Cary Elwes | Club Random with Bill Maher

Summary

Club Random with Bill Maher

Guest: Cary Elwes

Date: February 16, 2026
Episode Summary: "Cary Elwes | Club Random with Bill Maher"

---

Episode Overview

In this engaging and freewheeling conversation, Bill Maher sits down with actor Cary Elwes for a candid, humorous, and thoughtful discussion about Hollywood, acting, the legacy of classic films and performers, cultural differences, fatherhood, history, the nature of belief, and the peculiarities of fame. The episode captures the spirit of Club Random: relaxed, unpredictable, and full of sharp-witted exchanges and personal revelations.

---

Key Discussion Points

1. On Aging in Hollywood and Maintaining Perspective

• Maher teases Elwes about his youthful looks and full head of hair.

  • "You've aged well. You look very similar to when I first saw you on the screen." – Bill Maher [02:46]
  • Both joke about holding onto hair and the minor vanities of show business.

• On the myth of endless youth and partying:

  • "You can do it with two things, if you’re not fat and if you have hair." – Bill Maher [03:53]
  • Both reflect on how their bodies' limits have changed with age and how that alters their habits and self-image.

2. Breaking Out of the “Prince” Stereotype

• Elwes discusses the aftermath of 'The Princess Bride' and being typecast:

  • "I got offered every movie with a sword...And I just thought, man, so what do you do to fight that?" – Cary Elwes [06:09]
  • He shares his conscious effort "to mix it up" and not let Hollywood force him down one path.

• Getting Real About Early Career Struggles in New York:

  • Cary tells a humorous yet vulnerable story about being broke in New York, seeing Al Pacino at Café des Artistes, and nervously being introduced by a friend.
    • Pacino calls Elwes a “drifter” and imparts wisdom about acting as muscle and the importance of staying active ("You gotta go to the gym—go work them out. That’s why I do plays. I always keep my muscles loose so that I’m ready to work." – Al Pacino, relayed by Elwes [11:50])
  • Pacino offers tangible help: a contact at Lee Strasberg Institute, leading to pivotal career training.

3. The Actor’s Craft: Training, Stage Fright, Styles

• Comparing Acting Methods and Legends:

  • Discussion of actor training at Lee Strasberg, method acting, and how approaches differ from classic stylists like Laurence Olivier, whom both consider legendary but “pre-realistic” in style ("Heightened realism" – Cary Elwes [17:10]).

• Impact of Marlon Brando:

  • Brando is credited as shifting the art to gritty realism, with Maher noting: “With Brando, you could smell him and you could see the dirt under his fingernail.” [18:01]

• Anecdotes about Olivier's stage fright:

  • Olivier’s ritual of psyching himself up before performances is shared: "He would open the curtains and go, 'You’re about to see a performance you’ve never seen before tonight.'" – Cary Elwes [19:54]

• Maher and Elwes critique the logistics of acting for film:

  • They lament the unpredictability of shooting schedules, especially wasting peak energy on shots that aren’t used, and discuss the oppressive nature of Honeywagons (shared actors’ trailers).

4. On Drinking Culture Among Actors

• Reverie on Legendary British Drinkers:

  • Elwes and Maher swap stories about Peter O’Toole, Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Oliver Reed, and the hard-drinking tradition of UK actors ("They were able to drink and still deliver" – Cary Elwes [32:29]).
  • Elwes tells the story of O'Toole and Burton buying a bar to keep drinking after closing time [34:10].

• The Irish & Drinking Lore:

  • Cary’s story about inheriting John Wayne’s ancient, oil-dripping trailer in Ireland offers comic flavor [27:11].

• Elwes on avoiding substance issues:

  • Credits Al Pacino’s early influence for keeping him disciplined and focused on the craft rather than excess.

5. The Power, and Absurdity, of Celebrity

• Maher reflects on the Christ-like aura around celebrities:
  • “I’ve healed marriages...if I say, like, ‘You two, you love each other.’ And like, they wouldn’t do that for, like, a civilian.” – Bill Maher [38:30]
  • Both marvel at the way fame is both a responsibility and a surreal force in people's lives.

6. Faith, Spirituality, and the Limits of Knowledge

• Honest discussion of belief and skepticism:

  • Elwes is spiritual but skeptical of organized religion, prays as a private act; Maher affirms his atheism but not militantly ("People think atheists care a lot more about the subject than we do. Really, we just don’t give a shit." – Bill Maher [41:07])
  • Both agree that no one has the answers and that belief can be a positive source of calm and meaning ("I just like the idea of...when I stumble and fall, sometimes I find myself on my knees, and then I'm in a good position to pray." – Cary Elwes [43:03]).

• Maher’s Hairdryer Analogy:

  • "He says if you got your hair dryer out and you said you were speaking into it...they would take you to the mental institution. But take away the hairdryer and you’re praying." – Bill Maher, quoting Sam Harris [44:38]

7. On Miami, Family, and Parent-Life Balance

• Riff about Miami as uniquely international and party-centric:

  • "It’s like Vegas with a beach." – Bill Maher [59:59]
  • Elwes agrees: "The late night stuff is a lot. I need to get a room high in the hotel so I don’t hear the nightclub thumping all night." [61:27]

• Elwes on bringing family on set:

  • "I try to always bring my family with me, Bill. You do try to. Makes me feel more relaxed actually, to have them around." [61:49]
  • He describes prioritizing family time and making sure he isn’t the absent dad.

• Maher reflects on choosing not to have kids:

  • Expresses respect and fascination at parental devotion, even as someone who doesn't relate personally.

• Elwes’s daughter and the “Nepo Baby” question:

  • "I don't want to be a regular Nepo baby. I want to go, where did you study?" – Cary Elwes’s daughter, per Elwes [65:59]
  • Proudly shares her initiative in training at Groundlings and doing the work herself.

8. On Films, Violence, and Criticism

• Debating the effects of Hollywood violence:

  • Maher points out the hypocrisy of glorifying guns in movies while lamenting real-world violence.
  • Both agree violence is contextually necessary in film ("Violence is a big part of life...if it’s not gratuitous, I’m okay with it." – Cary Elwes [75:10]).

• Kubrick, Cancel Culture, and Responsibility:

  • Elwes recounts how Kubrick pulled "A Clockwork Orange" after real-world copycat violence, Maher argues against artists being held responsible for audience actions: "Clockwork Orange should not have canceled one showing. That is not the answer to that, in my view." [76:18]

• Maher on modern film reviews:

  • Critical of reviewers showing off or “flexing” rather than helping viewers decide what to see [70:09].

9. On Directors, Cinema, and Kubrick Appreciation

• The Uniqueness of Kubrick:

  • Maher and Elwes lavish praise on Kubrick’s range, innovation, and ambition ("Every movie is like, from a completely different universe" – Bill Maher [84:03]).

• Debate over '2001: A Space Odyssey':

  • "If I was 50 years younger, I still wouldn’t do it." – Bill Maher balks at watching 2001 in full [83:27]
  • Elwes defends it as a film "to be sipped, not gulped." [81:41]

• Favorite recent films and love of historical cinema:

  • Elwes praises Paul Thomas Anderson and Ryan Coogler, but confesses his real love is historical epics and stories rooted in real events [84:46].

10. History Buffs: A Final Banter

• Shared fascination with British and American history:

  • Both digress into a lively exchange of Tudor, Stuart, and Civil War history, capped with jokes about hygiene in Elizabethan England and witty quips about monarchs and beheading [87:02+].

• Appreciation for Mel Gibson as a director and storyteller:

  • Elwes praises Gibson’s skill in transitioning from acting to directing, stating that working around great directors inspired Mel’s craft [94:41].

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On acting as a muscle:

  • "You gotta go to the gym—go work them out. That’s why I do plays. I always keep my muscles loose so that I’m ready to work." – Al Pacino (as told by Elwes) [11:50]

• On the wisdom of celebrity:

  • “I’ve healed marriages...You just command so much respect. A celebrity...like, he did that for you.” – Bill Maher [38:30, 38:44]

• On skepticism and prayer:

  • "If you got your hair dryer out and you said you were speaking into it...they would take you to the mental institution. But take away the hairdryer and you’re praying." – (Sam Harris via Bill Maher) [44:38]

• On children and “Nepo Babies”

  • "We love kids, but why? It's just going to grow up to be some guy named Doug." – Nikki Glaser, quoted by Maher [65:31]

• On Kubrick’s diversity:

  • "Every movie is like, from a completely different universe." – Bill Maher [84:03]

• On family priorities in showbiz:

  • "I'm all about my family, really. All about my family." – Cary Elwes [61:59]

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:00 – Aging, hair, and vanity in Hollywood
• 06:09 – On being typecast after 'The Princess Bride'
• 09:50 – 12:34 – Al Pacino's advice and pivotal career moment
• 14:10 – The craft of acting, Olivier vs. Method
• 19:54 – Laurence Olivier's stage fright ritual
• 27:11 – The Irish trailer with “John Wayne’s” oil dripping from the ceiling
• 32:29 – The drinking prowess of British actors
• 41:07 – Religion, atheism, and spiritual perspectives
• 53:47 – Discussion of new projects, ‘Dead Man’s Wire’ film
• 65:59 – Elwes’ daughter, acting, and the “Nepo Baby” challenge
• 75:10 – On violence in movies and Kubrick pulling “A Clockwork Orange”
• 84:03 – Kubrick’s creative range, film favorites, and historical obsessions
• 87:02+ – British and American history riff, the Virgin Queen, and dirty monarchs

---

Tone & Style

The conversation is characteristically Club Random: witty, self-deprecating, and intellectually nimble. Maher mixes irreverence with sincere curiosity, while Elwes is warm, smart, and full of industry anecdotes and British candor. The episode veers easily from comic banter to serious reflection, maintaining an inclusive, listener-friendly vibe.

---

Conclusion

This episode is a must-listen (or read) for fans of film history, acting, British wit, and thoughtful conversations about what it means to create, believe, and stay sane in the entertainment universe. Whether tracing the arc from “The Princess Bride” to Kubrick, riffing on Miami nightlife, exploring the culture of drinking among British actors, or marveling at the odd power of celebrity, Maher and Elwes keep things brisk, funny, and unexpectedly moving.

Transcript

[Bill Maher]

When you post a job, ZipRecruiter actually suggests smart screening questions up front so you can figure out who's worth your time before you commit. ZipRecruiter's matching technology immediately surfaces qualified candidates who check the boxes you care about. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Try it for [e-mail] random that's ziprecruiter.com random Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. OneSkin really stands out. It's simple. It's one product feels light. The company was founded by longevity researchers who looked at skin aging and said, what if we fix the problem instead of covering it up? So they created the peptide called OS1, and it's designed to target those damaged senescent cells that age your skin in the first place. For a limited time, try one skin with 15% off using code RANDOM at OneSkin Co Random. Now there is Superpower. It's actually proactive health, not see you when something breaks health. They send a licensed professional to your house so you can go to a nearby lab or do one set of lab tests and suddenly you've got Data on over 100 biomarkers. Not only did Superpower reduce their price to just1.99, but for a limited time, our listeners get an additional $20 off with code RANDOM. Head to superpower.com and use code RANDOM at checkout for $20 off your membership. Well, folks, if you're going to spend money on something, it might as well be something you actually like. That's what I always say. That's where the Club Random me store comes in. That's right. Get yourself a cozy hoodie. Look at this. This is really well designed. That's right. Get yourself a cozy hoodie to snuggle away your sorrows. Or some new Club Random shirts. Look at all this. I have to attract a partner with similar interests and live happily ever after. I've seen crazy rom coms. So head over to clubrandom.com and bring home some Random. There's some directly inciting people in here.

[Carrie Elwes]

You're talking about one of my favorite movies. Okay, I consider Kubrick like we're not arguing.

[Bill Maher]

Club Random pulling Kale pulling Kyle. Excuse me.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sorry, I mean Club Random.

[Bill Maher]

Hey.

[Carrie Elwes]

Hey, Bill.

[Bill Maher]

How are you?

[Carrie Elwes]

I'm good, man. How are you?

[Bill Maher]

You've aged well. You look very similar to when I first saw you on the screen.

[Carrie Elwes]

Thank you, Bill.

[Bill Maher]

Been a fan for a long time. Thank you. You have A lot of fan.

[Carrie Elwes]

Thank you.

[Bill Maher]

I found out when I told people you were coming on.

[Carrie Elwes]

Thank you, Bill.

