#79 Rebecca Metz Is Shameless About Better Things

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Looking to sound like you know what's going on in the world, pop culture, social strategy, comedy and other funny stuff. Well join the club and settle in for the Jeff Dwoskin show. It's not the podcast we deserve, but the podcast we all need with your host Jeff Dwoskin.

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Alright Sean, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each week and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody, to Episode 79 of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to be back for another week of podcast goodness. I'm here to deliver. And I've got an amazing guest for us this week. Actor Rebecca Metz joins us. That's right, Rebecca Metz, have you watched TV you've seen Rebecca Metz she's unavoidable: ER, scrubs parenthood, Grey's Anatomy, This Is Us, Criminal Minds, The Mindy Project, weeds, Gilmore Girls, shameless, Nip Tuck, coop and Cami ask the world and currently a reoccurring role on Better Things. Rebecca Metz is everywhere. We talked about her awesome career. We talked about her guest starring role on nip tuck, which Entertainment Weekly named one of the most disturbing TV scenes ever. We talk all about that and what a risk it was for her to do it and what a amazing opportunity. It opened up for her afterwards for taking that chance. That risk. Amazing story. We talked about her time on Shameless, starring on coop and Cami ask the world on Disney and better things. So much greatness coming up. Oh, that in just a few minutes.

If you haven't, make sure you listen to last week's episode with Paul Provenza. Such an amazing deep dive into comedy and all the great stuff he's done. There's a treasure trove of episodes awaiting you if you're just discovering the program right now. So I'm really excited for you. You got so much ahead of you so much ahead. Yeah, if you've already caught up, then it's time for you to share it with your friends. Tell everyone about live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. Don't keep it to yourself. All this goodness needs to be shared with the world and karma will rain upon you. Thank you in advance for your gracious word of mouth

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And now it's time for the social media tip! Alright, this is one of my favorite parts of the podcast where I get to share a little bit of my social media knowledge with you a little 411 I picked up on the street. I've been in social media for most of my career, and I love to share knowledge so that we can all raise our social media game together. Recently I spoke at pod fest origins, a huge podcast convention. I talked on Twitter and tweeting comedic Art of Doing good tweets. So that was exciting. I have a really good tip for you this week. It's really a fun one that I found. So on mobile, if you go to someone's profile, like say you went to @jeffdwoskinshow, which is my Twitter profile. If you're looking at it in the upper right of the profile, kind of like on the top banner, there's a little magnifying glass. And if you click the magnifying glass, it'll say search at Jeff Dwoskin shows tweets. So what Twitter's done is they've made it really easy for you to search a very particular profiles tweets, so say you're like, Oh, I know Jeff's done a lot of great Jaws episode, so be typed in Jaws after clicking that magnifying glass that says Search Jeff Dwoskin tweets, then it'll look up any tweet that has the word JAWS in it that I tweeted from that account. So you'll find the JAWS 2 episode with Billy Van Zandt, and you'll find the deep dive of JAWS with Joe Alves and you'll find my conversation with Carl Gottlieb screenwriter of JAWS. So all that goodness is right there waiting for you. So it's real easy now to deep dive into someone's Twitter profile. So say like, Oh, I remember that guy tweeting about that one things now you can just go to their profile search, and you should be able to find that tweet, have fun. And that's the social media tip.

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while you're settling into your new home, it's probably a great time for me to pivot over to my interview with Rebecca Metz. In addition to a shameless nip talk coop and Cam better things. We also talked about our shared love for the Muppets. You're gonna love this conversation. I'm excited to share it with you. Without further ado, it's time to play the music. It's time to light the lights is time to meet Rebecca Metz on the Jeff Dwoskin show tonight.

Ladies and gentlemen, my next guest is one of the greatest character actors working today you may have seen her in Weitz merit. This is us Grey's Anatomy, The Mentalist, Boston Legal, King of Queens, Gilmore Girls, the list goes on and on. Today, my guest Rebecca Metz can be seen in better things and FX also on Hulu, and just finished up two seasons of cooping. Cami asked the world on the Disney Channel, you can try to avoid Rebecca Metz but I think it's impossible. Rebecca, welcome to the show.

6:51

Thank you so much. I am following everyone around on television all the time.

6:57

You're everywhere. Yeah. How did you become one of the hardest working most working character actors in the business?

7:04

That is a great question. It's snuck up on me like when you rattle them all off in a row like that. It sounds very impressive. But actually those happened over a number of years, during which I was working full time day jobs and did not feel like I was doing, I was doing a lot less acting than I wanted to be doing. So it was a real slow and steady build of doing little parts until I got a chance to do bigger parts and slowly building those professional relationships so that people would start to give you more of a shot until you can finally pay your bills as an actor, which took like 17

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years, but some people never make it right.

