Matthew Rhys Returns Again

Summary

Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend: Matthew Rhys Returns Again

Release Date: December 1, 2025
Host: Conan O’Brien (with Sona Movsesian, Matt Gourley, Adam Sachs)
Guest: Matthew Rhys

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Episode Overview

In this raucous and lively episode, actor Matthew Rhys returns for his third appearance on Conan O’Brien’s podcast. The conversation is a wide-ranging, comedic, and heartfelt exploration of Welsh identity, Celtic insecurities, the burdens of acting, and showbiz mishaps. Rhys and Conan banter, roast each other, and dig into stories of culture, family, and imposter syndrome. Along the way, topics like contacts, Celtic eyes, one-man shows, and power players – in both relationships and New York City – fuel the laughter.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Contact Lenses Calamities

[03:04 – 11:10]

• Conan details his traumatic first attempt at inserting contact lenses, turning a routine visit to the optometrist into comic disaster.
• Sona and Matt reminisce about their own contact lens horrors.
• Matthew dryly mocks Conan’s struggle, sarcastically elevating the "saga."
• Eduardo, a staff member, is revealed to use a plunger to remove his rigid lenses, which spurs classic Conan riffing.

Notable Quote:

• Conan (re: contact lenses & talent):
  “It’s just too much talent. The eyes reject the talent so the eyes just start seeping... I don’t like to walk away from something, so I’m gonna double down on this.” (05:20)

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2. Conan’s Man Crush, Boats, and Welsh Lore

[11:11 – 18:09]

• Conan professes a “man crush” on Rhys, stemming from his work in "The Americans" and their past podcast encounters.
• They bond over Rhys’s real-life boat obsession; Conan jokes about buying a miniature model of Rhys's boat, launching a fake celebrity Kickstarter.
• Conan and Rhys joyfully lampoon their own cultures—Irish and Welsh—trading jokes about hard-drinking Christmases, miserable Santas, and the historical enmity with the English.

Notable Quote:

• Matthew Rhys (mocking Welsh Christmas):
  “Apparently there’s only one Welsh Santa because all the other Santas refused to do Wales... Give it to that drunken fool.” (17:42)

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3. Language, Family, and Childhood in Wales

[14:00 – 18:09]

• Rhys discusses raising his son in Welsh and the fading use of complex words as the child grows up.
• Conan admires the “romantic” idea of a Welsh Christmas. Rhys bursts the bubble with a description of inebriated shouting and lost memories.

Notable Quote:

• Matthew Rhys:
  “I spoke to him purely in Welsh from the moment he was born... as conversations get more evolved, he’ll just say, ‘Oh, just say it in mama’s language.’” (15:41)

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4. Welsh, Irish, and Celtic Insecurities

[18:09 – 20:55; 26:11 – 42:54]

• Conan and Rhys riff on the Celtic oral storytelling tradition, self-deprecating family skepticism (“Who do you think you are?” syndrome), and the long memory of old colonial wounds.
• Rhys discusses prepping a one-man show as Richard Burton in Wales, detailing the terror of performing for a home crowd with deep personal connections to the subject.
• Deep dive into Welsh icons, the national burden of expectations, and the risk of not meeting personal “mythologies” of cultural heroes.

Notable Quotes:

• Rhys (on Welsh audience expectations):
  “A lot of people... I saw your Dylan Thomas, I don’t think you got it right. And that can be someone driving a bus. Or my father. Which is ironic—because he does drive a bus.” (26:10)
• Conan (on Irish homecoming):
  “When I go back to Ireland... you know you’re asking for it. ‘Who the fuck do you think you are? 30 fucking big balls, look at him!’” (41:03)

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5. Welsh and Irish Accents, Acting, and Imposter Syndrome

[18:09 – 20:54; 34:07 – 36:26; 38:09 – 40:56]

• Discussion of the uncanny ability of UK actors to do American accents (and not vice versa), aided by growing up watching U.S. TV.
• Conan and Rhys playfully commiserate over the “imposter syndrome” plaguing performers, with comic asides about Celtic guilt.
• Rhys shares advice for one-man shows: rehearse recoveries, not just lines.
• Conan jokes the key is: “If you can get out of the play, get out.”

Notable Quotes:

• Rhys:
  “It fans the flame of your imposter syndrome. That’s all it does.” (34:10)
• Rhys (on Celt insecurity):
  “Who do you think you are? Syndrome—if it was an Olympic sport, we would podium every time.” (26:41)

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6. The Power Broker, Robert Caro, and NYC Stories

[28:04 – 31:48]

• Conan reveals he’s a super-fan of historian Robert Caro; is thrilled that Rhys is attached to a possible adaptation of Caro's "The Power Broker" about Robert Moses.
• Rhys reveals the status: rights tangled, but Netflix is interested. He might play Moses.
• The two nerd out about Caro’s focus on power, politics, and the making (and breaking) of New York.

Notable Quote:

• Matthew Rhys:
  “If you read [The Power Broker]… it lays Shakespeare to the sword. You cannot quite believe the ascent of that man.” (30:05)

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7. “Celtic Eyes,” Plastic Surgeons, and the Mystique of Being Downtrodden

[32:01 – 36:53]

• Rhys recounts a dinner with a plastic surgeon who identified his “Celtic lids” and offered to “help him out.”
• Discussion of how centuries of hardship—and coal dust—may be responsible for a certain eyelid droopiness.
• Hilarity ensues as Rhys shares a Charlie Sheen anecdote about keeping your eyes open on camera (hint: it involves an ice cube and creative “application”).

Notable Quote:

• Matthew Rhys:
  “Centuries of being downtrodden makes you go, Oh, I’m so sorry... And the coal dust, too.” (32:53)

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8. Relationships, Chemistry Reads, and Meeting Keri Russell

[43:05 – 47:02]

• Conan marvels that Rhys and his partner, actress Keri Russell, had a “chemistry read” before being cast as a couple in “The Americans.”
• Rhys discusses the awkwardness of “chemistry reads”—where you have to feign relationship spark in front of casting execs.
• He vividly remembers Russell slapping him, a surprise that apparently won him the part.
• They reveal they’d actually met 15 years earlier at a debauched Jennifer Grey kickball party but fate took its time.

Notable Quotes:

• Matthew Rhys:
  “She had to slap me in our chemistry read. The director said ‘we cast you because you took that slap so well.’ I had no idea it was coming.” (45:08)
• Conan (on spousal “chemistry reads”):
  “If my wife and I had a chemistry read, I wouldn’t have children right now.” (43:53)

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9. The Beast In Me (New Netflix Series)

[47:40 – 51:36]

• Conan recounts his tangential involvement in the long development saga of “The Beast in Me.”
• Jodie Foster and Conan both loved the script years ago, but it languished for years until finally coming to fruition with Claire Danes and Rhys.
• Rhys describes it as an “old-fashioned thriller”—“a cat and mouse game”—praising the story’s tension and the team behind it.

Notable Quote:

• Matthew Rhys:
  “You have two people who are basically intrigued with each other and therefore begins a very gripping and thrilling cat and mouse game. It’s old-fashioned thriller tension.” (50:27)

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10. The Myth of the A-List & Modern Fame

[51:36 – 53:51]

• Conan and Rhys poke fun at “A-list” status, naming fictional stars and joking that the label’s meaning is vanishing in an era of fragmented entertainment.
• Conan laments:
  “These days, I watch all the Academy-nominated movies on my phone… sometimes I think that’s still too big, so I crack the phone in half and watch with one eye.” (53:37)

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11. Classic Banter, Running Gags, and Friend Chemistry

Throughout:

• The episode is marked by wild Welsh–Irish energy, relentless teasing, and comic interruptions.
• Running gags: shouting about tinnitus, sticking ice up your ass (per “pulling a Sheen”), and dreams of renting a cabin just to yell at each other.
• Sona, Matt, and Adam support with playful comments, usually at Conan’s expense.
• Conan ends by showering Rhys with praise and playful ego.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Celtic Eyes & Acting

• Rhys:
  “I was called King of Downtrodden Tragedy… That’s my resting face. I’m not acting. That is what my face looks like.” [33:32]

On Welsh Christmas Tradition

• Rhys:
  “If you’re given coal in Wales, kids are overjoyed. They’re like, ‘Oh look what I got! Shove that up your assholes, England.’” [18:04]

On Fame

• Rhys:
  “Who do you think you are? Syndrome—if it was an Olympic sport, we would podium every time.” [26:41]

On Relationships

• Rhys:
  “Prawn is what she calls me… shellfish to the nth degree.” [43:17]

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Important Timestamps

• 03:04 – Contact Lens Fiasco
• 11:11 – Conan’s “Man Crush” confession
• 14:00 – The centrality of Wales & language in Rhys’s life
• 17:20 – Christmas in Wales, drunken Santa
• 26:10 – Acting for the home crowd & “Who do you think you are?” syndrome
• 28:04 – The Power Broker adaptation
• 32:01 – What are Celtic eyes?
• 34:07 – Imposter syndrome & “downtrodden” faces
• 43:05 – Chemistry read with Keri Russell
• 47:51 – “The Beast in Me” development & casting
• 51:36 – Comedy about A-lists and the meaninglessness of “star” ranking

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Tone & Style

• The episode is relentlessly playful, filled with biting wit, affectionate insults, and insider industry anecdotes.
• Conan and Rhys riff with the comfortable chaos of true comic chemistry, taking detours into history, pop culture, and self-deprecating laments about their respective Celtic upbringings.
• Beneath the jokes, there are honest, heartfelt moments about the challenges of maintaining culture, the risk of returning home as a performer, and the perennial struggle with self-doubt, all imbued with warmth and humor.