[Bill Maher]

All right, well, that's it. Thank you for coming by. Just wanted to give you an affirmation for today.

[Carrie Elwes]

Appreciate you. Great to see you.

[Bill Maher]

And you have all your hair.

[Carrie Elwes]

Wow. So it's not a wig yet.

[Bill Maher]

What do you mean? What is it?

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I don't know.

[Carrie Elwes]

It's my real hair.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Carrie Elwes]

So do you.

[Bill Maher]

I think you have more. I don't want to get into a look. This leads to a dick, you know, contest, and I'm just. No, but, yeah, you look like you have a few more than I do because, you know, it is a struggle to retain the things that give the population the allure that you're still young.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

And you can do it with two things. If you're not fat and if you have hair.

[Carrie Elwes]

True.

[Bill Maher]

And also, you can't drink a lot because then you look like ted Kennedy in 1980, and it's just no good.

[Carrie Elwes]

I used to, when I was a kid, but.

[Bill Maher]

Me, too. When I was a kid of 50. Are you kidding? I mean, I only quit when I.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's hilarious.

[Bill Maher]

Well, it's true. No, I always say you're. You're. Like, in basketball, there's this. Or all sports where there's a saying, you. You. You give what the def. You take what the defense gives you. Right. And you're. And it's like that, I think, with the body. Like, when my body gave me 30 drinks a week, I had them.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sure.

[Bill Maher]

And now my body gives me two.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And I'm going to have one of them right now.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah. No, for real. Same thing. You know, when you're a teenager or in your 20s, you. You feel like you're immortal. You know, you can drink all night long, go out, party, do anything.

[Bill Maher]

Did you?

[Carrie Elwes]

Oh, for sure. You know, I was like any other teenager. You know, I rebelled and.

[Bill Maher]

No, I mean, like, teenager. I wish I was like that as a teenager. I was a loser.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, I hadn't.

[Bill Maher]

I wish somebody invited me out to, like, do bad things.

[Carrie Elwes]

I lived in New York for 10 years, so a whole decade of New York in the 80s will do it to you, Bill.

[Bill Maher]

But you're British, right?

[Carrie Elwes]

Yes, sir.

[Bill Maher]

You grew up in Britain?

[Carrie Elwes]

Yes, sir. Moved to the States when I was 18.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, we invited you, or you just.

[Carrie Elwes]

Barged away in, like, barge my way.

[Bill Maher]

In all these other.

[Carrie Elwes]

I always wanted to work here. I always.

[Bill Maher]

British.

[Carrie Elwes]

A British. A British actor who had a great appreciation for American film because I sort of Came, came of age in the 70s when the 60s and 70s when movies were really getting really interesting. Right?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, Counterculture.

[Carrie Elwes]

Totally. And so my favorite actors, besides some of the British ones I grew up with were American actors, especially New York ones. You know, character acts like Dustin Bob, Bobby Duvall, Al Pacino, you know, these, these were, these people, you know, loomed large in my consciousness.

[Bill Maher]

You look more like Robert Redford. That really should have.

[Carrie Elwes]

Thank you. God, I wish. That's a very nice compliment.

[Bill Maher]

Blonde.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah, right.

[Bill Maher]

You know, handsome blonde guy. I mean the guys you mentioned are not like lookers.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah, no, when I was 18 or 20s, actually when I did Princess Bride 24, I thought, God, I'm just gonna get non stop, you know what? Blonde, blue eyed prince roles, which is what happened. I got offered every movie with a sword, you know what I mean? And I'm like, no. Or fairy tale. Or you meet the princess and you save the princess, fight the dragon. They don't fight that. And I just thought, man, so what.

[Bill Maher]

Do you do to fight that? You have to then play a bad guy or.

[Carrie Elwes]

Well, yeah, so I was like, oh God, I gotta change this face. I gotta mix it up, Bill. I've gotta try and find a way to, to change my path or the path that people want me to take. Right. And I'll tell you a quick funny story. I was in New York, by the way, living in New York, not working. I don't know if you've ever been through that. Not a great thing to.

[Bill Maher]

I, I lived in New York as a comedian.

[Carrie Elwes]

Okay.

[Bill Maher]

Which is someone who certainly doesn't work in the day. Right, right. You know, but you got paid to.

[Carrie Elwes]

Go up on stage and do your acting.

[Bill Maher]

Not at first, no.

[Carrie Elwes]

Oh, really?

[Bill Maher]

Oh, no, they sold drugs.

[Carrie Elwes]

Oh, okay.

[Bill Maher]

We all did.

[Carrie Elwes]

Well, that's a lucrative business.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. There's no pay at the beginning. Right. But very soon, if you're good. When I say very soon, within a couple of years, you know, are you doing great? No. But you have enough to live. And that always made the actors in New York very jealous of us because the comedians didn't have to wait tables.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right? Yeah, no waiting tables.

[Bill Maher]

Why?

[Carrie Elwes]

You did not in New York, in London.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, I did.

[Carrie Elwes]

I was a bus.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I never did. Bitch.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I never waited on a table. No, I remember we used, the comedians used to kind of like be in the diner, whatever it was. And there was like, you know, there was a kind of a. Especially in the theater district, you know. That's hilarious because the improv was 44th and 9th. It was created as a place for. I mean, the improv, which has spawned all the comedy clubs. The Urban was created in 1962 by Bud Friedman as a place for the theater crowd to go after the show. It wasn't originally.

[Carrie Elwes]

I didn't know that. That's interesting.

[Bill Maher]

Absolutely. It wasn't necessarily a comedy club, but it was. They put comics up, but, like, anybody who had just done their show and was loose and having drinks, that was the Hangout. 44th and Night. It was. Right. It was a block away from Times Square. And.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah, Times Square, back when I lived there was kind of more like Taxi Driver. You know, when he drives through, it was like that. It was intense.

[Bill Maher]

I close there. I lived in hell.

[Carrie Elwes]

You know what I'm talking about?

[Bill Maher]

Okay. Yeah.

[Carrie Elwes]

So anyway, so I'm kind of not working in New York, which, again, is not great because, you know, you're starting to, like, figure out what you're going to eat, how you're going to make the rent, all that stuff.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Carrie Elwes]

I'm in a restaurant with a friend, and he starts having a heart attack at lunch, my friend. And I'm like, what's going on? Are you okay? He's like, al Pacino, three o'. Clock. I'm like, what? He goes, al Pacino over there. I look over and sure enough, Al's there. This is Cafe des Artistes, which he was. My friend was paying for. I couldn't afford that lunch. And I remember it. You remember cafe, right?

[Bill Maher]

Was that with the crayons on the table?

[Carrie Elwes]

I don't know.

[Bill Maher]

I think it was. It was one of those where they had, like. The tablecloth was paper, you know. Yes. And there was crayons. You were supposed to, like, draw. It was so. It was so. It was, you know.

[Carrie Elwes]

Anyway, so there's Al.

[Bill Maher]

He said, that's why they hate us in the Midwest. Who can fucking blame him? Crayons on the table. Be artistic while you're ordering.

[Carrie Elwes]

Anyway, so there's Al, and he's entertained. He's got like 12 people at a long table, and he's at the head of the table. And my friend, who's an actor, also not working, by the way, he goes, hey, we're actors. We should go say hi to alf. I'm like, no, we really should. He's with friends. Let's not do that.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Carrie Elwes]

And as I'm saying, let's not do that. He's up and out of the chair. He's over there, and I'm like, turning the color of your Curtain right here. I'm just so embarrassed right now. I'm like, oh, God. I look over and I see him gesturing. Al's like, who is this guy?

[Bill Maher]

Are you a waiter?

[Carrie Elwes]

What is this? And I see him point, my friend point to me, saying that over there. And Al looks over, and I can see him looking right at me now. I'm really mortified.

[Bill Maher]

Why is he blaming you?

[Carrie Elwes]

Because he's saying, come over to come and say hello.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, oh, oh. You see, your friend succeeded.

[Carrie Elwes]

He did. Well, not that I'm wondering, like, do you really. Is this really what Al wants? To have people come up and introduce themselves, strangers all the time, while he's having lunch with his friends. And I'm thinking, walk over. And my friend says, oh, Mr. Pacino. It's my friend Carrie, always. He's an actor. And he goes, oh, yeah? What are you doing right now? And I said, well, you know, I'm. I'm going up on auditions, and I'm between jobs. And he goes, oh, so you're drifting? And I went, oh, great. This is great. Michael Corleone just called me a drifter. It's. This is exactly. My day is working out as planned. And he goes, let me ask you a question, Carrie. And he taps my heart, Bill, like that. And he goes, what's this? I go, my heart. He goes, no. Then he taps my head right here. He goes, what's that? And I said, it's not my brain, is it? He goes, no. He goes, them muscles, Carrie, do you go to the gym? I go, yeah. He goes, what happens when you stop working out? He says. I said, well, you atrophy. He said, that's right. These are muscles. You gotta go to the gym, go work them out. That's why I go. I do plays. I always keep my muscles loose so that I'm ready to work.

[Bill Maher]

He said that?

[Carrie Elwes]

He said that. So he said. He gave me his assistance. Not. It's amazing. Gave me his assistance. He goes, you know, you should go check out the Lee Strasberg Institute where my mentor is teaching there. Go audition. I'll help you get in the door, but the rest is on you. I went. I auditioned, I got in. Ended up training with his mentor, a guy called Charlie Lawton, not the actor, but the same name. And changed my life. I started working, like, within a month or two.

[Bill Maher]

It's a beautiful story when a celebrity gives you the absolute personal number of his own assistant.

[Carrie Elwes]

Doesn't happen.

[Bill Maher]

It just doesn't happen. It touches this thing and this thing, you know, What? And as far as this thing and this thing goes, see, that is the difference between comedians and actors. And, you know, I mean, we have a lot in common and we have some things that are not. I mean, when you're a comedian, everyone is always coming up to you and saying, tell me a joke. But when you're an actor, no, people don't come up to you and say, show me a menu. Right?

[Carrie Elwes]

No, it's true.

[Bill Maher]

I just had to get one more. You guys were waiting this joke in there.

[Carrie Elwes]

I was actually a bus boy. I was never a waiter. It's even lower than a waiter.

[Bill Maher]

But you know, that acting stuff. See, I mean, I made my living as an actor in the 80s. You know, we all did as comics. We then went on to sitcoms and stuff like that. And it just. It just. You just feel like you're doing every. I enjoyed some of it, but like you are doing things left handed a little bit because it is your nature as a comic to not be a character, to be as real as you can, to be just at least my brand. So it's always a bit of a stretch. And, you know, at some point, you know, the business taps you on the shoulder and says, this is not what you're meant for. And you know, but it does sometimes takes time to find that. But you know Al Pacino, I know him a little bit and he is a very generous soul person.

[Carrie Elwes]

Very generous. I mean, that story in of itself.

[Bill Maher]

And he also is a guy who more than really almost all the other actors, he does take this shit seriously. Like, he really. I mean, even if you're anything except Shakespeare is kind of second class. It's like Shakespeare is really what we're here in this business to do.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right?

[Bill Maher]

We will do other things.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

Ward knows he's done plenty of other things.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yes, yes.

[Bill Maher]

But really we're here to do Shakespeare, for sure. Yeah. I mean, that's.

[Carrie Elwes]

I followed him on tour when he did American Buffalo. Do you remember that?

[Bill Maher]

Playing Mamet? Yeah, Mamet's been here a few times. I love Dave and he's brilliant, but I love him.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sure, but he was brilliant in that role. American Buffalo. I don't know if you ever saw.

[Bill Maher]

What is that about?

[Carrie Elwes]

It's like three guys trying to figure out how to. I think they trying to steal a nickel or something. I don't know, I've forgotten. It's been so long. But I remember there's a lot of drama and it's very tense.

[Bill Maher]

No profanity.

[Carrie Elwes]

It's Mamet.

[Bill Maher]

No Profanity.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, of course not. It's David Mamet. Please. No, but it's Al trying to change his life with a miracle. And he plays a very conflicted human being very, very well, I might add.

[Bill Maher]

So you go back to the theater just because of the muscle thing. Muscle heart pointing.

[Carrie Elwes]

Al crayons. And then you went back to the crayon. This is great, Bill.

[Bill Maher]

So you.

[Carrie Elwes]

Whether you need my interview with the waiter, Carrie Elwis. That's great.

[Bill Maher]

Former waiter. Must be fair. Okay. Bill Moore.