7:40

Absolutely not complaining, just marveling at looking back and going. Wow, that's really how it happens.

7:46

I'm curious when you're on some of the shows, and sometimes it's just it's a guest star is one episode you kind of come in you leave? Do you get to establish any relationships? Is it only who you have the scenes with is, you know, I mean, how do you how does that work?

8:00

Every show is different. I mean, I think on when it's like one day, one or two days, you may meet a person here or there who you will bump into, there are a lot of people that I have seen on multiple jobs over the years, like Oh, I did a day on parenthood. And then I saw those people again on another show. And so you build relationships over time that way, but for the most part, it takes a good solid week, like when I worked on Nip Tuck, I was there most days for that episode. And it was a pretty intense episode. And so I did make some friends and some longer lasting relationships on that show. But even that is unusual. Like usually it takes a recurring role for people to invest the time to like, get to know you and vice versa. When it's one episode like that it really feels like hopping on and off a moving train and you're just lucky to land safely and get away with your life.

8:54

Let's talk about Nip/Tuck for a second. Okay, so I was obsessed with that show when it were you Yeah, my wife and I watched it all the time. And I immediately I remember your episode, I was replaying the clip, and I remembered it you know how like, you remember something and then you go back and you just I was like, I remembered it. And it was like I was like, oh my god, this is I remember this one. It was disturbing. And as I kind of dug in, interestingly enough, I think this was on your web page. But Entertainment Weekly called the scene that you had with Christian Troy, one of the 23 most disturbing TV scenes ever. I'm so proud. How many scenes are in like one episode of a show. Right and yeah, many, many scenes. Many, many, and there's many, many programs and it's been a long, long time. Mm hmm. One of the 23 and it was I remember Oh, I remember watching and going oh it's so horrible cuz he's drawing all over you This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong.

9:56

Was it that scene that they said was disturbing. There were several candidates.

10:00

I don't remember which one to me that you know how they describe it and how I kind of pictured this one kind of and then you had him wanting you to put the bag over your head and that scene. I can't I if I'm juggling him in my head, I can't decide which is more disturbing. Yeah, either. They're equally of the most disturbing. But yeah, it was right in line with what such an asshole character that Julie McMahon was playing that Christian Troy character it was. But I was also reading Interesting enough, it was one of the kind of pivots one of the roles that kind of,

10:32

absolutely. Also, it was an incredibly positive experience. Like my memories, like I said, I have there are people I am still friends with who I met on that job. The director of that first episode, Michael Robin is someone I've worked with several times since, like, my experience of that job was like pure joy. You know, it's always funny to talk to people who are like traumatized on my behalf about it. And I'm sort of like I would do it again. Like, it was certainly by far the biggest roll I had ever done to begin with. And I did not realize what a huge cult show it was, I had never seen it. And that was back in the days of when you would get material sides. Audition sides are what they call it, the scenes that they send you to audition with, or like faxed you know, you don't get the whole script, you don't get to read everything. So I went in for the audition, I went in for the callback, I booked it. And my agent called and they said and I think we we only read in the audition, the sort of initial consultation scene. And like one other post surgery scene, not the really intense stuff. And so my agent called and said, You booked it, they just want to make sure you're okay with the scene where you're on all fours. And he's having sympathy from behind in your bag on your head. And I was like the what the initial character breakdown said, like, has demeaning sex with Christian Troy. And I said to my best friend, like, I mean, yeah, but like, it's cable, how do meeting could it be and she was like, You should probably watch the show. They sent me everything. I read everything. And I had a real moment where I sat down on my couch in my apartment and had a little talk with myself. I was like, Okay, you have to decide if you are ready to love yourself, just as you are. Right now. 100% If you are you can do it this job. And if you're not, you can't and so purely because I wanted to do the job. I was like, Okay, we're going in total acceptance. It really was a huge turning point for me. Like in the weeks afterwards, I was getting recognized on the street, which had never happened to me before and was a wild experience. And, you know, I started getting called in for much bigger things and having casting directors introduced me by saying like, this is Rebecca. She's incredible, which had never happened before. And I was like, Uh, I'm not about to be incredible. You know, it was it was it took a real adjustment, because things changed pretty dramatically. after that. I still had a day job for several years. Yeah, things changed.

12:50

Wow. That's pretty awesome. So in the question, would you rather date Dr. Sean McNamara or Dr. Christian Troy.

12:57

I'm biased because Julian McMahon was so sweet. Like, he took such good care of me. And we have seen each other several times since and it's just like, he's my TV boyfriend. So I know it's the wrong answer. But I would pick Dr. Troy,

13:13

you know, you always go with the bad boy. It's it's his puts guys like me. I know.