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Conclusion

This episode is a showcase of Matthew Rhys’s sharp wit and Conan’s unmatched ability to draw out both pathos and hilarity from a guest. As they navigate topics from eye “jelly” to the myth of the A-list, the conversation emerges as a rollicking celebration of storytelling, cultural baggage, and—crucially—true camaraderie. For both long-time fans and newcomers, it’s a perfect example of why “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” remains a destination for thoughtful, laugh-out-loud podcasting.

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Episode Length: ~68 minutes (main content: 03:00–57:59; behind-the-scenes discussion: 60:01–66:47)

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Conan O'Brien]

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[Sona Movsesian]

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[Conan O'Brien]

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[Sona Movsesian]

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[Conan O'Brien]

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[Sona Movsesian]

Truth, baby.

[Conan O'Brien]

You betcha. Go [e-mail] or use the award winning app. That app won an award. No surprise. To get help from one of their local agents. Like a good neighbor. State. State farmers there.

[Matthew Rhys]

Hello, my name is Matthew Rees and I feel ashamed about being Conan o' Brien's friend.

[Conan O'Brien]

And finally, an honest answer.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, God, that felt good. I feel unburdened and light. Fall is here Hear the yell back to school Ring the bell Brand new shoes Walking loose Climb the fence Books and pens I can tell that we.

[Conan O'Brien]

Are going to be friends.

[Matthew Rhys]

I can.

[Sona Movsesian]

Tell that we are going to be friends.

[Conan O'Brien]

Hey there. Welcome to Conan o' Brien needs a friend. I put a little pause between Conan o' Brien and needs a friend. Kind of a dramatic.

[Matt Gourley]

You know what makes it really dramatic is explaining it.

[Conan O'Brien]

I guess I had that coming. And you're fired.

[Matthew Rhys]

Okay, fair enough.

[Conan O'Brien]

Sona. Matt. How you guys doing?

[Matt Gourley]

Good. How are you?

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm doing okay. It's a little bit of a follow up. The nation's gripped because recently I talked about my trip to the eye doctor. Sonam of session took me there filling in for David Hopping, who went to a Midwestern wedding. Again, way too much backstory.

[Matt Gourley]

Can I just say this is like a third installment in the ongoing saga of your eye.

[Conan O'Brien]

I say saga, I never say saga.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah, Saga is weird. I've never heard saga.

[Conan O'Brien]

What the hell was that? And by the way, it was Bob's saga, okay?

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah.

[Matt Gourley]

You guys are right. And that's probably worth Stupid stopping for.

[Conan O'Brien]

And you're not. You're checking every box right now. Not assholes worth stopping for.

[Matt Gourley]

I don't know why I still work here.

[Conan O'Brien]

No, I don't either.

[Matt Gourley]

But I was going to say in the saga that it started with your eye pustule leaning on the mic, then your visit to the optometrist to do bits where you stayed for hours.

[Conan O'Brien]

And then now there's so many great bits. You do so many bits in that waiting room. Here's the thing. You know, I have prescription glasses and they needed to make them a little stronger, but everything's fine. Are my eyes leaking a bit? Sure they are. Just. They're dry.

[Matt Gourley]

What are you even looking at right now? I'm worried about your depth of focus.

[Conan O'Brien]

What about my mental focus? That's what you should be worried because my brain is also leaking.

[Sona Movsesian]

You're saying it like, are my eyes leaking?

[Matthew Rhys]

Sure, sure they are. Should they be normal?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. Oh, please. Ocular jelly is oozing everywhere.

[Sona Movsesian]

No.

[Conan O'Brien]

And so it's very common for people with my talent. It's just too much talent. And this is how sometimes the. The eyes reject the talent and so.

[Sona Movsesian]

Seeping out of you. Is that your talent?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, the eyes. It's like, is there going to be room for eyes or talent? And I always hang on to the talent. So the eyes try the two great wits of all time. So worked with iron eyes, Cody, but that's a whole other story. Anyway, back to the main story. They give me the drops I'm going to use. Everything's fine. Me peepers are fine. It's all good. And who needs eye jelly anyway, I always say. So I'm about to leave and this woman said, hey, Conan, have you ever thought of contact lenses? And I said, you know, I've never ever used contact lenses. My distance is fine. I just mean pretty much. For reading, I need a little correction with distance, but really not much at all. And she said, you know, once you get used to them, they're really handy. And you wouldn't have to carry glasses around. Cause you can forget them. And where'd they go? And did someone steal them? And let's put out a warrant. So I said, I'll. Oh, sure. And she said, yeah, they're so thin now. They really work great. And she brought in some contacts and she said, I'll show you how to pop them in and pop them off. And I went, great. Cut to a montage that lasts about 55 minutes. Not that I was timing it or anything. With Sona in the waiting room and the woman saying, no, no, you just, you just. And me holding my eyes open and trying to jab it in there. But I'm, you know, I've got fluttery eyelids that are like. And I've never liked people getting near my eyes. And she said, men are more prone to that than women. We just. And I've noticed it in a makeup chair forever. Whenever people get near my eyes, I grip the handles of the chair and I could crush them. I'm just so freaked out by people going near my eyes. I kept trying and kept trying and failing and saying I. And I came up against something I just couldn't do. And I'm not used to that. I'm not bragging I'm bad athlete and there's a million things I can't do, but this. I just thought, oh, I'll be able to do this. And I couldn't do it. And when I was done, my eyes, both my eyes were so red.

[Matt Gourley]

Did you get them in?

[Conan O'Brien]

I got them in and then I. It was time to get them out. That was a whole process. I of course doubled down on. I don't even know that I want contact, but I am not losing this battle. So I'm not wearing them now. Cause I wanted to give my eyes. They said, give your eyes a rest for a couple days. Cause it looks like I went seven rounds with the champ. I came out of there. You saw my eyes.

[Sona Movsesian]

You looked really stoned.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah, you did.

[Sona Movsesian]

You had like a glazed over look. It looked really stoned.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, you were really having struggle.

[Sona Movsesian]

You were.

[Conan O'Brien]

My eyes were so red and I couldn't believe. This is something people do all the time. Have you ever worn contacts?

[Matt Gourley]

Well, it's funny you should say that. Cause I used to wear contacts. I hated them. And when I went for the. The first time to try them on, the optometrist was trying over and over to get them in my eyes. And he finally put them down. He sighed and he went. I don't know how to say this, but you have abnormally strong eyelids.

[Conan O'Brien]

What I was like, of course, you know what? That's what I said. Strength. I have is eyelids.

[Matt Gourley]

And not like biceps or.

[Conan O'Brien]

But I pull a trainer. When your wife saw you on the beach, she was like. When I winked at her strong eyelids there, mister.

[Matt Gourley]

But I have astigmatisms and I just can't handle them. They dry my eyes out. I don't like them.

[Matthew Rhys]

I do, too.

[Sona Movsesian]

So does Conan.

[Matt Gourley]

Yeah.

[Sona Movsesian]

Has an astigmatism, too. Check us out.

[Conan O'Brien]

So did you. But, Sona, you got used to it.

[Sona Movsesian]

I. And I. I wonder if me.

[Conan O'Brien]

There's a microphone right in front of your mouth. Oh, my God. You were. You were doing an announcement on a cruise ship in a storm. Oh, my God. You were telling people to get back into their cabins.

[Matt Gourley]

You asked the lady a question.

[Conan O'Brien]

I know, but she started to do this. I'm channeling my rage. Eduardo, be fair.

[Sona Movsesian]

I'm channeling my rage.

[Conan O'Brien]

Eduardo, be fair.

[Matt Gourley]

You don't have to answer.

[Conan O'Brien]

You can plead the fifth.

[Sona Movsesian]

I'm channeling my. I'm taking deep breaths and I'm channeling it right now.

[Conan O'Brien]

Okay, go ahead. Tell your story. Give it to him.

[Matt Gourley]

Don't channel.

[Sona Movsesian]

I wonder if me telling you that I was able to do it when I was 12 may have contributed to you getting more, kind of like, well, I can do it, too, because I kept saying I did this when I was. I've been wearing contacts since I was 12.

[Matt Gourley]

A girl of 12 can wear contacts.

[Conan O'Brien]

And you can't do it? You know, I. First of all, I'm an ally of all women, and. And I empower you, and I'm happy for you. Oh, my God. What's that? Awful. What'd you say? Well, I want to say that I've worn clay. You can back the mic. I contacts. But. But Eduardo has a very special contact situation that I think might. Is this going to prove helpful to Conan? Possibly. Maybe. I think you guys are all wusses. Yeah. I do want advice. I do want advice. And also, I'm telling you this. David Hopping told me that his mother, like, teaches people how to put contact lenses in and out. And yes, seriously, this and that. I'm going to have a zoom with her. But what is your advice? I wear sclero lenses, which are the brag. Yeah. So it's a very specific type. It's just a company owned by former Judge Scalia. How did you know? No, it's. First I use Ginsburgos, but I have to use this.

[Matthew Rhys]

I hate you.

[Sona Movsesian]

I hate you so much.

[Adam Sachs]

That was good.

[Conan O'Brien]

Look at me. Look at me. I wish we could do a thing where I pull a string and confetti comes down on me, and I would do this. Okay. Fair is fair. He was wrong to assault you, but he was. That was funny. I have a plunger that I have to use.

[Matthew Rhys]

To take out my.

[Sona Movsesian]

That's the plunger.

[Matt Gourley]

And you're calling us wussies, are they?

[Conan O'Brien]

I have to take it out with this because they're rigid, gas permeable lenses that I have also. So you have a little plunger, which you use a little plunger for your eyes. For my context. And occasionally for a mouse's toilet. Every now and then, Eduardo is sitting reading a paper at home, and he hears, what's that, little fella? Oh, really? Huh. Well, that's embarrassing. And you have guests coming. Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. I'll take care of it. You're welcome, buddy. Anytime. Just wash it.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, my God.

