Hello, I am Alan Tudyk. This is my last meal. Every person has exactly two things in common. We all gotta eat and we’re all gonna die. Today’s guest has more than 150 acting credits during his career, including roles in Dodgeball, Firefly, A Knight’s Tale, and the upcoming Disney animated feature film Moana 2. His stand up comedy has won the esteemed Taco Bueno Talent award. Alan Tudyk, welcome to the show. Thank you. Gosh, so many people. Leave off that last one. I know you were nominated for an Emmy. I think those are played out. I think the Taco Bueno Talent show awards are really where the industry’s headed. It paid better. I mean, you know, the Emmy nom was nice, but I got 100 bucks for that Taco Bueno thing. Was it in cash or was it in Taco Bueno gift cards? No, it was in cash, baby. I think I did end up spending most of it at Taco Bueno because I was addicted to the food that I was… slinging. Have you thought about your last meal before? No, I haven’t. I mean, you kind of hope that it’ll be like applesauce and some pedialyte. Not at all. Yeah. If all goes well, you cannot chew your last meal… You know what I mean? Applesauce, Ow… It’s spicy. Do you think about death a lot? I know you do have a very lifelike figurine of a smallpox legs and several syphilitic drawings. You seem like you’re drawn to the arcane and morbid. A little bit. I was drawn to art. That was art. The syphilitic leg. This was made in the 30s so they could train doctors instead of presenting them with someone with smallpox. They could be like. We had an artist come and do a sculpture of what it looks like. Here you go. And the artist now has smallpox. Well, they didn’t last to see that. See their work appreciated for sure. But there would be that. There would be like in some of these old. In the older… illustrations of syphilis, but it was like, it was an illustration, beautiful, realistic illustration of a girl in like a lace top. She’s probably about two, three, lacy nightgown pulled up in her deathbed, dying from syphilis. And it was. It was its own kind of beautiful. So you do think about death? Well, I think about syphilis. I do. Speaking of death, I have a mix album which I update constantly to be played at my funeral. Incredible. When did you start that? It’s been a couple… Just only a couple of years now. To die for. That’s the name of the mix. The first song on there, Yakety Sax… That’s how you get the, you know. Entertaining all the way. Six feet under. It’s just. It would be annoying to many and entertaining for me. The Alan Tudyk story. You ready to eat your last meal? Good God, yeah. I’m hunger. Hunger. Let’s do it. I’m hunger. Alan, for the first course of your final meal, we have the enchilada plate. We did both green and red here. A little bit of Mexican rice and beans. On the side, we have Frito pie topped with a little bit of scallions, taco meat, cheese, and then we have the chips and guac. You are pining at the bit to go. Please drink your strawberry Fanta. Enjoy it, whatever you wanna do. I haven’t had one of these since Taco bueno, man. Cheers. Oh, sweet Jesus. Literally, sweet Jesus. That is incredible. Get the smelling salts. Let’s just keep that. This is. Well, that’s why it’s the last meal, because it’ll kill you. So. What do I…? I just go to town. Go eat. Yeah, do whatever you want, man. Tell me. Let’s do this as, like an appetizer. I learned to make guacamole also. I didn’t know we’d be talking about taco bueno so much, but el taco bueno. hmm. Here’s the thing. If you’re making guacamole, if you’re making guacamole. keep the seed, chuck it in the guacamole, and naturally, it won’t brown. So we actually tested that myth on camera. Cause we’re also a cooking show. It turns out it’s not true at all. All it does, you know, if you put, like, cling film on it and press it, it also won’t brown. All the avocado does is give it a lot of surface area for it to create an oxygen seal. Okay, that’s good. That’s good to know. It’s good to know. I think I eat my guacamole so fast, it doesn’t matter how much time. It’s not gonna oxidize before… it hits my guts. I mean, it’s truly an obscure problem. Tell me about the enchiladas and the Frito pie. Okay, so growing up in Texas, this was a meal my mother used to make. I was like, you know, a mother of three on a budget, and I don’t eat this ever. Because why would you. Oh, it’s good. Incredible. The amount of Frito flavor packed in there. We don’t have to talk about taco Bueno anymore. I wanna talk about Harry’s Burritos. You work there. It’s on the corner of 71st and Columbus in the Upper west side. I focused my efforts on Mexican food because Harry’s Burritos actually came after Uncle Julio’s, which I worked at Uncle Julio’s, also in Dallas. And then when I got to New York, Harry’s Burritos. They did close 10 years ago, and they finished with an average of 2.3 stars on Yelp. You know, Harry’s Burritos fired me. You