13:19

I know. I don't I mean, it's not like McNamara was an angel. No, I sort of two bad choices.

13:26

They were was the show still in Miami at the time? Yes. Okay. So that's when it was still good.

13:31

Yeah, as far as I'm concerned. It's always in Miami. I don't want to talk about Yeah, what happened later,

13:36

it's good to know that Julian McMahon took care of you. Because I was thinking like, he should have you on his show FBI most wanted, and you should be like one of these serial killers that bests him. Like that would be great. Turner. Amazing.

13:48

I don't want to put words in his mouth. But I think he would think that was really fun.

13:52

Let's, I'll have my people call evil. I'm gonna have to first get people. But as soon as I get the Yeah, this is happening.

14:01

He's got people making it happen. Julian, I'm sure he's following all of my podcasts.

14:05

Of course. Why when? What's your Becca saying? That's so funny. Well, okay. So that's good that it's nice to know. Yeah, it was a good experience for you both during and the benefits you got from doing it. I guess that's what happens. Right? You take chances. That was a risk. Yeah, I have

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bumped into a lot of women who you get to know the people who you're always at auditions with who tend to audition for the same roles. And I've bumped into a lot of those women at other auditions who have said to me, I turned that down. I wouldn't do it, which I totally get. And I'm just glad that I did because it ended up being so incredibly positive. And the jobs I've had that were not incredibly positive, you would never know it from what I did on screen. Very little correlation I have found between what happens on screen and what the job was like to do.

14:54

Yeah, the performance was so powerful that you know it's you had to have been enjoying I mean, I got to imagine that Yeah, it's gonna come off in your work. So if if you are uncomfortable, it probably went to Ben as amazing as it was. Alright, so that's that's a huge thing was the next big thing that will you would say, I know I don't I always hesitate to say your overnight success because overnight successes take a decade or whatever. Right. So what would you say was your next kind of big thing you got because of nip top? Or as on this momentum train? You know,

15:24

I don't I don't know that there's anything that I got directly because I've never talked I would say the next sort of milestone in terms of like things moving forward was probably shameless, which I had auditioned for. I don't even know how many times like that office in that show. So John levy is the casting director who also did er, which I worked on in Southland, which I worked on, and he's been calling me in for years. He's wonderful. And I went in for shameless, at least a dozen times. And I went in for the previous season for a role, a big, recurring guest role that got down to me and the woman who got it and I had a chemistry read with William H. Macy. And it was super exciting. And I was like, I could quit my day job for this. And then I didn't get it. And I cried for three days, which I usually don't do. But there was that another role right around the same time that I was like, come on, I could finally quit this horrible job. And I didn't get either one of them. And so that was a blow. But, you know, my agents had they said, they love you. And they're gonna find you something which they always say, and you're always like, ma'am, I'm sure, but they did. And so the following season, they brought me in for this waitress character, Melinda, which I don't know that this is the case, but felt like it had been sort of made for me. And I ended up working on it for three seasons. And that was where I really got to got to know people. People got to know me, I started to feel comfortable and trusted. And I me Rossum, who plays Fiona played Fiona, who was sort of the main person who I worked with, and I became friends and got to really enjoy working together. So that was a big deal. And that's another huge show, both in the industry and with the audience. So being a part of that cast, I think really made a difference.

17:04

Yeah, shameless is huge. You mentioned that no, that was, yeah. And that was that was recurring. Like, what? 14 episodes and then so it was like, yeah, it was really fun. That's really cool. Get to know this. Yeah. Even though it's only 14 of the whole run. They remember you it's a different kind of bond.

17:21

For sure. I have seen also a bunch of those people sins. And that show is intense isn't the right word. But it moves very quickly. John Wells is the showrunner, who did all those other shows, also, that I mentioned, he expects a lot of his actors, he expects you to know your lines, he expects you to be on top of things. He expects everyone to be 100% all the time. And there are people who can't roll with that. And if you can, you get some respect, and they will bring you back and give you more to do and count on you. And so and I think people in the business know that and so being a part of that for a long, a long run for a good number of episodes mattered. It was great for me, it was a great challenge and so much fun.

18:00

So would you rather the theme I got going would you rather watch William H. Macy in ER, or Jurassic Park? Three.

18:14

This is not a difficult I watch er reruns several times a week. I love er, so easy and I don't believe I've ever seen jurassic park three. No offense to whoever is in it.

18:27

Well, William H. Macy.

18:30

I'm sure he's very proud of his work in that film.

