Claire Danes | Freeze The Day

Summary

The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert

Episode: Claire Danes | Freeze The Day
Date: November 12, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this lively episode, Stephen Colbert sits down with acclaimed actress Claire Danes to discuss her new Netflix miniseries, The Beast in Me. The conversation flows through Danes' career milestones, her early start in acting, the cult legacy of My So-Called Life, bread-baking in COVID times, and some highly entertaining anecdotes—including being a "nightmare neighbor" to a rock legend. The episode maintains Colbert's trademark wit, weaving in current events commentary before launching into the guest interview.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Monologue: Current Events and Political Satire

• Veteran's Day and Weather:

  • Colbert thanks veterans and playfully thanks the audience for braving freezing New York temperatures.
  • Memorable joke about iguanas falling from trees in Florida due to the cold (“as opposed to the rest of the year in Florida when reptiles falling from the trees are thrown by iguana Dave. The guy who throws iguanas is also the mayor of Daytona Beach.”) [04:16]

• Political Jabs:

  • Colbert riffed on Democratic leadership during a recent shutdown (“Schumer, who is supposed to be the leader of the Senate Democrats, reportedly gave the deal, quote, neither a blessing nor a curse... Bold leadership reminds me of the stirring words of William Wallace: 'They may take our lives or our freedom. Their choice.'”) [05:24]
  • Satirical takes on Trump’s economic policies, including the 50-year mortgage proposal and rising pasta prices due to tariffs (“That’s a hell of a leap. I haven’t seen a deal this bad since Payless ran their infamous promotion: Buy one, get scabies.”) [08:07]
  • Commentary on Trump’s White House renovation aesthetics: “Over the past few months, he's covered the entire White House in gilded dingle dangles. They're on the outside. They're all over the inside. I mean, it really looks like they're multiplying.” [14:12]

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2. Guest Interview: Claire Danes

Reconnecting After Five Years

• The two last spoke during the “sad Covid days,” via Zoom after the finale of Homeland.
• Bread-baking nostalgia:
  • Stephen: “Were you one of those people who got into the sourdough world?”
  • Claire: “Yeah, I have a good friend who teaches people how to bake bread… she gave us some starters as like, party favors.” [17:58]

Homeland Retrospective

• Colbert asks about Danes’ character Carrie and muses whether she’s still in Russia.
• Claire (on Carrie’s current status): “Ice skating. No, I don’t know. I hope she’s okay. I do wish her well.” [18:45]
• Affectionate banter:
  • Stephen: “I'm worried about her. I'm so worried about her.”
  • Claire: “Maybe she's found her way back. I mean, she did forge that connection with Saul…” [18:54]

30 Years of "My So-Called Life"

• Colbert points out the show’s enduring influence, despite only airing a single season.
• Danes reveals she was just 13 when she shot the pilot.
  • Claire: “I was 13 when I made the pilot...I mean, I felt very mature at the time.” [19:32]
• Stephen commends her early performance as unusually sophisticated for her age.
• Danes reflects on acting as a child and now having a child close to the same age:
  • “I have an almost 13 year old child now and I look at him, I’m like, no, no, no. I was definitely not. Not ready to do that to an adult person at that point in my life.” [20:04]
• “My So-Called Life” legacy:
  • Claire: “I’m still really close with so many people involved in the show. And really, Winnie Holtzman, who wrote the show, is a dear, dear friend.” [20:37]

Early Artistic Influences & Entry to Acting

• Danes credits childhood dance classes and her “hammy” nature for leading her to performance.
• Early practice involved experimental dance—“like poetry that doesn’t rhyme”—and small-scale kitchen performances. [21:33–21:41]
• She attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute at 10, and began auditioning through personalized headshots by a family friend. [21:58–22:13]

“The Beast in Me”: New Netflix Miniseries

• Danes stars as and executive produces this psychological drama.
• Claire’s summary:
  • “I play a writer, Aggie Wiggs, a very successful writer...her son is in the back seat, and he’s killed by a drunk driver...She’s still in kind of profound grief...This man moves in next door, a notorious, controversial real estate scion… we strike this unlikely relationship, and he becomes the subject of my next book. They’re kind of hunting each other and they have this weird, perverse romance in a way of the mind.” [22:20–23:30]