[Conan O'Brien]

O everywhere. Anyway, I don't know. It's just one of those things. I don't like to walk away from something, and so I'm gonna double down on this. You famously have said that you'll do anything in the name of comedy. So I think if you think of it in terms of you gotta be funny, have Liza film you, bring em.

[Matt Gourley]

In and we'll do it here on the podcast.

[Conan O'Brien]

Okay. Okay. Yeah, okay, I'll do it.

[Sona Movsesian]

Why don't we compete? We'll have some cases. Because you get very competitive.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, we could compete, sure. I'll do whatever I'm told to do. All right, you guys, onward and side. My guest today won an Emmy for his portrayal of Russian spy Philip Jennings in the FX series the Americans. He now stars in the new Netflix series the Beast. In me. I love this fellow. Matthew Rhys, welcome. I'm gonna come right out with it.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, God.

[Conan O'Brien]

I developed an insane man crush on you. You've been on. The first time you were on the podcast, it was, I believe, during the pandemic.

[Matthew Rhys]

It was. It was.

[Conan O'Brien]

And you were virtual.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I thought, I like this chap enormously. And I was a big fan of your work. Then you came in and did it in person, and my heart's been fluttering ever since.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, stop your. Stop your giddy Irish ways. Keep going.

[Conan O'Brien]

I can't.

[Matthew Rhys]

No, go on, go on.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's literally. Oh, stop. But go on.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Always so many confusing signals. You are an absolute delight. You're an imp. Yeah.

[Matthew Rhys]

You omitted the signal before that, didn't you?

[Conan O'Brien]

You are a Welsh leprechaun. If there is such a thing.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Is there an equivalent in Wales of the leprechaun?

[Matthew Rhys]

They're called weprechauns. Yes. Okay.

[Conan O'Brien]

They have weapons. Okay.

[Matthew Rhys]

Weaponized leprechauns.

[Conan O'Brien]

So I just. I was like, oh, my God, I want to Just go hang out with this man.

[Matthew Rhys]

Let's do it.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I had. Not just yet. Let's do this first. Sorry. And then we can monetize it. And then you and I will hang out and we'll spend the profits. But I'm gonna tell you a quick secret, which is that you were talking about a boat that you had purchased that you had fixed up yourself.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

And you were floating this boat around the Hudson River.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

The East River.

[Matthew Rhys]

The east and the Hudson and the.

[Conan O'Brien]

Harbor of New York, and you were driving it around. And so I was intrigued, so intrigued by a conversation that I looked up a photo of you and your boat and I thought, well, that's a handsome looking boat. And then I start doing a deep dive on the boat and up popped a model, a replica of that same type of boat popped up. And I said, I'm going to get that from my man crush. Eat your heart out, Oliphant Matthew Rhys. And so it popped up and I said, I'm going to get it. And I hit on the screen, it's quite expensive.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

And suddenly I lost my tumescence to this boat. But part of me is thinking, I've got to scrape up the money and get you this model. It's a model of the boat that you have. And I feel like, Adam, we have to scrape up the funds to make this happen. He's giving the thumbs up. And you'll pay for it.

[Matthew Rhys]

Maybe. Always.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm asking. There's no microphone on him. You'll pay for it. And that's a nod. Yes. Good. I'll get this for you. No, no.

[Matthew Rhys]

Surely we can start some kind of Kickstarter now. A Gofundme that begins right now.

[Conan O'Brien]

Can I tell you something?

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

People love it when celebrities start a Kickstarter for a childish amusement that they will keep for themselves.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes, yes. Especially men, because they will relate to it. They said, he needs that. It's the model. We've all deserved. It checks a box within our emotional hearts.

[Conan O'Brien]

I want to connect with you and I'm going to start by saying I adore your work. But Wales. Let's start with Wales, because that's the secret to cracking this gentleman. Wales.

[Matthew Rhys]

You are Welsh through and through. I am.

[Conan O'Brien]

And there's so much that I don't know about Wales. I really don't, because it's a mystery to me. I know that you don't use any vowels when you write something.

[Matthew Rhys]

They were outlawed by the English in 1282.

[Conan O'Brien]

They stole your vows.

[Matthew Rhys]

Take their Vowels that'll learn them, they'll drown in their own spit.

[Conan O'Brien]

So I know that it's very important to you and the Welsh language is very important to you.

[Matthew Rhys]

It is, it is.

[Conan O'Brien]

Now I did a travel show recently and I went to Ireland and I appeared on a show where they only. It's a soap opera where they only speak Irish.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

And all my lines were in Irish. It was very difficult.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Is the Welsh language more difficult than Irish? Is it similar at all? Help me.

[Matthew Rhys]

I would say it's akin in many ways in its difficulty level as to learning. Ironically, for two Celtic languages, they're very different. Welsh is far more similar to Breton in Northern France and Manx and the Isle of Man. If you see those languages, Cornish as well, you can see the similarities with the Scots and the Irish, they share that similarity. But with regards to kind of hard, guttural sounds, I think we're right there with the Irish.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes. It sounds like someone has thrown silverware down some stone steps. When you guys speak, it's just.

[Matthew Rhys]

I'll be taking that one home.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, that's yours.

[Matthew Rhys]

Thank you.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I'll get you the model. And this. It is important to you that Welsh is spoken in your home occasionally, Is that right? You're trying to teach it to some of the children?

[Matthew Rhys]

I, I am, with varying degrees of success. But you know, Carrie and I have a 9 year old son and I spoke to him purely in Welsh from the moment he was born and continued to do so.

[Conan O'Brien]

Really? How's he doing in school?

[Matthew Rhys]

Not very well. Not very well. Yes. His friends bring umbrellas and raincoats.

[Conan O'Brien]

He's been held back 15 times.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Which is hard to do for a nine year old.

[Matthew Rhys]

It is, but he's managed it. He's now at the point and it's, it's, I'm. It kind of kills me a bit. But obviously when, as conversations become more evolved and more complicated and I realize if you haven't, if you haven't introduced more complex Welsh words early on now, you know, when I, when I speak to him and I bring in a complex Welsh word, he'll just say, oh, just say it in mama's language.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

And I go, oh, rats. So I'm, I feel the beginnings of starting to lose him, which sort of breaks my heart, but not lose him, lose him maybe for now. I know it'll peak and trough for nebbin flow. My hope is, well, that's what I'm threatening him with.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know, as long as you're threatening your child Good things will come.

[Matthew Rhys]

That's what I've said. I've monetized it and I've threatened college with it and all kinds of toys in between. Christmas can be cancelled. The cancellation of Welsh.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I'm curious, first of all. Oh, you mentioned Christmas. Christmas in Wales. One of the great poems of all time. And so occasionally I fantasize about what would it be like to have Christmas in Wales. Is it as romantic as I think it is or is? No, the reality is everyone just goes to Walmart and gets a Christmas tree, like we do here.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes, of course. And, you know, you know, excessive drinking and kind of shouting mainly, and then no one can remember what happened on Christmas Day.

[Conan O'Brien]

Is it true that your Santa is a terrible alcoholic?

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah, well, it is a raging one. A raging one, but it makes for great frivolity on the rooftops.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

Apparently there's only one Welsh Santa because all the other Santas refused to do Wales because, you know, it was.

[Conan O'Brien]

They won't go there.

[Matthew Rhys]

No. They were like, give it to that drunken fool.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

That imp. Yeah. It doesn't even have.

[Conan O'Brien]

He lost his naughty and nice list a long time ago. He doesn't know you, you scoundrel. You'll get nothing. That was quite good.

[Matthew Rhys]

That was quite good. Only the. The irony is, if you're given coal in Wales, kids are overjoyed. They're like, oh, look what I got. Shove that up your assholes. England.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, we'll have a warm Christmas after all.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes. Ah, let's cook on this.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know, it's so funny, my first introduction to you, really, was your role in the spectacular TV show the Americans. And when I first spoke to you on the podcast, it was unsettling because, I mean, the sense I get is that anyone in Britain or the United Kingdom is much better at doing an American accent than, of course, than we are at doing anything similar to your accident accent.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, but it is an accident.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's a terrible accident.

[Matthew Rhys]

Believe me, by the grace of God go I. And a happy accident I will gladly admit to, but I do, and I don't know if I said this last time, I do believe that the amount of American television we grew up watching and as young kids going out into the yard to play Starsky and Hutch or the A Team or Airwolf or any of those kids growing up, whereas kids in America don't go out to the schoolyard to play Downton Abbey, which is seemingly the only thing that I did. Well, yes, of course, I was taunted and beaten you like, fetch me another pheasant, boy. Yes, yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

I used to always want to play Scrooge, you know.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes, yes, you boy. Fetch me the goose in the bushes window. I must have it. Yes. I'm not playing Tiny Tim again.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. I was beaten roundly by everyone in my neighborhood. But I found this over the years that when I would talk to anyone who was from England, Scotland, Wales, they just have such a great storytelling custom that it was always a fun interview.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah. Yes. Well, I do, you know, I think, you know, the Celts do. We viciously and proudly say, you know, that the oral storytelling tradition handed down from the mists of time is still, you know, is now the modern day pub Raconteur. And that's. And that's who we've remained to be. I just want to go back, you know, Dylan Thomas sold the rights to A Child's Christmas in Wales to an inordinate amount of people as he was rampaging around New York. He was just saying, I have this wonderful little story, I should like to sell you the rights. And they were like, oh, great.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

Harper's Bazaar bought. Everyone bought the rights to.

[Conan O'Brien]

He sold it like 800 times.

[Matthew Rhys]

800 times. Which I thought was one of the greatest grifts of all time in the time of kind of pre. You know, pre computer magic.

[Conan O'Brien]

And famously, he passed in a pub, I think downtown.

