Hello everyone and welcome back to People Do want to know.
Podcast, our first episode of our.
Go you will enjoy season. Today's guest needs no
introduction. You've seen him in the iconic
role of David Wallace in The Office.
Andy Buckley. Andy is an actor, comedian and
former stockbroker known for his signature deadpan delivery and
sharp corporate satire. While many recognize him from
the office, of course, he's also appeared in acclaimed series
like Veep, Silicon Valley and Odd Mom Out, where he played the
hilariously polished and status obsessed husband of Jill
Kargman's character. If you recall, we had Jill on a
couple of weeks ago. Her episode was absolutely
fantastic. Before.
Acting full time, Andy spent nearly two decades on Wall
Street, a background that gives his comedy it's uniquely
authentic executive energy. Andy is married to Nancy Banks.
She's an actor, coach and casting professional who has
worked extensively in film and television, helping actors
develop performances and prepare for auditions.
She's one of the most respected people in the industry and they
have two children together. It's really an honor to have
Andy on for many reasons. But especially because of just.
How much he's done for the Jewish community since October
7th. To Andy, this is a matter of
moral clarity and he makes for an absolutely incredible ally
for us in this. Episode we talk about his.
Career, his reflections on the many years of acting, and his
take gun life post October 7th. I do mention this in the
episode, but I want to say it here too.
The straight man is the most underrated dark horse role of
the industry and no truly good piece of comedy exists without a
straight man. Andy is one of the best straight
man of all time in my opinion and it was an honor to be in the
midst of greatness. And now to call Andy a pal.
I really hope to meet him in person in LA one day.
You'll love this light, easy conversation.
Please enjoy this episode. Hello Andy, welcome to People Do
want to Know podcast. Thanks so much for being with me
here. Thank you, Margarita, delighted
to be with you. Thank you for putting your best
suit on for me today, Andy. I thought I'd try and look
presentable, you know, I mean, I'll even throw at one point.
I'll throw. There we go.
Throw on the Wallace glasses to try and, you know, match the
character. So please, Andy, tell us about
yourself. What do you do and how?
Did you get there? I, I'm trying to think of a
joke, right? I'm trying to come up with
jokes. I'm the straight man, so I don't
have the jokes. I act, I guess, is what I do.
Got very exceptionally lucky to, you know, 20 years ago actually,
thanks to Allison Jones. I call her my patron St. the
casting woman for the office. But how did I get there?
So I act that was my lucky break playing David Wallace on the
office. And from that I was able I've
been able to sort of cobble together halfway decent acting
career for the last 20 years. And hopefully it hopefully it
keeps going as they say. And how did I get here?
Well, you know, I'm I'm an Irish Catholic from Boston, from
outside of Boston and, you know, was sort of a typical, typical
guy played sports growing up and, you know, football fan.
I was a golfer. We spent some, which is not some
people don't consider that a sport.
I do. That became my sport.
My dad played basketball at Penn.
My older brother was a quarterback at Stanford many,
many years ago, which is where I ultimately went to school.
I think they would certainly laugh at my application today.
I know they it's become a little tougher to get into these places
rather than, you know, 40 years ago or so.
And but now we're spent some time in the Midwest growing up
South Florida, I mean, I never really paid too, too much
attention to, you know, really the world of politics.
I mean, I was I was reasonably informed and whatnot, but I knew
I wanted to act sometime in high school.
I wanted to be an actor. I said James Dean movie East of
Eden, one of his one of the only he only made a few movies and
that, you know, sort of touched me and inspired me and started
doing plays in high school, did plays in college, but went to
school, graduated, studied poli sci, which is not the the most
difficult major at Stanford. And then to my folks chagrin, I
said, hey, I'm going to go to New York and act like, huh?
But I think the, I joke, but I think they, they knew that was
coming. But I was on the golf team the
first year and a half or so there.
I gotten pretty good in high school and got recruited by some
places. But after, after a year or so
said, I think I'm going to shift into acting.
