Once We Had A Tudyk Rash with Jim Rash | Episode 34

Summary

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Once We Were Spacemen

Episode 34: Once We Had A Tudyk Rash with Jim Rash
Nathan Fillion & Alan Tudyk with guest Jim Rash
Release Date: July 1, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this lively and deeply funny installment, Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk welcome Jim Rash—Oscar-winning writer, actor, and beloved creative force best known for his work on Community and The Descendants. The trio journey through Jim’s career beginnings, creative process, move to New York, experience in the Groundlings, Oscar win moments, and share a trove of personal stories that alternate between hilarious and heartfelt. The episode highlights riffs on improv culture, Hollywood memory lane, and what it actually means to “make it.”

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Tech Glitches & Ground Rules (00:03–06:41)

• Technical Snafu Backstory: The episode opens post-technical difficulties, which the hosts jokingly describe as a sci-fi adventure in itself, setting the irreverent tone.
• Podcast ‘Segments’ Rule: Nathan formalizes Alan’s tradition of segment-creating, granting Jim permission to invent new segments at any time.
• Pass Rule: Jim is allowed two “hard passes” if a topic isn’t to his liking, a rule established in real time.

Notable Quote

• “I love a podcast with great rules... I think maybe it would take us 45 minutes for me to get all the rules down.”
  — Jim Rash (05:40)

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2. Career Near-Misses & Firefly Fan Banter (06:42–12:31)

• Almost Collaborations: Alan and Jim reminisce about narrowly missing chances to work together, including voiceover auditions and failed pilots (notably, Alligator Point).
• TV Pilot Stories: The saga of Alligator Point being passed around Hollywood and eventually recast, with Leslie Jordan taking Jim’s role and a different actor as Nathan.
• Comedy on Set Visits: Nathan recalls crashing the Community set while on Castle, with Jim joking about his repeated visits.

Notable Quote

• “You haven’t worked since, buddy.”
  — Nathan Fillion to Alan Tudyk, after Leslie Jordan got his would-be job (11:06)

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3. Experience on Community, Ageing in Hollywood (12:32–14:55)

• Nostalgia and Self-Image: Jim admits to worrying about fans not recognizing him as he ages compared to the show's original run.
• Move to New York: Recently relocated from LA, Jim shares his thrill at starting over, the mixture of intimidation and excitement, and the challenge of finding new community.

Notable Quote

• “Let’s do this. Let’s not... put your image side-by-side with your glasses season of Community and go like, oof, ba boof. Wow, is Jim Rash melting?”
  — Jim Rash (12:59)

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4. Improv Roots & Groundlings “Cult” (14:56–29:11)

• Early Career: From Charlotte, North Carolina, to Chapel Hill, Jim details his academic background and love for theater—though he focused on TV/film production.
• Groundlings as Community: Jim describes finding the Groundlings as his “graduate school,” providing community and a launchpad.
• Groundlings Rituals?: The group jokingly interrogates whether the Groundlings is a cult, leading to improvisational riffs about drinking symbolic “blood of Groundlings.”

Notable Quote

• “As I drink from the cup of improv truth, allow my body to be filled with those who came before me so that I might stay present and always say yes and—drink. And then you’re in.”
  — Jim Rash (00:13/28:47)

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5. Oscar Journey: Writing Partnership with Nat Faxon (33:27–44:56)

• Finding a Creative Partner: Jim and Nat met at the Groundlings, started writing pilots together, leading to eventual script sales.
• The Descendants Story: How a script on the blacklist led them to Alexander Payne, resulting in an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
• Oscar Ceremony: Behind-the-scenes details about the acceptance speech, Jim’s iconic “Angelina leg” pose, and the chaotic, surreal experience of being onstage.

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “The first thing I did, you know, when I met him, was let's make a vision board, and we're gonna put an Oscar on there in the middle...”
  — Jim Rash (33:27)
• “So, yeah, Descendants is the one... at that time, everything was changing right away.”
  — Jim Rash (40:01)
• “I just put the statue on my leg and there was like chuckles... you either need to pull back and bail on this... or you have to lean into it. So I decided just to, like, hold my ground.”
  — Jim Rash (43:32)

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6. Life After Oscar, Directing The Way Way Back (44:56–52:22)

• Post-Oscar Fallout: Winning opens doors—but not automatically. The biggest reward: reviving The Way Way Back, which took eight years from script to screen.
• Directing Heavy Hitters: Jim admits to nerves directing stars like Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Allison Janney, and Toni Collette, but recounts their first call with Rockwell, and how assembling the “dinner party” cast became self-perpetuating.

Notable Quote

• “It took eight years to make that movie... the best thing it did for us was reopen the way, way back...”
  — Jim Rash (48:20)

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7. Latest Work: Miss You, Love You (52:36–54:06)

• New Projects: Jim plugs his latest film, Miss You, Love You, a two-hander with Allison Janney and Andrew Rannells (or as Alan keeps saying, “Anthony Runnels”), available on HBO Max.
• Origin Story: The script began as a play before the pandemic, later adapted and directed by Jim for film.

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8. Personal Revelations & Storytelling Game (58:38–71:28)

• Let’s Get to Know You (Segment):
  • Alan: Has a hole in the back of his throat due to a pen injury; “It’s a compost pile next to my throat.”
  • Nathan: Collects phones from his life, creating an accidental collection.
  • Jim: Shares tales of teenage rebellion (accidentally hosting a wild house party), and a meaningful “ghost adjacent” story about sensing his grandmother’s passing during Outward Bound.
• Hilarious Tangents: The trio share nostalgia about camera tech, disc cameras, and flash cubes.
• Question About ‘Making It’: Jim says his first real breakthrough was the sitcom Naked Truth.

Notable Quotes

• “I have a hole in the back of my throat. Not the throat hole. I have that one too...”
  — Alan Tudyk (59:04)
• “I realized, looking around my house... I have a collection of telephones from throughout my life.”
  — Nathan Fillion (61:56)
• “Of all the things I noticed or took care of, I didn't notice that someone had pulled our basketball goal off the side of the house and tossed it into the creek.”
  — Jim Rash, on his failed high school party coverup (68:13)

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9. Riddler, DC/Marvel, & Voice Acting (75:58–78:26)

• Jim on Harley Quinn: Alan and Jim reminisce about their work together in the animated Harley Quinn series and the joy of voicing “weird” characters.
• Marvel vs DC Confusion: Jim attempts to clarify, for listeners, his understanding of where his characters fall in the superhero universes.

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10. Play/Film Writing Process (78:58–80:14)

• Miss You, Love You – Play to Screen: Jim discusses writing the feature as a play first, then adapting it for film, and possibly back to stage in the future.
• Alan as Alison Janney’s Stand-in: Self-deprecating jokes about usually being “choice number two” to Janney.

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11. Names, Careers & Improv Bits (80:14–81:31)

• Comedy Name Mishaps: Jokes about the duo name “Tudyk and Rash” sounding like an STD.
• Being Advised to Change His Name: Anecdote about a casting director suggesting “Jim Rash” sounds unfortunate.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:03–06:41: Tech Snafu & Podcast Rules
• 06:42–12:31: Past Near-Misses & TV Pilots
• 12:32–14:55: Community Memories & Moving to New York
• 14:56–29:11: Improv Beginnings & Groundlings
• 33:27–44:56: Oscar Journey: The Descendants
• 44:56–52:22: Life After Oscar, The Way Way Back
• 52:36–54:06: Miss You, Love You on HBO Max
• 58:38–71:28: “Let’s Get to Know You” & Personal Revelations
• 75:58–78:26: Animation, DC/Marvel Crossover
• 78:58–80:14: Creating for Screen & Stage

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Most Memorable Quotes

• “As I drink from the cup of improv truth, allow my body to be filled with those who came before me so that I might stay present and always say yes and—drink. And then you’re in.”
  — Jim Rash (00:13/28:47)

• “I just put the statue on my leg... you either need to pull back and bail on this... or you have to lean into it. So I decided just to, like, hold my ground.”
  — Jim Rash on his Oscar acceptance bit (43:32)

• “Six minutes with me is like six minutes, but underwater.”
  — Nathan Fillion (12:02)

• “Of all the things I noticed or took care of, I didn't notice that someone had pulled our basketball goal off the side of the house and tossed it into the creek.”
  — Jim Rash (68:13)

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Tone & Style

The episode is affectionate, rapid-fire, and delightfully self-deprecating, with all three participants embracing the “long, winding improv” energy. Riffs quickly morph between sincere wisdom, absurdist bits, and nostalgia; each host and guest brings personal anecdotes with a willingness to mock themselves and each other. The audience is treated as part of the inside joke.

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For Listeners Who Missed It

This episode is a must-listen for:

• Fans of Community, Firefly, or improv comedy
• Writers and creatives interested in navigating Hollywood, collaboration, and career pivots
• Anyone who relishes hearing charismatic, quick-witted friends peel back the layers of what it means to be talented, ever-evolving artists

Whether you want advice, inside scoop, or simply to laugh, “Once We Had A Tudyk Rash with Jim Rash” delivers.

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Transcript

[Nathan Fillion]

Is the Crownlings occult?

[Jim Rash]

Be honest.

[Nathan Fillion]

Do you all wear a jumpsuit of the same color? First question.

[Jim Rash]

In the early stages, while we don't share blood. We

[Nathan Fillion]

drink.

[Jim Rash]

We drink? No, they just. It's like cranberry juice. But it is to symbolize the blood of groundlings. And you say, as I drink from the cup of improv truth, allow my body to be filled with those who came before me so that I might stay present and always say, yes and drink. And then you're in.

[Alan Tudyk]

Once we were spacemen.

[Jim Rash]

Spacemen.

[Alan Tudyk]

I tend to play weird people. Usually aliens and robots and things that don't have romance.

[Nathan Fillion]

I once didn't get a job where they were looking for a Nathan Fillion type. Once we were space spacemen.

[Alan Tudyk]

Once we were spacemen. Oh, my God. There's a little dog just looking at me.

[Nathan Fillion]

Oh, boy. What are you gonna do about it?

[Alan Tudyk]

I gotta open the door for him.

[Nathan Fillion]

Go do it. Get. We gotta. We gotta get a dog in this podcast.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, yeah. Hey, buddy. I love you. Oh, what a skill.

[Nathan Fillion]

Alan, every once in a while, I meet someone who. And you're one of them who intimidates me with their talent.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, come on.

[Nathan Fillion]

It doesn't mean you're not a nice person. It doesn't mean I don't like you. It's just. It just means when I see art, if I think to myself I could do that, I'm upset by it. I don't appreciate art that I feel I could do.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah, I get that. When I showed you some paintings that I liked, you said I could slap that up. It was like some Twombly. Anybody who knows Twombly, he does a lot of bloopy things. He does a lot of. It's. Yeah, you feel like you could slap

[Nathan Fillion]

it up, but then I'll meet someone who's doing something so outside of my scope. I just. I. I marvel at the extent of the talent and. Alan, you're one of those people. And Jim Rash is one of those people.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Nathan Fillion]

I love watching this guy. Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

It seems effortless. Just so, so much fun. I can't wait to talk to him. We've. We've almost worked together. We. He took a job from me once.

