I did all their classes and have performed a number of times with them.
And it was funny. It was right when sort of improvisation was really becoming quite popular on television shows like The Office and everything, you know, where things were lightly scripted, curb Your Enthusiasm. These are things that are lightly scripted. Were becoming sort of all the rage. And it, it really, like improv really teaches you to just, for me, what it taught me was to basically just listen to other people, to listen to what everybody's saying to not listen to yourself, to listen to others, and to try and feed off of that. And I've really lucked into this job on, on the talk because you know, they're not making as many scripted shows as they used to, which is why I moved to Los Angeles. You know, I was in a TV show for NBCA, what they call a procedural a cop show.
You know, I was in like I came out here to work in TV as an actor, and I'd never thought I would be a talk show host. And thank God I, it, you know, it was something that I could do. I didn't go in blind. Because it's it, it it's really been a great job for me. I really enjoy it. It's, do you like working every day? You know, it's, I've never, I've had a couple of TV shows where I have to say, even on a TV show, you don't go to the same place every day. You shoot on location, you're shooting all over town. I've never come to the same place every day for four years. It's crazy. You know, what's really interesting to me is and, and you can probably speak on this, is you really get a feeling for the industry because everyone else's shows come to you.
Like you really see what's working and what's not these days. And I mean, this is no secret, but everyone has an unscripted show these days. Like, it's amazing to me how many unscripted, how many unscripted shows there are really, you know, scripted shows have become, and when I say scripted, I mean like, you know, shows that require shows that are fiction, fiction shows, you know, not that unscripted shows are unfiction, they're just as fiction as the, as the fiction shows really. But it's amazing to me how much programming is reality. Reality makes you sound old, you know, how unscripted shows are.
Steve Kmetko
Is that the new term, unscripted rather than reality?
Jerry O’Connell
I think that's the fancy term that, yeah. And I think you don't want to offend reality show stars. It's beneath them to call the Kardashian's Reality Show are as they're unscripted people performers. But it's amazing to me how and I, I'll tell you what's funny in my household, you know, with my wife and my children, we really only watch unscripted television. It's all we watch. It's all we watch.
Steve Kmetko
You know, what I'm finding too is, I was just talking about this with my brother nowadays, he has a young man who lives with him who's in his thirties. And I was trying to talk to him the other day about a show I was watching, and he doesn't watch television. Yeah. At all. Yeah. Well, what do you do? What do you talk about when you go to work?
Jerry O’Connell
I mean, yeah, I guess these days everybody talks about politics. That's a hot topic Yeah. That everybody talks about. That's a, that's a big one.
Steve Kmetko
But I can remember when I, when I would go to work or go to school, you talked about what you saw on television the night before. That's all we had.
Jerry O’Connell
It's really funny. I mean people talk about podcasts a lot. I enjoy a lot of podcasts. I listen to them a lot. I watch them a lot. It is interesting. I mean, people, I mean, you know, yeah, you are right. Everyone talked about what happened, who kissed who on Moonlighting will, Maddie, and Dave. Maddie and Dave, right? Maddie and Dave, that was their names at Moonlighting ever get together, you know, will you know, I guess Scandal, everybody talked about what happened on Scandal the night before. You know I, people binge shows and watch them, you know, but I do have to say like, you know, take a streaming service like Netflix, you know, while they do have their, you know, squid games that everybody talks about, they do have their love is Blinds that everybody talks about. You know, I mean,
Steve Kmetko
The Crown,
Jerry O’Connell
You know, the Crown Crown's a good one. Love The Crown's one that I watch Love. Yeah. That's a real one. That's a real, that's a real show that.
Steve Kmetko
That is a show with a budget.
Jerry O’Connell
That's a real show. I still have not, but it's, it's so funny. You, you watch it on your own terms. I still have not watched the last six episodes, man, I got to tell you, they did some things in The Crown. I mean, alright, let's talk about The Crown. When they brought, and this is not a spoiler alert, but when they brought Lady Died back after princess Die has passed, when they brought her back with Charles, with
Steve Kmetko
The Queen,
Jerry O’Connell
With Doty with Doty. Fayette. Oh gosh. Who's the dad? Is it Doty?
Steve Kmetko
No, It's Al Fayed. Something Alpha had,
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. Brought her back with Al Fayed, brought her back with the Queen. When the queen's going to bed, that was, I was like, this is TV on another level.
Steve Kmetko
And it's so well done, so
Jerry O’Connell
Well, done.
Steve Kmetko
Because we all know the story.