[Carrie Elwes]

It was. It was about the actors. The Lee Strasbourg is very similar to the Actor Studio. They teach you Stanislavski. They teach you. They teach you relaxation. They teach you character. They teach you background. They teach you. Yeah, go on.

[Bill Maher]

As a limey.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

And I say that with a fact. Who. When I was a kid, the world's most famous, or at least. At least the common opinion was that he was the greatest actor in the world was Laurence Olivier.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Who had no use for any of that stuff. No. Was he a great actor? Is it just the different styles of the times? Because when you watch old movies, you know, you just have to forgive them for being pre realistic era. We grew up in the era where, especially as the 60s, we were saying before those kind of movies, like, the audience no longer accepted just, I shoot you and you, there's no blood, and you just kind of fall in a heap. And, you know, you had to do everything realistically.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Olivier was pre that.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

He was.

[Carrie Elwes]

Heightened realism. I mean, I was fascinated by.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, what a nice way to say.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, I think it's a fair way to say it without being offensive to his talent. Olivia, you look at, like, Richard III or Hamlet or anything he did Henry.

[Bill Maher]

V, I love him.

[Carrie Elwes]

They're all great. But there's a heightened sense of reality with the way that he delivers. Obviously, one of the great Shakespearean actors of all time. But even when he's doing Rebecca or something like that, you feel like there's a realism, but it's heightened. For me, it's heightened. But then you. Then Marlon Brando comes along and he pushes that all aside and goes, I'm gonna sweat. I'm gonna sniff. I'm gonna be. You can smell me on screen. Right. You can feel the dirt under my fingernails. That's actually.

[Bill Maher]

With Brando, you could smell him and you could see the dirt under his fingernail.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, I think that was the point, though, that he was being. Marlon started to be on screen, whereas other people before him were creating. Yeah, go on.

[Bill Maher]

It also has to do with the roles you'. I mean, Stanley Kowalski. Yes. You have to be that. Spartacus is Nemesis, the noble Roman Crassus, who Olivier played in the movie Spartacus.

[Carrie Elwes]

Directed by Stanley Kubrick.

[Bill Maher]

Thank you. Okay. And Stanley Kubrick, I love that he made like one, like classic Hollywood movie and then went, okay, now that I've shown you I can do this, now I'm going to do always stuff that's ahead of the game. But I just wanted to show you.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sure that I can do.

[Bill Maher]

I can work with Lawrence Olivier and Kirk Douglas and I can make a big budget and it's awesome. And Charlie Lawton, I still love that movie.

[Carrie Elwes]

It's great.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, so. But like, he's playing this part of Crassus, the noble Roman who captures Spartacus. I don't know if you really want to even be, you know, all that super duper realistic. Don't you just want to be entertaining sometimes?

[Carrie Elwes]

I think that was the point for me with Olivier, is that he knew how to entertain people. I read his autobiography.

[Bill Maher]

He did the Entertainer.

[Carrie Elwes]

He did the Entertainer, but he actually, believe it or not, suffered from terrible stage fright. And this is a guy who did. Who did more stage plays than probably any other actor of his generation. And he used to go up to the curtain on the stage while everyone was taking their seats. And he. To build up his courage, Bill, he would open the curtains and go, you're about to see a performance you've never seen before tonight. And then that gave him the strength to go out there and do that.

[Bill Maher]

He said that to himself.

[Carrie Elwes]

Himself, to give him the courage and the strength.

[Bill Maher]

Don't we all do that in our own way? You kind of have to psycho psych yourself up right before you.

[Carrie Elwes]

But he had terrible fright.

[Bill Maher]

Your close up is coming after lunch, Mr. Elways. Right. Are you gonna go have a big fucking heavy lunch? No.

[Carrie Elwes]

No.

[Bill Maher]

You're gonna go to your trailer. Yeah, I always hated that. Like when I thought I was gonna work in the morning.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's funny.

[Bill Maher]

When we're. We're fresh, right? And they waste all morning doing the master shot, which they never use.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right?

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Carrie Elwes]

Never.

[Bill Maher]

And then, okay, after lunch, okay, so now I'm hungry, but I can't eat. Cause he can't act.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's hilarious.

[Bill Maher]

Or by the way, fuck if you're right after eating. I don't know why people try either one, but they do.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's hilarious.

[Bill Maher]

But isn't it? Right?

[Carrie Elwes]

It's true. Always. No, it's always unpredictable. You're on their timetable yeah. And so are there directors, though, who.

[Bill Maher]

Like, are more cognizant of that Because I would think if I was a director, what I would. Having at least done. I mean, it's not like I'm this great acting icon. I did some acting, so I know what it was. I would make sure that my actors got their close ups at the optimum moment. I would re rig it so everything was working around. You should direct. That I should not direct. I should not direct. I know I'm not starting new careers at 70. I'm happy to keep the two I've got going.

[Carrie Elwes]

Okay.

[Bill Maher]

I used to have three. I used to tour. I only don't do that anymore doing standup. But no, I'm not gonna direct. But that's what I would do. Because I do remember that frustrating feeling like if we had just gotten to this earlier in the day.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sure.

[Bill Maher]

And you know, it's a funny thing the way I remember the concentration, you know, that you have to keep. It's a nerve wracking job. Because you can't quite ever relax.

[Carrie Elwes]

No.

[Bill Maher]

Because when they call on you, so you can't quite ever relax. Even though you have oodles of time to do nothing, you still can't quite relax into it. No.

[Carrie Elwes]

You're always mulling the scene over in your head.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Carrie Elwes]

And I find I like it when directors move very quickly. This picture I just did at Dead Man's Wire with Gus Van Sant. We only have.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, yeah, I have Gus here. He's Dead Man's Wire. You're great in it.

[Carrie Elwes]

Thank you. We had 19 days, so there was no sitting around. There wasn't time to go back to your trailer and hang out.

[Bill Maher]

19 days.

[Carrie Elwes]

19 days, wow. So once you came out of your trailer, that was the last time you saw the trailer until wrap.

[Bill Maher]

Good.

[Carrie Elwes]

And so I like that. It's like tv. I mean, I don't recommend it for every picture, but when you have too much time on your hands and you're just sitting in the trailer doing that, you can overthink the scene and really like go, okay, what if I do it?

[Bill Maher]

Or your life. Or your life, really. Because there's a lot of time in this.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah, too much time. And so I like moving quickly.

[Bill Maher]

And that's a trailer. I mean, I remember being in Honey Wagons, which is if people don't know a trailer is like, when you're the star, you get your own trailer. And big stars, like have like a permanent trailer is made for them and wherever they go, they fly.

[Carrie Elwes]

Double banger Triple banger.

[Bill Maher]

Right. It's like, you know, a home away from home. As much as a trailer can be, a Honeywell is like a little cubbyhole that's attached to like five others. So like, when anybody else in the next one walks up the steps, it's like boom, boom, boom.

[Carrie Elwes]

And slams the door.

[Bill Maher]

You can't sleep there. No, no. I mean, the toilet is like that thing. Yeah, I'm not going to. But it is a toilet of sorts. But you certainly are.

[Carrie Elwes]

You know, it's a trail of life.

[Bill Maher]

It's trail. Yeah, but that's honey. That's Honeywell. Honeywagon's even worse. And also when you're in the honeywagon, you know, you're not important. They, they have to keep you with some sort of roof over your head. But it, it can be the shittiest.

[Carrie Elwes]

Hilarious.

[Bill Maher]

It's true. Listeners think back to a first date where you were actually interested. You didn't just talk about the weather. You asked real questions. What are you looking for? What's a deal breaker? Because wasting time is for amateurs. Well, the same thing if you're hiring. You don't want to find out three weeks in that this person can't do the job, or worse, doesn't want to. That's why you need ZipRecruiter. When you post a job, ZipRecruiter actually suggests smart screening questions up front so you can figure out who's worth your time before you commit. ZipRecruiter's matching technology immediately surfaces qualified candidates who check the boxes you care about. You can even filter to see who's recently active. Because hiring someone who already disappeared is not a strategy. And it works fast. There's a reason ZipRecruiter is the 1 rated hiring site on G2. Take the struggle out of hiring and find the right people for your team with ZipRecruiter. Ask key questions and hire faster with ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com/random that's ZipRecruiter.com/ Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. You know, I've never been a 10 step skincare routine guy. Some lotion, some sunscreen, and I'm pretty much set. That's why oneskin really stands out. It's simple. It's one product. Feels light, skin looks smoother, less tired, like you've actually slept all eight hours. Their products aren't about hype or fancy packaging. It's real science. The company was founded by longevity researchers who looked at skin aging and said, what if we fix the problem instead of covering it up? So they created the peptide called OS1 1 and it's designed to target those damaged senescent cells that age your skin in the first place. They've got clinical studies, thousands of five star reviews. They did the science and research so you don't have to worn from over a decade of longevity research, OneSkin's OS1 peptide is proven to target the visible signs of aging, helping you unlock your healthiest skin now and as you age. For a limited time, try one skin with 15 off using code RANDOM at OneSkin Co RANDOM. That's 15% off OneSkin Co with code random. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you.

[Carrie Elwes]

You know, I did a picture in Dublin one time and to work with the Irish is just hilarious. And so transpo. I know. Well, I'm part. I have some Gaelic. Anyway, so this transport guy comes over and goes, oh, you're in Loch Mr. Elliott's. I go, why? He goes, you have John Wayne's trailer from the Quiet Man.

[Bill Maher]

Wow.

[Carrie Elwes]

I'm like, the quiet man. Wasn't that 19, like 50, 35. 50 something.

[Bill Maher]

1935.

[Carrie Elwes]

Was it really?

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Carrie Elwes]

They take me over, Bill. They open it and I can smell it before I go inside and there's oil dripping from the ceiling. And I go, and it's like staining the couch. And I go, what's that? He goes, well, that was broken when Mr. Wayne was here and we've decided not to fix it. And I thought, what a great character trailer this is. Or honeywang.

[Bill Maher]

Oil dripping from where?

[Carrie Elwes]

From the ceiling. I don't know.

[Bill Maher]

But what's in the ceiling that had oil.

[Carrie Elwes]

It was 1930. What is it?

[Bill Maher]

Five.

[Carrie Elwes]

There you go.

[Bill Maher]

I still don't know what would be in the ceiling that would drip oil.

[Carrie Elwes]

I think they didn't know either and didn't want to try and find out why there was oil.

[Bill Maher]

So what, you stayed in it?

[Carrie Elwes]

That was my trailer. I had no choice. They're like, you got, you're lucky. You got John Wayne's trailer. We selected just for you. I thought it was special.

[Bill Maher]

What was this?

[Carrie Elwes]

It was a Showtime movie.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, I see.

[Carrie Elwes]

Timothy Dunn. But it was fun.

[Bill Maher]

I loved it. Oh, James Bond.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah, but great fun Ireland. Great fun. Love the Irish.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. I mean, I went, what? I mean, they're My people?

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah, you're people.

[Bill Maher]

I went in 99.

[Carrie Elwes]

Okay. Where'd you go?

[Bill Maher]

I was in Europe. I do remember as the plane landed, I did get very emotional without intending to. And I'm not like that.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sure.

[Bill Maher]

I mean. I mean.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, no, sure.

[Bill Maher]

You don't even know what I'm gonna say.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, no, but there is something to that.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. No, but I'm saying I'm. You know, I've been trying to get me to cry on TV for 33 years. It's not gonna happen. I'm not a cry, but like, for some reason it hit me. And then around the country for a week was fascinating, sometimes infuriating. I mean, the signs, you. First of all, you can't read the language. People think, oh, the Irish and English, same thing. Not the same thing. Not even a completely different language, different people. I mean, they weren't. They didn't look as different as the people that England conquered in Africa and India and Indochina, but just as different a culture. I mean, it was just as much a conquest completely of a different people who just said, I'm gonna make you my bitch. And they did. That's your people, the English.

[Carrie Elwes]

Fuck you.

[Bill Maher]

And so you would see the signs and it would say the name of the town, like, to give the direction. Now we do that here. Like if you're on the freeway here, it says to San Diego. You have to know San Diego is south. It's kind of a dirty trick. We don't all know that we do, but you know, or you know, San Francisco to San Francisco. There are people from Germany, which I don't fuck know where. San Francisco. I know it's in California, sort of. So, you know, there would be like this sign. That's hilarious. These 18 letter names for towns this way. I'm like, oh, that's helpful.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's great.