[Jim Rash]

Oh.

[Alan Tudyk]

I don't know how he does. He and I do similar things, but he just does them with greater success and better. Son of a bitch.

[Nathan Fillion]

Sounds like we got some stuff to get to the bottom of. Okay, into. Pick the correct one. All right, let's do this.

[Jim Rash]

You were a rock during that.

[Alan Tudyk]

Thank you.

[Nathan Fillion]

Can we all Take a moment just to shake that off. Shake it all off.

[Jim Rash]

Just shake it off. Because, man, that was stress.

[Nathan Fillion]

That's my worst nightmare gym. Yeah, it's my worst nightmare.

[Jim Rash]

That's because I'm a cancer. So I just want to be liked. And I'm sitting there as my horoscope is telling me, jim, you're losing people, you're losing them fast. That's what my brain was doing.

[Nathan Fillion]

All right, for the folks listening, we just had a 30 minute technical snafu, which is I. And I mean, I don't know if you saw how much love and care went into that package, that kit that you just opened up in there.

[Jim Rash]

100%.

[Nathan Fillion]

No, I put that sticker on it. I made all those labels myself. All those little blue arrows and silver arrows. Yeah, Jim's over there trying to match a blue arrow to a silver arrow.

[Alan Tudyk]

Jim, it was. It was sci fi. We had sci fi things being said. First, the polarity. You toggle on me.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

Now toggle now.

[Jim Rash]

I mean, I love for folks, this video of Nathan just explained how to set this thing up is charming. I watched it eight times just for the pure enjoyment of it, but I failed to be able to, like, actually make it work. But now we. We're here, so it doesn't matter.

[Nathan Fillion]

Jim, welcome. Thank you. Thank you for doing this. I'm gonna. You know what, in all fairness, I realized in anticipation of today that I really didn't tell you anything about the podcast, what it's about, or anything like that. And in doing so, I wanted to try to describe it to you. We talk about, you know, we're gonna talk about your humble beginnings, your work, and the stuff that you're doing. We wanna talk about stuff that maybe other people don't ask you about all the time. We'll talk about normal stuff that people talk about, but love it. I also realize that, and this is something that Alan started, whenever he wants to talk about something new, he just creates a segment. Yeah, I'm gonna create a new segment. We're gonna call this. And Alan like to name a few. Let's get to know you better. What's that? What's what you listening to? So I want to just give you permission, Jim, at any time, if you wanted to create a segment of the show to start talking about something else.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, it's, yeah, 100%. And then now am I allowed to pass? So Alan throws out, you know, oh, my God. Let's. Let's go down our favorite ice creams. I'll just Be hard. Pass. Not that that's a terrible topic. I just want to give an example.

[Alan Tudyk]

You get a wonderful topic.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, two passes. Good.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, good.

[Jim Rash]

I gotta really.

[Alan Tudyk]

I'm gonna.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, you get two passes and if you get to like something else you don't want to talk about, you can go back and answer one of the passes and then.

[Jim Rash]

Okay.

[Nathan Fillion]

The pass on the great topic.

[Jim Rash]

Okay. Yeah, great.

[Alan Tudyk]

Pass.

[Jim Rash]

Pass.

[Alan Tudyk]

Recoup. That was.

[Jim Rash]

I love, I love a podcast with great rules and yeah, I have a

[Nathan Fillion]

new video coming out with all and some charts.

[Jim Rash]

If it's as clear as the one that helped me set this thing up. I mean just, you know, I think maybe it would take us 45 minutes for me to get all the rules down.

[Alan Tudyk]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Once we were Spacemen. Because once we were spacemen in space being men, we shaved, we didn't shower as much as the women. We were in space not shaving and butt shaving and not showering. And also with vacuum bathrooms, we ate things that were protein based. It's FAA now we're here with Jim Rat. This is. That's the Nathan feeling. Alan too. Okay. I really, you know, I. I keep meaning to plan more.

[Jim Rash]

Oh wait, that wasn't planned. Oh, I thought it was seamless.

[Alan Tudyk]

To me as a seasoned improv, you couldn't tell that was improv.

[Jim Rash]

No, not at all. That was like a well written novel by the time you got to plant based protein or. No, I think it was just protein. Maybe we were just eating protein in general. I was like, if you're going to space, be smart and do a protein diet.

[Alan Tudyk]

I didn't want to do the Tang thing because everybody does Tang stuff. No, no, no, no. That's give us a thing to eat in space. It's always Tang. And I don't suggestion.

[Nathan Fillion]

Have you two ever met?

[Jim Rash]

Yes, we actually, I think we. It's brief and you. But there was one. We read Harley Quinn the first episode in the room together.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh wow.

[Jim Rash]

This is so. This is a while ago, 2018. I don't know.

[Alan Tudyk]

Before the pandy.

[Jim Rash]

During the pandy. So we didn't really meet. I just walked into a very intimidating room of people like I of to do to read it together. Which is probably the most. I think it's lovely but at the same time it's a little intimidating because you get to hear everyone's voice for the first time, you know, with their characters.

[Alan Tudyk]

Right.

[Jim Rash]

And that to me is intimidating. Yeah. Because people will be like, that's what they went With. All right, that's the Riddler's gonna sound. Yeah, that's the Riddler. Okay. If. If we want him to be unliked. Sure. Let's go.

[Alan Tudyk]

We tend to like our villains likable. Damn it.

[Jim Rash]

I know, I know. No, it was. I mean, so we didn't really meet Alan, so I just wanted to make sure that we were in the same room briefly.

[Nathan Fillion]

Do you have that. Oh, sorry. Do you have that experience, Jim, where you go into rooms still and you feel intimidation factors?

[Jim Rash]

I think sometimes with. Yeah, I mean, I think it's that good nervous energy that I. You know, on the performance side of things. But, like, that was intimidating. Cause it's not often that you get to do the recording with the whole cast. Certainly not at least my experience. So I don't know. I just think some people like. And Alan's good example of that. I'll take. Take the compliment, Alan. That are really wonderful voice actors, voiceover and animation. And I think that can be intimidating sometimes. I've done some. I've done a good. For me, like, happy amount and keep doing it forever, but, you know. But I'm saying, like, I just say, like, when you're around people who. Who have a multitude of voices, like, I've. I have a couple.

[Alan Tudyk]

You and I. You and I auditioned for a voiceover role up against one another and you. You got it.

[Jim Rash]

Really?

[Alan Tudyk]

Yes.

[Jim Rash]

Which. Which one was.

[Alan Tudyk]

You Intimidate me? Oh, no, it was. It was something with Jonah Hill. Jonah Hill did a thing. Remember, he made an animated thing.

[Jim Rash]

Was it. Oh, my God.

[Alan Tudyk]

It was a long time ago.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. I was gonna say. I don't remember.

[Alan Tudyk]

I came in and did a weird voice and I was like, it was probably 2006, 2007.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, yeah. Anything back then? I'm not remembering.

[Alan Tudyk]

I barely remember those tapes. I understand.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. I raised the tapes of those years even, I think. I think Nathan and I did a pilot back in those days and I erased it. 20. 20, 2003, I think, or something.

[Alan Tudyk]

You guys did a pilot together?

[Nathan Fillion]

That's how I met. That's how I met Jim Rash. We did a pilot together called Alligator Point. That. That didn't go. But then how many years later did that resurface? They were going to do it again.

[Jim Rash]

They did.

[Nathan Fillion]

Passed around Hollywood with our names still attached to it.

[Jim Rash]

Still attached to it. It was. It was reshot around the time that TV Land was kind of in a zone with, you know, Hot in Cleveland and all those shows. And they. They revamped it for a TV Land it didn't go. But they had a different Nathan who.

[Nathan Fillion]

Who got it. Do you know who those. I want to know who.

[Jim Rash]

Well, I know who played me. The wonderful Leslie Jordan did my part.

[Alan Tudyk]

What?

[Nathan Fillion]

Oh, Leslie Allen. Allen wrote a part for Leslie. And the thing we did, we self funded. Incredible.

[Jim Rash]

I never got to meet him, but Dreamy, dreamy. And. And I heard Leslie Jordan's doing it. I was like, oh, yeah, that seems right that he's, he's. I was on Community at the time, so I couldn't do it. And whenever this was. So it was obviously 202009 area. Maybe it was redone.

[Nathan Fillion]

I was on Castle at the time. Across the street from you.

[Jim Rash]

That's right.

[Alan Tudyk]

I was unemployed. I lost that job to Leslie Jordan.

[Nathan Fillion]

And he hasn't. You haven't worked since, buddy. I used to come and visit you, Jim, when I would come across the street to the do ADR looping in a little facility on the Paramount lot. Whenever I went down there, I take the opportunity to go and crash your set and come and visit you guys.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. And I remember, I mean, it was an issue like people, oh, Nathan's here again. I guess security's not as tight as we thought it was. And then we're like, I guess he just maybe doesn't have friends and he just wants to hang out with us. But, you know, so. So we did that thing. And I could say this to your face because you know, it, you know, where you're just nice and make sure that you feel comfortable. Yeah. And then once you leave, like six

[Nathan Fillion]

minutes and then you guys would call for lunch and I was like, well, six minutes.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, lunch. Oh, that's too bad. Oh, we can't talk. But six minutes with you is like, that's, that's like a good hard 45

[Alan Tudyk]

with a heart out.

[Nathan Fillion]

Six minutes with me is like six minutes, but underwater.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. No. Yes. You would drive by and then you did something. What? You were in a couple, right?

[Nathan Fillion]

Yes, I actually, I have been re watching Community recently and there's a lot of episodes. I don't know if you know this. There's a lot of episodes of Community and there was one that looked so familiar to me and then I appeared in it and I went, oh, yeah, I forgot I was actually in this episode, but I did. I was your head custodian.

[Jim Rash]

That's right. That is right.

[Nathan Fillion]

I was. I was like a crooked kind of. I was always looking for the leg up, the what's in it for me kind of thing. You Guys had a really good time over there and we have a little bit of a shared experience in that a failed television program that goes into a movie. Did you guys do a community movie?

[Jim Rash]

No. It's the thing that we keep talking about. And, and you know, they. The six season movie was like a hashtag and so.

[Nathan Fillion]

Right.

[Jim Rash]

It's been persistent, but we were close and you know, it's a lot of schedules to going, so I don't know, maybe one day. But at some point, folks, I. I'm getting old. Let's do this. Let's not. You don't want to put them. You don't want to put your image side by side with your glasses, season of Community and go like, oof, ba boof. This guy. Wow, is Jim Rash melting. I mean, what is happening to him?