Jerry O’Connell
Yes. And still they're bringing a fresh sort of take to it. That was appointment television. That was really good. So, it's,
Steve Kmetko
And it was so well cast,
Jerry O’Connell
Really incredible. But it doesn't seem to me everybody's talking about it, you know? I mean, that's only you. And I, like, if I went to work and, you know, sat in a room full of the kids that I work with, hey, who watched The Crown last night? No one's raising their hand. You know, it's only
Steve Kmetko
Come meet my family. They'll all talk to you about it. They were all pretty hooked on it. What do you, what would you say is the craziest experience you've had?
Jerry O’Connell
I'd say the most surreal was the most upsetting was you know, and I wasn't in the, I wasn't, you know, in Hollywood when it happened. I was in college, but when River Phoenix passed away, that was tragic, insane still not over its craziest experience I've had. Let me really think about that.
Steve Kmetko
Okay. What about fan experiences? Have you had any crazy, wild?
Jerry O’Connell
I don't really have like a, a rabid fan base. They do. My wife does get fan letters at our home address, which is crazy. So, someone has access to our home address and like, sends letters. And a lot of times they're from prisoners. Because you can tell they're from prisoners because it says like their prisoner number you have to address. You know, when you put the return address, you put your prisoner number on there. So that's pretty surreal. FYI prisoners who are sending my wife mail I read it. I never give it to my wife. It sort of is pretty exciting for me. I really feel like I'm reading, reading into something I shouldn't be reading. There's a takeaway from this podcast. I read my wife's prison fan mail. It's sort of like prison erotica for me.
What's a crazy like for me, crazy experience? You know I guess there; I can't give you like one experience. Like this crazy thing happened to me, but I have realized you cannot control a career. A career happens. It's funny, I see, I see younger people specifically through social media attempting to like, put stuff out and control where they're going and like, say like, this is what I want for my career. And really gunning for stuff, gunning for directions that careers will go into. And you can't control it. You like my suggest, like, the craziest thing to me is you have to be open to the universe and then you somehow end up still being here. It's funny that, that to me is the craziest, I think experience as a whole is that you really have no control over careers. You can do a great job, you can show up, you cannot be drunk at work. You can be prepared, but really you have no control over how long it lasts, where you're going with it or where it's going.
Steve Kmetko
Right. It's not like in, I'll say, the real world where, you know, it's not how many words dictation you can take or how fast you type or how good you are with numbers. It's all has to do with somebody else's opinion and impression of you. And, how are you doing?
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. You know, I don't want to bum everybody out listening or watching this, but I'm a little bit of a failed actor. You know, I acted for many years. I was acting. I was acting. I still continue to act. But it's funny, I my acting career has gone through a couple of downturn downturns, you know, and currently I'm in an acting downturn. And luckily my representation has stayed with me and my representation are the ones who said Hey, someone, a seat just opened up on this show the talk. You should you should go for that seat.
And it's funny, when you hear that, your first reaction is, I'm not doing a talk show. I'm an actor. Like, that's not why I hired you as my agent. I hired you as my agent to get me acting gigs. And luckily I was open enough to the universe to say, oh yeah, I can sit there for a month or two. You know, they need someone. And then I, I guess I did a good job for a month or two because they said, we'd like to hire you to a multi-year contract and pay you money to do this. And you'll have a job. And so it, I think the most astonishing to thing, to me is how I have no control over my professional life. That's crazy. That's crazy. Because I thought coming in here as a young man, I was in con like, I control everything. I'm in charge of where I go.
Steve Kmetko
I'm in charge of me.
Jerry O’Connell
I'm in charge of me. I'm going to decide whether I'm acting or not. And I'll stop acting when I say I'm stopping acting, Steve. I have no control of anything.
Steve Kmetko
But you have something that other people don't in this town, and that's some stability. You know, if you're signed to a four or five year contract, you know, you're going to get a check for a while.
Jerry O’Connell
I have stability currently right now, but really I have no stability in the long run. I mean, I just don't, that's what I'm trying to say. I haven't, I have no control of this side.
Steve Kmetko
Look at it from the other side.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. It's that, that to me has been the most I, I wish I knew that when I was younger, coming out here to calm down a little bit, you know, when things didn't work out. I have a manager that I've been with for coming up on 30 years. Man, that's a long time. Yeah, it is. I have a manager who, I was in a TV show that got canceled. I was acting in a TV show that got canceled almost immediately. And this is really when TV and like right before streaming where shows were getting canceled, like left and right. And I was in like three or four of them in a row. And I was like, what am I, what am I doing wrong here? Like, what am I doing wrong here? And my manager said to me Hey man, you're, you're going to end up where you end up. I don't know where that is, but you're going to end up where you end up. And I didn't really listen to him at the time, but he, it's such a great piece of advice. You're going to end up where you end up, you know,
Steve Kmetko
It is what it is.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. It is what it is. It's, so funny. That to me is the most you getting back to, and I'm sorry it took me a half hour to answer this question. What's like something that shocked you or what's been something that was surprising? That I have no control.