That may pay off in 20 years. Moved to New York, studied
acting, moved out to LA, tried to do it with very, very, very
little success for the 1st 789 years.
Ended up sort of having to pack it in and ended up at Merrill
Lynch where I was an advisor there.
Wealth manager for almost 11 years, really from O1, the end
of O1 to the beginning of 2013. So I guess almost 12, yeah,
pushing 12 years and 4 1/2 years into those 1211 eleven years or
so I got my call, my lucky phone call to come audition for the
office from the from the casting director, Allison Jones.
I don't know if I mentioned if I referenced her earlier, my
patron St. yeah. And luckily they hired me and
then over time, they just started using me more and more.
And I mean, it's easy to coattail it off of Steve Carell.
You know, he's he's an easy guy to just sit there and react to.
And you know, you're going to be laughing all day.
And then that's just that led to to many other things, including
odd mom out. I think you said you're you
might be having Jill Kartman on on the show at some point.
Hopefully. So she's magnificent and
supremely funny and and super sharp, obviously.
But yeah, but you know, many other many other things.
I'm actually getting to do the morning show right now, 3 or 4
episodes of the upcoming season, which is kind of cool.
And there you go. I'm married.
My magnificent wife Nancy is she's Jewish.
That's the tie in. And actually that's not the tie
in. That's not the, that's, that's
the latest tie in. But you know, yeah, that's,
that's actually not, I mean, that's not the tie in.
That's the strongest tie in. Certainly my older brother's
married to a Jewish, like I always say Jewish gal, even
though like we're, we're a lot older than we were when we got
married, you know, And so it's, it's been around, you know, my
world for 3540 years. And, and then as a kid, you
know, you, you go to bar mitzvahs and things like that.
But I, I wouldn't say that I necessarily took a deep interest
in what was going on with, you know, when, when guys would do
their portion or, or, or the, the girls would do their
portion, etcetera. You know, so often you're just
kind of going to go, Hey, when's the party?
You know, when, when you're that young.
But dad, we have two sons and my oldest guy had a bar mitzvah and
that was the blast. And I hope to go to Israel.
I almost went a year and a half ago, but things, things are
heating up briefly when during the time I was going to go.
So I pushed it off. But I've gotten to know many,
many folks in the Jewish community that I certainly
wouldn't have. But then also many folks over in
Israel that, that I wouldn't have the, the beauty of, you
know, social media, I guess, and, and online things and met a
number of them when they visited LA or I, I got to go to a great
judeo-christian conference in Nashville a couple of months ago
and some of them came in there. We met there.
It was, it was, it was terrific. So there you go.
There's the long answer. I love it.
I want to double click on something you said, which is the
concept of straight man. I think that straight men get a
bad Rep because like especially in the acting world, everyone
wants to be a personality. Everyone wants to really shine
and. Show a lot of character.
But it's really the straight man that becomes the glue for a show
where there are quite a few different characters and
concurring plot lines. I am a straight man and what I
like to say is that, you know, this personality carries me
through my whole life. I don't have to act.
You do. That's The funny thing.
And I want to know as you reflect on your career, like,
what are kind of the the pieces of wisdom that you want to share
about acting in creative pursuits?
Oh that's so funny. My wife is the best one for that
just because she she's touched on her touch a little bit.
She's she's a very sought after has become over the years, a
very sought after acting coach, Margot Robbie, Jennifer Aniston,
Rachel McAdams, Jennifer Garner, Channing Tatum.
I don't know if any of the ladies know Channing.
I always like to make that joke. Who's every one of those folks?
I I know a little bit some some more than all, all lovely and
magnificent people. So she she's been doing that a
while. And so she, she would have more,
but me, you know, it's a so I don't know.
I don't think that I tend to have any pearls of wisdom.
However, you, you got to, you got to trust your instincts.
That's just a, a thing. And I've, I guess I've learned
in life, you know, listen to your inner voice and, and trust
your inner voice and develop your inner voice.