18:32

I think it's slightly better than to actually but okay. Okay. All right. So cool. So shameless. I was your big thing. And then Grey's Anatomy, the world of Shonda Rhimes.

18:42

I was very excited to get to open the door into that empire because it's sort of like if you get hired on Shonda Rhimes show, you're like, Okay, well, she doesn't hate me now there's a chance that I could work on all of the other Shonda Rhimes shows. And that's another great casting office Linda Lilly and John brace that I went into many, many times for many, many of the projects that they work on. It was super fun that's another show where like they had been doing it for a good long time. So the moving train image is very much appropriate there it's just sort of like get it knock it out. You as the guest actor you do not want to be the one causing a problem that makes them slow down. So it's just like get in there and kill it and get out the director of that episode. Oh my god, I'm not gonna remember his name and I'm gonna feel terrible who's this older French guy who I looked up and he had directed jaws to hoax like

19:32

gin or something

19:35

Yeah, oh my gosh, shame on me for not having his name off the top of my head. But

19:40

it was it's a Jeunesse was you know swear Zack sores action. I mean, it's let's say let's let's say it again. Go ahead and just say it gentle swirl stores or tours. Yeah, I actually was just it was funny. I was I interviewed Joe elves who was the guy who designed jaws. Oh, wow. He knew you know from and Night Gallery. And when the whole the original director of Jaws two got fired, he's the one that recommended, you know, wow.

20:09

I was pretty excited to work with him some side

20:10

trivia even though none of us could remember his name. Exactly. It was in the heart. That's right. Yeah, I think I stopped watching Grey's Anatomy when they killed Danny.

20:21

Yeah, I hadn't been watching all of that time. You know, I think I had the gist of it.

20:26

There was a period where I was integrase anatomy and I'm just Yeah, yeah, I think we all were, I think we all learned we've all gone through that door. You get

20:34

attached to that original cast. You can hang with changes for a while and then you sort of all but the most devoted fans peter out.

20:41

Exactly. I was listening to an interview you were doing or maybe I read this one. Your early inspirations was The Muppet Show. Love The Muppet Show? So are you like just diving in? Are you so ecstatic? It's up there all on Disney plus? Yeah,

20:55

we've been we have been slowly watching them, my husband and I like we're sort of doling them out so that we don't get through them too fast. But I'm still a diehard Muppet fan. I have my paraphernalia all over my house, like I have right here. A Super Grover. Super Grover. I think that's where I got my sense of humor, and the idea that you could make a living and entertainment from The Muppet Show,

21:19

I always joke with my kids that I went into comedy stand up comedy because of Fozzie Bear.

21:25

I mean, I'm sure there is like a particular generation of people for whom that is true.

21:31

So I know your Disney person, the Muppet studio in Hollywood Studios. Oh, yeah. It isn't working out.

21:37

I feel like they may have just taken it out. But yeah, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I don't

21:42

know. This. May have I think I could have a breakdown if that happened. That was I thought though, it was such a great replica of the backstage it was one

21:50

yes. One of the all the costumes hanging and like identify, you know, if you're me identify like particular sketches. Oh, that was from the quantity.

22:01

So knowing you're a Muppet Show fan. We share that as a mutual love. I prepared a few trivia question. Okay. Gonzo the Great was known for his death defying stunts. In the 120. Episode run. How many stunts did Gonzo actually perform?

22:20

Oh, Lord. I don't know. And I don't feel bad about that. Like, this is not about counting. It's just about enjoying.

22:27

I don't know. I know. 20. But that was close. That was good. And just for the record, I don't expect you to really know this. Okay. Who owns the Muppet theater in the show?

22:36

Oh, scooters? Uncle Jay P. Gross. Yeah, JP gross.

22:41

Hi, bro. JP grows out the well. Maybe she'll know uncle. That's impressive. See, you are your this is good. Okay, so here's one more one more. Okay, how many albums did Dr teeth and the electric may have release?

22:54

In real life? I'm gonna say to

22:58

zero. They never

23:01

know. Didn't know that. Because I would own them if they had.

23:04

Right. So that's another thing we should we'll have our people write letters. This guy, it's gonna change.

23:10

The greatest thing that happened to me, I think this is fair to say on coop. And Cami, besides getting to actually make the show was that they sent us to this thing called de 23, which is the Disney super fan convention in Anaheim every year. And I found and we were there to you know, like meet fans and do photo ops and whatever. And I learned that we were going to be there on the same day as Kermit. And so I wrote to the Disney people. And I was like, Listen, if you never do anything for me, ever again, please, please, please can I meet Kermit and so they set me up with a meet and greet with Kermit and I have a framed picture in our living room of me. Like we were just in this room in the convention center. And all of a sudden he was there and we chatted and it was like, Bucket List situation. Absolutely. I can't believe it.