[Nathan Fillion]

I think that's an issue when you have a program that is much loved, but the further away you get from it, the fans of it look at you and they meet you finally and go, oh my God, you're so old.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. I mean, I'm actually happy when someone recognizes me out and about because I feel like, okay, okay, I'm within the parameters. No, I mean within the parameters of my face not being completely distorted where they're like, oh, that's him. And if they put a question mark after it, are you the dean? Then I worry all the way home, like, they weren't sure.

[Alan Tudyk]

You have appearance, continuity? Absolutely. You look good. You look good.

[Jim Rash]

Thank you. This light. I luck out with my New York light in this window because it's coming in nice.

[Nathan Fillion]

You've just moved to New York?

[Jim Rash]

I moved six months ago from la.

[Nathan Fillion]

How do you like it?

[Jim Rash]

Love it. I mean, I come here. I used to come here a lot, or I do. And I've always wanted to have. It's like a bucket list. I've always wanted to do it. I lived in LA for 30 years and I love it. But I wanted like a. A change. Something that was kind of scary, you know that kind of. And I don't mean the city, I mean scary in like a new chapter. Scary as in, like, I don't know it very well. I know a handful of people. I mean, now that Alan and I are talking, I think we're gonna get together, but.

[Nathan Fillion]

Right.

[Jim Rash]

That's what I've heard you say.

[Alan Tudyk]

I think if you wanted scary, you had to move to the Bronx. But this respect to the Bronx.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

I hear it's a lot of families.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. No, I just meant like, you know, like, you know, when you first got to like after post wherever, like, for me, I went from college to la. I wanted that feeling again where you're like, how do you operate? How do you figure this city out? How do you meet people? And I wanted that again, like the. I wanted to not be as comfortable.

[Alan Tudyk]

So you didn't live here before, ever, and you've just moved here later in life. This is.

[Jim Rash]

This makes complete sense. Like, yeah, Anyone listening to this is like, you know, swerving off the road going, is he insane? Was he insane? We moved at his age.

[Alan Tudyk]

We moved back. Like we. We had our college years here, my wife and I, and then moved back away to. And now we've moved back for retirement purposes and. But we always with. In our mind was like, that's a young person city.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

Are we going to be able to make it? The Village is. I've heard more sirens. You. You have more sirens than me?

[Jim Rash]

Well, right now it's been pretty good. But no, I walk down the street especially like, you know, nearing the weekend when everybody is out and, you know, now that's like spring into summer. It's like all the restaurants spill out. It's beautiful, it's wonderful. Great energy. But, yeah, young. And I'm walking down. No, I am walking, going, jim, what are you doing?

[Alan Tudyk]

It's an alive place, man. It's very nice down there now. I just saw something lortel, which is on Christopher Street. It's. That's. And like, there's. There was so many more dildo stores just in the 90s.

[Jim Rash]

That's why I moved here.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah.

[Jim Rash]

And there was so few.

[Alan Tudyk]

I mean, I saw one and I didn't know anybody who worked there.

[Jim Rash]

I was like, I do that with every city. Where's your dildo store? I say, I. The first thing I do is, you know, people get their. What is it? Zagat's or Zagat. I don't know. How do you pronounce it? But instead of restaurants, I get the one that's just for dildos.

[Alan Tudyk]

Right.

[Jim Rash]

And it's just smart because the gag.

[Alan Tudyk]

That's terrible.

[Jim Rash]

Now it's.

[Nathan Fillion]

What icon do they use on the map to show. I feel like a dildos on the nose.

[Jim Rash]

It's not on the nose. It's not like, you know, an actual dildo to point to you. It's just a very happy person's face

[Nathan Fillion]

giving you the wink.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, I'll take it. Look, I'm not. Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

Wow. Well, man, I'm fantastic. I've just moved back. You've just moved here for the first time. It wouldn't be a bad idea. There's a great gluten free Italian place that has good food even if you're not gluten free right there in the West Village that we could go to.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, I will actually take it. I'm. And maybe you just. Maybe you just see me, Alan. I'm celiac, so I really. Absolutely. I'm full on celiac. So I'm like, like, gluten hates my body.

[Alan Tudyk]

That's the levels when you're gluten free. You go in, you're like, I'll have this gluten free. And they go, hold up, are you celiac? And that then they know to clear the kitchen.

[Jim Rash]

They're full on. Yeah. Cross contamination and they are quite lovely. Now, now you guys have a separate

[Nathan Fillion]

phone list in your phone phone of like all my gluten free buddies, don't you? Like, you have like your friends you all hang out with and you have your friends that you go, I don't have to worry about where we're going to eat.

[Jim Rash]

No thing on the menu for me. No. Because I don't want to be judged by them. As I'm asking a ton of questions to the waiter.

[Nathan Fillion]

I'm not being judgmental. I'm just like, oh, get over it already.

[Jim Rash]

I know your voice is naturally judgmental. I mean, whenever I hear, when I close my eyes and Nathan's like saying good night, I'm like, jesus, does he hate me? That's how judgmental your voice sounds.

[Nathan Fillion]

I've worked on that.

[Jim Rash]

Go back to class.

[Nathan Fillion]

No, I mean, I worked to make. To be as judgmental as I am. Oh, no.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, then kudos then. Thank you. You graduated. Great.

[Nathan Fillion]

Where do you come from? Where does this, where does it all start? For the young Jim Rash, who's going to say, like, I'm going to get out of this one horse town.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, it was a one horse town in North Carolina. No, I grew. I grew up in. In Charlotte, North Carolina. Yeah. And so car lot. What's that?

[Alan Tudyk]

We always just called it car lot.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, car lot. Oh, I. That's new for me, but.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, really?

[Jim Rash]

I grew up in car lot. Car lot, North Carolina. And I went to University of Chapel Hill. But then after that I. I was straight to la. So that's where the, the humble beginnings were.

[Alan Tudyk]

It's a humble town.

[Nathan Fillion]

La.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

[Nathan Fillion]

What are you doing in Charlotte? That. That someone says, hey, you need to pack your bags and go to Los Angeles. Jim just.

[Jim Rash]

They just Wanted me out of there. I think just as a.

[Nathan Fillion]

You don't belong.

[Jim Rash]

We. We don't care for you. If you don't know how to set up. If you don't know how to set up a microphone, get out of here. No, I. Well, I certainly was into theater in high school. You know, I. I loved it from, you know, from an early age, from children's theater on, you know, and so I don't know if LA was in my brain at that time, but once I got to Chapel Hill, I was. I. While I didn't major in. In theater, which I would be a regret, I wish, because I am amazing theater department, but I majored in, like, film and television production because I thought I knew I wanted to be in this world and. And got introduced a little bit, Tiny bit to improv. But I mean, for the most part, from the very early age, I. Maybe it's the divorce. Kid in the corner playing with toys and acting out and not acting out, but you know what I'm saying? Like, imagination time. And then that segues into that. But for me, high school was that. I mean, I ran track because you had to run. You had to do a sport at my school, like, for. That's all I did. I was like, well, you can't get cut from track, so I'll do that.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, you're not trying hard enough.

[Jim Rash]

No, I wasn't. I literally showed up for track because you had to. And they were like, what are you gonna do? I go, I don't know. Hurdles, which made no sense because I'm five' nine. It's hard. You telling me it was. I never. I barely finished a race without being eliminated because I either kicked over a hurdle or ran around it. At that point, I was like, I just wanna get to the. I literally wanna get to the end of this race where I have to be in the sport and move on. I was terrible.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, that's a tough one.

[Jim Rash]

It's stupid. It's stupid. I should have just said, oh, I'll sprint. Or long distance would have been better for me.

[Nathan Fillion]

I tried that in. In junior high school. I tried the little. I think they even had smaller hurdles because we were kids, whatnot. But I was like. After three hurdles, I was tired and I crotched the fourth one. And I said, this is not for me.

[Jim Rash]

I wish I had the children hurdles. Then I would have. Then I would have gone over them, maybe.

[Alan Tudyk]

So. So you didn't go into. You didn't go into drama. You went into film and tv, did that Teach you how to become a director one day. I don't want to jump too far

[Jim Rash]

ahead, but no, I thought I should take a production class because I thought if I'll get to LA and what if like acting doesn't work out or like, you know, I had interest in everything. And so, no, it was like classes. Like yeah, you would, you would shoot and direct your own little shorts and screenwriting classes, but then I would take any acting, you know, classes you could take that you weren't like a whatever major. And. And then I did like, you know, maybe one student play. But then I drove thinking I was, you know, ready. But by the time I like arrived in la, literally though, I got a used car and drove across country. By that time, everything I was learning on like three quarter tapes, like old school, you know, like broadcast news. Joan Cusack running a big tape. That's the hallway, that's what we were shooting on. Just imagine, by the time I got there, they were like, what? What? No, we've moved on.

[Nathan Fillion]

So it was a bit of a technological culture shock of the how the industry was progressing for you.

[Jim Rash]

But also like I did, I just landed and I started waiting tables like I had in college and you know, got my headshot. So I was already on a path to at least try it. And then I discovered, you know, the grounding is pretty fast on. So everything sort of changed right away.

[Nathan Fillion]

Did you know anybody in la? Did you have any support system? Like people talk about, oh, I just moved to la. Like it's not nothing, but it's a, it's a huge city where you're going to just step into an industry where there's no true path to get in.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, no, I didn't, no, I crashed on the couch of a guy who, who graduated two years from me and that was the extent of who I knew.

[Alan Tudyk]

Wow.

[Jim Rash]

And, and he wasn't even living in la. He was in Manhattan Beach. And if you know that area, it's not even, it's a good drive, it's a wonderful area, but you can't be there. And, and, and go to LA every day. South of Venice. Yeah. So I was like, no, I, I went in there with zero.

[Nathan Fillion]

So your friends and family back home, you say, I'm moving to la. What's the general. Are they saying, yeah, you've got this or what are you thinking?

[Jim Rash]

Well, I told you, they were like, good, get out. They good riddance. Good, have, have fun with your make believe time? No, I, well, my parents were always supportive. I mean, scared I remember, you know, scared, meaning, like, that's quite the challenge. You know, my dad was, you know, did law school and was a dean of a. Funny enough dean of a college for a little bit. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, for him, you know, you were, you know, you do a good job, you get a promotion. Like, he always talked about how you. He understood the. That version as far as advice. But we were signing up for a roller coaster. We were signing up for rejection today. You know, plummet back up. Plummet back up every day. So I think that they. He was quite impressed that, you know, you're going to go and put yourself into that. That sort of up and down of the roller coaster. But, yeah, they were always supportive, you know.

[Nathan Fillion]

And how did you find the Groundlings?

[Jim Rash]

Someone just told me about it. I was like, only three months in, maybe into being in la, and someone says, oh, you should check out the ground. This great place to land to do classes and improv. And I done bad improv in college or at least like attempted improv in college.

[Alan Tudyk]

Did you have a. Did you have a name of your. Of an improv troupe in college?