know what I’m thinking? I can’t say the cuss words, but they fired me because I was working too much in film, so. And where did that ever get you? You know? Nowhere. You could have been an assistant manager at Harry’s Burritos. I was so mad, they fired me. I didn’t get my shift covered because I had to. I had some other acting work, and the guy fired me. Ron, man. Good God, Ron. I didn’t like you, Ron. And I went above his head to the. To the manager. He was the assistant manager and said, look, let me just be a swing shift guy. I was coming and do other shifts. And he said, yeah, that’s a good idea. Ron went above his head to the owner. Got me fired. But at least you’re not still thinking about it all these years later, right. At my last meal, I’m thinking about Ron from Harry’s Burritos. You son of a bitch. I want to talk about growing up in Texas. How much Texas do you still have in you? Or did all of that leave your soul when your grandpa made you kill a deer when you were 16? You had the most Texas day of all time. God, you really do your research. I mean, Texas is something that. It’s changed over the years. When I was there, it was one thing. It seems to be something else now. But when I’m there, there’s just, you know, it’s your home. You know, I don’t think I could live there. I don’t think they’d want me there. Eat the enchiladas. I move on to this. Mm, mm, mm, mm. You went from Texas to roughly the opposite of Texas, which is Juilliard in New York. There’s a plaque on the wall there. You have reached the opposite of Texas. You said actors are all nuts. Drama schools, just all of those nuts. Crammed into one room together for years on end. Do you have any crazy stories that stood out to you from Juilliard acting? There was a guy. I won’t say his name out of respect to him, I guess, because he’s out of jail. Mazel tov. I hope. He killed a man after he left in a road rage situation. Stabbed him and almost killed a second guy. I was doing, like, trust falls with this guy. Like, fall back into his arms, that one. Like, I don’t. I don’t trust him. He kept many weapons, a lot of illegal weapons, and he did until he went to jail. And that was one he used… on his murder. Mm. I regret saying Mazel tov. That he’s out of jail. What do you think about the enchiladas? What the hell did you do, man? Oh, so we actually did make everything dairy free and gluten free out of respect for the tummy sensitivities. Tough Texan man like you can’t handle the cheese. I understand after Juilliard, you did a play. That’s what you dropped out of Juilliard, called Bunny Bunny, where you played 22 different characters. You have now voiced characters in the last 12 Disney animated films. Doing 22 characters on stage every night seems like the Navy Seal training for what your career ended up becoming. Right? Did you, like, hearken back to that training to do voiceover stuff? It’s how I got into voiceover. I did the play and somebody, a casting director saw me in it and then asked me to come in to audition for Ice Age. And they just gave me a stack of little dinosaurs pictures you’d go through, and there’d be a line taped to the top, and you’d just be in the booth. I think it was probably my first time in a recording booth. And I’d be like, why do you think they call it the Ice Age? You sort of look at them and go, eh, I don’t know. Okay. And then you give them… all these voices, and then they called up and said, you got three. That’s how I got into it. But in the play I would do. It was about two people. It was about Gilder Adner and about Allen Zweibel. It was called Bunny Bunny. And I was everybody else. So it was throughout their entire life. And then I would like to change a scene. Like, I would say French White Tour would come in and go, yes. Did you order the fromage? And it has, like, cheese on it… I still remember this. I would flip the thing, the tray over and the cheese is all molded three months later. And the other is so stupid. It was so fun. I think one of my favorite things in the world is people who are very, very well trained to do very, very fun, stupid things. Like the Michelin starred chef. And I know these people who have left to start fried chicken sandwich trucks and they make the best fried chicken you’ve ever had. Or like a concert trained pianist who plays black metal. You went to Juilliard and played a dodgeball player who thinks he’s a pirate. Tell me how seriously you took the dramaturgy for that role. I did not. I did not take it very seriously. When I first read the script, I called my agent and said, that was funny. If they cut that pirate character. This thing’s got legs. And my manager was like, Alan, you stupid fool, please reread the script and focus on the pirate character and get your head around it. But my training for it initially was just watching. What’s that guy in Harry Potter movies? He talks like this. He lives in the