[Bill Maher]

And of course, this is pre gps.

[Carrie Elwes]

I was gonna say it must have.

[Bill Maher]

Been pre gps, but it was also kind of cool because then you would have to engage in people. You'd walk into the pub. That's great.

[Carrie Elwes]

You know, all of a sudden someone's got a guitar and right there's singing and there's beaming the drinking.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, there were people, like, frequently. I saw this over there, passed out, sitting on the stool.

[Carrie Elwes]

I know, it was incredible. I worked at this place called Ardmore Studios. It's very famous studios in Dublin. And they have a bar upstairs for the cast and crew. And I'm looking around the wall, Bill, and there's pictures of famous people you can't quite make them up. But there's Peter o' Toole lying like this. There's this Richard Burton, like that huge, huge drunk. I'm like, this is amazing. Albert Finney. And I'm like, this is.

[Bill Maher]

Well, you're maiming all the.

[Carrie Elwes]

All of them came here and drunk at this bar and passed out.

[Bill Maher]

That was such a tradition. Michael Caine.

[Carrie Elwes]

Michael Caine.

[Bill Maher]

I'm not telling this out of school. I think he said, you know, like, they would put it away by the bottle, like a bottle of vodka a day, and then have wine at lunch. As if it was like a corrective to do that. Oh, let's have some health food to even out the vodka we had all morning. Let's have some. Because it's made from grapes.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's hilarious.

[Bill Maher]

Sort of. True. And they.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's true.

[Bill Maher]

Another one is Oliver Reed Reed.

[Carrie Elwes]

Oh, please.

[Bill Maher]

What?

[Carrie Elwes]

He was legendary for drinking. Oh, please.

[Bill Maher]

It was.

[Carrie Elwes]

He's like. He was determined to outdo Bert in the no Tool, this guy. He was.

[Bill Maher]

Right. Because he probably. He was a great actor. If you remember.

[Carrie Elwes]

Great.

[Bill Maher]

If you remember Gladiator.

[Carrie Elwes]

Great. But before that, Oliver, he's the.

[Bill Maher]

He's the slave trader.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah, he was.

[Bill Maher]

It's a great part. He. You know, it's a pivotal part and he kills it. But he. Yes. Known for that. I mean, the English would call it getting pissed, which means drunk. Very. Like, very drunk.

[Carrie Elwes]

But they were. A lot of these guys were. What's the phrase? They were able to drink and still deliver.

[Bill Maher]

You know, they were there, plainly. Right.

[Carrie Elwes]

So look at Princess. Right.

[Bill Maher]

Because they were all in the bag by lunch.

[Carrie Elwes]

By lunch and after lunch. So check out Beckett, for instance, a great story about Beckett. Do you remember Beckett? Of course. Right. O' Toole and Burton. Great movie.

[Bill Maher]

Catherine.

[Carrie Elwes]

Catherine Hepburn.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Carrie Elwes]

Whom o' Toole picked to play that part. And she's Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor, Brilliant.

[Bill Maher]

And this is Henry ii.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, no, that's Lyon and Winter. Your thing. Beckett is. Before. He plays Henry in both.

[Bill Maher]

O'.

[Carrie Elwes]

Toole. So Lyon Winter was Katharine Hepburn.

[Bill Maher]

Okay.

[Carrie Elwes]

Beckett was the precursor to that, and that was Burton. And the.

[Bill Maher]

Based on the real priest who would not give in to the king.

[Carrie Elwes]

Correct.

[Bill Maher]

It's one of those stories.

[Carrie Elwes]

Brilliant. And they found a local pub that they really both enjoyed, and they found themselves in this pub at closing time. And the owner of the bar said, you know, gentlemen, last call. And o' Toole is like, there's no such thing as last call. Don't be silly. You know, something like that.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Carrie Elwes]

And the Guy goes, no, sir, please. And there's no one else. They're the last people in the bar. Peter o' Toole said he was so infuriated that he and Burton bought the bar. To keep it open, they negotiated a price.

[Bill Maher]

I love show business.

[Carrie Elwes]

Isn't that a great story?

[Bill Maher]

That's all I'm going to say about that. I love fucking show business. That great where we can buy the bar.

[Carrie Elwes]

Buy it, you rule makers.

[Bill Maher]

Right?

[Carrie Elwes]

And I may keep you here to keep your job if you're lucky. If you give me another drink.

[Bill Maher]

We left out Richard Harris.

[Carrie Elwes]

Oh, Richard was great, but also Richard was great.

[Bill Maher]

It's amazing the way they. They this, like drinking club. Like, it was incredible. Richard Burton, Richard Har. By the way, do you remember sctv?

[Carrie Elwes]

Oh, dude. You know Rob Reiner, who you had on your show recently, Director of the Prince, God bless him. He turned me onto sctv. I had no idea who he was.

[Bill Maher]

Long, short. Eugene Levitt.

[Carrie Elwes]

Changed my life. This is brilliant. This is the American, early 80s. Monty, Tony, Canadian.

[Bill Maher]

Absolutely brilliant. They once did a sketch that was called Three Kings and a Pope and it was just all a mashup of all these kind of movies. Medieval.

[Carrie Elwes]

I gotta see that one.

[Bill Maher]

If you can YouTube it.

[Carrie Elwes]

John Gandy.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I don't remember who played who, but, you know, it was like. They all talk like, you know, one did Burton and one did Richard Harris and they're just all about Mini Billy, kind of.

[Carrie Elwes]

They were brilliant.

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Carrie Elwes]

Those guys, absolutely genius. Yeah. I didn't know who they were. And Rob's like, you've never seen. So he arranged to have a crate of VHS tapes sent to England.

[Bill Maher]

Sure.

[Carrie Elwes]

And on, pal, mind you, because the different system, so I could watch them in my trailer and I was like, this is waiting for it to shoot. Suddenly became actually like, I'm older.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. And you know, I mean, you can see. I mean, they were all brilliant, brilliant. But you see that like all these years later, Catherine o', Hara, Marty Levy, they're still. And just went on to be bigger stars. I mean, I saw Martin the other last week and you know, he's a. He's a straight up a lister now.

[Carrie Elwes]

They're all amazing. I was blown away. And of course Rob's like, ah, Did I tell you right? I'm like this.

[Bill Maher]

Brilliant.

[Carrie Elwes]

Absolutely brilliant.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I don't know how we got onto that about the British actors, but you being a British actor, I guess you have to take some responsibility, carry the weight. But you never had a drug problem, a drinking problem? No.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, I mean, why? Because I honestly, Al, kind of made me.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, geez. Back to. This was really.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sorry. Watch my foot.

[Bill Maher]

This was really an important moment.

[Carrie Elwes]

Well, it was for me.

[Bill Maher]

I see. Yeah.

[Carrie Elwes]

I mean, I had opportunities. Basically.

[Bill Maher]

The power of celebrity. It's a little. Christy, you know, the way he could heal the lepers or whatever. Cause, like, some of that, like, I'm not. I'm an atheist. I don't believe any of that. But, like, we do know that the power of the mind to affect actual health is real.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah. No question.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, we don't quantify it.

[Carrie Elwes]

It's not something I believe in that.

[Bill Maher]

No, it's true. Because before, like 200 years ago, that's all we had was the placebo effect. Because they do studies now with placebos and they very often work as well. If you think you're getting better, you get better. Oh, I forgot why I started talking about that. It was so interesting to me. What were you talking about? Hey, I'm the one who stoned.

[Carrie Elwes]

You asked me if I did Al Pacino. He basically forced me to really re examine my career and where I was mentally, physically, spiritually, everything. And when I started working with his mentor, that meant a lot to me. He was sharing his teacher with me. Yeah. And I didn't take that lightly. That's a huge responsibility. And of course, I was early for every class Bill. You know, I just couldn't wait.

[Bill Maher]

I know what I was talking about. The power of celebrity. The power. It's almost Christlike. The way people revere celebrities so much. I've done it myself.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sure.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I mean, I've healed marriages. You know, like, if I say, like, you just command so much respect, you can be like, look, you two, you love each other. And like, they wouldn't do that for, like, a civilian.

[Carrie Elwes]

Wow.

[Bill Maher]

But a celebrity and like, he did that for you.

[Carrie Elwes]

He did that for you.

[Bill Maher]

It's just like there is this power that comes from. I mean, people give it to us.

[Carrie Elwes]

We don't deserve it. He undid Al. He. This is a guy, as you mentioned earlier, takes his career very seriously.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right. He does. He always delivers a great performance.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. He earned it as an artist. I don't know if that rivals to me, people who achieve things that are of practical value. You know, I don't think it rivals like what Obama did or George Washington, people like that, or people who invented things that changed our whole world.

[Carrie Elwes]

No question.

[Bill Maher]

For the better.

[Carrie Elwes]

No question. No question. You know, we're not doing. We're not help. We're not curing cancer or, you know, anything like that. But there is something to. If you're meeting a young actor, an impressionable young actor who's having a hard time.

[Bill Maher]

For me, that was magic.

[Carrie Elwes]

That was essentially drifting. That was, you know, it was the curtain opening.

[Bill Maher]

Well, it's healing. The leper. Yeah. And the leper. To my earlier digression, like, I don't think you could cure leprosy. But there are definitely things where people have gotten better because the belief is so strong for some reason. Sometimes it is religion. I mean, you know about Christian Scientists.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

So. Okay. Well, it's a great way to go to jail because if you're a parent with a child and you're a Christian Scientist and you don't get the medical attention because you actually believe Jesus is gonna handle this. Jesus take the wheel. And he doesn't.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

He flakes. Doesn't show up to help you out. They'll put you in jail because, yes. You killed your kid for your belief.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah. I'm not a big fan of.

[Bill Maher]

Religion.

[Carrie Elwes]

Well, I'm more of a spiritual person. Organized religion to me has. I don't want to get into it here. I promised I wouldn't discuss politics or religion on your show. But for me, I have my own spirituality, and I don't need a church to pray, and I can pray anywhere. And so I'm not an atheist like you. I don't know. And I don't judge anyone. It's what works for the individual.

[Bill Maher]

Absolutely.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And by the way, people think atheists care a lot more about the subject than we do. Right. Really? We just don't give a shit.

[Carrie Elwes]

It's hilarious.

[Bill Maher]

No, it's true.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's great.

[Bill Maher]

I was singing some songs at my birthday party the other night. Like, one of them was. Had some, you know, religiousy. And I said to the people, like, just because I'm singing these words, I don't give a right. You know, I. My Sweet Lord by George Harrison. I love Sing Along. I don't. I don't even believe that.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I'm not. It's like, my sweet Lord, can't wait to see you. That's not me for sure. But the song is good.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Mostly we don't care. You know, we just. We're not dogmatic about, like, there definitely is no God. It could be anything. Plainly, there's something other than just, well, whatever, because we're here and Is it all a dream? Is it. You know, is it the Matrix and we're not really living it, or is there an alternative universe like this on another planet? Are there other planets? How did it all begin? What was before the Big Bang? I mean, I could give you a million questions that, you know, nobody can even come close to answering. Atheists are just people who go, yeah, so we don't give a shit.

[Carrie Elwes]

Like.

[Bill Maher]

And the rest of you are like, no, I think I know. Yeah, I think I know.

[Carrie Elwes]

I think I know what it is.

[Bill Maher]

And I think I know who it is. And I think what happens is reincarnation. I think what happens is you.

[Carrie Elwes]

I don't know. Nobody knows.

[Bill Maher]

Nobody knows.

[Carrie Elwes]

Nobody knows. And if you do have the answer to that, you need to share it without all of us. No, I just believe in. I believe there is a God. I don't know if it's a male or female. I don't know. I've never met him, so. I'm just saying, if there is even.

[Bill Maher]

Such a concept as a God, it must be so beyond male and female. Right?

[Carrie Elwes]

100%, I agree. And no one has the answers. I don't pretend I do. I'm not omnipotent. None of us are. I just like the idea of. Here's an example. When I stumble and fall, I find myself on my knees. Physically, mentally, spiritually. When I stumble and fall, sometimes I find myself on my knees, and then I'm in a good position to pray. That's just me. Yeah, right. And it's helped me. I'm not saying it's right or wrong or should be for you or someone else. I'm saying, for me, in moments of crisis, I found that having that connection is helpful for me.

[Bill Maher]

I have no issue with this.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, I know. I know. You were saying you don't care. You know what?