And then I don't know if there's any actors or artists or writers
or just people there. What one of the other things is
in the how Nancy and I met. We were, we were students in the
class of a, a, a really great acting teacher fellow named
Larry Moss, who is now back in New York.
He was out in Los Angeles for many, many years.
He used to use the, the old Popeye expression.
I am what I am. And that's, I forget exactly
what Popeye used to say, if any, you know, older folks would know
Popeye. But it's, it's all about I'm,
I'm here to be me. And, and that's what I'm, that's
what I'm going to be. I'm completely butchering the
actual expression. But the point is whether you're
a singer, whether you're an actor, whether you're a writer,
whether you're a sculptor, painter, then as well, you know,
human being, you have to listen to your your voice and then give
your interpretation. If it's, if we're talking about
acting of whatever the piece is. Same with, you know, singers
with with a song because they, you know, they don't want me to
go in and try and imitate Christian Bale or, you know,
Ryan Gosling or, you know, Robert De Niro or Al Pacino or
whomever. They want you to give the best,
your best interpretation of the piece as you and I always love
this. This is one of Nancy's exercises
that she has in class teaches, you know, one-on-one quite a
lot. But then in class she'll play
and just as an example to to the people in class, she'll play 8
different versions of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
And it's, you know, Judy Garland's obviously Tony
Bennett, Patti LaBelle, Israel Horowitz, the the lovely
Hawaiian guy on the ukulele, Willie Nelson has a, has a great
1. Livingston Taylor, James
Taylor's brother, has a, has a lovely 1.
Keith Richards has a great one. It's like a bootleg 1 you can
find on YouTube him on the just on the piano.
And obviously they're all completely different types of
artists. And there's, I'm sure there's
other examples, but they all sound great, you know, and it
all stems from them as artists. So I guess that's something that
I've learned is you have to, you have to give your interpretation
of the material and they're, you know, going to respond or not.
And every part is not meant for you.
It's like there are those, I mean, obviously office fans.
You go online, you just type in office auditions, you know,
original office auditions and you go in and you see, you know,
actors that didn't get the part. But ultimately you know them
from Parks and Rec or Modern Family or different or Better
Call Saul, Bob Odenkirk. He was going to be he was going
to be Michael Scott. If if Steve wasn't able to do it
because he was, he was technically on another show at
the time. But and you just see these guys
are funny or they're you get their essence.
You get so much of it, but you also see why they didn't, you
know, why the part wasn't, you know, couldn't have been them.
There's things like that for the Godfather.
Also, you see Martin Sheen's audition for this or you know,
Jimmy Khan auditioning for the Michael Corleone part.
And so, and you just see, ah, it's great.
However, it's not, it's not the right thing in the Martin
Sheen's case, obviously Francis Coppola.
All my references are so old. I'm sorry.
Martin Francis Coppola obviously saw ah, I'm going to put that
guy in Apocalypse Now or whenever that came up.
It's like he's the right guy for that, not the right guy for
Michael Corleone, but so trust your own voice, which is hard to
do. You know, it takes a lot of
developing and, and the, the more times you get hired, the
more confidence you get and the harder you work at it.
That's also the other thing. Everybody I know who's had great
success is whether it's in the the brokerage business, whether
they're lawyers, doctors, actors, writers, they're all
incredibly hard working people. Yeah, it really makes a
difference. Like what you put your time
into, what you water will grow, right?
That's the old phrase. There you go.
Yeah. That does good play Well, yeah,
instead. Of my 35 minute answer.
Do you think that there's like a roll out there that you'd want
to play that people would find is unconventional for you, but
you secretly want to do it? Oh, it's funny.
I got to play a really super fun part.
The last kind of two bigger parts that I ever like got to
play were were were kind of like that one was on this great HBO
comedy called Avenue 5 that really only lasted a couple of
years. COVID kind of got in the way.
And but I I was a sort of like a wacky husband.
It's the fellow that did Veep, Armando Iannucci, and there was
one of his his, one of his next shows, and Hugh Laurie's the
star and Josh Gad is on it and a bunch of great British actors.