woods. Harry! Hagrid. Hagrid. I was like, that’s kind of how pirate talks. There we go. I’m ready. That was it. I feel like there’s a lot of actual pirate movies out there that you could watch. Was Harry Potter on TBS or something? Yeah, it’s probably just in the background going and say, oh, hey, I’ll take that. And then I tried a little. I worked… Once I got the role, I did go to a pirate convention. That sounds pretty serious to me. I don’t think you could have done that without the couple years of Juilliard. It was pretty great. I mean, I was upset they didn’t. There was one line that didn’t make it in that was, I say a lot of serious feeling. Steve has to go train the sea monster. And I was certain the better line was, I’ve gotta go to the poop deck… The director disagreed. That’s the Hollywood machine. They chew you up and spit you out. You ready to head to course number two? You’re gonna take this away? Alan, for course number two, we have the double Smash burger with cheese over here and the thin crust pizza. Tell me about it. What’s the connection? Well, this is, I think, one of my favorite meals. I’m very American in that way. And this feels even though it’s Italian. I guess. So this is American. This is. This is the kind of thing if you’re gonna die, you want the good feel good foods. The foods that feel good when they’re in your mouth. You’re dying a patriot, damn it. Yeah. I consider myself an American first. I love that. That’s beautiful. We’ll dig into it. A Double Smash burger. Got the special sauce on there. Got some sauteed onions, pickles. Oh, I still got my napkin. Hey, use your show card. There we go. Okay. Okay. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Annaliese. you once played a character called Hoban Wash Washburn. On a little show called Firefly that was tragically canceled midway through its first season. It’s known as one of the most tragic TV cancellations of all time. And despite the fact that it went off the air several years later, developed a cult fandom. The type of fandom that would collect items like this. In fact, the person who collected these is in this room right now. It is not me. Would you like to guess who it is? No! Anybody want to own up to it? Really? Well, I’m wearing a brown coat right now. Let me get this out… It’s you. Oh. And then. Well, now I’m a little cold. One second here. Okay. Here we go. Okay. Also, I’m so sorry. This is also, like, half the stuff that I have. But listen, you get a little bit at a time. It doesn’t seem like a problem. But 19 years later, you have all this crap. And so thank you for being a part of my unhealthy obsession. Thanks a lot. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Oh, look, these are signed. You haven’t signed that one yet. I just have. I haven’t signed this one. I have to sign this. Is he the only missing one from that? No, there’s a couple others. And in this picture. That’s Jewel State, I think. I don’t know. We might have a glare on this picture here. But Jewel State has such a sour look on her face because Ron Glass wasn’t in the picture. And they were like, all right, come on. Just take a picture. She’s like, where’s Ron? They’re like, we’re just going to take the picture. And she was just like, I love it. She’s pissed for Ron. Well, when you sign you can draw Ron in there, too, it’d be great. Okay. Perfect. Great. I’m gonna go behind the camera now. Okay, great. Thank you so much. Literal director of the show, Meggie. Everybody give it up for Meggie. I wanna ask, if you were to really psychoanalyze, not Meggie specifically, but the fandom, what is it about Firefly that caused such a fervent fandom? I think it was the greatest TV show ever. Do you really? Now, look, there’s a lot of good TV shows out there right now, a lot of good ones. But this, it hasn’t been done since. Nothing like it. It’s a western in space… And I know some of you like Cowboy Bebop, but that’s a whole. And it didn’t work. I mean, respect, but it didn’t really work. There was only one season. Their army’s gonna come after. There’s an army. I mean, there was only one season of this too. But anyway, ours. Every episode, we had a movie as well. Every episode, there would be another adventure. We’d be on another planet, and people didn’t watch it when it came out. It’s not like. It’s not like we had great ratings. And Fox went, cancel it anyway. Nobody watched the thing. They were like, we’re gonna put on an old Adam Sandler movie in its place. Like, you can’t do that. They’re like, let’s just see if it gets better ratings. Got better ratings. He had a great run at that time, though. It’s not fair. You know, it was. It was. It was what it was… A beautiful moment in time. Mm. Yeah. You eat the pizza. Eat the pizza. Okay. You got it. I’m gonna die later. Rest of your life, buddy. This is my last meal. Mm hmm. I gotta go insane. That’s good. You made a show called Con Man that was based