[Matthew Rhys]

He collapsed downtown right here. The White. Outside. The White Horse.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, the White Horse.

[Matthew Rhys]

And then passed at St. Vincent's yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I don't know if the White Horse celebrates that. Well, there's still a famous, famous poet died or got sick here and died.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Not many restaurants or pubs want that known. No.

[Matthew Rhys]

Or can say it. He's also. He's also on the mural at. It's not Mineta Tavern, it is the Waverly Inn. He's on the wall there as well. But he's heavily. He's still heavily pictured at the. At the White Horse. It's worth a pint of. Quite a pint of Guinness on that.

[Conan O'Brien]

They made a lot of money on. Off of him.

[Matthew Rhys]

They did. God, yeah. There's still a lot of Welsh tourists who pay the, you know, the pilgrimage, who make the homage and the pilgrimage there.

[Conan O'Brien]

When you belly up to a bar. What is your. What is your lager? What is your pint? What do you like to have?

[Matthew Rhys]

Now, that depends exactly on the time of day and, and the time of year.

[Conan O'Brien]

3:30. October, late October. It's 3:30 in the afternoon. Guinness is a light rain.

[Matthew Rhys]

Guinness Guinness.

[Conan O'Brien]

Incredible.

[Matthew Rhys]

Always love a Guinness.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, I love a Guinness.

[Matthew Rhys]

How much did you get through in Ireland?

[Conan O'Brien]

I did pretty well. Yeah, I love a Guinness. And it does taste better in Ireland. I totally will say that.

[Matthew Rhys]

I totally.

[Conan O'Brien]

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[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

I don't know about you, but holidays make me think of Miller time.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah, me too.

[Conan O'Brien]

Really? Same with you.

[Sona Movsesian]

My favorite light beer.

[Conan O'Brien]

I look around, I see my friends, my buddies, my pals. Yeah.

[Sona Movsesian]

Your entourage.

[Conan O'Brien]

My entourage. And I just. All the guys I used to play football with in my mind.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And in your mind, Yeah. I couldn't. Didn't really play football. But anyway. And I know, hey, man, it's Miller time. Yeah. You know why?

[Sona Movsesian]

Why?

[Conan O'Brien]

Because it's a taste you can depend on. You know what you're getting.

[Sona Movsesian]

It's true.

[Conan O'Brien]

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[Sona Movsesian]

It can be very lonely times.

[Conan O'Brien]

It can be a lonely time. So it better helps. Help is a. Is a good answer. This holiday season, incorporating Therapy into your new or existing traditions can help you slow down, take care of yourself, talk about things, get those thoughts that are inside of you out. They match you with a qualified therapist based on your goals and preferences. And if it's not right, you can switch. It's very simple. With over 30,000 therapists worldwide and more than 5 million people served. That's incredible. BetterHelp helps people close the year with clarity instead of chaos. This December, start a new tradition by taking care of you. Our listeners get 10% [e-mail] Conan that's better. H E L P.com Conan.

[Matthew Rhys]

We're just talking about all things Welsh. I've taken it upon myself to do probably the Welshest of all Welsh things. And I'm gonna do a one man play about Richard Burton.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, I know about this.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, you do?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, I do know about this. You're gonna play. And this is your return to the Welsh stage for the first time in how many years?

[Matthew Rhys]

22.

[Conan O'Brien]

22 years?

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah. Yeah. That's gotta be a little terrifying now at this point. Sorry. I was trying to link it to the facts about the oral storytelling tradition, but I wasn't a complete.

[Conan O'Brien]

And then get us back to Guinness.

[Matthew Rhys]

Well, Burton's an easy. An easy link back to Guinness.

[Conan O'Brien]

How are you gonna get from Richard Burton to alcohol?

[Matthew Rhys]

I don't know. Give me, just give me a moment. He had a friend called Richard Harris.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, you can come back in a week.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah. Yes, I've cracked it. Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

So, yes, you're going back to the Welsh stage where you got your start.

[Matthew Rhys]

You did.

[Conan O'Brien]

When you were but a wee lad. You're gonna go back for the first time in 22 years. What is your greatest fear? That they just stare at you.

[Matthew Rhys]

There is that. Well, there's a number of things. I was fortunate to play Dylan Thomas once in a film. And I realized when you go especially to a place like Wales, where we have few but select but incredible icons. Dylan Thomas, Richard Burton, Shirley Bassey, Sian Phillips, Rachel Roberts. We have these incredible performers, actors, singers, everything but the nation itself has an incredibly personal relationship, an individual personal relationship with that icon. So your take on Dylan Thomas is wildly different from what everyone else deems it to be. So a lot of people. I saw you, Dylan Thomas, I don't think you got it right. You know, there's.

[Conan O'Brien]

That's right.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah. And you think.

[Conan O'Brien]

And that could be a. That could be someone driving a bus.

[Matthew Rhys]

Or my father, in this case. Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

That's all dads.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes. But he does Drive a bus. Yes. Which is. Which is ironic. So one of my great fears is that one, I have this thing where. Going where I think all the people who've bought tickets are gonna go, who does he think he is that he can play Richard Burke? Now, that is a great. I would say Welsh. I would go as far as to say Celtic affliction as to who do you think you are? Syndrome.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, my God, yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

I mean, if that was an Olympic sport, we would podium every time. So there is that. Then there is the secondary version or level to that, which you go. When you do it, they go, well, that wasn't Richard Burton. That wasn't Richard Burton at all. And also, I knew Richard Burton. Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

We were in school together.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

That's the problem is you're rubbing shoulders with people. You're performing for people who have a personal, very strong connection with this movie.

[Matthew Rhys]

This is what I've done to myself. The final performance of the tour is in the chapel that Richard Burton attended. It'll be livestreamed to the Miner's Arms, which is the pub that he and his family drank in. And his family have been invited to the chapel to watch the final performance.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, my God.

[Matthew Rhys]

I think they've made it the final performance. So I can literally fall on my sword at the curtain call with an apology as sorry Jenkins is. Yes. You know Harry? Do you know Harry? Harry? Kitty. It's about time.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes. So you are going to get. Yeah. I mean, that's your fear. My money's on you. Say that.

[Matthew Rhys]

Thank you very much.

[Conan O'Brien]

You are, I think, one of the finest actors alive and I think that you will carry it off gloriously. But I also fear for you terribly. Well, I'm very excited about another matter involving you, Mr. Reese, if I can call you Mr. Reese, Mrs. Reese. Doesn't seem right.

[Matthew Rhys]

Mysteries.

[Conan O'Brien]

History's mysteries.

[Matthew Rhys]

Ooh, that's good.

[Conan O'Brien]

That should be your podcast where you talk about history. That's not true. I am a massive fan of the historian, Mr. Robert Caro. I've read all of his works, I've interviewed him. I stalked him for a while. I think he's just a treasure, as they say, national treasure. And one of his great books, maybe one of his greatest books. If it's not the Lyndon Johnson series. The Power Broker, about Robert Moses, is one of the most amazing historical works in history. I understand that you may be working on some kind of version of the Power Broker.

[Matthew Rhys]

We are. We are working on.

[Conan O'Brien]

Who is we? Well, maybe you're not allowed to talk about this.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yet not.

[Conan O'Brien]

I don't want to get you in. I mean, I do want to get you in trouble, but not for this.

[Matthew Rhys]

But remember last time. Yes. You very kindly bailed me out. Yes.

[Sona Movsesian]

There's.

[Matthew Rhys]

There's a.

[Conan O'Brien]

What can you say? Why don't you just say what you can say?

[Matthew Rhys]

There is a select group of us who have approached a very well known bunch of criminal streaming platforms.

[Conan O'Brien]

There are a few of us, known criminals who are conspiring.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes, But. But at the moment, Mr. Dear Mr. Caro has. He doesn't have an issue with handing over the rights to the power broker. Other agencies and publishing houses do. So at the moment, it's in this stalema whereby I know the flicks called Net are trying to work things out. Yes. And acquire the rights to the power broker. It's been pitched. They do want to do it.

[Conan O'Brien]

Is it possible then that you would play Robert Moses, the man who more than anyone created the New York City that we know today?

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes. That's basically the fundamental pitch.

[Conan O'Brien]

Okay. I have no sway in this business at all. I have a little bit of sway with Robert Caro just because I think he knows me. I've interviewed him. He knows I'm a huge fan and an acolyte of his. But I would do everything in my power to make sure that you play. I think you'd be amazing, and I think that would be just a terrific project.

[Matthew Rhys]

Well, I certainly think it's a story and a book that needs to get made because the sheer scale and scope of it, but also Moses as a human being, as an individual, if you read that play book is staggering. It lays Shakespeare to the sword because you cannot quite believe the ascent of that man.

[Conan O'Brien]

And that man had more power than maybe anyone in American history, save a president. But he was able to. It's unimaginable now.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

But he could just say, I think this highway should go here and all of these buildings in my way shall be destroyed.

[Matthew Rhys]

And these communities removed.

[Conan O'Brien]

And these communities removed. And it would happen as if he were a czar.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

And it was the way he understood power, and that's a real Caro's obsession, is how people accumulate power and how they use it and who are the masters at that. And of course, the other one is Lyndon Johnson. And it's just this thing that he writes about so well and he understands so well that.

[Matthew Rhys]

Beautifully, beautifully put.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm very talented.

[Matthew Rhys]

You are. But it's the understanding of power.

[Conan O'Brien]

I might be the Robert Moses of comedy. Ooh. Yeah. I have laid Waste to so many communities. When I have a joke I wanna do, I destroy communities. And my whole tenements and buildings come down.

[Matthew Rhys]

I've laid awake. Yes, yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

And then. It's just a quick wordplay, pun, but people have lost their buildings. I hope this happens. So do I. And I will pray on that tonight when I kneel and I say my prayers. It's all about my career, of course. Nothing about the family.