[Bill Maher]

My issue with this, and it's positive, is I'm thrilled that anybody on this earth has something that makes them not be a total fucking nut. Dangerous, dangerous. Violence.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's hilarious.

[Bill Maher]

Conspiracy theory. Like, anything that keeps it calm.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah, sure. Anything.

[Bill Maher]

Meditation. I'm so down with it, I'll even go fund it.

[Carrie Elwes]

I love it. But it's a form of meditation.

[Bill Maher]

Great, right? I can't do that either. I'm trying.

[Carrie Elwes]

Almost one and the same thing, if you think about it.

[Bill Maher]

Right?

[Carrie Elwes]

No. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I mean, look, don't get mad at me, but I'm gonna quote my friend Sam Harris, because it always makes me laugh.

[Carrie Elwes]

Go.

[Bill Maher]

He says if you got your hair dryer out and you said you were speaking into it, and when you were speaking into it you were communicating with this being in outer space. They would take you to the mental institution, but take away the hairdryer and you're praying.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's funny. That's funny.

[Bill Maher]

And it's good that you couldn't admit that it's funny.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, it has to be.

[Bill Maher]

And also, who knows who's right? Nobody. And maybe they do hear you.

[Carrie Elwes]

No.

[Bill Maher]

But I would use the hairdryer. No.

[Carrie Elwes]

Plus, you sound funnier when you're talking.

[Bill Maher]

But no. No one knows the answer. And I also will admit this. Sometimes there are things that are coincidentee.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

That make even a skeptic like me go, well, that was weird, right?

[Carrie Elwes]

For sure.

[Bill Maher]

For sure.

[Carrie Elwes]

We don't have the answers. We don't know. That's the great unknown. We don't know.

[Bill Maher]

And there does seem to be some level of a channel where people are picking up a radio station that most of us don't pick up with our five senses. That does seem to be a little extra. I mean, no question. Keep talking to magicians. I keep running into magicians for some reason these days. I don't know what that means.

[Carrie Elwes]

Are you spending time at the Magic Castle?

[Bill Maher]

I'm not. That's what I'm saying. It's just happening to me.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

I can only imagine what the psychiatrist would say if I had one, which I don't. I'd rather go to a magician.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's hilarious.

[Bill Maher]

You ever leave a doctor's appointment and think that's it? That was the big medical insight. Drink more water, exercise more. Oh, thanks, doc. Groundbreaking. Meanwhile, you're trying to live longer, feel better, maybe not fall apart like an old lawn chair. And all you get is a pamphlet. Well, now there is Superpower. It's actually proactive health. Not see you when something breaks health. They send a licensed professional to your house so you can go to a nearby lab or do one set of lab tests and suddenly you've got Data on over 100 biomarkers. Heart, hormones, metabolism, vitamins. All of it. Some stuff no one ever checks. And the app doesn't just dump numbers on you. It tells you what to do. Supplements, nutrition, lifestyle tweaks, even your biological age, which is either motivating or emotionally devastating. But at least you now know. If you're tired of guessing, then try it out. Should you sleep more, eat less, take 12 supplements like a retired astronaut. Superpower actually gives you a plan, and it tracks everything over time so you're improving, not starting over every January like a maniac. I'm always aiming to Be healthy, eat well, exercise, get enough sleep. But there's always something more we can do to live well. Learn what that is with Superpower. Make this year the year you stop guessing about your health. With Superpower, not only did Superpower reduce their price to just 199, but for a limited time, our listeners get an additional $20 off with code RANDOM. Head to superpower.com and use code RANDOM at checkout for $20 off your membership. After you sign up, they'll ask how you heard about them, so make sure to mention this podcast to support the show.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

If you're tackling a home project, check out angie.com from roofing to remodels and everything in between, Angie connects you with skilled pros who do such a good job, you might trust them to do other things, like pull out your tooth or be your kid's godfather. Don't actually ask them to do those things, just let them get the job done. Well, Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust, find a pro for your [e-mail] that's a n.

[Bill Maher]

G I.com why have I asked my.

[Carrie Elwes]

Electrician I found on angie.com to bury my pet hamster Nibbles, in our yard for me? Because I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires, I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet Nibbles after his untimely end. Huh? Nibbles gone too soon. May he scurry in peace.

[Bill Maher]

Hey, sorry about your pet, but I just wire stuff.

[Carrie Elwes]

Nibbles would have loved you like a brother.

[Bill Maher]

Connecting homeowners with skilled Pros for over 30 years, Angie, the one you trust.

[Carrie Elwes]

To find the ones you trust.

[Bill Maher]

Find pros for all your home [e-mail] but I just. And I want to know because I certainly have seen things that magicians do nowadays that seem to be crossing the line from magic into sort of telepathy, metaphysical magic. And it's like it just seems impossible that they could do this. And yet the reason why I'm skeptical is because they do other things that are just pure magic. And I can't imagine how they can do that to me. I mean, I'm literally holding the thing in my hand and I open it up. Now it's a bunch of, you know, pigeon shit or something. Whatever they're doing, it's like, oh my God, like, how could you possibly have done that, right? So I wonder. But, you know, again, just don't know.

[Carrie Elwes]

We don't know.

[Bill Maher]

And I think the atheist view is like, you Only give yourself gray hairs trying to figure it out. So just be a decent person for the sake of it. Not because there's. You know. I mean, the Catholicism, which is I was raised in is very. Oh, you too?

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Very big on scaring you.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

About. If you don't. This will happen.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah, this is. Yeah. Purgatory. Not a great thing.

[Bill Maher]

Purgatory would be. That'd be a relief from. At least you're not damnation.

[Carrie Elwes]

Eternal damnation.

[Bill Maher]

Purgatory is like. But you're on your way to the middle of.

[Carrie Elwes]

I know, but still. Yeah. No, it's purgatory.

[Bill Maher]

Like, I know in hell, a devil hot. Poking you with a.

[Carrie Elwes]

Haven't been there.

[Bill Maher]

I know, but, like, we have a. No, but I'm just saying, like, people have a. A mental picture of hell. Like, you're in. It's fucking hot. It's the flames. The devil is poking you with his pitchfork. It's just pain, like, internally. And heaven, we know that cloud God, whatever. Whenever somebody dies, they do a cartoon of him and they're, like, doing the thing in heaven that they did on Earth. Like, Bob Hope is up in heaven with a golf club. Right.

[Carrie Elwes]

Okay.

[Bill Maher]

So I know what heaven is, and I know what hell is. What's Purgatory?

[Carrie Elwes]

I think in Purgatory, the idea is that you're on your way.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, I know the idea.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right. Dude, I honestly, I didn't pay much attention to Sunday School. That was the thing for me. There was so much mythology attached to it that I was like, you had me lost on the third Sunday school class. You know what I mean?

[Bill Maher]

I don't know if you want to get involved with me on a business level, but I'm telling you, if you think. I think Purgatory is wide open series, epic movie. I'm thinking Ridley Scott.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's hilarious.

[Bill Maher]

I see you.

[Carrie Elwes]

I've worked in some shows that seemed like Purgatory. Yeah, they really did.

[Bill Maher]

No, I think we need a guy just like you. You're the right age to run Purgatory.

[Carrie Elwes]

Okay.

[Bill Maher]

You're neither a good guy nor a bad guy because you're in Purgatory.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's excellent.

[Bill Maher]

And it's about the dichotomy.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sure.

[Bill Maher]

I'm thinking Al Pacino. That's hilarious. That's hilarious as the OG Purgatory, dude. Right.

[Carrie Elwes]

Is in there somewhere.

[Bill Maher]

Well, we wish. I know Al could still do it. Yeah, not so much Oliver Reed.

[Carrie Elwes]

No. This is the strangest conversation I've had with anybody in a long time.

[Bill Maher]

It's Riveting I keep telling people Club Random is not like the other podcast, and they just won't listen to me. I mean, I don't know what I have to do. I'm doing it.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, it's great.

[Bill Maher]

It's great getting high and talking to somebody I like.

[Carrie Elwes]

Oh, thank you, Bill.

[Bill Maher]

And I just don't ever want to, like, have an agenda. It's like, it would be as ridiculous for me to do this show with an agenda, which, again, the other shows do. And that's fine. That's what we watched on TV for 70 years. Talk shows. You have a card, you have questions. But it's like if I went out to dinner with you, which I would love to sometime. Like, if I showed up with a card before we order. Carrie, I understand that your new project is. That's hilarious. But actually, you know what? What is your new project? Maybe we should be plugging something. Stranger Things. No, are you plugging that?

[Carrie Elwes]

I've been there, done that. But I did work with somebody.

[Bill Maher]

I worked with Dead Man's Wire. We plugged that. And Dave, transformational, too. Not just a pothead. Although I'm gonna have a pot.

[Carrie Elwes]

Okay. Yeah. It's actually Bill Skarsgard is the lead. He plays this guy called Tony Gritzis. He's great.

[Bill Maher]

So he's the son of Stellan. The best.

[Carrie Elwes]

The best.

[Bill Maher]

I was at the Golden Globe Sunday.

[Carrie Elwes]

Okay.

[Bill Maher]

And when he won, I was like, I have a chance. These. This. This woke town is. I can't believe they nominated me. I. I can't believe that.

[Carrie Elwes]

It's hilarious.

[Bill Maher]

But if. If they gave one to Kellen Skarsgard.

[Carrie Elwes]

Stellan. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Stellen. Even he wouldn't.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And then a kid. The kid from the. From the British show. The genius show on Netflix. Adolescence.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Great.

[Carrie Elwes]

They gave it to he's amazing skeleton.

[Bill Maher]

And they gave it to a kid. Anybody could win this thing. And then I didn't.

[Carrie Elwes]

Anyway, so it's called Dead Man's Wires, directed by Gus Van Zandt, who you had on the show.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Carrie Elwes]

And it's based on a true story about a kidnapping that took place in Indianapolis in 1977. And Bill, story, real story, which I didn't even know about.

[Bill Maher]

I didn't either.

[Carrie Elwes]

Bill plays this guy called Tony Kiritsis who believes that his mortgage broker screwed him over. So he decides to take matters into his own hands and kidnaps his broker and holds him hostage in a police standoff for 63 hours and ends up airing all his grievances on live tv.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, it's a very apropos movie. Even though it's about the 70s. For an era that we live in now where income inequality is such a big issue. People are fed up with, you know, I mean, what is the big issue now? They call it now affordability.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

That's the new word. Right. Which, I mean, it was always a word and it was always valid. But right now it's like the thing affordability and just people having the idea that everybody is ripping us off and somehow, like, half the country can, you know, afford Taylor Swift tickets. And, you know, half the country is working three jobs. Right. So in that atmosphere, you know, this thing that happened in 70s. Very timely.

[Carrie Elwes]

Very timely.

[Bill Maher]

You know, Very timely. So I thought it really resonated.

[Carrie Elwes]

Oh, you saw it?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Carrie Elwes]

Oh, cool.

[Bill Maher]

Of course. Yeah.

[Carrie Elwes]

It's very much like a 70s film. Gus wanted to shoot it like Dog Day Afternoon and French Connection. He wanted to give it that gritty feel to it. So it was really a film. It's not a movie. It's more like cinema. And it was. We're very proud of it. Alino is in it. He plays the guy who's the owner of the. The mortgage broker.

[Bill Maher]

That must have been a nice full circle. It was.

[Carrie Elwes]

It was a nice Easter egg for me. Definitely.

[Bill Maher]

No, but like, you didn't have any scenes together.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, but I came and I went. I showed up when he worked.

[Bill Maher]

But did. And you reminded him of what happened.

[Carrie Elwes]

I don't have to. I mean, you know, Al's a very important part of my life.

[Bill Maher]

It's like, you know. So you kept up from. Course. Changed my life.

[Carrie Elwes]

Changed my life.

[Bill Maher]

No, I thought it may have just been.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, changed it. Changed it.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, I know that. But then maybe you just.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, I'm not that kind of fly by night kind of guy. Like, gee, thanks. I'll see you when I see you. You know. You know when someone like that kind of, as you say, cures your leprosy.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but if Bob Dylan did it for you, I mean, like, I just.

[Carrie Elwes]

Good luck trying to reach Bob Dylan.

[Bill Maher]

That's what I'm saying. It could have been one of those situations, you know, like, I don't see Bob, like, sending Christmas cards.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, but I just. Like I said, as you said earlier, he's a very generous person by nature. Yeah, he doesn't.