[Jim Rash]

No, it was like there was a group and I forget their name where I just sort of popped in.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, it was like mixed nuts.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, it's always good. There's no, there's nothing better than. Than improv. Granny's old panties. We're Granny's old panties. Or, you know. Yeah, yeah, we're the Electric Parade, which is not a good one. But, you know, we're. We're used. Band Aid.

[Alan Tudyk]

Welcome.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, it's always something like that. So I, Yeah, I knew right away and I started taking classes and it became like kind of graduate school in so many ways. And also shrunk LA down into an imaginable.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, yeah.

[Jim Rash]

Arena for me. Like, everybody looks for that little thing that could just take LA and shrink it and give you this sort of community, if you will.

[Alan Tudyk]

For me, that was prison and it was prison.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, prison.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah. I was. I had a thing with hot cars. They weren't hot until I got in them, turned them on.

[Jim Rash]

God right. God right. Damn freedom. That's it. But that's a great, like, you know. Yeah, find it. Find the love where you can. Prison or an improv theater.

[Alan Tudyk]

So is. So you. Did you immediately when you got into Groundlings, were you.

[Nathan Fillion]

Is it.

[Alan Tudyk]

Is it like. I know a little bit more about Second City where it's like you come in. In your first year and you. Where you have to, like, you do things in the first year and then you go to the second year and you want to get in the touring company. And then there's the main stage and there's tiers of things and some probably

[Jim Rash]

similarities minus the, you know, we don't have a touring company, but yeah, you would do. You know, we have like four levels to the ground basic, intermediate. And then you have a thing called writing lab, which sort of starts introducing writing, you know, through whether monologues and scenes. Then you do a more advanced scene writing. And then we have instead of a touring company, we have our sunny company, which is kind of your last stage of the school. Yeah. And then some people make it into the grounding, some people don't. But, you know, it took about four years for me to get through all that stuff.

[Alan Tudyk]

Cool. So.

[Nathan Fillion]

Oh.

[Alan Tudyk]

So even if some people get done and they're like, that was fun. Get out. And they're gone and they. And they head out to form Mixed Nuts or something like that with the people who also can.

[Jim Rash]

A lot of us would, you know, in between classes also take our groups, make a small group and go do it while we're waiting for the next level. So, Nathan, are you raising your hand for some reason?

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, I'm sorry, I. I didn't see. Yeah, he's. Yeah, down in you, sir.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, the folks can't see. But for the longest time, which was really annoying, I was trying to talk and Nathan kept going and putting his hand up like we were at a press conference. Yeah, okay. Yes, you.

[Nathan Fillion]

Oh, press conference. I hold up a pin.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, okay. Okay, Great. Hi. Yeah. So you. Are you from Highlights magazine?

[Nathan Fillion]

What's your question from. From Highlights Junior Magazine.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, great.

[Nathan Fillion]

We don't try to get the older Highlights audience. No, no, that can't read.

[Jim Rash]

No, Half. Half the audience again, is swerving, going, what the F is Highlights? Why are these three men who are all ask your parents the same age, talking about Highlights magazine?

[Alan Tudyk]

Right.

[Nathan Fillion]

Question is, I mean, clearly there's some auspices around Groundlings and a lot of incredibly successful people have come out of Groundlings. And I hear people talking about Groundling. I've never taken a class from Groundlings. I've never been. I've seen some shows that were absolutely incredible. There's a lot of talent. Like I said. I have a question. Is the Groundlings occult?

[Jim Rash]

Be honest.

[Nathan Fillion]

Do you all wear a jumpsuit of the same color? First question.

[Jim Rash]

In the early stages, there's. While we don't share blood, we

[Nathan Fillion]

drink.

[Jim Rash]

We drink. No, it's like cranberry juice, but it is to symbolize the blood of Groundlings. And you say, as I drink from the cup of improv truth, allow my body to be filled with those who came before me so that I might stay present and always say, yes and drink, and then you're in.

[Nathan Fillion]

So not a cult?

[Jim Rash]

No.

[Nathan Fillion]

What.

[Jim Rash]

What part of what. What part of like, drinking faux blood sounds like a cult to you? My friend, that's a Saturday night.

[Nathan Fillion]

It's a badge of honor, though. It's.

[Jim Rash]

I mean, I feel very grateful that I. I dropped. I found. I started taking classes there for sure, for a host of reasons.

[Nathan Fillion]

I just think that. I mean, people. I remember coming out to LA and people talking about their acting class, and everybody sound like they drank some Kool Aid going to this acting class. Outside of the bubble of that acting class, nobody cares. But within that bubble, everybody cares. The Groundlings is one of those things that has no bubble. Everybody cares about. Oh, Groundlings. It.

[Alan Tudyk]

It means.

[Nathan Fillion]

It has meaning that they're doing something right down there. The training is clearly working well, I

[Jim Rash]

think, you know, like Second City and like UCB and Groundlings, you know, the. The fundamentals and the. The basics of improv are universal. Like, as far as. As what we're learning, you know, some might be more character or, you know, focused, like Groundlings. As far as. As. From there.

[Alan Tudyk]

I'm sorry, I'm totally interrupting you, but you said this. You said this. And we also, you know, we talked to Edie Patterson and she mentioned that she's. She's fucking brilliant. It's that the Groundlings, sort of their brand of improv is character, is character. And she likes writing now, Character driven pieces. She is definitely a character actress, but so how would that. So, like, you've got a character. Let's say somebody that's in. Yeah, somebody. So you got this character. You do a monologue, it sounds like. And then you just. You then tease that out into a scene. Like you put this guy in a scene.

[Jim Rash]

Or they might have exercises where. Yeah. We might have students pull from obviously people they know, family or stuff, and sort of like improvise, almost like a monologue or give a situation. And then from there might, you know, in that improving and almost like stream of consciousness, like if, you know, just going off of being an expert or however they frame this character is or what information you get.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah.

[Jim Rash]

Then maybe there'll be some things that sort of little beautiful nuggets happen, and then maybe we'll have them go write that more on their own. So now they're Taking that and creating an actual structure. So that's kind of like the device of the lessons. How cool. And so for the most part, we're, you know, we're. Or the edge. They're trying to get you to push to, like, sort of like, get specific with your characters, because everyone can go, oh, I have my Southern guy. Right, right, right. I have my. I have my British.

[Alan Tudyk]

Right.

[Jim Rash]

But if you start really thinking about your family and. And. And.

[Nathan Fillion]

Or.

[Jim Rash]

Or observing people out in the. In. In the wild, you know, we would try to do exercises to bring those kind of things to the forefront. But yes, I mean, Edie. Edie, for example, is like one of the. The greats, you know, as far as, like, a deep well of characters. I have, like, I. I have like a kitty pool.

[Alan Tudyk]

She gets weirdly specific to where you're like, less specificity, please. Oh, yeah, I don't want to know that their sperm is like hot dog water.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, that seems that. That is. That is very ed information. Absolutely. 100%.

[Alan Tudyk]

Nathan, you. You have your hand up again.

[Jim Rash]

Is up again. Yes.

[Nathan Fillion]

I had another question. This one's for Jim.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, thanks. Good.

[Nathan Fillion]

Nat Faxon. Am I. Am I pronouncing that name correctly?

[Jim Rash]

Nat Faxon is correct. Yes.

[Nathan Fillion]

Okay. I feel like they wanted to go for Nathan, but they stopped writing it.

[Jim Rash]

No, he's. He's. He is a Nathaniel, and I don't know a full name, but he goes, yeah. I don't know where Nat.

[Alan Tudyk]

Does he go with a G or anything?

[Nathan Fillion]

Because Nathaniel takes too long to say

[Jim Rash]

Nathaniel with a G. Is that what you said?

[Alan Tudyk]

I just did. Nat class.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, the British spelling. Yes.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yes.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, right.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yes. My question is, I'm looking for. I want a timeline for meeting Nat Faxon saying, oh, we should. He and I, we're gonna. We're gonna be good if we write together. That'll be fun. And then the conversation of, oh, man, wouldn't it be cool? What if we won an Oscar and then winning an Oscar. I want that timeline starting with meeting Matt.

[Jim Rash]

Great, Great. Well, the first thing I did, you know, when I met him, was let's make a vision board, and we're gonna put an Oscar on there in the middle, and everything will be well. When people. I say, first things first. Let's make a vision board.

[Nathan Fillion]

Let's make a vision board.

[Jim Rash]

What do we want to explore? Where do we want to travel on my vision board?

[Nathan Fillion]

Is there a big microphone in the middle with like.

[Jim Rash]

No, there's a big microphone in the morning. Yeah, yeah.

[Nathan Fillion]

And then. And Then. And then.

[Jim Rash]

And then I have like a sign that says, you know, if he calls, do not answer. So the. So these are just things that I have personally on my vision board for you to.

[Nathan Fillion]

Projects with Nathan. Fail.

[Jim Rash]

Project with Nathan. Yeah, yeah. So Nat and I obviously met at the Groundlings along the time. We were both. I didn't meet him until we got into the Sunday Company together. You write with everyone at the Groundlings. So in other words, some people write. You write by yourself, obviously, and write with everyone when you're putting together a sketch show. So you always naturally find people that you maybe write faster with or better or an easy time. And so that was not Nat. He kept coming back to me and asking if we could write again. I'm like, oh, my God, this is death.

[Nathan Fillion]

Is it true?

[Jim Rash]

No, to his face.

[Alan Tudyk]

I wish it were.

[Jim Rash]

No, I wish it was to his face. Do I say he's, you know, oh, my God, you're death to me. Yes, but sure, sure. No, no, he. No, we did, you know, we. With many, like, you know, it was fun to write with Edie. It was fun to write with all them, but. So Nat and I had a couple, I guess, of, you know, decent track record. And then at one point we were like, oh, we should write, you know, something, a pilot. And weirdly enough, we wrote a pilot that actually got made called Adopted. I know it is a crazy. Lightning struck and we wrote I'm Adopted. So we had sort of pulled from Not a true story, but certainly an element of truth. And we did it abc. It did not go, but it had Bernadette Peters and Christine Baranski as the two moms. And I'm telling you, I mean, that's all I needed. It didn't need to go. I was like, oh, my goodness, I just did a pilot with Bernadette Peters and not me as an actor. We weren't in it. But anyway, it was a comedy. I'm guessing it was a sitcom. It's a multi camera. Back when multi cam was like, oh, back when it was like every night was four. Multi cam, you know, four shows, eight to ten was all multi camera.

[Alan Tudyk]

Right?

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah. So from meeting Nat to we're writing together, are we talking month? Are we talking. No.

[Jim Rash]

Well, groundings wise, you know, we got so sunny company. I got in like a year before Nat did As far as into the Ground Lane. And then we were. I think we did that pilot Roughly around 2002, 2003, maybe. And I got into the groundings in 2000. So within three years of getting to the groundlings, this happened.

[Nathan Fillion]

Okay, so that's for writing together and having success like that right off the bat. Seems like this is a recipe for success. It seems pretty easy.