[Matthew Rhys]

No. Think of the commission.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, I would love that. I would love that to happen. So would I. So would I. I'll make it happen.

[Matthew Rhys]

Okay, good. You heard it here first.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes. And you'll hear it here last. Now I want to bring up one more Celtic thing, which is you have claim that you have and that you have profited from in your career. Celtic eyes.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, yes, yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Tell me what are Celtic eyes? What they are, and then I'll ask you my follow up question.

[Matthew Rhys]

Well, actually what I was gonna say was an accusation, but it was more an inquiry.

[Conan O'Brien]

You're not to accuse me of anything.

[Matthew Rhys]

No, I. I have a number of things I'd like to accuse you of, but we'll wait till we stop rolling for that. Yes, it was. I sat down at a dinner party in Los Angeles once and a very, very dashing, older kind of silver fox gentleman turned to me and he just went, Irish? I went, no.

[Conan O'Brien]

Scottish?

[Matthew Rhys]

I went, no. Well then what are you? I said, Welsh. Oh, of course, the other Celt. And I said, I'm sorry, what made you say that? He goes, celtic lids. You've got Celtic. He goes, I could really help you out. He was a plastic surgeon. And what he was inferring was is this sort of slight droop on the top of our eyes, which is, I think, you know, centuries. Being downtrodden makes you go, oh, I'm so sorry. You know, genetically. And the coal dust, that does it too.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's everything. Yeah.

[Matthew Rhys]

It's having. It's both emotional and practical that you keep dust out of your eyes. But also you take your place, you know, in society and apologize for being there.

[Conan O'Brien]

More importantly, someone was going to try and fix your. You say lids? I call them peepers.

[Matthew Rhys]

Jeepers creepers. What's inside those peepers?

[Conan O'Brien]

Exactly. One of my favorite poems, also from Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomas, he did a lot of great stuff.

[Matthew Rhys]

He does, he did.

[Conan O'Brien]

Purple Polka Dot Bikini was his.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes. Where the Sidewalk Ends. Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

So I'm fascinated that anyone would try and touch those eyes. Cause those are great. I would think they've been so useful.

[Matthew Rhys]

To you in acting well, there's another moment when the Americans was finishing. I believe it was the New Yorker that wrote a very nice article saying that. I was like, what is it called? The King of Downtrodden Tragedy. And there was a photo of me. And I looked at the photo, and I went, that's my resting face. I'm not acting. I'm not doing anything. That is what my face looks like. You can project whatever it is you wish upon that downtrodden face. And if you bleed in some emotional music, it might give you something cinematic. But at that moment, I was doing nothing.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

Which. That's all it does.

[Conan O'Brien]

Cut you to the quick.

[Matthew Rhys]

It fans the flame of your imposter syndrome. That all it does.

[Conan O'Brien]

All right, this brings up my next question. Yeah. First of all, look at my eyes.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Do I have anything. Is there any Celtic. Anything going on in my eyes? My eyes are narrow. They're suspicious. They're creepy. It's kept me out of film my entire life. What can we do? Help me. Help me.

[Matthew Rhys]

I watched. I did watch. I did watch a documentary about Charlie Sheen the other day. And he said there was this one time where obviously he was struggling with substance abuse, which isn't funny. But one thing he did, he realized he was falling asleep mid take. And he did. You know this.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

And he asked for the cup of ice, and he inserted an ice cube into his rectum.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

And he said it gave him, like.

[Conan O'Brien]

And it finished the scene. And then they showed scene. Show the scene in the documentary. And he's very present and aware.

[Matthew Rhys]

And I thought in that moment, I went, good God, he's cracked it. My downtrodden lids. If I just give the old, you know, one up the chute, right? And I've gone bing. And like, all of a sudden, you.

[Conan O'Brien]

Know, right now you're doing it.

[Matthew Rhys]

Look at me. I'm like, I could play Scarface again. I'm like, oh, fuck you, Dave. Right, Right. It just gives you the zing.

[Conan O'Brien]

So you're saying if I shoved ice up my ass, these eyes would open up.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, like, I'm trying to think of something that opens up just. Yes, yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Like a mall on Christmas Eve.

[Matthew Rhys]

There you go. Now we're talking.

[Conan O'Brien]

So I. Let's call it pulling a sheen from now on.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, okay, good.

[Conan O'Brien]

I think that's the way to do it. You need to pull a sheen.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes. I'll be back in a minute.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Matthew Rhys]

And then zing, ring. And then in you come.

[Conan O'Brien]

You talked about imposter syndrome.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Everybody has imposter syndrome.

[Matthew Rhys]

Well, weirdly, with this Richard Burton piece, it's the first one man show I've ever done and. And the true great fear I have is that I will forget my lines, because that's it. It's just like stand up. It's just you in the audience. What I've started doing now is doing a run through. If I go wrong, is not stopping or correcting myself, is seeing how I get out of that, because that will ultimately be, I think, the lifeline. So that is an entirely new discipline for me. Yes, it did a little bit on stage, but you're always with another actor who will help you catch, you throw that stuff.

[Conan O'Brien]

They're your cue, they're giving you. I mean, you're leading each other, but it's a dance. And now you're out there alone.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes. And I've forgotten my lines in the past, and another actor saved me. And this for the first time, playing Richard Burton, going home after 22 years, I will do something alone. And what I'm intrigued is how do I. Exactly what you say. How do I get out of those moments when it doesn't seem like I messed up or try and make it seem like.

[Conan O'Brien]

I have a suggestion.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

If you're open to it.

[Matthew Rhys]

Don't.

[Conan O'Brien]

If you can get out of the play. I would get out.

[Adam Sachs]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

I think you're a terrible actor. Yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

Good. This is good. This is good.

[Conan O'Brien]

You shouldn't be on the stage.

[Matthew Rhys]

No. Should I get my eyes done?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, and immediately. Get your eyes done.

[Matthew Rhys]

Ice, please.

[Conan O'Brien]

You should put a little thing in the program, a little message, and it says, you know, they always say this takes place on New Year's Day. Richard Burton's apartment in 1968. Okay. Was it 68?

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

I just was making that day.

[Matthew Rhys]

I know.

[Conan O'Brien]

I was serious.

[Matthew Rhys]

We literally said at the same time.

[Conan O'Brien]

Okay, so this is how good I am.

[Matthew Rhys]

I know.

[Conan O'Brien]

Of course, I don't have.

[Matthew Rhys]

God, he's good.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes. So you should have a little thing that says, on this day, Richard Burton has a very bad cold. And then you come in, enter coughing, then start your speeches, let the cough melt away. But anytime you start to lose it a little bit.

[Matthew Rhys]

Lord God. Thinking, thinking the whole time, what's next? What's next?

[Conan O'Brien]

Find it, find it, find it. And then you'll find. Yeah, that's it. The cough. And people will say he'd never missed a line.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And, God, he made me feel like he really was sick.

[Matthew Rhys]

Good God, that's genius. That's the work of genius. Well, you should direct Theater.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know what? No one's ever said that to me and no one ever will, seriously. But I'm going to take you up on that.

[Matthew Rhys]

Something to consider.

[Conan O'Brien]

Quit everything I'm doing.

[Matthew Rhys]

What would be the Irish one man show that you would want to do? Which Irishman? Oh, wait, surely there's one about Harris you could do.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, my God. Well, I mean, first of all, the worst thing I could do in my career would be for me, an American, you know, third generation Irish American, to return to Ireland and attempt a true accent.

[Matthew Rhys]

Do it.

[Conan O'Brien]

They would destroy me.

[Matthew Rhys]

Do it.

[Conan O'Brien]

A true accent.

[Matthew Rhys]

Do it.

[Conan O'Brien]

They would destroy me.

[Matthew Rhys]

Do it. Was Harris ever on your show?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, he was.

[Matthew Rhys]

How many times?

[Conan O'Brien]

He was on once, I believe. And I watched the interview recently because one of the problems with doing so much volume, thousands and thousands of hours of television, four of them quite good. I decided that. Oh, my God, I remembered I got to speak to the great iconic Richard Harris, and I have a very dim memory of it. And then I realized, wait a minute, I can watch it. So I typed in Conan, Richard Harris. He came up. I watched the whole interview. He was spectacular. And at one point, he finishes his story with great bravado and throws himself back in his chair, roaring, laughing, and his chair starts to tip over and Andy and I kind of grab him and pull him back. He was an absolute delight, everything you'd want him to be.

[Matthew Rhys]

And now you have this retrospectively where, you know, when the greats die, you look back and go, now I'll watch me talking to him.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, but, you know, it's funny, I'm often when I see those moments, I think, why is he there? Meaning why is not. Why is Richard Harris there?

[Matthew Rhys]

Why is Richard Harris there? Why wasn't it Peter o'?

[Conan O'Brien]

Toole? No, why isn't it just me alone?

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Why is Harris mucking it up?

[Matthew Rhys]

I could have done much better with that story.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, exactly. No, I just see myself with a Richard Harris or a David Bowie and go, oh, my God. It's that thing where you just are, can you lose him? Why is he there? But I'm certain that's how we all feel.

[Matthew Rhys]

I know, I know.

[Conan O'Brien]

Because the other person is legitimate and you are not legitimate, of course. And that's just the way it is. And you have to accept it.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes. And we go through the world, you know, meeting these people and feeling like that. I also do think that the Celtic gene doesn't help us. No, the English are much better.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know, there is a thing. There's a True suspicion. When you go back to. When I go back to Ireland, and I love it there and I love the people, but I know that if you've gone off to America, if your people went off to America and then you're coming back as a television personality in America, of course you're asking for it. Of course, you know, who the fuck.