Series Clip & Scene Commentary [24:05–24:51]

• Memorable quote from the clip:
  • Claire’s character: "It seems to me you're quite misunderstood, and I think a lot of people would want to hear your side of the story, especially if you got the right person to tell it.” [24:05]
  • Stephen’s take: “So are you saying that the drama involves you living next to someone who might be dangerous?” [25:03]

NYC Stories: Nightmare Neighbor

• Danes shares she was the “nightmare neighbor” with a drum set in her twenties.
• Claire: “Who was my downstairs neighbor, but Billy Corrigan from the Smashing Pumpkins…he would meet me in the elevator and be like, yeah, good progress, Claire. Great.” [25:32]
• Colbert responds with a big laugh, noting it’s “the best possible neighbor.”
• Claire: “That was kind of positive.” [25:51]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On COVID sourdough bread:

  • Claire Danes: “Yeah, I have a good friend who teaches people how to bake bread… she gave us some starters as like, party favors.” [17:58]

• On acting at 13:

  • Claire Danes: “I was 13 when I made the pilot. …I felt very mature at the time.” [19:32]

• On tragic grief in “The Beast in Me”:

  • Claire Danes: “She’s in a kind of hell…still in kind of Profound grief. …She can’t produce any work.” [22:14]

• On being a “nightmare neighbor”:

  • Claire Danes: “He would meet me in the elevator and be like, yeah, good progress, Claire. Great.” [25:32]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 04:16: Iguanas falling from trees, Florida joke
• 08:07: 50-year mortgage and pasta tariffs satire
• 14:12: White House “gilded dingle dangles” bit
• 17:10: Stephen introduces Claire Danes
• 17:58: Bread-baking & COVID era reflections
• 18:45: Homeland character speculation
• 19:32: “My So-Called Life” legacy & age
• 20:37: Continued friendships from “My So-Called Life”
• 22:14: “The Beast in Me” synopsis
• 24:05: Clip from “The Beast in Me”
• 25:32: Billy Corrigan/“nightmare neighbor” story

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains a playful, fast-paced, and affectionate rapport characteristic of Colbert, paired with Danes’ thoughtful, self-aware, and warm insights. Personal stories and career reflections keep the energy high and the episode both entertaining and meaningful, punctuated by laughter and spontaneous wit.

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Listen-Worthy Highlights

• Claire Danes’ reflections on starring in My So-Called Life as a very young teen
• The emotional complexity of her new role in The Beast in Me
• Her real-life rock-star neighbor story
• The fun, “inside baseball” feel to the rapport between Colbert and Danes
• Satirical and topical humor from Colbert’s monologue

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Recommendation:
Fans of Claire Danes and thoughtful, witty interviews will especially enjoy this episode, as will those interested in the stories behind beloved TV classics and new prestige drama.

Transcript

[Stephen Colbert]

Hey, everybody. Stephen Colbert here about to read the copy for our sponsor. This is from our friends at Wonderful Pistachios. And I was the wonderful pistachio spokesman for years. Yeah, I have a real close association with nut meat. Okay. You know what they say when they reach for a snack? Don't hold back. And that's exactly the approach with Wonderful Pistachios. The don't hold back snack. These little wonders are so tasty, it feels like getting away with something. But surprise. Each serving has 6 grams of protein and 0 grams of regret. That's right. No guilt. Just glory, glory in our nuts. Whether it's a satisfying crack of in shell pistachios, and that's capitalized in shell, or the smooth, instant gratification of no shells. No judgment. That's just it. Just eat. No judgment. I take issue with one thing. It's instant gratification. It's super tasty smooth.

[Announcer/Ad Reader]

It's a hard nut smooth.

[Stephen Colbert]

Exactly. I mean, even out of the shell, it's still a nut.

[Announcer/Ad Reader]

We can't disparage the nuts.