[Jim Rash]

Yes. You see that? Yes.

[Nathan Fillion]

Now, when do this discussions, the dreams start happening? Do you start dreaming together and saying, what if we want an Oscar? Does that conversation take place?

[Jim Rash]

Well, it does. And I don't know about you with your early friendships, but I always insist on sleepovers. So we would dream like.

[Nathan Fillion]

Like on the same pillow.

[Jim Rash]

On the same pillow. And it's like, it's the classic thing friends do where they lay down next to each other and they are looking up at the ceiling and they're having that beautiful pillow talk, classic pillow talk, where they're like, what do you see yourself? What do you see yourself? And then. And then, like, almost like as if they are one, they just naturally close their eyes and fall into slumber and. And they wake up and they go, what did you dream about? What did you dream about? And you see what was.

[Alan Tudyk]

Where are my pants? Yes. No.

[Jim Rash]

If my pants aren't on, I'm like, well, that was a good slumber.

[Nathan Fillion]

Now it's easy to joke. And here's something I've noticed because, Jim, I did a bunch of watching of interviews on you and whatnot. And whenever it comes around to talking about your Oscar, you're excellent at deflecting.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, okay, I will talk about it, but I won't. I won't. I won't do a bit. I will make that. I won't do an improv.

[Nathan Fillion]

I'm not saying don't. I'm just saying I notice. You do.

[Jim Rash]

I do.

[Nathan Fillion]

But we're gonna fight. We're gonna fight it out of you.

[Jim Rash]

Okay? Fight it out.

[Alan Tudyk]

Can I Can.

[Nathan Fillion]

It is a dream, right? That there's every. You've got a dream about an Oscar. At one point, you. You see people making speeches and you go, oh, my speech would be xyz. And you think about it.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Nathan Fillion]

You practice a hairbrush in front of the mirror.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, 100. I bet 100. That's how my hair fell out. How I became bald, because I was always pretending that the hairbrush was an award and my hair was like, you know what? Fuck you. We're out of here.

[Alan Tudyk]

Tired of waiting.

[Jim Rash]

We're tired. Well, we're tired of this make believe, dumb speech you keep making.

[Alan Tudyk]

Can I say this? You won the Oscar for the Descendants.

[Jim Rash]

Yes.

[Alan Tudyk]

We'll get closer to the award here. You won for the Descendants. And I need to apologize Very quickly. Because you need to talk about this a little bit because people may not know. Like, for me, I for some reason thought you won your Oscar for Crash. So Crash, whenever people tend to trash that movie and say it shouldn't have won an Oscar, it was a, A, a weak year or something like that. And whenever they say that in my head for all these years, I've thought a Jim Rash. That's not nice. Seems like such a nice guy. Everybody's beating up on Jim. I don't see them winning fucking Oscars. So I've been in my head defending you against the onslaught people Crash. But it's not Crash. It's a, even a better movie than Crash. It's the Descendants with George Clooney and others.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

Launched her career.

[Jim Rash]

Yep.

[Alan Tudyk]

100 many others. It was about Hawaii and someone was in a coma.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. You. You still write movie recaps, right? Because it's. That was, That's.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah, that was it. And then four stars. Someone was in a coma. Four stars.

[Jim Rash]

There's Hawaii. Yes.

[Alan Tudyk]

George Clooney runs and flip flops.

[Jim Rash]

And flip flops.

[Alan Tudyk]

Four stars.

[Jim Rash]

So, yeah, Descendants is the one. You know, we had. Nat and I had written what would be. And we didn't shoot at that point the way, way back, which would be a movie that would be made. Love that movie.

[Nathan Fillion]

Love it. Thank you.

[Jim Rash]

All would be after it, but Sam Rockwell. And so that movie, that script got onto the blacklist and that got us into the room to meet Alexander Payne and Jim Burke. His ran his company and they had optioned this book, the Descendants. Cowie Hart Hemmings wrote it, a wonderful book. And we hadn't adapted before, but we, like many other writers had gone in to sort of like post reading, give our take on what the screenplay would be. And some, you know, by luck we got the job. So that became sort of a journey that I didn't realize at that time would be leading to the Oscars. But ultimately, did Alexander Payne.

[Alan Tudyk]

Great, fantastic director. Did he. He wrote with you? He. He wasn't a writer, he's just a director now.

[Jim Rash]

In the beginning, what happened was we, we did the very first pass, and then the last, the strike, Writer's Guild strike happened. Not the most recent one. The one before that, that was like 100 days. So we had 100 days, you know, pens down, pencils down. And then so we did the second draft after we finally got our notes, after the strike was over. And at the time, Alexander was not going to direct it. He was in prep to maybe shoot what he would ultimately shoot but got shelved for a little bit and I'm forgetting I'm spacing on the name, but it had Matt Damon in it where they're shrunk down. Downsized. Downsize, yes. And so at the time they were going to make Downsize and so he would. This was just going to be his production company. So the long short of it is when he had to shelve that one for a little bit, he decided he was itching to direct and so he jumped and decided to do Descendants. And that point all three of us sort of looked at where we were, you know, with the two drafts and then. And then he took it to the finish line so that he would then go to Hawaii and shoot it.

[Alan Tudyk]

It.

[Jim Rash]

So. So yes, at the end, it was the three of us.

[Nathan Fillion]

Night of the Oscars. Is there a chat beforehand saying I'll. I'll do all the talking. You. We'll. We'll go up there, we'll get the award. But I'll. You guys just chill and hanging back and I'll. I'll. I'll take it.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. Alexander did ask to speak because he had wanted to. I. I can't remember if he had was because he was going to thank his. We'll talk. He specifically wanted to talk to thank his mother. And from my recollection, he was going to speak for us. And we. He had some. He had said if we get the Independent Spirit Award, you guys should talk. Which we did. And if we get up there for that now, we. We didn't win the Golden Globe. So, you know, it was like a. Who knew what was going to happen? Moneyball1. And so we were like, you know, that was a wonderful script as well and so know who knew. And so at the time he had just sort of set that into our brains and which was fine by us. And then we went up there and. And you know, of course, I, being who I am, decided to try to make a bit of it.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yes, you did.

[Jim Rash]

Wait, put my leg out. I. Well, because at that year it. Angelina Jolie had a fantastic dress on and split way, split way right up to the hip.

[Nathan Fillion]

And she stood up there and posed in that one position where you saw the entirety of her gorgeous leg. And it was. It was. It was amazing. It was wild. And then when Jim came up, I just saw the same.

[Jim Rash]

I should struck the same pose because I thought that's a great, great stance. Powerful. And I just put the, you know, statue on my leg and there was like chuckles, you know, it's one of those things where, like, you either need to. You need to pull back and bail on this gym, or you have to lean into it. So I decided just to, like, hold my ground.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yep.

[Jim Rash]

And then eventually people sort of got on board. Got on board. But for a while there, it could have been a disaster. And Alexander looked behind me, and, you know, he probably was like, oh, this motherfucker. He wasn't. He got to say, wonderfully, Alexander, thank goodness, you know, because that. That time clock goes on. Goes. Starts ticking immediately. And as I recall, it was. It's a triangle that's getting smaller, not actual numbers. So it's as if that's more respectful, as I recall. So it's just this big triangle getting smaller, which is letting you know that they're going to play music very soon. And thank goodness Alexander got his whole speech in and said we wanted to say, because that would have been. I would have been. We would not be speaking today, because I don't. I think I would have been returned to car lot, as you said, car lot, North Carolina. And they would go, keep him. We're done. We're done.

[Nathan Fillion]

I am so happy you did that because there are some memorable moments in that award ceremony, and I don't think Alex's speech was one of them.

[Jim Rash]

Well, I mean, I think the sentiment is beautiful, but I just. I. It was hard. I don't know. You know, maybe the. It's easy to say you're not going to speak, but then when you get up there and you're like, wait a minute, I might not be here. This is crazy. So you're. You're the. The. Your entertainer brains. You know, you're selfish. Like, I need attention brain. But that's how we're. See that.

[Nathan Fillion]

I saw someone say. I saw a man saying, somebody has to say something. And I'm glad you did.

[Jim Rash]

Well, okay.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, some. Somebody has to do something, and you see the right thing, the right.

[Jim Rash]

Maybe I'm gonna take. I'm gonna take that. I'll.

[Nathan Fillion]

I'll.

[Jim Rash]

I'll. But I. I'm sure in my brain, it was like, look at me.

[Alan Tudyk]

I love that. In your head, you know that the. It got a few laughs and there was that moment of bail or keep going, and then you won the audience. Like, you had your.

[Jim Rash]

Yes. You know, there was a huge. There was. You could. It's pal to me. When I. When I have ever looked at it again, I'm like, I know what's happening right now. It's like little. Little fluttering Of. Of recognition and chuckles. But it could have it. If I had backed up right there, you would be like that bit tank.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, but because you went into it, I think people understand. I think they were wondering if it was okay to laugh. I think they were.

[Jim Rash]

No, I. I leaned in. I leaned in and then Nat looked at me. He was mad at me, but he looked at me and, well, madness is

[Nathan Fillion]

like, what are you.

[Jim Rash]

I didn't know we were doing that. I go, I didn't know either.

[Nathan Fillion]

He could have done a bit. Yeah, he could have. Yeah.

[Jim Rash]

He leans in. He does a little bit.

[Nathan Fillion]

That was. It was wonderful. It was. It was. It was memorable. It was. What changed? What changed? Clearly, you got an enormous head and became a real.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Look at me. I'm a huge tool.

[Alan Tudyk]

Well, I think it's nice that you brought the Oscar into the zoom.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, yeah, right.

[Alan Tudyk]

You could see it in frame.

[Nathan Fillion]

Well, it's hanging around your neck. It's.

[Jim Rash]

How do I miss it? That's why my head's resting on the table while I'm talking. Swollen and swollen. But I have got great neck muscle. It looks great. I.

[Nathan Fillion]

Did anything change? Did. Did the. Did the phone start ringing?

[Jim Rash]

I think I. I guess change in the sense that maybe, though the. The door opens a little bit to hear what you have to say, but it doesn't mean that they're going to say yes when you walk through the door. But I do think. I do think for a little bit there, people are curious about what you're going to do next. So I'll tell you what. It did. The best. The best thing it did for us was reopen the way, way back, because that had sort of died on the vine. And as you all know, it's like, as TV shows or scripts or. Or what, get a little old on the shelf, people go, what else you got? You know, in other words, they could have, like, some success. They're almost to the finish line. It didn't happen. It fell off. And then years pass and people are like, yeah, yeah, I like it, I like it, but what else you got? As if it's. It's tainted. So that's what happened the way, way back. And so I think that the. The Descendants. I know for sure open the door at least for someone to say, okay, I'm. I'm listening, you know, because it took eight years to make that movie, from the we first wrote it to when we actually decided, let's just direct it and do it ourselves. Was eight years.