[Matthew Rhys]

Do you think, oh, there he is, 30 fucking big balls, look at him. Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Exactly. And that's the attitude when they stamp your passport and everybody's hilarious. That's the other thing I learned. And you probably have this in Wales, too, where I'll think, well, I've really been honing my craft. And then I get off the plane and I get in a cab and the cab driver's funnier than anyone I've ever met.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

And that's why. And they won't forget a grudge. I was in Belfast, we're driving along. I was gonna do. They were having some thing for Game of Thrones that they wanted me to host. It was during the last season of Game of Thrones. And they said, would you come up? And I go to Belfast for the first time and I get in a cab and we're driving along, and then I notice out of the side, I say, hey. It says Harland Wolf. And I remembered in the way back of my mind, harlan Wolf. Shipyard. That's where they. They made the Titanic. And I said to the driver, I said, that's where they made the Titanic. He went, that's right. And I said, oh, that ship didn't last too long, did it? And he went. He said, ah, the English had sunk it. He said it was in pretty fucking good shape when we gave it to him. And I'm like. And he said it as if this was something that went down two days ago. Yeah, he's still got that chip on his shoulder. When we gave it to the English, it was fun. He didn't tell him to run it in on icloud you. And so, I mean, it just. I love. I love the old wounds that are as fresh.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh. Oh. My father still talks about 1282, you know, when. Yes. When the English killed off with the last little Royal Welsh family. They're like, well, it all turned to then, didn't it? You're like, well, I suppose, yes. I don't know.

[Conan O'Brien]

So everything after 1282 has.

[Matthew Rhys]

Look, no, no, no wonder we're all like this, you know, we're trying to block out the world. It's been crapo ever since to say it's.

[Conan O'Brien]

All been shite ever since it was flames.

[Matthew Rhys]

It was Golden Age up until then. Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

We were okay until the Bronze Age came along. Yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

They ruined it for us.

[Conan O'Brien]

You, I must discuss briefly, the power broker, your lovely partner.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, yes, she is a power broker.

[Conan O'Brien]

Is she a power broker?

[Matthew Rhys]

In every single. I am a mere pawn.

[Conan O'Brien]

Do you. Is that true? Does she control you?

[Matthew Rhys]

Sorry? Prawn is what she calls me. Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Are you a prawn?

[Matthew Rhys]

In many ways. Shellfish to the nth degree.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm just curious. I watch. I'm gonna give a quick shout out to the beautiful and talented Keri Russell. Who? I'm entranced by the Diplomat. She's incredible in everything she does. I was stunned to find out, and still stunned that you two, because you're actors and you starred in this series together, the Americans, you had to have a chemistry read.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

To have a chemistry read with someone who then later on becomes your life partner, it's fascinating to me. Cause I never had a chemistry read with my wife.

[Matthew Rhys]

Wait, what?

[Conan O'Brien]

And I think we shouldn't.

[Matthew Rhys]

Don't you have an agent? Surely you have management. Dear God, what are they doing? Don't give them 10%.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes. I think if my wife and I had had a chemistry read, I wouldn't have children right now. The whole thing would have fallen apart. You have nothing. So the fact that.

[Matthew Rhys]

Get her out of there.

[Conan O'Brien]

But it got me thinking that everyone should have a chemistry read before. I mean, essentially, that's what some people do. The Catholic Church has some version of it where they. You two should get together and have some conversations in the company of a priest. But that's no chemistry read, let's face it. Did you know in the chemistry read we have real chemistry?

[Matthew Rhys]

No, no, no, I couldn't. And I struggle a bit with the term chemistry read because, you know, I've done so many of them. They go, well, they want you to do a chemistry read. And then you go, do you mean they just want me to act with another actor? Is that what they want with it?

[Conan O'Brien]

It's a silly term.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes. And then I think sometimes what they secretly do is in between the acting. They want to see if you're joking and having fun or you might like each other. Do you know what I mean? And if they might get on set, I don't. I honestly don't know. I struggle a bit with the term chemistry because I'm always. I can pretend to like that person in the room and then hopefully they'll give me the job. And then I'LL act my best in the acting bits, but that's all pretty much I can do.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

She had to slap me in our chemistry read. And the director said, one of the reasons he said we cast you is cause you took that slap so well. And I went, I had no idea she was gonna slap me. It was absolutely. I was reeling in shock that she did it.

[Conan O'Brien]

It really hurts.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, my ears were ringing. They went, God, you took it so well. I was like, it caught up with me like three days later. Yeah. I had no idea that was happening. So, you know, there are strange happenstance like that where you go, oh, thank God I didn't go, oh, Christ. What are you doing, woman?

[Conan O'Brien]

Is there tape rolling on this? Yeah.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's so funny to me, the idea of your family being able to at any point look at a tape of this is when our parents met each other and it's you getting the shit kicked out of you.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes, yes. Well, then they're like, well, that's.

[Conan O'Brien]

That must.

[Matthew Rhys]

That's like any Wednesday, really.

[Conan O'Brien]

But also, I forgot.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes. What day is it?

[Conan O'Brien]

Constant beatings, of course.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, there's dad again. Yeah, But. But we'd actually met about 15, 16 years prior to that.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, wow. Okay.

[Matthew Rhys]

And. And at a kickball party that Jennifer Grey threw in in Los Angeles.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I'd asked, those are famous. Well, those are famous debauched parties, which.

[Matthew Rhys]

Is why I fought my way in. I was like, God damn it, there's a reason they call it Dirty Dancing. And I'm. I'm making my way in.

[Conan O'Brien]

It can't really mean kickball. It must mean some other kind of kickball. It's code.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes. So at the end of the party, I'd asked for her number, and I then very drunkenly left a message on her. You know, back in the old days when it was beep and she said some drunken Welsh idiot left her a message, and that was me. So we kind of reminded ourselves of each other after that. So I'd remembered that I'd met her many, many years earlier, but it wasn't the time and place for me to go, oh, guess what? Do you remember that fateful night when I opened a beer with a key on my thumb and I was inebriated and had to walk home and left you a message all made of consonants, not a single vowel.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, I remember that when we did our first podcast, and as I said, it was during COVID and it looked like you were talking in a basement. You were shrouded in darkness. That's my older. It looked so sad. And then in the background, this angel walks by with a hamper of laundry.

[Matthew Rhys]

I know.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I was like, it's Carrie Rhizo. And I put my creep glasses on and started filming. But she was. Telegram. A telegram. Ms. Russell, it won't work.

[Matthew Rhys]

You're on Zoom. Yes, dammit.

[Conan O'Brien]

Separated by Zoom. All my creepy tricks won't work. I wanna talk about this new project and there's a little strange. I have some connection to this project that you've done the Beast in me.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Which is that early, early on I had this production company and the wonderful and very intelligent, wise David Kissinger said, there's this script that I found that's amazing. He brought it to me, I read it. I think Jodie Foster had seen it. So Jodie came in and we just started talking about how amazing this script was. We were doing our best to try and shepherd this thing along, but once people hear Conan o' Brien's involved, everyone flees.

[Matthew Rhys]

That imposter.

[Conan O'Brien]

That imposter.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah. Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

He's phoning it in again. Is he wearing those glasses?

[Matthew Rhys]

And did you get one of his telegraphs?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes. They're not real, you know.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

And so time goes by and then I find out that, oh wait, this is actually going to happen. But I wasn't sure for a while we were thinking, who is gonna play this part? And then I find out it's Claire Danes. And then I find out that it's you. And I had no. No one would listen to me anyway. But someone did call me at one point and said, what do you think for the part? For the second lead or the co star of it? What do you think of Matthew Rhys? And I was like, I love that guy. He. He's got to do this. I want to have my name in something that you're in. And listen, I take no credit for anything. I'll demand money. I'll make sure that I take up residuals, that I get a big enough piece that it hurts the production. Always, always. Why?

[Matthew Rhys]

I did it for bread.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, exactly. But no, I can take no credit for anything other than I loved this script a long time ago and I very much wanted to see this make it. And I hope my name was of some use. It may have harmed. Well and my 70% of the profits. I'm ashamed.

[Matthew Rhys]

No, you shouldn't. I'm ashamed of it. Nobody burnt it. You've earned it. And thank you for the vote of confidence.

[Conan O'Brien]

By doing nothing, I've earned it.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, stop. It's the other thing that no one realizes, the amount of years that go into development. So when people like you and Jodie Foster going, no, this should get made, you know, thank God that you do.

[Conan O'Brien]

Jodie was a child at the time.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes. She'd just done Taxi Driver.

[Conan O'Brien]

She had done Taxi Driver.

[Matthew Rhys]

And you had you.

[Conan O'Brien]

I was in fourth grade and I said, I think we should make. And no one listened to us. Cause I was in Brookline, Massachusetts, and.

[Matthew Rhys]

She just unbugs him alone with Alan Parker.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. So no, it was a long time ago. This people don't understand how long it takes. And they secured its roots. It's a musical for a while now it's an animated series.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah. No, no, it's very true.

[Conan O'Brien]

It was all gonna be done with Cats for a while.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes. Well, they haven't ruled that out, but it reminded me of. I want to be careful with this. But there's a sense of it being an old fashioned thriller, which I haven't seen in a very long time, where a concept kind of is sometimes overpowering and overwhelming in certain productions these days. And what I just loved was that you have two people who are basically intrigued with each other and therefore begins a very gripping and thrilling cat and mouse game. Yes. It's old fashioned thriller tension. And I love that about it. Cause it's. When I read it, it did the same thing that it does when you watch it. You go, oh, my God, how is this gonna unfold?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, that's how I felt reading that script for the first time. The fact that Howard Gordon is the brain behind this.

[Matthew Rhys]

Well, also, you know, when I said when, obviously it was Claire's project. So when they said, you know, Claire Danes, Howard Gordon, you know, the Homeland team are back together. And as soon as you hear that, you're like, okay, I'm in.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yep. And then they said, we didn't ask you.