[Stephen Colbert]

You. I'm not disparaging the nut. I'm describing the nut.

[Claire Danes]

Don't disparage any flavors.

[Stephen Colbert]

I'm not. I am celebrating the pistachio right now. I'm on board. I love pistachios. I love a crushed pistachio. Like a pistachio crusted trout. Oh, unbelievable. Instead of a trout amandine, a trout pistachio. Fantastic. Enough butter? Who cares?

[Announcer/Ad Reader]

Very good.

[Stephen Colbert]

And I love pistachio ice cream.

[Announcer/Ad Reader]

Have you had the sea salt and vinegar?

[Claire Danes]

Wonderful pistachio.

[Announcer/Ad Reader]

It's delicious.

[Stephen Colbert]

I didn't even know I get them.

[Announcer/Ad Reader]

Before the softball games.

[Stephen Colbert]

But that's. You see, it's been a while since I've been the spokesman for wonderful Pistachios. I didn't realize we'd achieved new pistachio technology.

[Claire Danes]

Yeah.

[Announcer/Ad Reader]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

Wow. Wonderful pistachios has every snack style covered right now. There's an obsession with jalapeno lime. There is an obsession session. It's almost a disorder. It's spicy, it's zesty. It's basically a flavor roller coaster in a nut. Snacking on the go. Grab a bag of no shells. Feeling contemplative and want to work for it a little. So earning it, they're saying, if you want to earn your nut, crack open those in shell beauties. Either way, it's snacking like a champ. So the next time hunger strikes, don't hold back. Unless it's a hunger strike, and then it's important that you do, because whatever you're doing that for, I'm sure it's a worthwhile cause. Snack like you mean it with wonderful pistachios. Visit wonderfulpistachios.com to learn more. That was a wonderful. I wonder what more there is to learn. We just told them so much. We just told them so much about pistachios. But evidently there's a whole other world. There's an unexplored vista.

[Announcer/Ad Reader]

They got a bunch of flavors. They got dill pickle, jalapeno lime, as we learned, smoky barbecue. There's a lot of different flavors.

[Stephen Colbert]

Wow. And I would not disparage any of them. No, no, no. Bring it on.

[Announcer/Ad Reader]

Nothing bad to say.

[Stephen Colbert]

Nut me, nut. Nut me with nut meat.

[Announcer/Ad Reader]

We're nut.

[Stephen Colbert]

No, we got nothing but nut. Nutty, nutty, nutty, nutty. Talk about, talk about, talk about, talk about nutty.

[Announcer/Ad Reader]

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[Stephen Colbert]

Welcome one and all to the Late Show. I'm your host, Stephen Colbert. I want to start off right off the bean here. I want to start by wishing everybody a happy Veterans Day. All of us here at the Late show, all of us who work here at the Late show want to send our gratitude to those who have served our nation. I wish I could thank every one of our troops in person. I and I might get the chance when Trump sends them to New York. Now. I also got to. He's got to. I also want to thank everyone here in my audience tonight who braved freezing temperatures and the first snow of the season here in New York. Those are the heroes. Now. They're no, no, no, not me. You're the her. I'm glad you guys are okay. I'm glad you say you're now safely inside the Ed Sullivan Theater where it is much colder. It's not just New York. All over the United States, there's the Arctic Clippers coming down. Folks are getting hit with an Arctic blast down south. The cold is causing all kinds of problems. In Florida, residents were warned that iguanas paralyzed by the cold might start falling from trees as opposed to the rest of the year in Florida when reptiles falling from the trees are thrown by iguana dav. The guy who throws iguanas is also the mayor of Daytona Beach. Things are. It's a fun town. Things are getting chilly up on Capitol Hill after a small group of Democrats voted with Republicans to end the shutdown. To end the shutdown without restoring health care subsidies. Democratic leadership has taken heat from the rank and file. Chuck Schumer, who is supposed to be the leader of the Senate Democrats, reportedly gave the deal, quote, neither a blessing nor a curse and did not direct senators on how they should vote. Bold leadership reminds me of the stirring words of William Wallace. They may take our lives or our freedom. Their choice.