23:55

The silence that you're hearing from me is just an internal jealousy that I didn't even know how to. If I if I could show you my wall. It's all signed eight by 10s and all that kind of stuff. So tiny Kermit, that's like

24:08

that's it yet. That's it was horrible. Like, you know, it was kind of a behind the scenes situation. The guys who do it are there and it's just suitcases around and so and somehow even though we were all in the same room, like he suddenly appeared, I didn't see where he came from. And then he was gone. And I didn't see where he went like it was magical. And talking to him. I really was talking to him. Like, you know, they say when you're on The Muppet Show people find themselves really interacting with the Muppets, and I totally did.

24:36

There is a magic there. That's okay, that's I don't even know where we can take this now this.

24:42

Yeah, no stopper.

24:43

That's a showstopper. That is a showstopper. All right, well, here ready. Would you rather hang out with Fozzie Bear or Gonzo?

24:52

I think Gonzo because with Bazi you would end up mostly taking care of his insecurities. Whereas with Gonzo, you would end up maybe in jail but on some kind of fantastic adventure like there's no self esteem issue with Gonzo, you would just end up doing something insane.

25:10

I agree with that when I wrote it, I was thinking Pharisee and then who and by then, but then I switched ganza would be the one you'd want to hang out with. That's what people would want to hear about. Plus just the

25:20

sound he makes when he shows up quickly, you know, the like, the swipe, and Gonzo enters a room just for that

25:27

just for that magical magical. Would you rather be backstage or The Muppet Show or Muppets now? Oh, of course. Of course. That was a gimme. All right.

25:37

So I'll take anything cast me in anything. I want to be a backstage whatever the bubbles are doing now. Just the knows that to like, anytime there's a muppet announcement, my agent calls and it's like Rebecca would like to be considered. They're like, we know.

25:51

How did you like the new Muppet Movie when they made the new one with Jason. I liked it

25:57

a lot. I actually auditioned for a line in it. And I was like, so starstruck. They had a Kermit like strapped to the camera. And I think I got so starstruck that I probably screwed it up. But I really liked it. I thought they captured a good amount of the sensibility. I'll always be an old school originalist, but I want them to live on and do new things. And so I really liked it.

26:20

I loved it. I didn't love the sequel to it as much, but the first one I thought really captured the magic that you couldn't hear now what what's Jason's last name like? Seagull Jensen, Jason Segel clearly was such a fan and captured the magic of it. In the second one. There's a funny line that I always say with my kids whenever they got space bars, bass bars by I don't even know. The other second evil guy one so evil, Kermit. Anyway, we should do a whole podcast on The Muppet Show. Good. That'd be cool. You mentioned coupe, uncanny as the world. You just had two wonderful seasons of that show. You played a Jenner, rather, the origin of the kids on that show have a streaming show and they asked questions. Would you rather Yes. Spoiler. That's why I've been saying those to everyone. Everyone without kids listening to Jeff No, I wasn't asked random questions like that during the show. They my initial though is you play a mom to four children and your husband passed away. Mm hmm. Which is interesting, because in Disney, it's usually the foot. I know,

27:29

I felt so fortunate that I survived the beginning of a Disney project, mother and tagged

27:36

that had been fun. My kids are a little older. So I didn't catch the seasons as they're going. But knowing that we are going to talk I watched a couple episodes and they did seem like it seemed like you were just having an amazing time. And they were having an amazing time. Ruby Rose Turner, who plays kami of coop and Cami AstroWorld cracked me up, man. Oh, yeah, that that girl just was she just had a person. And they all did that. I mean, that girl's personality was just you could see they're gonna move her right into another show.

28:07

Yeah, she's a star.

28:08

You also are on a show called better things on Hulu. And you were kind of doing them at the same time. Yeah, better things on Hulu. It's streaming on Hulu. For anyone who wants to catch any of the episodes. They're all there. But it is an FX show. Yeah, so it's it's definitely darker. Yeah. And a Disney show. So yeah, you're going back and forth. polar opposite.

28:30

And stylistically like that. You would just totally but better things is incredibly grounded, realistic. Like there's never a whiff of kind of artifice or it should never feel like acting and Disney Channel is Disney Channel. It's a good show. So yes, very different. And there were a couple of days when I actually went from one set to the other and would just have this talk with myself in the car like okay, now you're going to the set with cursing and with rounded acting. If I caught myself doing some coop and Cami acting on the set of better things, I would be in big trouble.

29:02

Right? It is a different surreal ness to Disney is a little more of a perfect rod. Yeah, right. Even with the Yeah, dealing with the death of a father or husband. It's still Disney and it has a different tone.