Steve Kmetko
That's good to know. I would consider something that was crazy that you talked about earlier. And I mean, this is a good, crazy, but meeting Tom Cruise and having a conversation with him when you didn't expect to, you know, that's kind of crazy, but a good crazy. As it turns out.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. I don't, I don't care who you are. I don't care who you are. When you meet Tom Cruise, you are thinking the whole time, I can't believe this is Tom Cruise is this real life. It's almost like it's surreal. I mean, I don't care. I would even, I would imagine even Barack Obama, I mean king Charles meeting, Tom Cruise, it's got to be like,
Steve Kmetko
Whoa. Especially if you want to be an actor or you are an actor and you have dreams for yourself. I, you know, going on all these junkets that I did back in the nineties and early two thousands meeting some people, you know, you walk in and it's like seeing a statue or like seeing some kind of a monument. Oh my God, that's Barbara Streisand. You know, that's Betty Davis. You know, and, and then I know what you're saying to sit down and actually get to ask them questions. Yeah. Which is fascinating to me.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah, it is funny. And listen I tip my hat to what you have to do. You have basically a five minute window to get someone to say something entertaining about the project that they're trying to sell. And a lot of times you're eliciting stuff out of them, and you have to make it like you've known them for years. And it's a lot. It's, it's interesting me working on this show, the Talk a lot of my job, half of my job is interviewing celebs will call them coming in and selling whatever project they're selling. I mean, they're only coming to us if they have something that they're selling. And because it's a live show, I a big a big problem for me is asking the questions I'm supposed to ask on the clock. Because we got to go to commercial. And I get into a lot of trouble going off topic. If somebody says something I sort of go down that road and I run out of time to say, oh my gosh, you have a movie that's coming out on Friday.
Steve Kmetko
And we'll be back.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. And I've gotten in trouble a couple times, so it's funny, like you just saying like, you know, I did junkets for all those years. Like, and I'm sure you have like a set amount of time with these people. I really it's,
Steve Kmetko
Fortunately if you were a local, local station, sometimes they would give you three minutes, two minutes. Yeah. What can you get out of a prison in that amount of time? Just go fast. Fortunately, I worked for CBS, which had a little more clout. Right. And entertainment television, we had a little more, you know, we were the target. We had the target audience. So, they gave us more time. We'd have 10 or 15 minutes. And then if you interviewed somebody, like Whoopi Goldberg was always a favorite of mine and very good to me.
And sometimes we'd be talking, there was one, the Long Walk Home, I think was the movie I was talking to her about. And I said, we're out of time. I got to stop because they're giving me the wrap. And she said, I, she turned around to her camera and said, I know they are, and it's making me mad. It's so funny. And so, they did. They just said, go ahead, go ahead, Steve. Keep asking. You know, those, those were great when those happened.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. So, it's been, that's been an it's a skill that I don't have yet. It's a skill.
Steve Kmetko
We'll be back in a moment.
Jerry O’Connell
But you go through some abject unemployment, years of unemployment, you know, and it's scary. I'm really fortunate to be married to someone who stays very busy.
Steve Kmetko
Can you remember when and why you were at your lowest point? Lowest, come on, Jerry. Give me some dirt. I'm kidding.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. No, my lowest point I would say is and I can only speak as an actor because I don't know, I've never really done anything else. But you go through some abject unemployment, years of unemployment, you know, and it's scary. I'm really fortunate to be married to someone who stays very busy. And I realized later on in our relationship, I've been with my wife for 20 years, maybe over 20 years now. And it's funny, early on when we were going out and even married, I went through years of Steve, what we call abject unemployment. And it's scary. You got two little kids and you're not working. But I've realized like when my wife is not working, for some reason, I pick up the slack. And when I'm working, when I'm not working, somehow my wife picks up the slack. It's funny. I'd say my lowest point was I mean, I hate to make it about work. Because there's so much more to life than that. But it's scary when you're not working and you have bills. You know, it's
Steve Kmetko
And you think you, and you thought you'd be working for a long time, so you went out and bought that nice car or the house or whatever.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah, you know, I never really overspent. I was never like that. But I just you need money. You know, you need
Steve Kmetko
Yes. I know
Jerry O’Connell
You need things. It's funny, I I'd say abject unemployment is a low point. You know?
Steve Kmetko
Hey, do you have a Hollywood hero?