[Claire Danes]

Whatevs.

[Stephen Colbert]

Whatever. Now here's the thing. So obviously a failure of leadership. Schumer is facing fury from every part of the party. Moderate House members, progressive senators, self described insurgents, establishment candidates, not to mention low rise governors, zaddy comptrollers, gluten free city managers, and deputy mayors on tandem bikes. It's a very, very big tent. The shutdown, which is technically still not over, has caused major chaos at airports across the United States where air traffic controllers have gone unpaid for so long that many have had to call out of work or even resign. Trump is not happy with them, so yesterday he posted all air traffic controllers must get back to work now. Anyone who does it will be substantially ducked. Wow, that sounds. Man, that sounds like an awesome job. Extremely high stress, understaffed, you work six days a week, you don't get paid, and the President attacks you in public. How could it get better? Maybe a donkey could kick you in the nuts while it rains iguanas on your head. Trump. Also, good old iguana Dave. How are we going here? Trump also let those controllers know he's not going to forget them playing hooky. Writing. You will have a negative mark, at least in my mind, against your record. Really? Really? A negative mark in that mind? You know what? I'll take my chances. I'll never forget your disloyalty, Harold. Sharon. What's your name? Burlap Acida Meat a pina colada. Then Trump let controllers know how easy it would be to replace them. If you want to leave service in the near future, please do not hesitate to do so. With no payment, you will be quickly replaced by true patriots. Maybe I'm alone, but I don't care if the guy landing my plane is a true patriot. I just want him to know what he's doing. I don't Want a surgeon saying, okay, I didn't go to med school, but pretty sure the torso is where they keep all the important wet stuff. Proud to be an American, at least. Where is that lung? I think that's the kidney part. Trump is an old Nepo billionaire who simply does not understand how hard it is for regular people to survive these days. And right now, regular people are not happy. A survey measuring consumer satisfaction with current conditions has fallen to 52.3% this month, marking the worst ever for the survey dating to 1951. Consumers have not felt this bad since we fed our babies cigarettes, since every man's wife was named Susan, since we did free throws like this. Pretty good, though. That's how I was taught eighth grade. Trump is doing his best to convince people that they actually like his economy that they hate. For instance, he keeps bragging that a Thanksgiving meal basket from Walmart is 25% cheaper than last year. Just one problem. It has half as many items as last year. So it's not an apples to apples comparison, which is good because apples are up almost 5% from last year. Reminds me of the old saying, an apple a day. Oh, no, I'm ruined. One thing, one thing Americans really love is having a place to live. Me included. I'm a bit of a shelter head. But it's getting increasingly hard to afford homeownership. Which is why on Saturday, Trump proposed adding a 50 year mortgage. And the Washington Post did the math. For Anyone buying a $400,000 house with a 10% down and 30 year mortgage, you would owe about $2,300 each month. With a 50 year loan, it would come down to about $2,000 a month so far. So, okay, but that doesn't take into account interest. On that same home. A 30 year loan would mean you would pay $438,000 in total interest. But with a 50 year loan, the number jumps to $816,000. That's a hell of a leap. I haven't seen a deal this bad since Payless ran their infamous promotion. Buy one, get scabies. That was a long walk. That was. He got to the scabies. Well, this big dumb policy that fixes nothing is the brainchild of Federal Housing Finance Agency director and Bulldog watching someone else hump his favorite leg. Bill. It doesn't look happy. Bill Pulte. Here's the actual true story of how this policy came to be. On Saturday, Pulte arrived at Trump's Palm beach golf course with a piece of three by five poster board in Hand. That poster board had this image of President Roosevelt under the phrase 30 year mortgage and Trump under the phrase 50 year mortgage. Roughly 10 minutes later, Trump posted the image to Truth Social. So he just sees a poster and 10 minutes later. It's public policy. We need to get someone, anyone, into Mar A Lago with this poster. Sam Smash Burger. Not just homes that have become unaffordable thanks to Trump's tariffs, there's a new American dream just out of reach. Noodles for dinner. Because an upcoming 107% tariff means that Italian pasta is poised to disappear from American grocery shelves. Okay, that's it. We are officially in a picture pasta emergency. The levels go Papar, Defcon, barilla, and, oh, SpaghettiOs. This affects, uh, oh, SpaghettiOs. That's old. I'm old. This affects all your favorite Italian pasta brands from A to Z. I'm talking Agritalia, Barilla, Rumo, Gruppo, Millo, Chimpanzini, Bananini, Botticelli, Cherube. It's a Me Mario, and Home Alone's a jopeche. While most Americans. While most Americans can't afford house or pasta to cook it in, Trump is slathering the White House in gold like an ottoman sultan. Free basing nougat. You may recall that Donald Trump destroyed the east wing of the White House to build a massive compensation for his weird, tiny penis. But a little something. I got a sign here. But the renovations. The renovations don't stop there, because recently the Oval Office got this new outdoor wall sign that says the Oval Office. Uh oh, Grandpa's getting old and they have to start labeling stuff just to make sure he isn't too confused. They also labeled the desk and Eric. Yeah, quite an improvement. Yeah, upgrade. That was nice. Let's take a look at that Oval Office sign again. Man, he loves those fancy cursive letters. He even used them for his stupid presidential walk of fame. That's a font I call luxury assisted living. Why? Because that's. That's what comes up when you Google luxury assisted living fonts. That's just. And that's just part of it. Right? Right. That's just part of Trump's extreme gold makeover. Over the past few months, he's covered the entire White House in gilded dingle dangles. They're on the outside. They're all over the inside. I mean, it really looks like they're multiplying. We got a great show for you, Ton.