[Nathan Fillion]

Wow.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

You do The Way Way Back.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, yeah. And from the. From the blacklist. Blacklist to shooting, it was, I believe, just shy of, if not exactly eight years.

[Nathan Fillion]

You talked about being intimidated, being in a room of everybody doing voices for the animated thing that you met Alan. And then you look at the cast of the Way Way Back, and you, sir, were directing

[Alan Tudyk]

that Steve Carell.

[Jim Rash]

Jesus.

[Alan Tudyk]

Right, Yeah.

[Nathan Fillion]

I. I could not imagine a more stressful, intimidating who's. Who.

[Alan Tudyk]

Who was all in that cast. I'm not remembering.

[Jim Rash]

There's a wife, Sam Rockwell, Steve Carell, Allison Janney, Tony Collette.

[Alan Tudyk]

Tony Collette.

[Jim Rash]

We had, well, Maya and Maya Rudolph. Maya Rudolph, who was friends with us from the Groundlings.

[Nathan Fillion]

Cool.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, she did that. Amanda, Pete and Rob Cordry.

[Nathan Fillion]

The list goes on.

[Jim Rash]

List goes on. And then. And wonderful Anna Sophia Robb, who's wonderful, might be newer at the time, but now everyone certainly knows her. So, yeah, we had lots. And then wonderful kid Liam, who we discovered from Canada.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, right, the kid. Yeah, right. I've heard of it.

[Nathan Fillion]

I've heard of Canada.

[Alan Tudyk]

Very good.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, yeah, It's. It turns out some decent people.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, that experience had to be. I mean. I mean, these are. These are all heavy hitters. These are all powerful, powerful talents.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Nathan Fillion]

They're looking at you going, who. Who are you? Yeah.

[Jim Rash]

Well, first of all, they were all lovely. No one was difficult to work with, but in my head, yes, they had signed up for, you know, because Nat and I were directing for the first time, and we. I don't know who came to the party first. I mean, we. We knew Allison, so technically probably wrote that dawn, her character, for her, and so maybe she was the first Dawn. But I do remember one of my favorite stories from that process was Sam Rockwell is interested, wants to. But wants to chat with you guys, because everyone wants to chat because you're directing for the first time. They want to go, who the are these guys? And we, at the time, Nat and I were in the car together. We were driving down Pico, near where Fox is, and there's that. There's a golf course right across the street. And I remember we had to pull over to have this. This call with him from the car, and. And we were just psyching ourselves up. You know, you're by. You're by the side. Okay. We have to be. We have to be confident. We have to make sure that he. He believes in us, but not over confident, not overconfident and be open to what he's saying. Don't. Don't bulldozer.

[Nathan Fillion]

Don't be a pusher.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. And don't say, there's nothing we won't change. You gotta be malleable. You gotta be script malleable. So we answer. He's like, and this is not an impression of Sam, but. But you would know that. That sort of great, laid back. Like, hey, what's up, guys? Again, Alan, don't get upset because my voiceover is a little.

[Alan Tudyk]

Characters aren't.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, that is you. You probably would do a Rockwell right away, but here we go. So he's like. He's very laid back. He's like, hey, what's up, guys? Yeah, yeah, it's funny. It's like. It's like Bill Murray and meatballs. Which was exactly what we were thinking. Had that vibe of, like, us, the movies we would grow up on, you know, like that friendship of this older guy and this young kid. And he's like. He's like, yeah, yeah, let's do it. That was it. Like, literally, our agent said, said, guys, you're gonna have to convince him. You give confidence. And he just goes, yeah, yeah, let's do it. You guys like improv, right? Yeah, that's what we came from. Yeah, let's do it. And that was the call. Brain exploded. And so by. From that point, you start creating this dinner party. And once, you know. You know, it's like, once you tell people who's at the dinner party, right. Then other actors are like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to be at that dinner party.

[Alan Tudyk]

It's a good dinner party.

[Nathan Fillion]

Wow, man.

[Alan Tudyk]

And made a good. And made a good movie, too. And it. Like, what. What is the process of. Well, that one had a crazy process of eight years, and it went to the blacklist and all of that.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

I don't know if I'm jumping ahead too much, but there's this great movie that's out right now on hbo. Max.

[Jim Rash]

Miss you.

[Nathan Fillion]

Love you.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yes, you. Love you. Miss you.

[Nathan Fillion]

Love you.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

And. And that one is another one with Alison Janney.

[Jim Rash]

Yep.

[Alan Tudyk]

And Anthony Runnels.

[Jim Rash]

Andrew Reynolds. Yeah. I love.

[Alan Tudyk]

Damn it.

[Jim Rash]

I like Anthony Runnels, though.

[Alan Tudyk]

Anthony.

[Jim Rash]

Have you met him? He is horrible to work with.

[Alan Tudyk]

That's how he. That's how he introduced himself to me.

[Jim Rash]

No, you know, what is. This will be. This will be great. This is Jim, like, circling back to highlights, but it's. Andrew Reynolds is like the Galant. And Anthony Runnels is like Goofus. If you remember, Highlight magazine, Goofus and Gallant. And now everyone is swerving, going like, Jim needs to let go of the highlight references because I do not what know what the he's talking about.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, I see them all piled up on a magazine rack at the back of your apartment. All the highlights.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. Over there.

[Nathan Fillion]

Collections.

[Jim Rash]

That's unfortunately, all the word finders are done in crayons. Anyway. It's Andrew Reynolds and Alison Janney. Yes. Miss you, Love you. It's on HBO Max. Literally only like came out two weeks ago.

[Alan Tudyk]

If that it's in the top 10, everyone. So check it out.

[Jim Rash]

We made that top 10. Yeah. I'm very proud of it. And, and they're amazing in it. It's, it's kind of a, just a two handers, mostly them. There's some smaller parts of friends who came to the party as well.

[Nathan Fillion]

But I was going to say I asked this of everyone, Jim. I, I, I'm guessing it's probably alligator point, but at what point in your career did you say I made it?

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, you're right. Yeah, I just made me laugh. I was taking a sip of water, folks, as Nathan decided to, to initiate what I, I take as an instant bit like, I guess it's alligator point for me, where I leaned in and go, when I saw Nathan, I was like, yeah, I made it. I know. You know, he's got it and I'm on a train and I'm gonna, I'm gonna get on that coattail and I'm gonna ride it wherever this, this gentleman goes to the top. I, I don't, I, it's hard to say what made me feel like I made it. I mean, my first real, like, job that had, you know, series regular job was a show called Naked Truth back in like 98, 1998. It was a sitco.

[Alan Tudyk]

Teone.

[Jim Rash]

Teone. Yep, exactly. And Taylor. Holland Taylor. Yeah. Holland Taylor. Yes, I know your names.

[Alan Tudyk]

Alan Anthony Runnels and Ta.

[Jim Rash]

Anthony Runs Tia. But Ta. And so I, I, I wouldn't say that I was like, oh, it made it. But that was my first like, moment of like, oh my God, I'm, you know, I'm not gonna have to just keep waiting tables and, and you know,

[Nathan Fillion]

for a little bit when you can support yourself. That's, that'.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, yeah, it was lovely. And so, but I, I, I, yeah, I don't know, I don't know the exact moment, but, but that, that always felt like a, the beginning for me.

[Nathan Fillion]

Did your dad ever, at one point in your career call you up and go, I'm proud of you, son?

[Jim Rash]

No. God, yeah. Like a after school special. Yeah.

[Nathan Fillion]

Kind of looked at you and go,

[Jim Rash]

no, I think they were, they were, were like, certainly both my mom and dad vicariously, you know, living through those ups and downs, you know, along with me. I don't even. Vicariously. I guess that, that's not the word I want to meant. But anyway, yes. No, I think they were very proud that I stuck it through because again, I think they were shocked about. What's the advice I give you? I don't know. Just, you know, you're going to get. Go up and down because, you know, you get hit rejection pretty fast from like hour to hour in the beginning for sure. If not continuously. I still get. You still like, you know, reset and remind yourself of like, oh, yeah, that's right. Some, some are going to go my way, some aren't. You know, and sometimes I want to write stuff that's like just a piece of crap, like, please no eyeballs, read this. And sometimes I'm like, oh, that's not terrible. You know, I, you know, Groundlings was a great example for me and I bet Edie would say the same thing. We would hang out in the back and talk about our favorite just complete bombs on stage. And to me, they were the greatest stories. Maybe they weren't. It certainly wasn't nice being out there to crickets. But man, how unified you felt when someone says, oh my God, do you remember that sketch? Sketch, you know, big. Mr. Davidson's day off. Remember how, how much that bombed? And that's not an actual sketch, but that, that would be a good sketch, Mr. David's Day Off. But anyway, so I guess that prepared me for it. Like, you know, you have, you have

[Alan Tudyk]

to have courage for that to just walk out on stage anyway, like, acceptance that that might be. Oh, the, the outcome.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, I, I, I, you. I could do a. We could take shots. How many times I felt like an audience. You could hear someone vocally say, what is going on in the silence? That sometimes a sketch would be going. And you go like, ah, what is happening?

[Nathan Fillion]

My favorite is the quiet cough in the back.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. Or just vocal like, black it out.

[Nathan Fillion]

I'll be in the car. Yeah.

[Jim Rash]

Jesus.

[Alan Tudyk]

I loved it then. That's one. Because you know when you watch improv that that's. You're waiting for the blackout. And sometimes the ending just isn't coming and isn't coming and isn't coming.

[Jim Rash]

And somebody vocally is like, just please relieve us. Please come out of their misery. No.

[Nathan Fillion]

All right. We do have a segment of our show that Alan created called let's get to know you better.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, yeah, great.

[Alan Tudyk]

I know you and you know me.

[Nathan Fillion]

Let's get to know you. And at this point you simply just tell, tell us something we don't know about you. It doesn't have to be like a secret that nobody knows, but certainly something that we don't know. Alan, why don't you give us a start?

[Alan Tudyk]

Okay, I'm gonna go first.

[Nathan Fillion]

Go.

[Alan Tudyk]

I have a hole in the back of my throat. Not the throat hole. I have that one too. But when I was little, I used to chew on pens. Some say I was weaned too early. I don't know, I felt like it was, I certainly feel like it was too early, but I was chewing on a pen as a, as a young like 13 year old, 12 year old, 13 year old. And I was leaning on it like a champ on my desk. Like chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp. On the back end. It was a bit. And I peeled off sides of it and so there was just one good sharp thing and I, I remember getting the back of my throat and hurting like really badly. And I think that's when I got it. But since then, when I go into dentist, they look in my mouth, if it's a new dentist, they go, you know, you got a hole in the back of your throat. And I say, yes, yes. And I've, I've gotten things caught in there before, like little. Yeah, just twice I've gotten carrot sticks and not a carrot, like a whole carrot stick, but like when you, when people make little bitty like toothpick sized carrots, shreds. I've gotten those stuck in there and that's a pain. And you just have to work out. I have to reach in and get it out. Oh, wasn't that exciting?