29:15

I appreciated that there was some darkness to it though. There was some you know, and every once in a while we would deal with that with the kids having feelings about it or some fallout from it, which I appreciate it. It wasn't all just potatoes in people's faces.

29:30

So playing their Mom, do you feel like I mean this in that the layoffs Do you Do you feel like over the time you guys spent together that you sort of became their mom, like, you know what I mean? Not literally their mom, but yeah, that kind of figure in their life?

29:43

Yeah, I mean, I would sometimes give them acting, not acting advice, but tips. Like I've been doing this for a really long time and they were all pretty young and hadn't had a chance to so there were things that would come up that I would sort of suggest things or Yeah, I think I had sort of maternal vibe, although I'm happy not to actually be any of their moms, it's, it's the ideal situation like you get to Mother them and then something bad happens and you go go talk to your actual mother, I

30:10

gotta go to my trailer sounds perfect.

30:12

I will forever adore those kids and I see them and go, Oh my God, you're so big and the mom stuff. So we have that for sure.

30:20

So you had four kids on the show? Do you sit down with them, we have a look, statistically 50% of you are going to get really messed up. It's just here's some advice I can give you.

30:31

I would try to give them grounding sensible advice when I could, although it's not my job. And I try. You know, nobody likes unsolicited advice less than me. So I tried not to be too bossy. But occasionally I would try to keep them tethered to the ground a little bit. But what do I know? They're famous children. I've never done that. Like Ruby has millions of Instagram followers. I should be taking tips from her.

30:55

Yeah, we're gonna need her to share this episode.

30:59

I did get her to show me how Instagram Stories work. It was very helpful to have them around to be like, I don't understand how to do this on my phone. Like, good to have teenagers around for that.

31:09

Yeah, my kids are really good at all that as well. We were doing something and to test something on Instagram stories with someone who had 10,000 followers or more. I said to my buddy, I said, Oh, my dog has more than 10,000. Yeah. So things my daughter did a maltase that's the thing. I'm not as cute as my dog sign and it works. But yeah, it is good. That is good. Especially in these days. Everything moves so fast. And all the cool new words that you're supposed to be saying Bacin is a new one.

31:39

Oh, is it? I've given up? I'm fine seeming as old as I am.

31:43

If food is really good. Oh, that's Bacin I don't know where it comes from. But

31:48

my immediate impulse has to be like busing is bad. Actually, we should talk about its context and you know, the civil rights era.

31:56

So let's talk about better things. Yeah, it's another great show that you're on. It's with Pamela Adlon. It's really funny. I remember watching lucky Louie and going oh my god. Do you know who that is to my wife pointing at Pamela Adlon ago that's the little girl from Greece to uh huh. She was like Bobby Hill on King of the Hill. But she always like the the little girl that was hanging around, you know, like, Y'all and she's like one of the younger sisters. Like that's her. Oh my god. She's incredible. She writes, she writes that she was she just does everything right, directed.

32:30

She directs every episode. She writes them. She is the star. She's the showrunner. She's like executive producer. She's She's the boss lady. It's amazing. I can't imagine any other I did a couple episodes of shameless like an episode where William H. Macy was directing and acting. And he was amazing, both but it slows everything way down. Because this one person is doing two people's jobs. Pam does like five people's jobs. And still everybody gets home in time for dinner. It's incredible. The amount of work that she does and makes look

33:01

seamless. did you How did you land the roll on better things

33:05

than a normal audition process. So the casting directors name is Felicia Fasano. She's now a producer on the show. She's known and worked with Pam for many, many years and their dear friends. And Felicia is another casting director who has been calling me and for years. And so she brought me in for it, it was a little bit different in that usually for an audition, they send you sides a day or two ahead of time and you study them and you know, you go in. And for this, they said just come in 15 minutes early, and we'll give you the sides. We're not sending you anything at a time. So sort of give people a little bit of a level playing field. Everybody got the same material. It was really just to like as opposed to you're reading for this character and you're reading for this character. It was like everybody is gonna read the same stuff. It's just for us to get to know you as actors. So I did that. And we got a call pretty quickly saying you're in the show. We don't know who you're going to be yet, which is also pretty unusual. And then another week or so later, they said okay, you're going to play this character named Tressa. She's so Pam's character in the show is Sam. It is a semi autobiographical show. So it is about a woman named Sam, who is a working actor and single mother of three daughters whose British mother lives next door all of which is true of Pam as well, but it's not, you know, so it draws on her life and has a lot of similarities, but it's not exactly the same. So I play her manager of her acting career and friends. So I did one episode and then then they started kind of folding me into the friend circle. Yeah, that's how it happened. I was booked for one episode. And a few weeks later, Felicia called or texted me on a Sunday and said, What are you doing tomorrow? And I said nothing. She said, You want to come be in a scene. And that was it.