[Announcer/Ad Reader]

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[Stephen Colbert]

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[Announcer/Ad Reader]

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[Stephen Colbert]

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen. My first guest tonight is an Emmy award winning actress, you know from My so Called Life, Temple Grandin and Homeland. Her new show is the Beast in Me. Please welcome back to the Late Show, Claire Danes. Hey, nice to see you again.

[Claire Danes]

So nice to see you.

[Stephen Colbert]

You know, I think I everybody's happy to see you. Claire Danes, it's been too long since we've had you on the show.

[Claire Danes]

It's been a minute.

[Stephen Colbert]

The last time we've talked about five years ago I guess was the last time, but we were. It was on Zoom because it was sad Covid days. Yeah, sad Covid days. As opposed to those happy Covid days we all remember.

[Claire Danes]

You know, I ate some, I ate some bread I made.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, did you ate a lot of bread. Were you one of those people who got into the sourdough world?

[Claire Danes]

Yeah, I have a good friend who teaches people how to bake bread. And honestly like the weekend before the COVID curtain fell, I had a lesson with her and she gave us some starters as like, party favors. So I was like, good to.

[Stephen Colbert]

But leave me alone.

[Claire Danes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

To do my kneading.

[Claire Danes]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

That was the finale. The last time we spoke was the finale of Homeland. Yeah. Which was fantastic.

[Claire Danes]

Thank you.

[Stephen Colbert]

Huge fan. You know, I'm a huge fan. Thank you. Thank you. Of anything you do. But that particularly, especially. Yeah. What do you think Harry's doing these days over in Russia? Is he still over there? Because it ends. Spoiler. She's over in Russia at the end.

[Claire Danes]

What does she think she's doing?

[Stephen Colbert]

I.

[Claire Danes]

Ice skating. No, I don't know. I hope she's okay. I do wish her well. I don't know.

[Stephen Colbert]

I'm worried about her. I'm so worried about her.

[Claire Danes]

Maybe she's found her way back. I mean, she did forge that connection with Saul. So I don't know. Maybe there was.

[Stephen Colbert]

There's a book at the end and all that kind of book in there. How do we know? Remember Showtime?

[Claire Danes]

I do remember. Faintly.

[Stephen Colbert]

Exactly.

[Claire Danes]

Yes.

[Stephen Colbert]

Okay. This year, here's another show that I just loved. It was only on for a single season.