And as you know, from start to finish, I just sort of slowly
lost my head and, and became a little nuts over the course of
two seasons, which was really a blast.
Just as kind of the antithesis of the typical normal nice guy,
husband, nice guy, boss, nice guy, you know, straight man to
the wacky comedy around me. I got to be a part of the wacky
comedy, which was fun. And then I got to do a show last
couple years that that was an HBO one for on Netflix called
Foobar with Arnold Schwarzenegger was the was the
the big dog, if you will. And it was the same sort of
thing. First season I was just a nice
straight guy. And then the second season I I
got to sort of lose my mind a little bit, which is really a
ton of fun. All those are a lot of fun.
I don't one of these days, hopefully I'll get to play a bad
guy, you know, just a guy who's of questionable ethics or
something like that. You know, not not too crazy, but
semi crazy. That would be fun.
I want to pivot us to talk about, you know, your advocacy
in the Jewish community. Obviously, this is like the meat
of the conversation. Take me back to like leading up
to October 7th. It obviously takes, I wish it
weren't the case, but it does take some courage to speak out
on an issue like, you know, what's happening with Jewish
people in Israel. And it it's a bummer to see
Hollywood kind of splinter at the political line.
And I, I want to know like, you're on the inside of this.
How do you feel? What were those first moments
like? Can you help me understand your
world a little bit better? So as I said, just jumping back,
you know, growing up, I, I went to, you know, friends of mine
growing up, bar mitzvahs and things like that.
And, you know, some Jewish weddings when I was in my 20s, I
guess of friends of mine. And when my brother, my older
brother married his wife, She's so wild.
I mean, it's coming up. It's like it's coming up on,
it's coming up on almost 40 years, like 37 years.
I realized, man, I, I got to learn a little bit about, you
know, the, the Jewish world to touch.
So I just, I just try to familiarize myself to touch.
I actually went over to, to Poland.
I, I mean, I had, I had miles to use.
I was like, well, I'm not going to, I got to go to Europe one
time. I'm going to go to a different
part of Europe And, and I, I visited Auschwitz, you know,
because I, which is sort of a, it was a, it was kind of crazy.
It was during, during the Christmas holidays.
It was not particularly packed with tourists at that time.
But I, you know, that was, that was obviously an incredibly eye
opening place to visit and see and to walk around and let all
of that sink in and not, you know, not that that's what the,
the entirety of what the Jewish world is, is about and being
Jewish is about obviously, but it's, it was quite a moment in
history. So did that.
And then honestly, like beyond that, it's not like I did a, a,
a a ton. It's not like I suddenly started
studying it. But then I'm, you know, luckily
enough met my wife and she's from, she's from Toronto and the
big Jewish family up there, big Jewish community up there.
So for many, many, many years, we're going up to nieces,
nephews, bar mitzvahs, bar mitzvahs, weddings, you know,
Brisas, the, the, the whole bit. So I learned a little bit during
that time, but you know, and our son Benny had his, had his bar
mitzvah and our other son, it just wasn't, didn't seem like it
was going to be the thing for him.
And then I was so jumping, jumping ahead to and you know,
we like the candles. She's AI guess she's a reformed
Jew, I guess. So then October 7th happened and
I think like countless people around the globe probably like,
well, you know, it's it's just a horrifically stunning episode.
And and I'm just like this. I mean, I'm not I'm not crazy.
I mean, this is, this is, this is, and prior to that, and it
started during COVID, like all I did was I would just post goofy
office videos, like clips from the office on Instagram.
It wasn't like I was involved in anything controversial or
political or, or anything like that.
Just, you know, goofy, goofy clips from the office or golf
videos or charities I might have been involved when involved with
or in. And so after about a week or so,
sitting with it, thinking about it, actually the guy that and I
don't know him, but the guy that sort of allowed me to speak,
which is one of the reasons why in in my mind I'm like, hey, by
me speaking up a little bit, maybe it get it allows somebody
else to speak up a little bit. Was the basketball player Amari
Stoudemire, who's now over in Israel NBA, you know, many, many
times All Star. I assume he's in the Hall of
Fame or will be when he's eligible.
Like he's probably in there anyway.
He's over in Israel and he converted to Judaism.
He had played over there and then stayed.
And anyway, he he spoke up about it and I saw that and that is
what I was like, yeah, this is exactly, you know, this is
basically what I'm thinking. So I started and then I guess
over time the and then I started, you know, studying a
little bit more of the history and and and.
Went, you know, went read Douglas Murray books and, you
know, went to see him speak and we had Eitan Shetayat.
I'm that Jew, Eitan come, he came to LA and he spoke at our
house. And then I started messaging
people on Instagram. The more I was learning and the
more I was, you know, I guess, speaking out for the Jewish
people for Israel, etcetera. Johnny Daniels and, and, and a
number of other folks. And then Shabbos Kestenbaum,
who's so fantastic and I, I kind of have a like a little, you
know, I'm lucky because younger, the, the younger folks and, and
some of the older folks too, but especially like Shabbos, you
know, he's a, he's a huge office fan.
So I send him a message. I tend to do it on Instagram as
opposed to Twitter. Hey, really enjoy your stuff.
Thanks. You know, keep up your great
work. And often people will Click to
say, oh, that's nice. Who's this?
Who's this goofball sending me this message?
And, and then like, oh, if they're an office fan, I'll say,
hey, you're the guy in the office.
I'll say, oh, yeah, yeah, you know, like, that's awesome,
blah, blah, blah. And so then, you know, with some
of the folks, the, the ones I mentioned, I've become pretty
good, pretty good pals with them.
And I've gotten to see them a number of times when they've
been in the States. So that's, that's kind of how it
started. I mean, it was, it was literally
I, I honestly don't know if or how, how long it would have
taken had I not seen the Amari Stoudemire clip.
But that was the thing that allowed me to, you know, speak
up and, and, and, but I'll let you jump in.
But to get to the Hollywood stuff, I guess, you know, I
don't, I, I mean, obviously there's, I mean, so there you
go. I'm, and it's not like I go to
church all that much. I feel like myself getting a
touch more religious as I get older.
But you know, I'm an, I an Irish Catholic and there certainly
aren't a ton of, you know, that I've noticed, you know, Patricia
Heaton, certainly, you know, speaking out and, and I've
gotten to know her a little bit, which is great.
And I went to this event that she helped put together the, the
Judeo-christian Zionist Conference in, in Nashville a
few months back, which was, which was tremendous, just
meeting some of the folks and, and that was when some of the
folks from Israel came in. But, you know, I don't know,
it's an interesting thing. Like I, I don't, I don't know,
or some people not speak. I mean, you certainly have
people who are honestly, I, I think they're just not as
informed who are, or I, I say on the side that doesn't really
make sense. And they have a limited, they
have a couple of talking points they might have picked up at
some point, but they, they have, they don't understand the
history and they don't, you know, honestly, truly
understand. And it's just astounding.
The whole social media online thing.
You have, you know, 50 posts, if you will, you know, on one side
versus the pro Israel side is, you know, one post, you know, 50
to 1 or whatever the numbers are in these interviews.
And they, you know, these great guys like Nate Friedman who are
out there talking to, you know, people.
And you see that so many people are just paid protesters and,
and so many of them don't know anything about anything at all.
And I'm certainly not saying that I know everything about
everything. You know, I I also just sort of
trust that this is the right, I'm on the right side, if you
will, the the correct side of humanity.
But yeah, this is maybe a disappointing is I don't really
have an answer as to why more people aren't speaking up and
speaking out. You have, you know, you're Debra
Messings. And I mean, there's a number of
people like that there. You know, is it, I mean, if they
have families, do they worry about being a public person and,
you know, something happening? I don't know, do they, you know,
and I certainly respect this, the idea of like, hey, I'm an
entertainer. I'm not I'm not going to get
involved in this. It's not necessarily my thing.
And maybe behind the scenes they're they're doing something,
you know, I understand that. And and and I'm just a I'm just
another human being out there. And luckily I couple people know
who I am. So I get to, you know, have a
small little audience of folks and and if I speak up for what I
think is the the correct way or the correct thing, maybe
somebody takes that football and carries on with it, you know,
something like that. I was wondering if there's a way
you would hope to see Hollywood change for example.
Well, yeah, I mean, the thing that's crazy is you have like
some, you have some, you have some loud voices who just I
mean, a they're spewing things that just aren't true at all,
which is lousy. And they have they have, you
know, big followings. You know, it's funny.
And I've been thinking about this, just the idea of like
people having conversations on whether it's podcasts.
I mean, you get something and it's and it's opposing views.
And, you know, you're, you, you don't want to get a guy like
Shabbos on there with some, some actor who is barely going to
have the facts, but just two or three people in in a room
speaking about, about something. And it's like, OK, and, and just
to just to, you know, you just a topic comes out.
Well, let's talk about this, you know, well, OK, well, did you
know, like actually here's what happened in Medina back,
etcetera, you know, thousands of years ago and this is what
started you. Are you aware of that?
And, and a lot, and that's a lot of times it, it feels an innate
Friedman is a, is a great guy exposing some of the stuff.
And there's, there's certainly other guys and gals who do it
who are great at it. The citizen journalists are
fantastic. And we're very obviously very
lucky to have them. And, you know, they don't really
know anything about anything. And then when they're hit with a
they're, you know, asked a question, they just react and
say, look, I, I'm done with this.
And then they, they walk away or they'll, you know, say some
terrible thing or I mean, it's horrible.
What happened to that? I don't know when people will
see if anyone was want us to watch this, but I don't know
when they'll see this. But the poor girl, Savannah, you
know, who got like pounded by, you know, that that mob, but
really like, you know, two or three people of the family
basically. And I mean you, you have things
like that that just the conversational element is
missing. And it's when people are sort of
given facts about something that they don't want to hear because
it doesn't fit the whole narrative that they have in
their mind. Or then you have people who
they're just there and they're, they are getting paid and they
have their two or three talking points and and that's it.
But to the point of like what to change, you know, you're
probably not going to get any Hollywood people or too many on,
you know, in some conversational podcast.
And it's probably a lot more interesting to have people like,
you know, not that Thomas Sowell is is doing something like that,
but guys like Shabbos or Douglas Murray and listening to people
that truly understand it or or Danny Burwam.
He's a great guy for that. And there's, you know, as many
as many others. But you know, I I don't know, I,
I don't. There you go.
There's a long winded non answer.
Well, the answer is not simple, right?
Because a part of what I'm hearing is let's.
Leave. Those discussions to the
experts, because these conversations have permeated
into spaces where they don't make a lot of sense.
No one is looking to actors to advise on like foreign policy or
ethical dilemmas or moral dilemmas.
That's not their strength. And, you know, there's something
that I feel living in New York is there's also this, like,
prominence of cult mentality. So you were talking about paid
protesters, right? I went to a coffee shop last
weekend that had just opened, and it was owned by this Russian
guy. And I love supporting my fellow
Russian speakers, especially immigrants that came as a result
of the Russian and Ukrainian war.
And so I looked up this place we went, I had great coffee.
I was happy. I'm chatting up the guy.
And I was like, how are things going?
You know, how are you going to get people through the door?
Because in New York is a very intense business.
You need like, high turnover in a coffee shop to make money and
to pay back the rent. And he was saying how there's
this new company that you can pay and people will stand in
line outside of your. Establishment to create the.
Perception that there is a line for the place and that could be
a. Store, coffee shop, whatever.
Because in New York, everything has become a line culture.
And it's like lines, bigot lines.
People see like a. Restaurant with a line outside.
They assume it must be good because what New Yorker would
wait in line for a shitty restaurant?
But the reality is it's always the shitty restaurants that have
lines and the good ones that have locals.
And there's no wait because and New Yorkers have now flipped and
said, if there's a line, I'm not going.
So the dynamic has changed, but it's really a shift in society.
And it puts the burden. It puts the burden on the
average person to use their kind of thinking cap to be like, do I
want to wait in line with this mob?
Is this the best use of my time? And that's really what we're
seeing around the mob mentality on the Internet and everywhere
else. I'm wondering, you know, what I
hear from you is it's different for you because it's personal.
Like when it's your wife that's Jewish, when it's your kids that
are Jewish, obviously. You will speak up.
You will have no choice but to speak up.
It is a moral imperative. I understand that very.
Well, is there any? Advice that you have for.
Jewish people to build bridges. With non Jews.
Well, you know, what's interesting is just any any
chance you have to have a conversation with someone or to
meet someone or to speak to them.
And this is this is kind of funny.
So as I referenced, just to become buddies with Shalbas and
and he he specifically on Piers Morgan, a lot goes head to head
with Ana Kasparian. So I was on a plane and this
speaks in this goes to the humanity of, of, of things
still. I mean, they're still polar
opposites in their in their beliefs or whatever.
I was on a plane and I end up sitting next to her husband on
he was in the aisle and then she was opposite on the other aisle
and I'm talking to him and, and I wasn't quite sure it was it
was her. And I'm talking to her husband a
lot about sports. We're both sports guys.
And. And then at some point he
references that he's the baseball coach at one of the
local high schools, which I was like, oh, OK, so that's
definitely him because that's who her husband is.
And I said, oh, so that's your wife?
And then he said yeah, yeah. And I said I said that's funny.
I said I'm actually, and I said I'm actually become good friends
with the, the main guy that she goes head to head with on Piers
Morgan all the time. And we kind of laughed about
that. And then we agreed to not talk
about politics because they're, they were both, they're both
pretty big office fans. Like he was we, you know, that
was the initial start of our conversation.
And so then, you know, we, we, I talked to her a fair amount on
the flight and you know, we were just like Jabba said, let's you
guys should get coffee, you guys, you know, so that you can
actually meet and have, you know, a human, a human
connection. And it's not just that.
And, and, and, and, you know, the same with the the same with
me. Like when you, even though
completely polar opposites in in beliefs certainly.
And I don't see her all, you know, like I've, I've only seen
her three or four times on TV, you know, when Chavez is on and,
you know, but just there adds an element of humanity there that I
mean, hopefully she felt as well, you know, So I think the
more that you know, the more that you're able to converse
with people and share ideas that isn't just an attack, but an
actual listening, you know, conversation full of full of,
you know, respectful listening and and sharing of ideas.
I think that's a great thing specifically when you talk
about, you know, Jewish people and Christians or, you know,
really any, anybody in the world, I think that's, I mean,
you know, that's, that's probably a good way to go.
Any events. I mean, it was great being at
this conference that I, I was lucky to attend, that I've been
invited to a couple other ones that I'm hoping to go to just to
continue to, you know, learn because as I said, I'm not the
most well versed in all of this, but I'm, you know, getting
better. But I think, yeah, the, the more
group interactions you can, you can have and the more people
you, you know, you can expand your horizons by having
conversations with people and you know what their experience
is. It's like, you know, you hear
like in, in Iran, I don't know a great deal about it, but then
you, you listen to the people who their families escaped or
the people whose families escaped from, you know, Cuba and
all of that. Like the people that have the
lived experience of what it was and what it is.
I, you know, I tend to listen to those people because they
certainly have a, a, you know, a lot more knowledge than just
someone who read some sound or, you know, saw some sound bites
or read a couple of things somewhere and just want to, you
know, if it suits their agenda, I guess.
Our shared humanity is undeniable, that is for certain.
I'm curious to know what are you working on now?
Like what are you excited about? People conversing, I guess
that's one thing. No, but me, I mean, it's it's
fun. It's actually did a bunch of
these fun things for this company ramp, which is this.