[Matthew Rhys]

I was like, I know, but I'm still in.

[Conan O'Brien]

Do you just crash meetings and go, I'm in.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah. And they go, who is that?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

Stop saying that.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm in.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah. Yes. You somehow got into this room. Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know what's funny? I've heard you say in. I think I've heard you say in more than one interview. Oh, I'm not an A list actor. I don't know. I think of you. I think of you. I don't know, maybe actors think about that more than anyone else. But I don't see why anyone wouldn't want you first and foremost for something. It's your money in the bank.

[Matthew Rhys]

Money in the bank. You're 70% in the bank. What I want to start. What I want to start, okay, is in showbiz parties, just going up to other actors, going, what letter are you? What letter are you A? Are you A? Are you B? Yes, but really, how many A's are there anymore? A list. What? I mean, truly, I don't know what it even means. I would say five.

[Conan O'Brien]

Who are they?

[Matthew Rhys]

I don't know. I don't know.

[Conan O'Brien]

Biz Clippler. Chaz Maloney.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah, Crazy Chaz.

[Conan O'Brien]

Chazz Dadarak.

[Matthew Rhys]

Is he still around?

[Conan O'Brien]

Sheila McGee.

[Matthew Rhys]

Sheila McGee.

[Conan O'Brien]

See, it doesn't really mean anything.

[Matthew Rhys]

No, I know, but who like Meryl. Mel Streep.

[Conan O'Brien]

A. Mel, A. Yeah.

[Matthew Rhys]

Harrison Ford. A.

[Conan O'Brien]

No, he's following.

[Matthew Rhys]

Why? Because he's gone to tv.

[Conan O'Brien]

I think he's on radio now. He's doing ads. He said, go to that car wash. It's a good one if you need to land. Golf course. But I think, but it's very personal. It's, it's, you know, Meryl, it doesn't matter what your opinion is. She's up there.

[Matthew Rhys]

And. Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And Harrison Ford, yes, A. He walks on screen. You go, oh, my God. Because you've grown up with these. Some of that too is longevity. You've grown up with them. You're still a young lad.

[Matthew Rhys]

You need stop your ways.

[Conan O'Brien]

Stop your ways.

[Matthew Rhys]

Tom Cruise, another A. Yeah, sure. People who basically, when they walk on screen, you feel safe or comfortable. Cause you go, oh, we're okay now. Right?

[Conan O'Brien]

But I think it's increasingly, Increasingly, maybe an irrelevant term. Everything's so fractured now.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

We used to walk into the old movie palaces and buy our popcorn and our Sodi Pop and we'd sit there and we'd watch the golden legends up on the screen. Those days are over. We're watching things on an airplane. We're watching things on little screens on their phones. I watch all the Academy nominated movies on my phone.

[Matthew Rhys]

No, you don't.

[Conan O'Brien]

And sometimes I think that's still too big. And I crack the phone in half and I watch it then through one eye, I thought, well, through one little. My squinty eye.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah. Which one today?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, exactly. I'll use the left for this one. Oh, yes. It's what they deserve.

[Matthew Rhys]

And also we've Instagram, you know, we've read on Instagram what they've had for lunch. So there's no mystery. The mystery's gone.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, that's why you should stop telling people what you've had for lunch.

[Matthew Rhys]

Why? People love it. I had an egg mayonnaise sandwich just before I came in.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm 30 seconds from a heart attack. Stay off the egg mayonnaise sandwiches, for God's sake.

[Matthew Rhys]

No, damn you.

[Conan O'Brien]

You'll do as you're told.

[Matthew Rhys]

No, I won't. It's the devil's work. And I love the devil.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, I just want to rent a cabin with you. So we can just yell at each other.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Nothing sexual. No, at first. But then we're just yelling at each other. Damn, you all have your eyes. You know, it's just you and I yelling at each other.

[Matthew Rhys]

It's basically Muncie on the Bounty. Yes, but we're all. We're both vying as to be for who plays Captain Bly.

[Conan O'Brien]

Who's Bly? Yeah.

[Matthew Rhys]

Damn it, Ice Hat.

[Conan O'Brien]

I feel terrible for one man right now, and that's. His name is Eduardo. Eduardo does all of. I don't know if you can hear us, Eduardo. I hope you can.

[Matthew Rhys]

Is he doing that?

[Conan O'Brien]

He is doing all the mixing right now. And I think his board is probably on fire.

[Matthew Rhys]

Is that what we can smell?

[Conan O'Brien]

Because you've got a Welshman and an Irishman screaming at each other into these very sensitive microphones.

[Matthew Rhys]

And he'll have tinnitus for life.

[Conan O'Brien]

Exactly.

[Matthew Rhys]

But he'll think of us.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. And he'll know how to say tinnitus. Most people don't.

[Matthew Rhys]

Or do you say tinnitus?

[Conan O'Brien]

I don't even say it anymore because I can't pronounce things over the ringing in my ear. Do you have it? I have it. I have it all the time.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes, I have it. I do.

[Conan O'Brien]

I wanna get. Why did the ear horn go away? The old ear trumpet that comes out that people used to in 1920s movies go ear.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

I wanna get one of those in my dotage.

[Matthew Rhys]

And then it'll be selective because you can put it to your ear depending on who's talking.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

At what time.

[Conan O'Brien]

So. Exactly. And with a hearing aid, people don't know. But if I have a giant horn that I hold up to my ear, it'll be great because I'll be listening to someone else. And then you'll start to talk and I'll put it down.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, it'll be the ultimate social tool.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes. Ultimate burn. That what you're saying means nothing to you. It just goes down and it never comes up slow.

[Matthew Rhys]

Horn down. Yeah. The SHD. You got SHT'd by your.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, yes. So am I coming back to your house tonight? What's happening.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes. I'd say we'll stop off somewhere for a few cold ones and then text Kerry that we're on the cold ones.

[Conan O'Brien]

Meaning ice for our ass.

[Matthew Rhys]

Two five pound bags, please.

[Conan O'Brien]

Would you like some ice? No. We brought her out.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

We both blow on our thumbs and it comes shooting out.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, come on, David, grab.

[Matthew Rhys]

Not the first time.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. Jesus Christ.

[Matthew Rhys]

David's had to.

[Conan O'Brien]

David's had to insert it most of the time. No, Sheen me. Sheen me was not the interview.

[Matthew Rhys]

Do you have Mr. Sheen in this country? The part. The Spanish apology.

[Conan O'Brien]

I talked to him. I. I talked to him on the podcast last week.

[Adam Sachs]

Last week?

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

I don't know when. This one. This one's coming out soon, isn't it? Okay. Yeah. So, yes, I talked to the man. He's doing well. Good. He's fine. He's in. Good. Fine.

[Matthew Rhys]

Fettle great.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, good. Your eyes just went dead. Cause I was talking about another actor.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes, well, there's three. I was holding. I was actually holding three sheens in my head. I had Charlie Sheen, obviously his wonderful father.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, Martin Sheen.

[Matthew Rhys]

Martin. And then also Michael Sheen, a fellow Welshman.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, terrific.

[Matthew Rhys]

Is responsible for this one man, Richard Burton. Cause he's taken over the Welsh National Theatre and said, come and do something in Wales. And I went, I'll come and do it.

[Conan O'Brien]

I admire you.

[Matthew Rhys]

Well, thank you.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'd like to grow up and be you one day. Only I'm older than you. I can tell. My wife today, she's in New York with me. Saw that. I had a little joy in my step today, and I said, I'm seeing Mr. Matthew Reese and I couldn't be happier. You are hilariously funny. And you're a joy to be around. I hear you're a monster on set. True, but I wasn't on set, so I don't care. And I just wish you all good things. I really do.

[Matthew Rhys]

Well, thank you very much. I. I appreciate those words enormously, especially.

[Conan O'Brien]

Coming from you, such a great man. Yes, let's elaborate on that.

[Matthew Rhys]

So I'm sorry. As. As a great man, or maybe the greatest.

[Conan O'Brien]

Maybe the greatest man.

[Matthew Rhys]

Possibly. I was trying to get to that. Possibly the greatest.

[Conan O'Brien]

Get sooner. Sooner.

[Matthew Rhys]

Sorry, sorry. The greatest man I've ever met.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. Maybe the greatest comic of all time.

[Matthew Rhys]

Of. Well, that goes without question. Is it why it's written here? What?

[Conan O'Brien]

Sorry, we rehearsed. Yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

I'm sorry. What else am I supposed to say again?

[Conan O'Brien]

It's all so embarrassing.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

Go. Go with the gods, old folks.

[Matthew Rhys]

Thank you.

[Conan O'Brien]

Be well.

[Matthew Rhys]

Thank you very much and a joy to be here as always. So thank you for the invite.

[Conan O'Brien]

We don't talk enough about the unsung heroes of our show. You know, people know they're Matt Gourley, they know they're Sonam Obsessian, they certainly know they're Conan o'. Brien. But I'm talking about the invisible co host. Our furniture.

[Matt Gourley]

Oh yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

I've done some shows in uncomfortable furniture.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yeah, terrible.

[Conan O'Brien]

You can tell the whole time that I'm in agony. That's why when Ashley offered to sponsor the Live from LA event and said that Sona could choose the onstage furniture, we jumped at the chance.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

How did you do it?

[Sona Movsesian]

Well, I am doing interior decorating now. I designed Blay's place. I designed my parents place.

[Conan O'Brien]

You do have good taste.

[Sona Movsesian]

So I was just like, hey, I want to do this. And it was surprising that no one said I couldn't. So I just choose whatever sofas I wanted, whatever chairs I wanted. Rugs, cute little side tables.