[Claire Danes]

Not even 19 out of 22. We didn't even make it to the end of one season.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, it's incredibly influential. It's a cult classic. My so Called Life. This year. This year marks 30 years since the end of that show. How old were you when you made that show?

[Claire Danes]

I was 13 when I made the pilot. Wow. I was in junior high. It did not get picked up. I went to my freshman year of high school and in October, you know, a month in or so, I got a call saying, oh, no, no, we are going to. So, Yeah, I was 14 when I did the bulk of the show. But a baby, I mean, I felt very mature at the time.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, I mean, certainly you look the right age, but your performance was actually was so. I mean, had you done a lot of acting? It was so well developed that I can't imagine you were actually that young.

[Claire Danes]

Not so much. But yeah, I'd been at it for a while, I guess, but I mean, yeah, no, I have an almost 13 year old child now and I look at him, I'm like, no, no, no. I was definitely not. Not ready to do that to an adult person at that point in my life.

[Stephen Colbert]

I did a show just for three seasons called Strangers with Candy. And that show, a brilliant show. Oh, we watched My so Called Life. We watched the entire season.

[Claire Danes]

Oh, that makes me feel really good.

[Stephen Colbert]

We started writing it in 97 or 98. So you guys had just been on for that one year. Oh, no.

[Claire Danes]

Oh, that's so lovely to hear. No, I'm still really close with so many people involved in the show. And really, Winnie Holtzman, who wrote the show, is a dear, dear friend. And I just saw her in LA day before yesterday. She came to a screening of this new show of mine because she wrote Wicked, too. So I'm going to her premiere. It was hers and hers. So it still feels like it's very much in the present tense because so many of those connections are still very alive.

[Stephen Colbert]

So again, you were saying at 13, we did the pilot. You'd already done a little work. How did you first get into acting? What made you say, oh, I'm gonna do that?

[Claire Danes]

Yeah, I danced as a kid. I grew up here in New York, and I took a dance class. And sometimes dance companies would come looking for, like, young talent, and I was pretty hammy, and I would often get picked. And so I had some working in, you know, production. Very, very small scale, like, to 12 people in my kitchen now.

[Stephen Colbert]

But did you, like, on point and that kind of stuff?

[Claire Danes]

No, no. Like rolling around the floor, like contemporary dance? Like.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, yeah. Just like poetry that doesn't rhyme.

[Claire Danes]

Exactly. But, yeah, So I did, and that was my first experience of performing, and I really loved it. And. Yeah. And I was just really drawn to it. From the age of five on, I knew I wanted to do this. And I went to Lee Strasberg when I was 10.

[Announcer/Ad Reader]

Sure.

[Claire Danes]

And I went to a performing arts junior high school and met other kids who were doing this professionally. And I learned what a headshot was. And my dad had been a photographer. He was then a contractor. But we still had a darkroom in our loft. And the woman who was renting it, like, took my headshots. It was very ad hoc.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, the new series, the new miniseries, is the Beast In Me. You star and executive producer? I do. What's it about? And who do you play?

[Claire Danes]

Yeah, I do star in it. I do executive producer. And it's so hard to say what it's about still. No, I play a writer, Aggie Wiggs, a very successful writer. She won the Pulitzer. And in that flush of success, she moved optimistically to this, like, affluent neighborhood in Long island with her wife and child. And she has a very tragic accident. She's driving and her son is in the back seat, and he's killed by a drunk driver. And she never. So it's been about four years, and she's in. She's still in kind of Profound grief. And her marriage has dissolved and she can't produce any work, and she's in a kind of hell. And this man moves in next door, a very, very kind of notorious, controversial real estate scion. And his wife had died, and there's a lot of, you know, talk about his involved, potential involvement with that.

[Stephen Colbert]

Did he do it?

[Claire Danes]

Yeah. Did he? Did he not? So, you know, there's a lot of. Anyway, and we strike this unlikely relationship, and he becomes the subject of my next book. And, you know, they're kind of hunting each other and. Yeah, they have this weird, perverse romance in a way of the mind.

[Stephen Colbert]

Okay.