34:40

You've had a great career. You continue to have a great career. So that's exciting. So when is is that picking up again? Is that Yes,

34:47

we're starting in a few weeks. I'm so excited. Starting to shoot season five.

34:51

How many episodes are in each season?

34:54

Usually 10. There was one season when we did 12 But usually 10 I think that's that's all we could do. Before Pam's head would come flying off, so is it kind of,

35:03

I'm sure there's many differences between like a network show and like a cable show like on that. It seems like the cable shows like to end like your HBOs and all those kind of things that keep them tight. Yeah, like, Oh, we don't need to make up 24 episodes to make the sponsors happy, where 15 of them are why why is Rebecca's character, suddenly going to the zoo? And,

35:26

you know, working on coop and Cami we did 2122 episodes a season and it's like, that's one of the few places where you do that anymore. Most shows don't do that anymore. So yeah, 10 is about about right.

35:37

Yeah, you can do some serious solid storytelling. So that's that's cool. So that all right, so that's, that's coming back. There was I was looking at things on IMDb, there was a random question that was asked which I thought was funny, which was the heroine which is Sam's character, Pam's character? Why is she always on the toilet?

35:57

So for season two, our wrap gift was a squatty potty, you know, those little wooden like toilet stools that had like little quotes from the show on it, because there's so much I can't speak for why there's so much toilet stuff on the show, except that it's a show is very much about life. And there's a lot of toilets of life. And Pam loves awkward, the awkward, uncomfortable moments that nobody wants to talk about, like a note that will get a lot of something will happen on the show some uncomfortable moment. And she will say I want us to sit in the fart of it. Like she doesn't want to skip over the awkward part like she wants to swim around in the awkward part. And so I think the toilet stuff comes from that, like everybody would rather pretend that the hope that toilets and what happens on toilets isn't there. And so she wants to spend an enormous amount of time there because that's what she finds really interesting.

36:48

Oh, God bless her that I think that's great. So I did notice, one of the things you did was as I think representing Disney moms was you were on Celebrity Family Feud.

37:00

Yes. And we lost terribly. We got one question, right. And it was a muppet question. And I made sure we got it right. So I can go to my grave satisfied that I if I had gotten that wrong, I would I would never have been able to forgive myself.

37:17

Was it funding a Family Feud? It's not that easy to come up with things like that, right? It's easy to play these games.

37:23

Oh, it's not. I mean, we never really got the chance. But it was really fun. It was really fun. And I was like the last contestant so I was never going to get a chance to go up to the buzzer. So there was not so much pressure on me. Oh, I get very competitive in those situations.

37:41

You'd want to get up there on the buzzer. Yeah. Cool. So is there some of the other shows that you want the you're on that just happened to be some of my faves scrubs?

37:52

Yes, that was fun. Because that was an offer. Like I just got a call. It was like, hey, they're doing the thing on Scrubs. Do you want to do it? I didn't have to audition. That's always a good gig. We were in the grandfather kennel. It was really fun and so

38:05

much cool stuff. So I did in researching doing digging in and so that that's files you got you got married at the zoo. I love the zoo. That's like my favorite place.

38:16

Have you been to the Santa Barbara Zoo? No, but

38:18

we've got a cool zoo here. We lost our elephants once it became a thing don't have openings on a blah, blah, blah. Don't have elephants, you know, we have a really big Detroit Zoo. Really cool butterfly thing and huge giraffe thing. My wife loves giraffes. And it was a thing like growing up. Our kids would go into this. There's like this hippo and not a real HIPAA. You know, like, you know, thing. Yeah. And they crawl in. And I was like, you know, like, sometimes you realize, oh, we took the same picture. 15 times every time we went to the same place. Yeah. And so realize, like, I had this whole history of my kids growing up in this hip hop. I can't get my kids to go back. But I was like, we get a lot of people get married. We have this beautiful butterfly thing in Detroit. You walk in, there's like all these million butterflies that they can't get out because it'll destroy the ecosystem. Yeah, but world ended when they'd someone left the door open at the Detroit Zoo. Anyway, so I saw some pictures of that. And I'm like,

39:14

so cool. It's funny that you mentioned giraffes because that they played a big part. So I was like, looking through wedding venues online like you do. And I was like, I know I whiner and I want to do it tell I don't want to do like all these Country Club, whatever. And I saw this picture of a bride and groom and a giraffe between them. All three of them with these big goofy smiles on their faces. And I was like, Oh my God, that's what I want. And it was a Santa Barbara Zoo. So we have pictures of the two of us in our wedding finery with the giraffe. Our invitation was had like giraffe print paper on it. So drafts became kind of a theme. It wasn't on purpose. But we now have a lot of giraffe gifts around the house because people and we went on a safari for our honeymoon. So it's become