[Jim Rash]

You're just throwing handfuls of like seeds and stuff to see if you can possibly get.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah. What? I mean, if I have like quinoa in there that's just impacted and just

[Nathan Fillion]

making it over like a dead tooth.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. Oh, he's like, they're like, how, how's, how's he doing? Oh, he got so much quinoa on this hole in his throat.

[Nathan Fillion]

I think there's some, I don't know, smells like popcorn and cotton candy.

[Jim Rash]

But I'm sorry, I apologize. I keep clearing my throat. I just got quinoa on this hole in my throat.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah, it's, it's like that. It's exactly like that. It's a, it's a compost pile just next to my throat.

[Nathan Fillion]

Hole. I did not know this about you.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah, I keep it moist and hot so it.

[Jim Rash]

Every now and then you just have to. I gotta go empty my throat hole.

[Nathan Fillion]

Okay. Okay, that's good.

[Alan Tudyk]

I have.

[Nathan Fillion]

You have a tool for this? Like a little.

[Alan Tudyk]

Just a regular water pick. To irrigate.

[Jim Rash]

To like irrigate it. What a scary thing. I mean, to me it's like, like the, the. The idea. The sound of it sounds awful.

[Nathan Fillion]

The pain added maintenance scares me.

[Alan Tudyk]

No, there's none of that. I don't even think about it. Just when I get carrots in it, I pull it out.

[Nathan Fillion]

That's all I can think about.

[Alan Tudyk]

So now you know that about me. And I'm sure it endears me to you. Although you're both grossed out and maybe.

[Nathan Fillion]

Do you still need another moment? Jim, do you have something?

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, you go next. Because I keep thinking like, that was a nice story. Mines are always just feel like they're linked to just stories I haven't told. But go ahead.

[Nathan Fillion]

I. I collect things, I've realized, and. And there's some things I collect purposefully. And then sometimes I'll look around my house and go, oh my God, I have a collection of these. I didn't really. I accidentally collected these. And my. My collection, I just noticed recently is I've collected telephones from throughout my life. Oh. Old telephones, but only that I have had personal experience with. So my. My uncle Roger Baraby, God rest his soul, had an old pale blue, powder blue kind of rotary phone. And I have. I have his old rotary phone.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, nice.

[Nathan Fillion]

I have the first push button.

[Jim Rash]

The.

[Nathan Fillion]

The first phone we had that didn't have rotary.

[Alan Tudyk]

You held on to that.

[Nathan Fillion]

I still have it. I still have it. So it's got a white receiver, it's got a red. Remember, Remember the cable, the coil with the cord? Yeah. And then a red cradle. And my dad put Canadian flag stickers on the. On like the sides of it on the top. He called it the Canada Special. That phone was down in the fan. Boom. That was the Canada special phone. I got that. That when I was in New York. I had an old retro themed Spirit of St. Louis. It looks like a World War II, like you crank it kind of radio style walkie talkie phone that was very retro. It's. It's from 1995.

[Jim Rash]

I still have that one.

[Nathan Fillion]

Wow.

[Jim Rash]

And then do you have all of your, like, progression of cell phones?

[Nathan Fillion]

I don't have all my cell phones.

[Jim Rash]

Okay.

[Nathan Fillion]

I do have all the cameras. I talked about this at one point. I have the cameras that I've had throughout my life. Not all of them, but. But most of them.

[Jim Rash]

Do you still. Do you have a disc camera? Do you remember a disc camera?

[Alan Tudyk]

I do.

[Nathan Fillion]

I had one of those, but yes, I remember those.

[Jim Rash]

I don't know if they lasted very long, but they were thin. And then, like, the film looked like a view Master.

[Nathan Fillion]

Yeah, right, that.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah.

[Jim Rash]

Yes. And it was very cool. I used to love it. I don't know.

[Nathan Fillion]

Do you remember flash cubes, Jim?

[Jim Rash]

Yes. Yes. You stick them on top. Yeah. And you get like four shots.

[Nathan Fillion]

Exactly what I have, that old camera. Remember those?

[Jim Rash]

You're welcome. Landfill here. This. This. This lasted for all of.

[Nathan Fillion]

It's like the old timey with the holding up the tray of gunpowder.

[Jim Rash]

I do Foley work, by the way. That sounded just like a. I was there.

[Nathan Fillion]

I felt like I was there there.

[Jim Rash]

Now I know that's my story, is I was.

[Nathan Fillion]

All right, well, let's get to. But let's get to know.

[Jim Rash]

I know this was hard. Like, I'm trying to listen to you all, and I did. But then I'm like, what is. What. My life seems so boring. I couldn't think of anything that you wouldn't know.

[Nathan Fillion]

What. What's. What sits next to your Oscar.

[Jim Rash]

Well, right now, because I moved. I just. Some things are on the floor because I'm still getting situated, but right now it's on, like, you know, a. Just next to a little stack of books. So it's not. It's not feeling much love other than.

[Nathan Fillion]

Is there a spotlight on it?

[Jim Rash]

Oh, yeah. I. I put the spotlight in. I put the spotlight in first. I'm not. I'm not insane.

[Nathan Fillion]

Thank you.

[Jim Rash]

You know, you want to. You want it to shine and. And what's the point of having it when people come in if they don't see?

[Nathan Fillion]

Well, you guys laugh, but I would have a spotlight on that thing. I would have, like, a lowgrade smoke machine going in the back. There's always like a O behind. It would be backlit. It would be like rotating. Like.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Nathan Fillion]

I would rotate the room around it.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, that. Well, I guess I know what this afternoon's going to be. Just getting that. Getting that together. And I'll have club music that plays behind it when you walk past. You know, it's like it's a motion detector, which is very. Oscars.

[Nathan Fillion]

So Oscar.

[Alan Tudyk]

I hear Julianne Moore keeps her in her. In her bathroom so you can. So the guests can pick it up and practice their acceptance speech.

[Nathan Fillion]

Oh, that's kind of Fun.

[Jim Rash]

I mean, that is good. But also, I also think you have to sanitize that thing because. Yeah, that's a lot of flushing around

[Alan Tudyk]

and it's a lot of flush. Oh, God. Yeah.

[Nathan Fillion]

And.

[Jim Rash]

But I love the idea. I love the idea. Oh, no, I know. We touch everything, right?

[Alan Tudyk]

Julia Moore doesn't poop, though.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, okay.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah.

[Jim Rash]

Can you. No.

[Alan Tudyk]

Any tattoos?

[Jim Rash]

No, I don't have any tattoos. I'm so, like, I'm sorry. Like, ask me something specific that you want to know about. I can't think of any stories that you don't know about me.

[Nathan Fillion]

What was your first big rebellion? You ever had trouble with the police?

[Jim Rash]

I've not been arrested that I recall. Close. I mean, I remember walking up to one of those cars when, you know, you would hang out in a parking lot and try to find somebody to buy you. You be yours. And I remember walking. Walking up with your friends, and then luckily, someone saw, like, a bumper sticker on the back of the car that said, like, literally B21, which is a law. B21. So clearly this person was in law enforcement or really loved that law. So we. We stopped and we were probably asking to get wine coolers back in the day of wine coolers. And you get those in big 2 liter bottles. You know, man, you. Quality, real quality.

[Alan Tudyk]

I did the same.

[Jim Rash]

And. And you were thinking to yourself, that's not a lot of cans to get rid of. It's just, you know, one. I did have a party when I was in high school. 1. And it was a disaster. It wasn't. It was the. It went the way you think it would go. Where you got. You absolutely got caught.

[Alan Tudyk]

Absolutely.

[Nathan Fillion]

Your parents went out for the weekend, and you said.

[Alan Tudyk]

My mom.

[Jim Rash]

My mom and my step. Yeah, my mom and my stepfather were out of town. I was. That cancer was trying to be liked and said, oh, my mom and stepfather out of town. Let's have a party. Which was. And also I made myself sound like a cool dude. Let me redo that. Can I take that again?

[Nathan Fillion]

I was gonna say you sounded like someone.

[Alan Tudyk]

Hey, guys. My.

[Jim Rash]

My mom and my stepfather are out. Let's have a party. And then I push my glasses back up. That's that right where it was taped. Yeah, right here. And I pushed it up and then. And. And it turned into word of mouth. And it was a John Hughes movie. Like. Like packed house and people on furniture, people throwing. Some people were throwing cold cuts. I'm not kidding. Turkey cold cuts out of our fridge into a ceiling fan so they could Try to hit it and see if they could get it to slap against the wall.

[Nathan Fillion]

Oh, and you're screaming cats for lunches.

[Jim Rash]

No, this is me going like, I don't want to rock this boat. I'm popular. This is me not stopping what I should be stopping. I'm just going with it. And it is people on the dining room, people in my mom and stepfather's bed doing stuff. And there is someone lighting tampons on fire. Oh, no, there is. I mean, it's, it's as if, as. And, and so I clean and clean and clean. The next day, like I, to best of my ability, I'm cleaning. And my sister was in college at the time, came home and she didn't react. Everything seemed normal to her. So I was like, I got away with it. Suckers. The next day, next day, the minute they come home, either my stepfather or my mom said, jim, where's the basketball goal? Of all the things that I noticed or took care of, I didn't notice that someone had pulled our basketball goal off the side of the house and tossed it into the creek. There was a basketball goal in the side of a dry creek. And let me tell you this, I did not have the improv skills at that time to make take up what possibly could have happened if I could go back in time. I go, oh, man, I was dunking hard, y'.

[Nathan Fillion]

All.

[Jim Rash]

I was dunking hard. And I pulled that down and my bad. I just was so celebratory. I threw it into the dry creek and I meant to go pick it up. What I probably said was. That was probably it. And me immediately, it was them starting noticing seen things and it was over.

[Alan Tudyk]

And it was, why is there baloney stuck to the ceiling?

[Jim Rash]

Where's our, where's the turkey coat cuts? I was gonna make a sandwich. Where are the cold cuts? Did you eat all the turkey and improv? Oh, sorry. I had a mad sandwich, Mom. Like a mad sandwich. But instead it was me just going,

[Nathan Fillion]

Okay, one more question I love to ask people. Have you, Jim Rash, ever seen a ghost?

[Jim Rash]

No, but I, I, I, I, I have not seen a physical ghost, but I've had that, that feeling. You know, when you have a feeling, there is a presence. I definitely have that.

[Nathan Fillion]

Where were you?

[Jim Rash]

What I was on. I was an Outward Bound. I did Outward Bound when I was a, like, like between my junior and senior year of high school, I went to Maine and did a three week backpacking, like canoeing. My dad decided I need and need a discipline and I don't mean that as like I was acting out, but like focus. And he called it his discipline summer. And he made me go to Outward Bound for three weeks. And then I had to come back and work construction in car lot North Carolina.

[Alan Tudyk]

What the.

[Jim Rash]

Shoveling. Shoveling gravel in, in the.

[Nathan Fillion]

In.