[Claire Danes]

Yeah. But it's scary. And it's good. It's good.

[Stephen Colbert]

We have a clip. Oh, we do. We do have a clip, don't we? Great.

[Claire Danes]

Yes, we do do have that clip. I knew that. I did actually know that.

[Stephen Colbert]

Do you want to say anything?

[Claire Danes]

Sure. Yes.

[Stephen Colbert]

Okay.

[Claire Danes]

The clip.

[Stephen Colbert]

You don't have to. No, no, no, no.

[Claire Danes]

I think this is the second episode.

[Stephen Colbert]

I'm going to cold. No one explained it when I saw it. No one explained it to me, and.

[Claire Danes]

I understood it for itself. Okay, roll it. I'm pitching the book to him. Okay, here we go. It seems to me you're quite misunderstood, and I think a lot of people would want to hear your side of the story, especially if you got the right person to tell it.

[Stephen Colbert]

Why would I let you do that if you think I'm a murderer?

[Claire Danes]

You just told me you're not. If that's true, what are you afraid of? Hiding in the suburbs won't make this go away. The less you say, the more people will invent. I was. I was in that crowd. And they were angry. They're looking for someone to crucify. Gossip and carnage, right?

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Claire Danes]

Even if Benitez doesn't get the votes and you manage to finish Jarvis Yards. Whatever you build, anything you put your name on will always be tarnished. As long as you keep letting them define you.

[Stephen Colbert]

I'll let you ride it. I'll let you ride it. So are you saying that the drama involves you living next to someone who might be dangerous?

[Claire Danes]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

You're from New York.

[Claire Danes]

I am from New York.

[Stephen Colbert]

Did you have any dangerous neighbors? Because you don't know who you're gonna get in New York.

[Claire Danes]

I. I was living in. I was the dangerous neighbor. You were the nightmare neighbor who was the nightmare.

[Stephen Colbert]

How were you a nightmare? You seem like a nice person.

[Claire Danes]

I had this really wonderful loft. It was like my bachelorette pad on Worcester Street.

[Stephen Colbert]

How old are we talking about?

[Claire Danes]

I was like, in 20s, right?

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, sure.

[Claire Danes]

And I was dating a musician and he had gifted me a drum set for a birthday or something.

[Stephen Colbert]

The best possible neighbor.

[Claire Danes]

And who was my downstairs neighbor, but Billy Corrigan from the Smashing. From the Smashing Pumpkins. And he would meet me in the elevator and be like, yeah, good progress, Claire. Great.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, great stuff. That was kind of positive.

[Claire Danes]

Yeah, that was kind of positive.

[Stephen Colbert]

Do you still play?

[Claire Danes]

No, I don't think I ever played again. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, gosh. So, yeah, it traveled, apparently. The sound.

[Stephen Colbert]

No, yeah, of course it does.

[Announcer/Ad Reader]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

Of course it does. Well, thanks so much for being here. Lovely to see you again. Thank you. The Beast in Me will be available on Netflix starting this Thursday. It's Claire Danes, everybody. Thank you for listening to the late show pod show with Stephen Colbert. Just one more thing. If you want to see more of me, come to The Late Show YouTube channel for more clips and exclusives. Tulsa is my home now. Academy award nominee Sylvester Stallone stars in the Paramount plus original series, Tulsa King. This distillery is a very interesting business. And we got to know the enemy from Taylor Sheridan, co creator of Landman. What are you saying? I'm all right. If you think you're going to take me out, it's gonna be really difficult. Tulsa King new season now streaming exclusively on Paramount plus this November, action is free on Pluto tv. Go on the run with Jack Reacher.

[Claire Danes]

Every suspect was a train killer?

[Stephen Colbert]

Then buckle up for drive. World war Z Every human being we save? Just one less fight and Charlie's angels?

[Claire Danes]

Damn, I hate to fly.

[Stephen Colbert]

Launch it to sci fi adventure with the fifth element and laugh through the mayhem in tropic thunder. What is going on here? All the thrills, all for free. Pluto TV stream now pay never.