[Bill Maher]

I'm actually very proud of you. Like, he created this thing and he went on to, like, all this success and that's a nice show business.

[Carrie Elwes]

I mean, he is one of my heroes.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Carrie Elwes]

Like I said, I grew up watching his work. I remember seeing Dog Day Afternoon when I was a kid and I became obsessed with Sidney Lemat, but also with him. I mean, he did that. He did Serpico. He does God's Father and then, you know, Scarface, Lemur. I mean, everything after each one, it's like no net, you know, it's incredible.

[Bill Maher]

No, that's a part Lawrence Olivier could have done because it call. It's operatic. It calls for over the top. That's what makes it great.

[Carrie Elwes]

You can take me here. There. It doesn't matter.

[Bill Maher]

Say hello.

[Carrie Elwes]

There's nothing. There's nothing you can do to me that Castro has not already done.

[Bill Maher]

Say hello to the bad guy. Remember that speech? That'd be a funny sketch.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah, it would be very funny.

[Bill Maher]

But it is. It's over the top. And it's supposed to be over the top. It's Brian DePalme. Right. And it's.

[Carrie Elwes]

Kyle stays in character. He's very much a guy who stays. That's what part of his training. And so he is that guy on and off camera.

[Bill Maher]

But the resonance that movie has have had with succeeding generations. I mean, I saw a stripper with a tattoo of Scarface on her leg.

[Carrie Elwes]

Are you sure it's her leg?

[Bill Maher]

I'm not sure it was a stripper. No. Yes. I mean, kids of all ages, they look up to scarf.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, it became.

[Bill Maher]

I don't know if that's a good thing.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, it became. You go down to south beach today anyway, you know, which is where all of that shooting scenes took place. Right. It's like you can't recognize it today. You know, I watch people getting searched for weapons, going into restaurants. I'm like, okay, this is definitely. Miami beach has definitely changed over the years.

[Bill Maher]

You go there a lot?

[Carrie Elwes]

No, I was shooting a series there.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, I see. I like Miami.

[Carrie Elwes]

I love it.

[Bill Maher]

I couldn't live there.

[Carrie Elwes]

No.

[Bill Maher]

It's like Vegas with a beach. Right. It's just too much.

[Carrie Elwes]

It's too much now. It's too much.

[Bill Maher]

Well, too much for us. Yeah. You know, if you're 20, I guess.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

But it's. It's. I love it. That there's a great vibe to it.

[Carrie Elwes]

Great energy, different. I love all the food. I love all the culture. I love all of that. But the late night stuff is. It's a lot.

[Bill Maher]

There's a city in America that's not an American city. Right, Right.

[Carrie Elwes]

I mean, I wouldn't. I don't know if.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, they will look at you cross if you, if you, if you speak English instead of Spanish.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

It's like.

[Carrie Elwes]

I think that's what makes it interesting is that you have, you know, people from Colombia, from Puerto Rico. I went to see from every Spanish speaking place in the world. No, really?

[Bill Maher]

No, it's true.

[Carrie Elwes]

And they're all have different.

[Bill Maher]

Well, it just gives the city a different feel, which is a good feel. If you like La Dolce Vita.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sure.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I mean, there's just a certain, I don't know, joie de vivre in, you know, carnival.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, there's things that go on right. In the southern hemisphere that don't go on with us. Cold whities.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sure.

[Bill Maher]

You know.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And it's nice to have a place like that. It has that vibe.

[Carrie Elwes]

It really is. It really is.

[Bill Maher]

But it is, you know, it is for 24 hour party people.

[Carrie Elwes]

It certainly is that. And I'm not that person.

[Bill Maher]

No.

[Carrie Elwes]

No. So I need to get a room high in the hotel so I don't hear the nightclub thumping all night on the second floor. That's. You know what I mean?

[Bill Maher]

Exactly.

[Carrie Elwes]

Cause I got a 4am call time and you know, that's just about when it starts up.

[Bill Maher]

And kids. Do you have kids that are with you?

[Carrie Elwes]

I do.

[Bill Maher]

I have one daughter.

[Carrie Elwes]

I try to always bring my family with me, Bill. You do try to. Yeah. It makes me feel more relaxed actually, to have them around.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, well, it's family. I mean, if you have one, you might as well.

[Carrie Elwes]

I'm all about my family, really. All about my family.

[Bill Maher]

And were you always that way? Like before you had a family wanting that?

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Really?

[Carrie Elwes]

Because, you know.

[Bill Maher]

How old were you when you got married?

[Carrie Elwes]

Oh, God, we've been together over 30 years. But here's the deal. I knew that the life of an actor is sort of a vagabond. You live out of a suitcase. You go, you pack up and you have to be ready to split at a moment's notice. And oftentimes you're away from home for long periods of time. Yeah. And I knew that if I had a family, I always wanted one. That I didn't want to be that dad who wasn't there and missed the play or the recital or the.

[Bill Maher]

You can't see the recital on the road.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. If they weren't in school, right. And I happen to be working, otherwise I would fly home and be with them every weekend if I could.

[Bill Maher]

Really?

[Carrie Elwes]

Oh, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

From anywhere.

[Carrie Elwes]

Anywhere. Well, not in Thailand.

[Bill Maher]

Right, right.

[Carrie Elwes]

Anyway, within reason, of course. But yeah, I would either make sure I could be home to be with them on a weekend. Cause then I would, you know, hopefully I can catch a late night flight on a Sunday and be ready for work on Monday. But if the kid's out of school, then all bets are off and they come with me. And that's it. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I guess I just don't understand children never having had them.

[Carrie Elwes]

So it just the greatest thing.

[Bill Maher]

But I certainly have known enough human beings to know that I'm in the minority, it's okay. And that totally okay. Oh, I'm not apologizing for it. I'm just saying it is so interesting, humans to me that we can be so different. Like, to me, nothing. I've said this before, like people say, if you have a kid, you love it. I would be the first. First person to look in the basket and go, still nothing.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's hilarious.

[Bill Maher]

I just. It's hilarious. I don't think. It just. I didn't like them when I was a kid. Right, Right. But I certainly recognize that the majority of humanity has this level of love and devotion. And I'll do anything that I just, you know, it's just not my. In my DNA.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, sure.

[Bill Maher]

And who knows, maybe, you know, I'll get to purgatory and they'll take me aside and hit me to a lot of stuff and I'll find out, wow, your big sin was you'd never had the love that you feel when you have a child. And so you have to be here in purgatory when you get that. Then maybe we'll send you off to heaven. I'm making this up. But it is a love that I just don't understand. And I know how real it is because I see how it manifests. How does it manifest? I'm going home every weekend. That's reality to me. Like, you can bullshit me, not you particularly, but anybody can bullshit anybody could say anything. Actions speak. People do things like that. They just do things. Do that I respect that I think is real.

[Carrie Elwes]

Thank you.

[Bill Maher]

When you do something.

[Carrie Elwes]

Thank you.

[Bill Maher]

And they just. But the idea that I would have to juggle my life's and these squalling, mewling brats who want every minute of my attention and are giving me nothing back, that's hilarious. Except their cuteness or whatever. So this future belief, it's hilarious. Which always makes me think of Nikki Glaser's great line, we love kids, but why? It's just gonna grow up to be Some guy named Doug. Isn't that the greatest joke?

[Carrie Elwes]

That's excellent. Who said that?

[Bill Maher]

Nikki Glaser.

[Carrie Elwes]

Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah, that's very funny.

[Bill Maher]

It is.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, she's the best production I'll ever do.

[Bill Maher]

How old?

[Carrie Elwes]

She's 18.

[Bill Maher]

Oh.

[Carrie Elwes]

You know, she blew the budget for wardrobe and hair within the first 10 years, but. But the dailies look great, Bill. Dailies look great.

[Bill Maher]

Does she have to always deal with people asking about her famous father? Is that.

[Carrie Elwes]

You know, she's actually very cool about it because she got bit by the bug and she wants to act. And she said, I don't want to be a regular Nepo baby. I want to go, where did you study?

[Bill Maher]

I told her too late.

[Carrie Elwes]

I said, I studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute. She said, do they have a school here in la? I go, I think they do. She went and auditioned. She got in at 11 and started learning the method. Then she. She got bored of that after a couple of years and she said, I want to learn improv. I said, you know, I'm just getting warmed up to improv myself. And she goes, I'm not gonna wait that long, dad. And she went off and joined the Groundlings.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, wow.

[Carrie Elwes]

So as good as you can do with it. She's great. She's a good kid, Very smart. Got a good head on her shoulders.

[Bill Maher]

I feel like improv is a great training as far as me wanting to watch it actually itself. Right. Never. It always looked like a magic trick to me. Like, okay, where's the There, there? I get it. It's fast, right? But doesn't mean it's great sometimes. But the people who are trained in it go on to be, I mean, all the cast of SNL who then go on to be all our comic movie stars. For good reason. They do it the best. Phil Hartman, Will Ferrell, Colton wig. I mean, Tina Feck and go on for. I mean, the Factory. That place has been for terrific comic actors. They're, you know, I mean, people think the movie business is a bunch of bullshit. Yeah, it is. They also, like, are basically putting out the best product we have. Why? Because that's what will make them money, you know, 100%.

[Carrie Elwes]

I mean, and hopefully if you do.

[Bill Maher]

I'm a fan of movies. I'm not a fan of, like, the shitty write ups they get from critics. Like, fuck you. You know, like, why are you doing this as a job if you don't like me?

[Carrie Elwes]

I know. I stopped reading reviews a long time ago. I can watch if I Happen to be at the premiere, which I often am asked to do. I'm my own worst critic. I'll watch that. I'll see all my mistakes and go, oh, God, really?

[Bill Maher]

Because they did it after lunch. They had gotten to you. That's hilarious. 9am you'd be hilarious.

[Carrie Elwes]

That is hilarious. Yeah. Should have been before lunch.

[Bill Maher]

It was the meatball.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, but it's all of it. I can only see my mistakes. So that's why I can't watch myself. After one time, that's it. I see it and it's done. So I don't need to read some guy who, you know, first of all, he feels like his review is valid by giving away the entire plot for a page like that sort of review. Right. Anyway.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. The trailer's gonna do that before he gets it. Right.

[Carrie Elwes]

But, I mean, they think that that can take up some space by telling the entire story of the movie.

[Bill Maher]

You know, that doesn't bother me. Like, when people say, spoiler alert, I always say, go ahead.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, but some of them don't. Anyway, my point being is that kids don't really read reviews anyway. They get word of mouth.

[Bill Maher]

People don't.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, no.

[Bill Maher]

But on the whole, what are we on the subway reading USA Today in 1995? No. Who's reading reviews of movies? I mean, Rotten Tomatoes, that's what people go by. And we don't go by a review of it. It's just a number.

[Carrie Elwes]

Well, there are great reviewers of old. Right. Susan Sontag or Kenneth Tynan. Right.

[Bill Maher]

He didn't review movies.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, but. Well, Kenneth did theater. But Sontag was one of the great reviewers of all time.

[Bill Maher]

Of movies. Yeah. I don't remember that.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah, but she was an intellectual and.

[Bill Maher]

She understood pulling kale.

[Carrie Elwes]

Pulling Kyle.

[Bill Maher]

Excuse me. Rhyming kale.

[Carrie Elwes]

You could be right. Kale thought was a vegetable.

[Bill Maher]

Anyway, you know what?

[Carrie Elwes]

But she was amazing. Amazing.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, she was right. But she reviewed movies. I don't remember that about Susan.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sonic. Maybe I could be wrong about Susan Song. She just wrote Film Theory. But anyway, you're right. Pauline understood film.

[Bill Maher]

There were some who did.

[Carrie Elwes]

Who really got it.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. And, you know, I think a lot of it now just becomes the reviewer.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sure.

[Bill Maher]

Showing off, flexing. Look at. Okay, it's one thing to say, this is not my cup of tea, this movie.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right, Right.

[Bill Maher]

But to use three columns to basically show how clever you are with language, to shit on this movie a hundred times. I mean, it's like, I get it, it's more about you, but I thought critics Were really there to service the reader. Yeah, service the reader. I'm just looking for you. Cause I didn't see the movie.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

And I feel like they used to do that. I would read a review of like, you know, Stallone's latest and I'd be like, you know what? Not my cup of tea. But if you like a kick ass movie, it's actually good for this and this and this and. And that's, you know, because I do sometimes just want to watch a kick ass movie.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's damn straight. No, it's true. No, you're right. It's tough. I think it's tough for critics now. I think you're right. Not a lot of people really.