on… a roughly fictional version of yourself. Named Wray Nerely, who works on a sci fi show that gets canceled, now makes his money going to conventions. Ray made worse career choices than you. Ray also seems like a generally worse person than you. Do you think part of you was trying to, like, purge that out of your ego by enacting an alternate reality where you sucked more? When I first started going to cons because after I did Firefly, I was invited to Cons. There were people… that were like, Wray Nerely, the character that I played, who resented their lives and their careers. It was before… nerds were cool. It was before Comic Con, like, had the stamp from Hollywood. At that time, when I was writing Con Man, there were people there who would be backstage, like, slagging off on the fans that are. And they want to be stars, and they are in this one way. They want to be famous, and they are in this one way. And that’s what I wanted at the center of the show, because that could be an engine for a show of a guy who’s missing the point of his entire life. So then I just used my own life because I thought it was because it was easy. Makes the writing go faster. Yeah. Write what you know. I learned so much doing that. Like, you couldn’t go to a college and learn as much as I learned. I didn’t make any money off of it. It was just the experience of it. It was a lot of dreams come true at once. Yeah. One of my favorite scenes in Con Man is when you are doing a meet and greet and a fan comes up to you and says, your show helped me forget what happened to my village. I burned it down. Which is great because we do cons here, too. And I’ve been in that exact situation where somebody says something very meaningful and ultimately incredibly intense to you, but that had such a hilarious spin on it. What’s the most intense thing a fan has ever said to you at one of those cons? I did meet a guy… who… I signed his foot. He took off his leg, and I signed his prosthetic foot. And he had something else for me to sign, and it was this box set. This is the original sort of box set. And he said, I found this… I was in some branch of the military. I want to say he was a Marine, but he liberated Iraq and was in the palaces of Saddam. And in Saddam’s palace, it’s where he had found it… And he said it was hell getting this thing out. He said, if I got caught, it would have been the worst thing, because it’s called spoils of war or treasure or something. There’s a name for it in the military that you were not allowed to take stuff away, but he smuggled it out. So I remember Saddam Hussein like, he liked Firefly. How does that make you feel? I mean, pretty good. You should, man. He’s a powerful guy. Not saying I’m reaching around. I’m reaching, you know, to, like, enemies and bring. I’m hoping to bring people together in that moment. It didn’t work. It’s almost like you were there with him in a way. Yes. But luckily also not physically there. but there as a soldier, you mean? Absolutely. Thank me for my service. You go to these cons, and a lot of crazy, intense things happen. Every time I go to a con, I end up going, ah, I’d like to write some more Con Man. Because there’s just so many stories. I’d love to watch it, man. You ready to go to course number three? Yes. Alan, for course three. What do I even say, man? We have the whole roast Thanksgiving turkey. You did not request whole turkey. But we had to give it to you. We got the dressing on the side. And then we have the green bean casserole. If you wanna serve me up some casserole, I can carve you up some turkey. We’re doing a dramatic reenactment of your chainsaw scene in Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Oh yeah. College kids keep killing themselves all over my property. This works deceptively. Do you wanna give it a try? It’s actually really fun. I would like to. This was always my dad’s job. I wasn’t ever allowed… for a good reason… Oh, wow. Why did yours work in my. Ah, there we go. There we go… I’m guessing you like Thanksgiving. I could be wrong. Thanksgiving’s the greatest. Have you ever been to New York during the parade? I never have. No. I’d like to one day. You have to see it in person where these balloons are stories and stories high and it’s at a gray time, kind of some fallish because. Anyway. But then these big brightly colored balloons come lumbering down the street in Manhattan. It just doesn’t make sense. That’s pretty great. We actually have another surprise for you here. This is chocolate covered pretzels from Lilac in New York. Tell me about how this led to a series of unfortunate, maybe fortunate events early in your acting career. So I used to date this woman. Do you want me to open. I can open it. No, no. Cause these aren’t gluten free. They’re not. So they would potentially kill you. Now you can still take that home for your oddity selection. I will. I will. So I was dating this