Jerry O’Connell
You Know, I look at someone like Martin Short, and Martin Short has been doing this for decades, and he's just as relevant today as he was when he first came on the scene. I look at someone like David Allen Greer and David Allen Greer can be in academy Award nominated films. He can be in sketch comedy shows. He can do it all.
Steve Kmetko
He can announce the Oscars.
Jerry O’Connell
He can announce the Oscars really well. He does it all. I look at someone like Wayne Brady. Oh, he hosts game shows. He's on Broadway. He does it all. It's, so funny. There's no it, I think it's the people who are not just who don't just do one thing. I think it's the people who keep it, keep it moving, keep it interesting. You know some of my proudest moments personally have been when I've been on Broadway. I mean, it's so funny as an actor you always feel like, oh man, I'm just a TV actor. They're going to, I'm a fraud. They all know it. I'm just, I played a cop on procedural TV show. They can tell I'm a cheesy actor, you know? Got lucky with that. Stand By Me and that Jerry McGuire, I'm just a cheesy guy.
Steve Kmetko
Any minute now, they're going to find out they're,
Jerry O’Connell
They, they all know. I can tell by the way they're looking at me, but when you've done Broadway a couple times you know, they can't say that, you know? So those to me are those to me are the actors. You know, I got to do a Broadway show with David Allen Greer. So, getting to watch him work, be on stage with him for hundreds of performances is something else. He wanted Tony for that play. So yeah, those are the, those are the people that I really look up to. And also, your ability to keep Whoopi Goldberg in in an interview when you're only at 15 minutes. But Whoopi says,
Steve Kmetko
Let him go.
Jerry O’Connell
Keep Going.
Steve Kmetko
It's me off. Let him go. That's what she said. Or Cher. She's great, but she can be tough.
Jerry O’Connell
Oh, really?
Steve Kmetko
Yeah. We had a, a little experience once we, first time I interviewed her, I'll tell the story. Please. She tells it on television all the time heard.
Jerry O’Connell
I came here to hear stories.
Steve Kmetko
She I was sitting there and I said to her, you're not at all what I expected. You're kind of soft spoken. You're very thoughtful in your responses. And she cut me off and she said, well, with me and see what happens.
Jerry O’Connell
Ah, exactly. I thought that story was going to end with her slapping you since Snap out of it.
Steve Kmetko
No, no, no. And she's given me. She's been terrific to me. Yeah. And some, sometimes, you know, she, in one of my interviews, she called Madonna the C word.
Jerry O’Connell
Okay.
Steve Kmetko
On camera. And it made Front page news in Britain, in Great, in the UK.
Jerry O’Connell
The tabloids. That's,
Steve Kmetko
And then every time I saw her after that, she'd say, you are the one who got me into so much trouble. Well,
Jerry O’Connell
Oh yeah,
Steve Kmetko
You said it right.
Jerry O’Connell
That's crazy.
Steve Kmetko
She's the best.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. That's, that's a funny, hey, Cher, that's someone who has, has done it all, you know,
Steve Kmetko
And lasted Yeah. Still here. Hollywood that's there.
Jerry O’Connell
Oh my gosh. Academy Awards, variety shows.
Steve Kmetko
Infomercials where she made a ton of money.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. All of it.
Steve Kmetko
When people were telling her, you're selling yourself out.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. It's funny, I had a good buddy who told me be open to the universe. And that's how I really try to live, live my life. I try to be open to the universe. So, when I get an email from you saying, hey, I'm doing a podcast. Yeah. I'll be there. I'm open to the universe.
Steve Kmetko
Great. And we appreciate it. Maybe I'll sign this one off by saying You had me at goodbye.
Jerry O’Connell
Okay. Okay. I like that. Maybe that can be your, your sign off.
Steve Kmetko
I used to work with a woman who was a who I loved dearly. She was a producer at e and she had the, the only thing that kind of got to me was she was constantly cheerful. So cheerful. And I'm not a kind of cheerful.
Jerry O’Connell
Sure.
Steve Kmetko
You know, perpetual. And so, I'd say, Sonya, you had me at goodbye
Jerry O’Connell
Right, right. I like that.
Steve Kmetko
And she gave me a, when I left, she gave me a frame, a picture frame with a picture of the two of us in it. And she had it engraved. You had me at goodbye. That's really funny. So, thanks Jerry.
Jerry O’Connell
Thank you. I appreciate it. I really enjoyed that.
Steve Kmetko
Oh, thanks. So did I. Still here Hollywood is a production of the Still Here Network, all things technical run by Justin Zangerle, theme music by Brian, Executive Producer is Jim Lichtenstein.