[Bill Maher]

What about a John Wick like franchise for you? What do you think? You like kick Ass?

[Carrie Elwes]

I'm open the game to anything. I'm, you know.

[Bill Maher]

Really? Well, you know what an erudite British guy. Kicking ass might be a good new way to go with that.

[Carrie Elwes]

It might be.

[Bill Maher]

Cause usually, you know, it's some. Not that he's a Neanderthal, but a big hulking guy like Liam Neeson.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right. You know, I mean, Keanu is great, by the way. Yeah. He's a terrific actor and a lovely human being. Just terrific. And he's great in that franchise. Just amazing.

[Bill Maher]

I like him. I can't watch any movies that are 90% just guys killing, killing, kicking.

[Carrie Elwes]

I know if it has a good plot to it, I would definitely. Or a good character development, then that would interest me.

[Bill Maher]

It stretches the bounds of credulity so far. Right. I mean, I remember when it was a big thing when the hero could defeat three guys coming at him.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right, right.

[Bill Maher]

But 300.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah. No, it gets to be.

[Bill Maher]

I. Yeah, I can't. I just can't. Yeah, I understand suspension of belief for sure. I don't think about the ghosts.

[Carrie Elwes]

Well, Rambo, no one could kick Rambo's ass. Right. He killed anybody who got in his way.

[Bill Maher]

Yes, right.

[Carrie Elwes]

But more than three.

[Bill Maher]

You know the ghosts in Hamlet.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

Do I really believe in ghosts? No, no, I'm okay with it.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

But not 300 ghosts.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's hilarious.

[Bill Maher]

Hilarious. Hamlet, I can kill 300 of them.

[Carrie Elwes]

It's hilarious.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, come on, man.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Just.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, it's a lot. It's a lot. I think that audiences are. I think.

[Bill Maher]

But good for him.

[Carrie Elwes]

Listen, like I said, Keanu has made that turned that franchise into something phenomenal. And he's a wonderful actor. Wonderful.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I'm happy for him because it gives him now the freedom to do meaningful work.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah, I think that's the point, too. I mean, you.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, I never met him. He seems like a sweet guy, terrific guy. But if he ever said to me, you know, John Wick, I feel is very profound, I'd be like, oh, well, I'm sorry I can't like you as much.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

But I don't think he would say that. No, I think he would say it's entertainment. People want to be entertained. This is what their taste is. Now, can you go after him for glorifying violence? Yes. Yes. I remember doing an editorial on my show after the Uvalde thing and saying, well, you know, guns. Is that part of the equation? Of course. But let's not pretend that Hollywood glorifying guns. And we showed montages of people looking slow motion, so cool, firing guns endlessly. Let's not pretend that going into the minds of kids at a rate of. I mean, they have stats on this, like 10,000 images a year or something. Let's not forget that that's also a.

[Carrie Elwes]

Big part of video games, you know?

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Carrie Elwes]

They have a lot.

[Bill Maher]

It's a big part of the equation.

[Carrie Elwes]

It is. It is as well. Violence is somehow part of the culture.

[Bill Maher]

But again, like I was saying before realism in the 30s and 40s, when you got shot, no blood. Right. No gore. Right. You know, it was just indicating this is what happens to you when you commit adultery or whatever it was that they were. They remember the production code.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sure, sure. The Hayes code.

[Bill Maher]

The Hays Code. Right.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Hayes was the guy.

[Carrie Elwes]

Hayes, the guy. He was the censor. But, yeah. No, I think our industry has made a lot of money out of people grabbing a weapon and getting rid of the bad guys. It's the supermensch versus the right. And so people for better, or. I can't judge people, but people like to see that. I personally can't watch too much violence. Unless, by the way, let me preface that by saying, unless it services the story and the character, if it's. If it's not gratuitous, I'm okay with it.

[Bill Maher]

I wouldn't take a frame out of Goodfellas.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right. Not one.

[Bill Maher]

Or Clockwork Orange.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, not one.

[Bill Maher]

You know, violence is a big part of life.

[Carrie Elwes]

And by the way, or 1917, that movie came out, kids were going around dressing up as the characters from Clockwork and going around and beating people up. And he pulled the film.

[Bill Maher]

Wow.

[Carrie Elwes]

He pulled it.

[Bill Maher]

Really?

[Carrie Elwes]

He pulled it saying, I don't want my film to be responsible for anyone being harmed, and I Thought that showed enormous character.

[Bill Maher]

I know.

[Carrie Elwes]

By pulling.

[Bill Maher]

I don't. You cannot give in to that.

[Carrie Elwes]

You cannot give us the front page of the papers, Bill. Where people were being.

[Bill Maher]

I don't care if it's a 10 point headline on the front page of the papers. It's the principle of the thing. Yes. Idiots and borderline people will use art and depictions as a reason to commit heinous crimes. We can't cancel art for that reason.

[Carrie Elwes]

I get it. I think it was more.

[Bill Maher]

Clockwork Orange should not have canceled one showing. That is not the answer to that, in my view.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, I hear you. I think that, that. I think it was more than one incident. So I think there was a feeling of like maybe this is catching on. I could be wrong. Look, I get what you're saying.

[Bill Maher]

If you're talking about a direct incitement. Yes. And that is prescribed by the First Amendment. I mean, we don't have access to free speech. You can't do that. You can't famously fire in a crowded theater and you can't incite people to riot that directly. I mean, England had a Muslim preacher who was basically calling for the overthrow of the government. And they put up with it for a while on one. I don't know, maybe that was the guy that Obama killed with a drone. I forget his name.

[Carrie Elwes]

How did we get this? Chaudhary.

[Bill Maher]

Yes, he was. And they eventually said, no, you're going to jail.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, you are just. You are directly inciting him. Right? Clockwork Orange isn't directly inciting people into it.

[Carrie Elwes]

You're talking about one of my favorite movies. Okay.

[Bill Maher]

No, I'm.

[Carrie Elwes]

I consider Kubrick, like, we're not filmmaking. Yeah, we're not. He felt. He felt.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Carrie Elwes]

That somehow it was sparking some.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I'd like to dig him up and yell at him.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah. No, I mean, he then re Released it.

[Bill Maher]

What do you think of Eyes Wide Shut? His last.

[Carrie Elwes]

I think it was brilliant. To me it was like a fever dream, you know? Okay, go on.

[Bill Maher]

See, lots of people don't like it. Yeah, I do. Right. Even though some of it is nutty, some of it is like. Are you kidding me?

[Carrie Elwes]

No. Yeah, for real.

[Bill Maher]

But it never bores me.

[Carrie Elwes]

Never boring. That you can never accuse.

[Bill Maher]

The first tube is boring is like a whole different movie then the fever dream story. But the first half hour is probably the best depiction of a relationship. Certainly a serious relationship. Marriage, relationship. Since Virginia Woolf.

[Carrie Elwes]

No question about it.

[Bill Maher]

It's Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise when they were really married.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And it's a half hour of them. They're at a party, they're married, but she's dancing with this guy, this older guy who's trying to fuck her. And he's getting attention from young girls and they go home and she wants to pick a fight about it. And he wants to get laid. He's horny. And she's just in the fight. And it's just the things that she taunts him with. And it's great. And then the fever dream starts. And then it is weird.

[Carrie Elwes]

It's weird.

[Bill Maher]

And it ends with something that is. Either Stanley was. I mean, he was near his demise.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Either he was going nuts or we were. But you know, the whole orgy thing. And. And then the. The way they kind of wrap it up by bringing in Sidney Pollock. Right, right. Because, you know, he kept them captive there, Nicole and Tom, for like two years.

[Carrie Elwes]

Two years, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

It was supposed to be like an eight month shoot. And like. And what are you going to do? It's Stanley Kubrick and you're the leads. Yeah.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, he's never boring. They're never boring. They're always entertaining. They're always different. I mean, the thing is about Stammy.

[Bill Maher]

Is that his so different.

[Carrie Elwes]

His movies were events. Right. Because he only made one a year, even if that.

[Bill Maher]

No, not caught.

[Carrie Elwes]

Not even two. It was like every four years or something like that. Right. They were events. And you heard about it, you read about it. Like I would follow the periodical. Yeah, go on.

[Bill Maher]

And one had nothing to do with the.

[Carrie Elwes]

None. I mean, none.

[Bill Maher]

2001 A Space Odyssey is nothing like Barry Lyndon.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, And Barry Lyndon, when it came along, I was. I saw that in 70 millimeter when it came out. And it was immense, just immense. And he had done 2001. No, no.

[Bill Maher]

Barry Lyndon.

[Carrie Elwes]

Barry Lyndon. I love 2001. Beautiful movie, beautiful film. And he'd wanted to make Napoleon, a movie about Napoleon's life. And MGM, who just made a fortune off of him with 2001, bought the rights to a film called Waterloo with Rod Steiger, directed by Sergey Bundichuk. And the, you know, Bundichuk had done great with War and Peace. Right. And then he put out this film with Steiger as Napoleon and it bombed. And MGM came to Stanley Kubrick and said, yeah, we did this behind your back. We're sorry, but we bought this film and it didn't do any business. So all bets, and they actually turned him down. He would have made the greatest. I've read the script. It's Amazing. A Napoleon film about Napoleon's life.

[Bill Maher]

Well, they just did it, and it was not good.

[Carrie Elwes]

No. Anyway, that wasn't cubic square. Anyway. But the point I'm trying to make is that. Is that he then took all that research, right. That he'd done for Napoleon and shifted it onto Barry Lyndon. Right. All of the ideas that he had from that time period. Because he was going to do the whole life story of Napoleon. He just took that segment. Right. Of Thackeray and used all the research he had. It's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. I don't think it was a popular movie. It's a little slow, but so is 2001.

[Carrie Elwes]

You know, they're fine wines, but they're to be sipped, not gulped.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, that's not my thing.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, I'm not.

[Bill Maher]

It's like.

[Carrie Elwes]

Do you like Paths of Glory?

[Bill Maher]

I'm glad. I. Yes. Great.

[Carrie Elwes]

Great movie.

[Bill Maher]

That's. That's old school. Old school. That's before the. The Stanley Kubrick. I'll do whatever the fuck I want. I mean, I think Lolita is great. I think Dr. Strangelove is great. I think Full Metal Jacket is great. I love Eyes Wide Shut, even though it's weird. What am I leaving out? Oh, the Shining again. There are parts that are like, wow. You know? He tests your patience as just like a normal kind of audience.

[Carrie Elwes]

Look away. You're never bored.

[Bill Maher]

That's not true. I have been bored. I mean, absolutely. That is exactly what I am during a lot of 2001 is bored. I'm watching this wheel in space. It takes, like 10 minutes. And I'm hearing, da, da, da, da, da, and it's like, okay, I get it. It's hilarious. You know, it's so like, please. No. But, you know, he's Stanley Kubrick, and it's. It's. And not all of them. And I mean, there's not a minute where I'm bored during Doctor Strange.

[Carrie Elwes]

Look.

[Bill Maher]

No, I mean, it's just one funny skit after.

[Carrie Elwes]

I recommend if. When they're rebuilding the Cinerama dome now and they have 70 millimeter prints of all the great Kubrick films and other directors, if and when they reopen it, which I'm praying they do, it's a great theater. Go see 2001 as it was meant to be seen in Cinerama in 70 millimeter. I'm telling you, you'll have a different opinion on it.

[Bill Maher]

If I was 50 years younger, I still wouldn't do it.

[Carrie Elwes]

Really?

[Bill Maher]

No, it's just.

[Carrie Elwes]

It's not your Scene.

[Bill Maher]

It's bad enough I had to watch it at home while I was in the bathtub doing 10 other things. It was stillborn. I am not going to go. You know what you have to do to get me to see that?

[Carrie Elwes]

What?

[Bill Maher]

You'd have to put the things from Clockwork Orange. My eyes.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's hilarious.

[Bill Maher]

Remember Clockwork Orange with the guy with another genius movie that doesn't bore for one second? Clockwork Orange.

[Carrie Elwes]

Not one second.

[Bill Maher]

But the, The. The amazing thing about him is that every movie is like, from a completely different universe.

[Carrie Elwes]

Completely different director. It seems.

[Bill Maher]

A completely different director. Right. Talk about not repeating yourself. Talk about artist. Wow.

[Carrie Elwes]

Amazing.