39:54

you brought it on yourself. The Yeah, it's funny when people like they do that. Are they really Do you love

40:00

giraffes? Or like not really? But thank you like giraffe. I mean, yes, we love giraffe

40:05

shops are adorable. They're cute. And there's a lot of good things you can buy with your apps on them. We went to a safari, I went to Norway, like, we had open tarp on the roof, and the draft would come in and we had carrots or something and their tongues are long, like you've never seen. Yeah,

40:20

I have a bad one at the San Diego Zoo and it's like stringy it's kind of disgusting. But, you know,

40:26

it's one of those things where like, Oh, I got to feed a giraffe. You know, like, Yeah,

40:30

I had to wash my

40:34

so are you doing any other any other big projects other than head and back to better things,

40:41

better things is the big thing. I'm working I'm about to work on a movie that a friend of mine is making and and lots of auditioning, like, things are just roaring back all of a sudden I it's like we're going from zero to 60 all of a sudden, which is like, Oh, I was hoping for a little bit more of a transition, triple booked on the calendar, better things and whatever comes next.

41:03

Well, I'm sure a million more things await you, everyone. Where can people keep up with you on the socials?

41:09

I am @TheRebeccaMetz on everything. I'm on Twitter, Instagram and someone talked me into getting on Tik Tok. So I'm on Tik Tok.

41:18

Fine. I occasionally get on the tick tock myself, everybody check out better things zahlen hullo you can catch it on Hulu and easy busy bench easy bench. If you've got kids sit them down to coop and Cami asked the world. Enjoy a bowl. Rebecca, thank you so much for hanging out with me. This was fun. It was fun.

41:39

Thank you so much. Pleasure.

41:41

All right. How awesome was Rebecca Metz. I had such a good time chatting with her. It's always good to find someone else who loves the Muppets as much as you do definitely check out Rebecca's current show better things and all the other great show she's been on so much goodness for you to discover. Well, can you believe it? Here we are nearing the end of episode 79 can't believe it? Where did 79 episodes come and go? But wait, Jeff, it's not over yet. I know. It's not over because we haven't done a trending hashtag on the family of hashtags at hashtag roundup. That's right, Hashtag roundup download the free always free costs ya nothing app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. tweet along with us on Twitter, follow hashtag roundup on Twitter at @HashtagRoundup, tweet with one of our amazing fun games and one day one of your tweets may show up on an episode of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show fame and fortune awaits you.

This week's hashtag is drawn from Rebecca and my love of the Muppets. talkie tags, a weekly Game On hashtag Roundup did a super fun hashtag #PutAMuppetInAMovie. That's right, the ultimate Muppet Movie, mashup hashtag game, and we're bringing it to you. As always, all these tweeters will be retweeted @jeffdwoskinshow, they'll be listed in the show notes, show him some love. Also get out there on Twitter, tweet your own hashtag put them up it in a movie I look for it. And again play along with us to up your chances of showing up on a future episode. All right, here we go. The ultimate Muppet Movie mash up #PutAMuppetInAMovie. There's something about Janice, How to Lose a Guy Smiley in 10 days, The Great Muppet Cape fear, the Wizard of Frank Oz, the French rainbow connection. These are some amazing Muppet Movie mashup movies, I would love to see these malicious movies, the big bird cage, 12 Angry Muppets, The fives in the fear is the wolf of Statler and Waldorf St, Bedtime for Gonzo, Gods I walk out, CasaWakaWaka, the Big Bird Lebowski ,The Wizard of Foz, Miss Piggy Wears Prada, the Gonzo mile, Pepe Longstocking. These are some incredible #PutAMuppetInAMovie tweets, honeydo I Shrunk the Kids, weekend at Ernie's, Gonzo brother we're Rizzo Gonzo girl, a Fozzie Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Ah, remember the ELMO, love Burt's, Driving Miss Piggie, Pigs in Spaceballs, and our final #PutAMuppetInAMovie The Bert locker Oh, right. These are amazing collection of muppetlicious movie mashups. Thanks to everyone who tweeted along and don't forget to check out their tweets @JeffDwoskinShow

Can you believe it here we are at the end of episode 79. All good things must come to an end. And here we are. I want to thank once again my amazing guest Rebecca Metz and of course I want to thank all of you for coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

45:00

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Now go repeat everything you've heard and sound like a genius. Catch us online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and we'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai