Original subtitles

My mouth.

Right. On fire. Wants to leave my body.

Yeah.

Hey,

what's going on, everybody? For First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans, and you're

watching Hot Ones. It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings.

and today we're joined by Will Arnett.

He's an actor you know from breakout comedies like Arrested Development,

Horseman, The Lego Batman Movie, and many more. He's also, of course, one

of the Golden Globe Award -nominated podcast Smart List, and you can catch

starring opposite Laura Dern in the Bradley Cooper -directed comedy -drama

This Thing On?

Will Arnett, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Sean.

It's a pleasure to be here.

And fun fact, we have the same publicist. Before we get started, I

did he pitch Hot Ones to you?

Nervous about eating hot food. I can't even watch people eat hot food.

Spicy food, you know.

Anyway, he said, you have to do it. And I said, I like the idea, but I feel like

I'm going to embarrass myself.

I don't want people to, you know, I'm going to have to wear a Depends during

taping.

And he said, you're going to be great. And Sean's a great guy. That's really

he pitched it. He said, you're a great guy.

Thanks, Louis.

Appreciate that one. Louis K. from Covert Creative.

And I'm just doing his favorite thing, which is mentioning him more.

I can already smell it.

Wow.

I'm already like, wow, that's really special.

This is going to be terrible for me.

This is a performance unlike any other role that we've seen you in. You know,

it's a true dramatic pivot.

Did you have any fears, any anxiety, any reservations about portraying a

character and then not having that protective layer of irony or physical

to fall back on? Yeah, for sure. It was new to do something where there's not at

the end of it kind of letting the air out of it and having to really commit to

the vulnerability to whatever the moment was, was new.

It was nerve -wracking.

Everybody I was working with, Bradley, multiple Academy Award nominee, Laura

Dern, Academy Award winner, and me.

I'm there with all these really formidable performers and having to

of commit to this.

And more than holding your own, if you ask me. Well, that's nice of you to say.

Who knows? But it was scary.

Are you reaching for number two?

Look at that. You're anticipating. I thought I could distract you.

No, no.

I'm too traveled. Man, we're out of time.

Listen.

All right, so up next, a pickled garlic sriracha sauce.

Okay.

Honest question. Sure.

Did you, like, when you go and you have, like, a plate of spaghetti now, you're

like, ugh.

Yeah, like it's not giving me enough. Yeah, it's not giving you enough? Yeah,

think maybe to some degree the sensitivity, you know? Yeah. I need it.

do need it a little bit more.

That shit's calling you, man. Yeah, it's calling. I'm feeding. I'm scratching.

I'm itching. Wow. Interesting. Yeah, that's how that goes.

I read a quote from Chris McKay where he talked about how he did hundreds of

takes before finally landing on the right tone for the Batman character.

Yeah. How or when did you know that you'd cracked the code on it? And can

give us an example of a Batman voice that wouldn't work?

We just kind of kept going back to those moments in the Batman films, and

especially Christian Bale, whom I love. I think he's a great Batman.

But that really kind of gritty, serious voice.

And then I just started doing the idea of him going like, how many wings?

What is it, like ten wings?

This one's smart. I'd love to get some more ice.

Okay, hang on one second. I've got to wipe my hands. Like just that at every

turn, all he's doing is talking in Batman.

It was just kind of to make those guys laugh, like just saying the most mundane

shit. And that's kind of where we landed.

Number three.

If you're ready.

Yeah, let's do it, man. So this is a white hot mustard sauce here in the

spot. Sick.

You like it on the name. I do. I do.

White hot mustard.

Well, the mustard is nice. It's a little bit of a heat cutter.

That was just for shits and giggles. I didn't even need it.

For dramatic effect. I don't drink a lot of milk anymore.

But here's a good excuse. It is a great excuse.

Can you talk me through the mechanics? I'd love to, but I'm super busy doing

wings.

So, yes.

Of playing a bad magician, like Job in Arrested Development.

Step by step, how does a professional magician come in and teach you how to do

magic poorly?

Well, what was funny was that you mentioned that is we did have at various

stages magicians come in and teach me sort of stuff like how to create fire in

your hand.

Because the scene was, at a certain time, a dove didn't come out, and then

wanted to have this moment where I'm lifting my hand, and then all of a

the dove does come out.

But I remember we had this guy come in, and so he's teaching me all this stuff,

and I actually had to say to him, like, it's okay, man, I don't need to be good.

Yeah, it was so fun playing a guy who was super confident that he, despite all

the evidence, that he was not good.

And that he yet ignored that and continued with this idea. I wish I had

that. I know.

Just like really unwarranted confidence.

I think I've had a lot of that in my life.

Well, I think it'll serve you today. You know what I mean? Bite first, ask

questions later, you know? Yeah, copy that.

Hey, let's get into another one. All right. So up next, we have a smoked

habanero and peach sauce in the four spot.

I smoked a habanero once.

It was late night.

And it's just my mind was restless.

Who's fiending and who's itching now? Yeah. Let's see. Here we go.

That is another level.

Here's what I want to know, Obvi.

Yeah.

How far did Bateman get?

All the way to the end. Fuck that. Are you kidding? I'm not trying to put

pressure on you, but he made it all the way to the end.

Did he complain?

Quite a bit, actually. He did? Yeah.

He's so soft. He is so soft.

Wow.

Do you have a most painful memory of auditioning in L .A. during pilot

understand that in the late 90s, early 2000s, that you swore off pilots after

being cast in a series of shows that failed to launch.

I did have once, not for pilot season, I had one time I read for, I don't know

if Kevin Costner did that movie called, I think it was called The Postman.

Anybody remember that movie?

The night before I'd eaten something bad.

And I ended up going to the hospital because I was so dehydrated from being

And at that point, that afternoon, going to meet him, that was the furthest I'd

been away from the bathroom in like 14 hours.

And I remember getting up there and meeting him and being a fan of his.

and just sweating. Cold swag, green in the face. Just thinking like, this can

really bad right now.

Like I didn't, you know, it's like, yeah, I was meeting Kevin Costner and I

legitimately was worried about crapping my pants.

And this is

your brand.

Tropical Amarillo.

Buy Hot Ones. Get it wherever you get your hot sauce.

That's just a freebie. That was.

That's not cheap. I know that that's not cheap. It wasn't, but if you use it,

I'm suing you.

And then here you have kind of like an island vibe almost. There's like some

tropical notes up front, behind it, some heat. Yeah.

There is a little bit of heat on this island.

Yeah.

Sweaty in the tropics today.

As a proud Torontonian, where does being inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in

2019 fall on your list of career accomplishments?

Well, let me just say, it's no great fielding left field questions.

There's a lot happening. There's so much happening.

Well, Sean, try to ignore what's happening here. Stay focused on this.

I'm really proud of being Canadian, and so for them to have me come back there

and honor me, and also part of me as a Canadian, I'm kind of embarrassed.

Right.

You always feel like even the people giving it to you are going to be like,

you go, here's your award. You're not a big shot.

You're like, you're giving it to me. But they were so sweet and kind about it,

and yeah, it was cool. It was like coming home after all these years and

that was a really neat experience.

For the uninitiated, what do you see as the allure of the Big Harv burger from

Harvey's?

Oh, man.

Now you're speaking my language.

The Big Harv is the Cadillac.

That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, the Cadillac of cheeseburgers. It's just

like a big double. You can get it with bacon.

There's something about the way that they grill up their burgers at Harvey's.

The way they do their, like, sliced pickles on a burger. Come on.

How would you quantify the significance of the Terragon Theater in your

development as an actor?

Pretty huge. Look at you guys.

Who does all the research around here, you guys?

When I started there, I was, I guess, 16.

And I was the youngest by a mile. Everybody else were in their 20s or even

and doing these acting classes. And it was a good sort of trial by fire of

getting in there and seeing what it was like.

Yeah, just working on scenes and sort of acting outside of doing school plays.

What was your first big break? Was it a Manwich commercial in 1987?

That was pretty big. That was my first professional gig.

You've got to remember those. Those are special. The first time you get paid to

do the thing, you know? Yeah, of course. I cherish it. It's why I had Lewis

scrub it from the internet.

Oh, this one seems fine.

Homegrown Hell.

But you guys don't come up, but you didn't come up with the name Homegrown

Health. No, this isn't ours. This isn't ours. This is some other psycho.

I mean, God bless him. Yeah. And I hope he does well.

We wish him all the best. Of course we do.

I can feel a little, I can feel my body temp, my core heating up a little bit.

And cores getting hot. Yeah, and I don't want my core to overheat.

None of us do.

This thing is finally... Spontaneously combusted the studio. I know, I know.

This chassis is no fluke. This is built the American way.

But Canadian, obviously.

So Conan O 'Brien named you alongside Norm MacDonald, right? Oh, there's a

couple. It is.

He's kind of my nemesis. I understand. I get it. But two of his all -time

favorite talk show guests saying that you have an instinct for chaos that

live TV exciting.

What's your philosophy on the makings of a great late -night segment, and how

much of it is instinct versus preparation?

How much is lip replacement?

Is that even a thing?

It's got to be.

Oh, my God.

God. My plastic surgeon is so busy with me right now.

Because I've got all this upcoming work. Wait till you see me next year.

Even better than that? I can't even imagine.

It's insane.

I have so many fun things. The mock -ups look good? They look really good.

Once it settles?

Are you kidding?

I understand that we're there to have fun, and you can tell the difference

it's scripted and when they're coming up with it in the moment.

Because it also feels like the grown -ups lent us their cameras, and like,

we can fuck around.

Obviously, we're going to eat it. Look, Sean.

Let's take a minute. Yeah.

Let's just think about all the things that are important to us in this life.

know?

Our health.

Mild food.

Most importantly. Yeah. All right. I'm going to take a deep breath.

See you on the other side. See you on the other side.

This is where the air gets a little bit thin for me at this point in the show.

Is that true? Yeah, I'm starting to catch some tunnel vision.

Eyes are watering up.

How long does it usually last?

So, here's the deal. It's going to get worse from here.

Thanks for the good news.

Once you walk out of the studio, okay, in like 15, 20 minutes, it will all

dissipate and just be a memory. You'll be like, oh, that wasn't so bad. I could

almost do it again. But you're not going to be feeling that or thinking that

when you're actually doing it.

We're just on a wave that we're surfing right now. Right.

Again, with the lip. Yeah, I know, I know. Because it's dry out, so I feel

my lips are kind of tapped.

Mm -hmm.

So it's really gotten in there.

Salt in the wound a little bit. Yeah, remember they used to talk about how the

butter was going to get in all the nooks and crannies on the Thomas' English

muffin? Yeah.

The hot sauce. The hot sauce is doing that same effect on my lips.

What's your case for Wendell Clark as the all -time greatest Toronto Maple

Pretty solid.

He's the ultimate hockey player.

The most incredible power forward. He could score.

He could fight. He could do it all.

I spent some time with him recently.

Did you know he was running?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, a little bit, right?

I'm juicy over here. That's fun.

We're having a blast.

Everybody's going to be like, hey, did you see that guy who was sniffling all

the time on that show?

But it's all right because every show, somebody's sniffling. You know what I

mean? Is that true? No matter what you're going through. Uh -huh.

Well, I'm going through something.

And don't apologize for it. Okay, I'm not.

You should apologize.

This stuff is so hot, I feel like I'm happy that I've already had kids.

I feel like this would impact my semen count.

I guess I have that to look forward to.

Let me guess. This one is like a bunker buster. It goes in deep and takes a

second, and then it just explodes on you. Is that the deal?

So we bit into that one at the same time.

You'll really start to feel this, I think, almost immediately, like right

Yeah. It should be hitting.

Any final words you want to say to Lewis before he's fired?

You still got me, Lewis, at least.

What's your Mount Rushmore of TV sitcoms? Like, off the top of your head

without thinking about it too much, your top four and why.

Oh, my God.

Is my face bleeding? No, you look great. You look great. You look great. Holy

shit.

I'm a Cheers guy.

Classic. For exactly that reason, he is classic.

All the Family's Amazing.

The Office.

Golden Girls.

Holy shit.

It's unreal how funny Golden Girls is.

Some of their jokes are just incredible.

I know I'm missing some.

But it's okay.

Because you're in the fog of war over here. You know? The spice is coming at

from all sides.

My mouth.

Right. On fire. Wants to leave my body.

Yeah.

Holy fuck.

Would you like some ice cream?

Yeah.

Check this out. How quick are we on the draw?

That's so good. Thank you so much. You knew that.