[Jim Rash]

In. Anyone who grew up in the South Southeast knows what the community is. So I would do that every day anyway. I went while I was on my three day solo. So you had to do a three day solo on Outward Bound where they would give you like, you know, a tarp and four pieces of string and you had nothing and no food and you would go and, and you would spend three days by yourself. And they, they kept us in within distance where you had a whistle so you. They could hear you if you blew your whistle. But you weren't allowed to venture too far from your quote unquote campsite so that you wouldn't run into anybody else. So for three days you're by yourself and there was a huge kind of thunderstorm. And I remember specifically. And maybe that was just a counselor like hovering in the woods watching me in retrospect, but this is true. This is a true story. So I was, I was. And this is not totally a ghost, but this is that feeling. And this is not going to totally be line up with what you asked me, but I still think it's cool. And so I was, I was sitting there and I had that feeling that something had just happened. And I come to find that my mom's mom, my grandmother had passed away. And so it was my body had told me something, which I think they always talk about how children have a sixth sense about something coming or happening. And I don't know where I read that and I might have just made that up, but it sounds true anyway. I just remember it's not a ghost. I know but in my mind she hovered around there because I had a body reaction like a swell of called sadness, but a feeling that something like that had just transpired. Wow.

[Nathan Fillion]

Wow.

[Jim Rash]

And I wouldn't obviously know until I

[Nathan Fillion]

got home a nice feeling.

[Jim Rash]

It was so. It was, yeah, I guess emotional sadness, like something is amiss or off or some, you know. And so, and so when I got home, I remember obviously that you can't get any communication on Outward Bound. There's no way for anyone to call you. Obviously there were one. No such thing as cell phones back then. And there was no way for them to communicate with us to that level at the time. And so I just remember getting home and you know, them sharing that and then realizing, oh, that lined up with my solo.

[Alan Tudyk]

Wow, how cool.

[Nathan Fillion]

Beautiful.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. Thank you. It wasn't a ghost, but I guess the ghost adjacent.

[Alan Tudyk]

You must have had a great connection with your grandmother.

[Jim Rash]

Well, I think enough to. Well, yes. I mean, I had two great. I had two. I had the perfect. It's like the. For those who know Sixteen Candles, I had those grandmothers where you had the one that's, like, super nurturing, like, you know, what can I bring you? And then you had the one who had a cigarette dangling from her mouth, who was just funny, but was, like, kept you at a distance like you should be. I love watching you, but I don't need you to come over here.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah.

[Jim Rash]

And that was that one. I loved it. And she had a great laugh. So it is the perfect two versions.

[Nathan Fillion]

Jim, thank you so much. This has been.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, my God.

[Nathan Fillion]

Kind of a twofer for me because I. I don't get to see you very much. I don't know if you notice this, but when I do run into I fanboy a little bit, I am such a fan of yours.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, my God, thank you. I know. And I do. I remember going to a game night at your place. Long, long time ago. That kind of thing. Right?

[Nathan Fillion]

Did we play Mafia? Was that what we played?

[Jim Rash]

Yes, Mafia. This was probably soon after Alligator Point, so it's been a long time. Oh, wow.

[Nathan Fillion]

My God. I can't remember.

[Jim Rash]

I can't get invited. Alan. I try to get in on this. Can't get in on it.

[Alan Tudyk]

That must have been at your old house then. Alligator Point.

[Jim Rash]

I just remember going. And you were having a Mafia party or. Or playing. And this is a while ago, but, yes, I feel the same way. Getting to do, like, Michael Osciello's show, which we don't need to get into, but Beverly Hills, like, recently is, like, fun to cross paths on stuff like that.

[Nathan Fillion]

That was incredible for me. Again, I see the path of your success has been incredible. It's just anytime I see your name up there, I go, oh, my God, he's doing it again. You popped up in the Iron man movie, and I was just dying because you're up there with Mr. Junior and having a wonderful time.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, I mean, that was the Russo's putting little Easter eggs into it because a lot of community people did, like, something. But, yeah, I was, like, dreaming. I'm walking next to Robert Downey Jr. You know, improvising about hot dogs. So, yeah, I mean, Alan knew. I mean, my doing. Doing Riddler and Doing villains to me. Like, I. I so wish I was more in that Marvel Universe, but that's like, oh, that's my dream. And so, like, being around the Marvel world, as close as I got, not that I was a villain, but I'm just saying, like, that kind of stuff, that was.

[Alan Tudyk]

That was good. That was a Marvel world. Of course, we're in the D.C. world, and there's a lot of people out there right now going, riddler is in dc.

[Jim Rash]

That's not what I was saying, Alan. I wasn't angling it.

[Alan Tudyk]

I understand.

[Jim Rash]

I was saying, you know.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah, I do.

[Jim Rash]

I don't want people swerving off the road going, jim doesn't know the difference between DC and Marvel.

[Alan Tudyk]

My favorite episode of Harley Quinn in is. The one was called Riddler U. And it was where you had a university. And I came to infiltrate you as Clay Face. And I was the girl. She's. I was like, as I was a sorority girl, I just came as a sorority girl. And she talks about how she doesn't want. He doesn't want to do anything, but he gets involved in sorority too much. And he's like, but this is such an important night because Chad, some. Somebody that's dating Chad, he's got huge areola. And she slaps my face and I go, they touch in the middle. I think that was some of their best writing. Oh, two huge areolas. That touch in the middle.

[Jim Rash]

That touch in the middle.

[Alan Tudyk]

But it was the Riddler U. It was a very big.

[Jim Rash]

Yes.

[Alan Tudyk]

I mean, it was the rhythm.

[Jim Rash]

I do remember that.

[Alan Tudyk]

No, harnessing the. The energy of all the people in town. Oh, at the university.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah. To run it natural. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I was running on a treadmill.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah.

[Jim Rash]

And taking. And getting, you know, more ripped.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah, that's right. You're ripped.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, I, I. Whenever I get drawn on stuff, for some reason, they're ripped, and I'm all for it. And it might just be right. Legally. My voice sounds like it's someone who's ripped. I guess

[Alan Tudyk]

we were actually having that discussion before you came on.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, yeah. Thank you.

[Alan Tudyk]

Just. Dude, I can. It's. I was saying you could see six abs, and he was saying eight. Eight or more.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, that's in my contract.

[Nathan Fillion]

Is there anything that we didn't cover that you were dying to cover in this segment of the show called what Does Jim Want to Talk About?

[Jim Rash]

Oh, wow. There's so many segments.

[Nathan Fillion]

I mean,

[Jim Rash]

no, I think I'm happy to keep talking, but I can't think of anything. I Didn't hit. I'm so thankful for mentioning. Missed you. Love you. So.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jim Rash]

Whoever knows, whenever this is out, people go watch it, please.

[Alan Tudyk]

Yeah, go check it out. It's fantastic. It's great acting. And I don't understand how you wrote it. I, I, I, I mean I don't understand how it's like a play in a lot of ways.

[Jim Rash]

It is say that it is very

[Alan Tudyk]

much so because it's very character driven and it's, and it's, and it's a complex relationship that's, it's big, big themes, things that we go through as humans and relationships. And it seems like something that as a play, if it was a play, it would have a workshop. Another workshop, a reading, a workshop to hone it into the shape that you have. And I know you didn't have, you couldn't have had that, did you?

[Jim Rash]

No, we, Well, I had written it. I did write it as a play. Right. No, right before the pandemic hit. Never got produced or anything but the pandemic hit. And so I was like, oh, maybe I'll just turn into a screenplay while we're.

[Nathan Fillion]

And I'll just direct.

[Jim Rash]

How awesome. That I'll just direct. And I just sort of lucked out, you know. So it does have a very play. And maybe we'll reverse engineer our way to a play at some point.

[Alan Tudyk]

I will come see it.

[Jim Rash]

But yes.

[Alan Tudyk]

So that would be for the Alice and JANA Roll, please.

[Jim Rash]

100. Now that, now that I know that we're both in New York, we'll get together and workshop.

[Alan Tudyk]

I'm always a second choice after Alison Janney. I, I do a lot of roles at. She turns down.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, it's so smart. It's a smart. Smart to be her number two because she gets, you know, a lot.

[Alan Tudyk]

A lot. Wow, how cool. It's very good. Check it out.

[Nathan Fillion]

We promised you we'd only keep you for an hour and I've already broken that promise. So we've kept you a little over time. Rich.

[Jim Rash]

No, fantastic.

[Nathan Fillion]

Richard.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, it's Jimmy.

[Alan Tudyk]

Ronald.

[Jim Rash]

Richard Jash. Yeah, Richard Jash. I just changed it. Thank you for and see if I can get it going. Richard Jash. I did have someone when I first got. Sorry, I know this is, these are things you can edit and cut. But I do remember when we first got here, you know, and some, you know, casting person says, jim Rash, you gotta change that.

[Nathan Fillion]

I was thinking the two of you could never do a comedy duo. Tudyk and Rash. Sounds like an std.

[Alan Tudyk]

It does it is.

[Jim Rash]

Yes. That is terrible tunic rash. Oh, I, I, well, my name is. And it still conjures people go, wait, like, like a rash you get at the gym? Like a gym rash.

[Nathan Fillion]

Oh.

[Jim Rash]

And I go. And I see some people don't connect it and, But a lot of people do. And so that going, you know, the woman who said that to me is probably right.

[Nathan Fillion]

But anyway, and probably going to a really dirty gym. That would be the concern.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, my God, you got terrible rashes.

[Nathan Fillion]

Because I guess I'm going to go clean gyms.

[Alan Tudyk]

Our dating a really dirty gym.

[Jim Rash]

Oh, yeah.

[Alan Tudyk]

Well, thank you very much, Jim.

[Jim Rash]

Yes, thank you.

[Alan Tudyk]

Thank you for coming on. Once we were spacemen, and now it is time for our space journey to end. And we are docking at a space station.

[Jim Rash]

Just.

[Alan Tudyk]

Oh, there it is. It's right over there. We're here. See, I didn't plan that one either.

[Jim Rash]

No, are you kidding? That was like. That was like a sequel to the first one. And I was like, all in all I was waiting for is one reference to protein. And then I was like, that's, that's

[Nathan Fillion]

where it fell apart.

[Jim Rash]

That's how you bookend.

[Nathan Fillion]

Well, you made it all the way to the end credits. Thank you for listening to Once We Respond Basement. Remember, you can always head over to our Patreon for bonus content, longer episodes, and a chance to take home some incredible crap. If you love the show, please leave us a review and tell your friends. If you didn't love the show, keep it to yourself. This podcast is a collision 33 production. Specifically, we are produced by Michelle Chapman, Siobhan Homan, and Josh Levy. All the recording and post services are handled by Rabid Grin Productions, and our theme music is by the brilliant Carlos Sosa and Joshua Moore. And as always, our artwork was created by Louis Jensen. We'll see you next time.

[Jim Rash]

You're welcome. Landfill.