[Conan O'Brien]

Great. You used a Talora chairs and loveseat, right?

[Sona Movsesian]

Yes, I did.

[Conan O'Brien]

And, and I. I was very comfortable throughout the entire show.

[Sona Movsesian]

So was I. I mean, didn't you want to take a nap?

[Conan O'Brien]

I did. In fact, I did during parts.

[Sona Movsesian]

What?

[Conan O'Brien]

Ashley has styles that balance timeless appeal and modern trends to bring your personal look home. Whether you're redecorating a single space or refurbishing every room, plus plus Ashley provides fast, reliable white glove delivery right to your door. So start your home's transformation with styles that are personal, expressive and comfortably yours. Visit AshleyInStore or [e-mail] to find your style. If you're an H Vac technician and a call comes in, Grainger knows that you need a partner that helps you find the right product fast and hassle free. And you know that when the first problem of the day is a clanking blower motor, there's no need to break a sweat. With Grainger's easy to use website and product details, you're confident you'll soon have everything humming right along. Call 1-800-GRAINGER clickgrainger.com or just stop by.

[Matthew Rhys]

Grainger for the ones who get it done.

[Matt Gourley]

Last week we were doing a state of the podcast and it got sidetracked by Sona and the Brazilian Butt Lift, which is not a new Indiana Jones.

[Conan O'Brien]

Movie, but it is a children's story. It's a children's book coming out soon. Sona and the Brazilian Butt Lift. Mommy, that's my favorite book. This is part two where we interrupted you because you were listing our incredible accolades and I got embarrassed and we got off track.

[Adam Sachs]

Lots of awards, great guests. And I was talking about how we've. We've started doing full awards.

[Conan O'Brien]

Major awards.

[Adam Sachs]

We started doing full length video in May and numbers are great. And again the concern was is it incremental audience or are we just taking people away from the podcasting now? The interesting thing is on the history of the sort of the podcast delivery has been rss. So you know what that is, Connor?

[Conan O'Brien]

No, I.

[Adam Sachs]

When people have listened to podcasts in the past, when you use the podcast app, you're getting an RSS feed delivering you the podcast and you have to subscribe to that. Right. So subscribers to the podcast will get the podcast every week. And we have built up a huge audience in podcasting over the past seven years on the podcast app. People have subscribed.

[Matthew Rhys]

Yep.

[Adam Sachs]

The interesting thing about YouTube is we have a very large YouTube channel, over 9 million subscribers on YouTube.

[Conan O'Brien]

When we put unrelated to the podcast, completely unrelated, that's Conan content from before you chimps.

[Adam Sachs]

That's very true. That was built almost. That was built on TBS content and.

[Conan O'Brien]

Lots of one man's dream, we're keeping him subscribed.

[Adam Sachs]

But the interesting thing about YouTube is when we put a podcast video on that channel that has 9 million subscribers, about half of the views to our podcast video come from non subscribers. Meaning that YouTube.

[Conan O'Brien]

YouTube has algorithmically suckered those.

[Adam Sachs]

Algorithmically is exactly the word.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Adam Sachs]

YouTube is serving our content to people.

[Conan O'Brien]

Who didn't subscribe, who actively dislike me.

[Adam Sachs]

I mean, I doubt it. I think YouTube thinks that they will. That they're gonna like this content. And so it's sharing the content more and more, which is actually awesome because it's growing our, the, the pot. The old legacy podcast is a very deliberate act. You know, you had to subscribe, then you get your podcast. This is like we're growing our audience on YouTube because all these people who, who didn't already subscribe are getting fed the content and watching the content.

[Conan O'Brien]

So we're an invasive weed.

[Matt Gourley]

Best description I've ever heard of this podcast.

[Sona Movsesian]

Is Conan going to be like a YouTube personality though? Should he be like, hey, smash that like button?

[Adam Sachs]

I mean, yes, we probably. The crazy thing is, and I, we talked about this a little bit on the last time. But like podcast, because podcasts are becoming so distributed so much on YouTube as a billion people a month are watching podcasts on YouTube, which is a crazy number. The sort of podcast world and the YouTuber world Sona that you're talking about. They're kind of merging. Like, podcasters and YouTubers are all part of this larger creator economy now. And you're there.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's hilarious that no one has sat me down, including you, and talked to me about any of this. Isn't that what this is? That's what this is for.

[Sona Movsesian]

This is what this is.

[Conan O'Brien]

I know, I know.

[Matt Gourley]

We can't sit you down unless there's a microphone in front of you.

[Conan O'Brien]

So, you know, Or a camera. Camera. Turns out. That's incredible.

[Sona Movsesian]

You should become more of like a YouTuber. Like, do some pranks and, like, unbox stuff.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm gonna start unboxing stuff.

[Matt Gourley]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Here, drink this urine. I don't even know enough about YouTube stuff.

[Sona Movsesian]

I don't either.

[Adam Sachs]

Well, I will say, Conan, sorry to interrupt you, but the thing that you've joked about a bunch now, which is becoming more and more true, is, is that you're back to hosting a late night show. Because not only is YouTube the number one destination for people to listen to podcasts, it's also the number one streaming platform now and the number one thing that people are watching on TV in their living rooms. So you have essentially just gone back.

[Conan O'Brien]

And created another talk show repeatedly. But it's so funny to me that I deliberately left late night after 28 years. I loved it. I enjoyed every second. I said, that's good. I'm gonna go now. I'm gonna do my little podcast. I'm gonna do my little travel show for HBO Max. I hope they always call it HBO Max. And don't start messing with the name and then everything. You know, that was it. And I'll work on my body at the request of everyone. And then what? Well, people said, you've gotta fix that body. That was the big thing I heard.

[Sona Movsesian]

I like the way you worded it's weird body.

[Conan O'Brien]

Anyway, now we're doing this podcast and it keeps growing. And people started to say things like, we should do some in front of an audience. And if there's an audience, we should have Jimmy Vivino there and some band and other people in the band. It'd be really funny if you came out first and warmed up the crowd. Now you should do a monologue and then call out the other guys and do the podcast. Hey, it'd be really good if we put this up on YouTube. And now people are telling me, I love your show. And I'm like, it's not a show, it's a little podcast. But it doesn't matter to me. It's fun, it's organic. We're having a blast. I'm not asking, I'm telling you. It's really enjoyable. And all joking aside, you're not gonna like this, but we have a secret sauce here with you guys. It's a really nice environment. I never know what's gonna happen. I'd be miserable if I was here alone. And you guys are really fun, and this is lovely. I'm having a really good time. Yeah.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah. That's very nice of you to say.

[Conan O'Brien]

Thank you.

[Sona Movsesian]

It's all led by you, boss.

[Conan O'Brien]

There you go. Yes.

[Matthew Rhys]

Oh, man.

[Conan O'Brien]

You shouldn't have handed it back to me.

[Matt Gourley]

Walk into his trap.

[Sona Movsesian]

You were being sincere, so.

[Matthew Rhys]

I was sincere.

[Conan O'Brien]

I was so sincere to get you to hand it back to me. Yes. I lead the way and it would never happen without me. Well, that's it for the state of the show, Adam. This has been a good pep talk.

[Adam Sachs]

Thank you.

[Conan O'Brien]

And also thank you to Adam, his leadership. Thank you very much. His leadership. His common sense, of course. Eduardo, always there, working the knobs, guiding us at the helm, taking care of us. Blaze shouting into the microphone things we don't need to hear. Just what a lovely, lovely, fun group of people. It's a fun group. It's a fun group. It's a highlight of my day every day.

[Sona Movsesian]

Did you hear anything about the advertisers? Mad that we talked Still a lot about a lot of jizz and stuff.

[Matthew Rhys]

They don't mind.

[Adam Sachs]

No, they don't mind.

[Conan O'Brien]

Now we're getting jizz. Only I was going to say your sponsorship is Jizz Monthly. That's appropriate.

[Adam Sachs]

The magazine.

[Conan O'Brien]

The Jizz Anator.

[Matt Gourley]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

If you shot some jizz and you don't know where it is, use the jizz Anator.

[Sona Movsesian]

We won the Jizzy for best.

[Conan O'Brien]

We won the Jizzy.

[Matthew Rhys]

Wow.

[Conan O'Brien]

And you beat Jizz Taylor. Yeah, yeah. And we've been invited to New Orleans Jizz Fest. And trust me, you gotta wear a raincoat to that thing. Say to the podcast, stronger than ever.

[Matt Gourley]

Conan o' Brien needs a friend. With Conan o', Brien, Sonam of session and Matt Gourley, produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross and Nick Leow. Theme song by the White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair and our associate talent producer producer is Jennifer. Samples, engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Bautista and Brit Kahn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan? Call the Team Coco hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. You can also. You can also get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign [e-mail] Conan and if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O' Brien needs a Friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.

[Conan O'Brien]

Hi, I'm Jenny Slate and believe it or not, someone is allowing us to have a podcast.

[Matthew Rhys]

I'm Gabe Liedman.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm Max Silvestri and we've been friends for 20 years and we like to reach out to kind of get advice on how to live our lives.

[Matthew Rhys]

It's called I Need U Guys.

[Conan O'Brien]

Should I give my baby fresh vegetables? Can I drink the water at the hospital?

[Matthew Rhys]

My landlord plays the trombone and I can't ask him to stop.

[Conan O'Brien]

You should make sure that you subscribe so that you never miss an episode. I need you guys. Do you want free Internet forever? Yeah, we thought so. That's why Spectrum is giving you just that free fiber powered Internet forever. When you switch and get four mobile lines from Spectrum. No Internet bills, no taxes, no late fees, just fast fiber powered Internet. Call 833-901-0178 to find out how. But hurry, this deal won't last forever. Once more 833-901-0178 or visit spectrum.com freeforever to learn more.