Thank you.

That first bite, is that like the best ice cream ever, right?

I'll match you.

How's that?

Does that feel good, right?

Hell yeah.

Are you ready to dive into the next one? I mean, I don't know. Is it going to

have the same effect?

No, it won't be like that last one. Okay.

Now, not fun.

Not a walk in the park.

Not a walk in the park.

But after the last one. Yeah.

I don't want to touch any of, like, my nose with my one that I had in my mouth.

Which is smart. That's why I've actually noticed. You've been cycling through

the napkin.

Way to keep your head on. Sometimes people get lost in this whole thing.

use the fingernail on the face.

When you're in country, people ask me all the time,

you're military, right?

I'm not really allowed to say.

I can see the way that you react out in the field, though, that you're trained.

I keep my head on a swivel.

At all times. Even on the front lines. Because you never know. You never know

what's going to be the point of engagement.

Sorry.

Again, I'm just an actor.

I don't do... I'm not into covert activities, okay?

I'm not getting dropped into hot zones.

Definitely not, yeah.

As a lifelong enthusiast of the arcade staple, what's your case for Golden Tee

Golf as the best bar game of all time?

Sean, what the fuck, man?

It's so out of level.

It's normal to ask me a question about Golden Tee.

I used to be so good at Golden Tee. Have you ever played it before? Yeah, yeah,

of course.

They used to have it at this bar I used to frequent back in the day.

I'm in the 90s here in New York.

Was that the Peter McManus bar on 7th Avenue?

Yeah. Nice.

We just called McManus.

I'm not on the end, you know. Yeah.

I knew everybody there, a great group of people.

We're going there, and there were two machines, one in the front, one in the

back, and we owned all the high scores for it.

It's so insane when I think about how much time I spent doing that. Let's

this off. Yeah, well, we're setting a new high score today, all right?

No, we're not.

You're just putting it on and then you're going to roll it in there? Yeah,

exactly.

Sean,

you honestly bring a great game. I love it.

You want to talk about keeping your cool. You're sitting there asking me a

of questions and you don't seem like you're suffering at all.

I'm just trying to be a steady hand for you.

I love that. You're a team player.

I'm a team player. We're in this together.

It's a dance we share.

All right, let's get this shit over with. Let's get this shit over with.

I felt a bunch get on my lips, and I'm not excited.

But the good news is the wings of death are behind us, all right? You have

conquered the hot one's gauntlet.

And to close things out.

You know, you're one of the defining voice actors of our time, and I want to

channel that rich vocalization to close out the show here, all right? I'm going

to point to a sauce, and I want you to articulate the feeling of eating that

sauce using effort noises, okay?

Garlic Delight.

How about Tropical Amarillo?

What about Da Bomb Beyond Insanity?

And what you just ate, Thermageddon.

I feel it. I'm in the scene. And look at you, Will Arnett, taking on the wings

of death, living to tell the tale. Now there's nothing left to do but roll out

the red carpet for you. This camera, this camera, this camera. Let the people

know what you have going on in your life.

Well, can I get that ice cream real quick? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ice

coming in. Can I do that with the ice cream?

Do it with the ice cream.

I'm Will Arnett.

I'm just rather darned to hear Hot Ones.

We had a blast.

If you get a chance, go check out my film, Is This Thing On?, starring me and

Laurie Dern, directed by Bradley Cooper, and watch more Hot Ones.

And I can just tell you, it's real.

It's so real.

Too real.

It's almost too real. This is one of the realest moments. I feel very awake.

Ooh, that's tough.

Do you feel kind of alive, though? Yeah, I'm much more awake than when I got

here. That's right. Like, much more. I was super tired. Head on a swivel. Yeah.

Those military instincts kicked in. Yeah, I mean, I can't, obviously, again,

can't talk about it.

How many wings?

What is it, like ten wings?

People think Hot Ones is chaos, but this table runs on precision.

Every bottle has a job.

And right now, Los Calientes Verde is missing.

Bill, we have a situation.

Relax, Sean. Hot Ones hot sauces are available in over 10 ,000 grocery stores

nationwide. I have an extra for you. Thanks so much, Bill.

Crisis averted.

Now let's roll.

Find Hot Ones hot sauces at major retailers and grocery stores near you.