[Bill Maher]

Stanley Kubrick.

[Carrie Elwes]

Absolutely.

[Bill Maher]

Shout out to you. Yeah, mother. Really? We are just like playing in this universe.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Which is boring.

[Carrie Elwes]

As a kid that when I first saw my first Danny Kubrick film, I was like, okay, this guy is a true artist and really understands the language of cinema.

[Bill Maher]

What movies have you seen lately that you're crazy about?

[Carrie Elwes]

Well, I loved. I loved one Battle after another. I think Paul Thomas has a wonderful director. I really do.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sinners.

[Bill Maher]

I liked it.

[Carrie Elwes]

Ryan Coogler is a phenomenal filmmaker.

[Bill Maher]

I liked it. I'm never crazy about vampires.

[Carrie Elwes]

No, me neither. But I. But somehow I would have loved more.

[Bill Maher]

As just a straight up movie about that era. That, that.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

Roadhouse.

[Carrie Elwes]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

But you know, I get it. I. I'm 70, and that's not what they. They want vampires and they like mixing those genres and. And you know, it had, it. It had its reasons to do that and it was. It was a great movie. But yeah, that's. That would be my taste. I mean, I love straight up historical.

[Carrie Elwes]

Me too. But my body of work. It's mainly history was my thing at school.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, me too. So I thought, what period were you most interested in? Gosh.

[Carrie Elwes]

So funny enough, in England you had to learn both British history and American history. So we had to study this American Civil War, Revolutionary War, all the way up to World War II, which was pretty. Up to D day, which was pretty cool, actually. So for me, I was like getting the best of both. That's what made me fascinated by it. Right. And so for me, it was like every class that I took was like, I'm receiving this information about one of my favorite sayings. I can't pronounce his last name properly. Georges Santanaya, I think it is.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Carrie Elwes]

He says, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And I believe that. And so I end up studying history for that reason and being fascinated by it. Because we do. We keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

[Bill Maher]

So what's your favorite period?

[Carrie Elwes]

My favorite period is. I'm fascinated by World War II. I'm fascinated by. Let's see. I'm fascinated by the American Civil War. I'm fascinated by that. I'm fascinated in British history. I would say all the war was War of the Roses.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Carrie Elwes]

I was fascinated by Charles I being. Having. Being removed from power and having his head cut off. I was fascinated by French history, the Revolution. I learned all of that.

[Bill Maher]

I was trying to tell somebody recently about a period in history, like they were asking about Queen Elizabeth. I said, well, the first Queen Elizabeth, after which we know the Elizabethan era is named. Okay. Reigned for a long time and was the time that Shakespeare was writing. We're talking about the second half of the 16th century. She becomes queen in 1558, defeats the Spanish Armada in 1588, which, if she hadn't done that, we would be in a very different world because that was Protestant England against Catholic Spain and France and dies in 1603.

[Carrie Elwes]

You know your stuff, man.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, I do. I'm a history major.

[Carrie Elwes]

Wow. Weren't you a major?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. And she was the daughter of Henry viii. Right, of course. Okay, so who became king after? And she was known as the Virgin Queen.

[Carrie Elwes]

I know.

[Bill Maher]

Well, you say that like I wish I fucked her. You never looked in your eye.

[Carrie Elwes]

Like, don't forget, she didn't bathe a lot back then. She had ladies.

[Bill Maher]

That's why she couldn't get laid.

[Carrie Elwes]

Well, I mean, you're queen and she.

[Bill Maher]

Smelled so bad that nobody still wanted to find.

[Carrie Elwes]

Listen. Hygiene. Personal hygiene back then.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Carrie Elwes]

It's not a thing.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. But other people got over it. She must have not have been cute. I mean, come on.

[Carrie Elwes]

I don't know. We don't. You know.

[Bill Maher]

Well, somebody was.

[Carrie Elwes]

Wasn't there. Well, I know Billy was definitely interested. He got pretty close to it. We don't know what happened there.

[Bill Maher]

Right. I think he explored.

[Carrie Elwes]

He explored. It's good. It's good, Bill. Very good.

[Bill Maher]

Explored him. That's very good.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's very good. And then, of course, you had James. I. I'm fascinated by that whole thing. He's a Scottish king who doesn't even speak English.

[Bill Maher]

Here's what I forgot and can't answer in my own mind.

[Carrie Elwes]

What?

[Bill Maher]

Okay, so she dies in 1603. The Virgin Queen.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

Who took over. Who was the king in 1603? Now, you mentioned.

[Carrie Elwes]

I just told you. James. James.

[Bill Maher]

James. Yeah. So how did he get the job because there's no line.

[Carrie Elwes]

Marrying Queen of Scots, son.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. Mary's Queen of Scotland.

[Carrie Elwes]

We'll be back with more history, the history major of Bill. Mah.

[Bill Maher]

So Mary, Queen of Scots was Elizabeth's rival for the throne.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

Right. And she is Catholic.

[Carrie Elwes]

You know your stuff, man.

[Bill Maher]

She's Catholic.

[Carrie Elwes]

I'm impressed.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, yes. There's a great scene where they. Where Elizabeth is first here and she's in the castle and the Catholics are marching on the castle. They wanted England to be Catholic again. And they have all these big, what they call tapers, giant candles. The church loves candles. I remember this when I was a kid.

[Carrie Elwes]

Me too.

[Bill Maher]

And Elizabeth goes to the window and then says to the guard, away. With these candles, we see very well.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's a good line.

[Bill Maher]

We could put it in three kings in the way.

[Carrie Elwes]

With these candles, we see very well. It's very good. What made you fascinated by history? Is it people?

[Bill Maher]

It's people. It's so much more interesting than chemicals.

[Carrie Elwes]

Sure.

[Bill Maher]

Or rocks.

[Carrie Elwes]

Me too. Or chemistry.

[Bill Maher]

You know, like, it's stories about. It's storytelling. The movies.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah, it is the movies. It was like the movies.

[Bill Maher]

For me, movies have taken a lot, a lot from, you know, Saving Private Ryan is a real story, and they made it into a movie and.

[Carrie Elwes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I mean, your movie is one of the many, many, many, many movies where they show the movie and the credits. They show what the real people that the movie is based look like. And that's when you go, wow, Hollywood's really full of shit. Real people are a lot uglier.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's funny. That's funny. Well, no, I love that you love history. I didn't know that.

[Bill Maher]

I do.

[Carrie Elwes]

Again, that's really interesting. Where did you start?

[Bill Maher]

I love that you knew that answer. So James.

[Carrie Elwes]

James.

[Bill Maher]

And then his son was the one that cut his head off in 1649. Charles. And then the Restoration is 1660, I believe. So Cromwell took over.

[Carrie Elwes]

Cromwell took over.

[Bill Maher]

Who was very. He was very much not a party animal. Right.

[Carrie Elwes]

Well, he didn't believe in the divine right of kings. Right. What an. Where did he get that idea?

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Carrie Elwes]

So he was like, yeah, well, that's a good thing. But, well, he went a little nuts. He created his own new model army and practiced it on Irish people. Which European. You should know from your.

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Carrie Elwes]

Your ancestry. And the fact that he tested them out by wiping out tons of Irish people. I thought that was a little over the top, in my humble opinion.

[Bill Maher]

Remember Braveheart?

[Carrie Elwes]

That was great. It was Great.

[Bill Maher]

Braveheart's a great movie.

[Carrie Elwes]

Great movie.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, Mel Gibson's a great movie maker. He is movie maker. Okay. So he gets a little loaded and pops off to the police when he's pulled over. So what? But like there's a great line in there when Patrick McGoohan.

[Carrie Elwes]

Lovely. One of my favorites, really. The prisoner, please.

[Bill Maher]

The prisoner. Exactly. Oh, my God. Diana Rigg.

[Carrie Elwes]

God, no, no, that's the avenger.

[Bill Maher]

That's a 12 year old boner.

[Carrie Elwes]

That's the Avengers. The prisoner was where he. A spy who'd been excommunicated and sent to this desert prison.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Carrie Elwes]

Resort, really.

[Bill Maher]

And this big ball came out.

[Carrie Elwes]

This big ball was chasing. He came up with like a.

[Bill Maher]

So it was so ahead of its time.

[Carrie Elwes]

Brilliant.

[Bill Maher]

Yes, absolutely. Okay, but Patrick McGoohan, who was in this one. Yeah, the prisoner. Right, Correct. Okay. He played King Edward fighting Braveheart. This is the 14th century and Scotland trying to get their independence. And they're having this big battle with the Scottish people. And we're going to finally get our independence. We're going to kick the ass of the British. And the British are on the hill waiting for the battle to start. And the guy says to the king, Patrick McGowan. Should we have the archers fire, sir? Cause that's what they used to do in the. That was like the artillery. You'd fire just in the air and all the arrows would come down and kill. Like a 1 out of 10 people would be dead before the battle started. And he goes, no, arrows cost a dollar apiece. Send in the Irish.

[Carrie Elwes]

Oh, wow, I forgot that. Send in the Irish cannon fodder.

[Bill Maher]

They cost nothing. Wow, arrows are expensive.

[Carrie Elwes]

See, that's beautif. He knows how to do that.

[Bill Maher]

Apocalyptic.

[Carrie Elwes]

Just totally apocalyptic. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I had the good luck to tell him in person after I saw that film.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, really? At what traffic stop?

[Carrie Elwes]

No, it was a full house. I saw it in like Vancouver and people applauded at the end. I told it's a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant film.

[Bill Maher]

Well, it's a chase movie.

[Carrie Elwes]

It is exactly right.

[Bill Maher]

It just happens to be set in. Set in the jungle of Central America.

[Carrie Elwes]

Brilliant.

[Bill Maher]

In I would guess the late 1400s. Because it has one of the great endings. Because he finally escapes from. And also I love it. That blows the myth off that all primitive peoples were perfect people who were just riding unicorns and singing Kumbaya. No, all people were horrible to each other. And the horrible tribe captures this guy from the nice tribe. They pursue him the whole movie. He finally prevails and gets away from them, gets back to his home and. And saves his wife. And then he looks out on the ocean and there's the ships coming in from the new world. So great.

[Carrie Elwes]

Oh, so great.

[Bill Maher]

You can almost hear the, you know, curb your enthusiasm music coming in.

[Carrie Elwes]

He's a remarkable filmmaker, Mel. You think of this as an actor who got to work with great directors. Peter Weir, Dick Donner. And I picked his brain about it. He goes, yeah, Carrie I picked up on. Obviously, I had the good fortune to work with these great filmmakers, so I would study them, learn what they were doing. I wasn't just there as an actor for hire. I thought, okay, one day I want to do this. And of course, when you're working with phenomenal artists like that, it's bound to rub off.

[Bill Maher]

Let's put him in our movie about purgatory.

[Carrie Elwes]

There you go. There you go.

[Bill Maher]

Thank you.

[Carrie Elwes]

Club Random. What a joy.

[Bill Maher]

All right.

[Carrie Elwes]

What a joy, man. Thank you for having me.

[Bill Maher]

Good. Talk to you all night. For real. I gotta go back to my real job. Club Random.

[Carrie Elwes]

When you host with Cutwater canned cocktails, expect company. Entertain effortlessly.

[Bill Maher]

Cut water.

[Carrie Elwes]

Real cocktails perfectly mixed. Copyright 2026 Cutwater Spirits, San Diego, CA Enjoy Responsibly LifeLock. How can I help? The IRS said I filed my return, but I haven't. One in four tax paying Americans has paid the price of identity fraud.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

What do I do?

[Carrie Elwes]

My refund though. I'm freaking out. Don't worry, I can fix this.

[Bill Maher]

Lifelock fixes identity theft, guaranteed and gets your money back with up to $3 million in coverage.

[Carrie Elwes]

I'm so relieved. No problem. I'll be with you every step of the way.

[Bill Maher]

One in four was a fraud paying American. Not anymore.

[Carrie Elwes]

Save up to 40% your first year.

[Bill Maher]

Visit lifelock.com podcast terms apply this Precedence Day.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Upgrade the look of your home without breaking your budget. Save up to 50% site wide on new window [e-mail] blinds.com makes it easy with free virtual consultations on your schedule and samples delivered to your door fast and free. With over 25 million windows covered and a 100% satisfaction guarantee, you can count on blinds.com to deliver results you'll love.

[Bill Maher]

Shop up to 50% off site wide plus a free professional measure during the President's Day mega sale happening right [e-mail] terms apply.