It's a big, they're becoming a very big accounting software
company that Brian Baumgartner was Kevin on the office.
He's like the face of it. And so there was like a whole
social media campaign that he was the main guy and I was this
like the second tier guy, which was really fun.
But no, I mean, it's fun doing the morning shows coming.
It's a cool show. It's great.
It's a terrific show. And I've done a couple of couple
of little movies recently. One's actually playing at the
Dallas Film Festival this weekend.
It's a it's a lovely medical miracle story.
I'm one of the doctors with the Elizabeth Tabish is that she's
on the show the Chosen, which is a, is a big show around the
world. I don't want to say a Christian
show, but it's, I guess you could call it that.
She plays Mary Magdalene in it. And but yeah, Lou Diamond
Phillips and and Ashley Green and yeah, a lot of people don't
know Russell Quinn is great. And and so anyway, that's
terrific. I there's a movie called Prima
that'll be coming. I got a couple of scenes in
that. That's AI bet it's going to be a
lovely movie about ballet with the Nicola Peltz is in it and
Faye Dunaway's in it and or Nicola Peltz Beckham to to her,
her full official married name now and Faye Dunaway, Mira
Sorvino, Jack Houston, like some great, really great folks in it.
It's fun to and again I'm I'm in it like one or two scenes.
I hope you're dancing ballet in both of those.
Yes, that's they needed me for that.
It's what a what AI don't really go to the ballet.
What a, what a beautiful thing to watch.
I mean, I got to sit and and watch one day.
It's like, Oh my goodness, they're just incredible, you
know? Well, thank you for doing this.
As part of the segment, you get to Ask Me a Jew.
Any question you have about being Jewish, you have a major
leg up, but I am wondering if there's anything you've been
curious about regarding the Jews.
Well, here's a great one for you since since I didn't really have
an answer, what would you like to see out of Hollywood aside
from just more people speaking up, you know?
You want the opposite? I don't want them speaking up.
I'm not interested what Billie Eilish has to say about
politics. Or how about, you know, anybody
else? I I want good.
Art. Art that makes you feel
something. And you might argue that art is
inherently political, but I wish there was less, less of that.
The Office is not political, right?
And it's a masterpiece. And there's something great
about that era of film and TV that was not political and it
was shared. And we are lacking that shared
camaraderie in Hollywood because our politics have may become
more of a priority than the spirit of making good art.
How about that? That's exactly true, yes.
Is there though, and the the whole world seems to be quite
polarized, which I guess speaks to that conversation thing that
I was saying, but well, that's not the answer I expecting.
So thank you for surprising. I'm glad.
OK, Tell me, how can people connect with you and keep up
with your work? I mean, I think I'm on Twitter.
I don't know, I'm on Instagram, you know, and I generally, I
mean, I mean, 90% of my things are just, you know, pro, pro the
Jewish community. Let's support the Jewish
community. And it's really wild like that,
you know, it's so, it's so crazy.
I just put up a thing yesterday where, you know, happy birthday
to Israel and, you know, happy birthday to my, to my friends
over in Israel, you know, and the amount compared to most of
the things that I put up. And, and that comes in waves.
Sometimes I'll speak out a little bit more over a two or
three-week period and then I'll they'll be a lull.
But boy, oh boy, the amount of folks that came out of the
woodwork with the quite negative comments was, was pretty
surprising and pretty instant too.
And, you know, but I don't know who knows if the people are real
or who knows what their motivations are, whatever.
But it's, it was sort of sort of crazy.
But say la vie, that's them. I always, I always let people
say what they want to say, you know?
Andy, we are so grateful for you.
You bring a smile to everyone's face that meets you.
Your energy is lighthearted, contagious, fun, delightful, and
it truly is a privilege to know that you're somebody that's in
our corner and you're raising a Jewish family and it's amazing.
Thank you so much for doing this.
Thank you, Margarita. This is This has been a lot of
fun. If you've enjoyed this podcast,
please go ahead and rate US five stars.
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