woman… in New York and I got my first job And I was 26 maybe… And she came up to visit me. She brought my favorite chocolates and we drank scotch and ate chocolate pretzels for dinner. That was our whole dinner. The night before, I had eaten some bad Chinese food that gave me hives. I didn’t really know that. And then I ate a bunch of chocolate and liquor. And then I went to the set next day and my windpipe started closing up. When I was in the makeup chair. I was like, you guys have a medic? Because I’m sort of having trouble breathing and these hives were all over my neck and they were going all over my scalp and they were just running all over my system. The guy came in, he was like, yeah, it’s closing up. You’re going to die. You’re going to suffocate from that. And so they rushed me to this doctor and he gave me a shot of adrenaline and then they brought me back to set, and I’d already had, like, four cups of coffee. And the doctor said before, he’s like, have you had any, I don’t know, liquor or chocolate? No, officer. The only thing that would make this worse is if you had any liquor or chocolate. That’s all I’ve had. I’m on the liquor and chocolate diet right now. It was all the rage in 97′. So I made it as worse as it could possibly become. And… then he knocked me up with this adrenaline, took me back to set, and I played a insane person with Robin Williams. And Michael Jeter. And if you watch the scene, it’s right in the first few minutes of the movie, you can tell how the drug starts to wear off. Because in the beginning, my eyes are truly, like, rolling back in my head. I’m. Ha ha, ha ha. What was it like to act opposite Robin Williams in, like, your first major motion picture? So great. I was a fan. Michael Jeter was there also, and he and I were buddies on the set. He was very nice to me. And he was standing by a window looking out. We were in an insane asylum just looking out the window. And… I went up to him, I said, what are you doing? And he goes, whoa. I’m just looking out this window watching the weather come and go. I said, well, what’s he doing? He said, coming and going. Well, that’s what I was watching until you came up and got in my way. And now I don’t know. I’ve lost track. And then Robin heard us, and he ran over, and he’s like, what are we looking at? I’m like, well, I’m not quite sure. He says it’s the weather, but he won’t tell me whether it’s coming or going. And then the character changed to something else, and we were just going around in circles, just changing, and people came around. And it was one of the few moments of my life where I was standing beside myself, watching myself in the moment go, can you believe what’s happening? Cause some of the characters I was doing with Robin, I had learned from Robin, from watching him on, you know, talk shows and things like that. Growing up in Texas, it was. It was. It was. It was great in the moment, and it’s still great. From a place of, like, pure joy. Have you ever reached a high like that in your career, in your working life since then? Yeah. Oh, that’s great. I didn’t want to know which one. I just wanted to know it was a yes or no. So that’s great. I was the luckiest boy on Broadway once… Spamalot came to New York and was a big hit and it won the Tony. Hank Azaria had originated the role in the Chicago production, just moved it and moved it to New York doing the French Taunter Knight who says Ni the Tim the Enchanter and Lancelot. And he had to come back to LA to do a TV show called Huff. They got picked up for a second season and he had to leave the production. And this jackass got to go step in his place and do 200 performances… with the entire cast right after they won the Tony. Like, it was like the way it was crested. And they’re like, jump on. And the night that I premiered, or whenever, my first night on stage, you’d do the bow and then we would do a reprise of… Always look on the Bright side of Life. I guess the audience is standing at the Shubert Theater… The lights are on so you can see them. Confetti’s falling. You’re singing, you’re dancing. Then they brought out roses for me. The entire cast, like, parted, and we’re like. And Alan Tudyk, and they’re like, the guy who’s not Hank Azaria is getting roses for some reason. Nobody knew why. Only me and the cast. And it was so nice of them… And I would say that was a pretty high moment. You seem like you very much are a feelings guy, like somebody who really values that. Why did you start crying in front of your wife’s class talking about the feeling of a rock in your hand? What was it about that feeling, Alan, that worked you to tears? My God. So my wife, Charissa Barton, she’s a choreographer. She started a program for young dancers. men and women, and to bridge the gap between college and the professional world. And she knew a lot of people in the professional world that she could bring in from her time dancing. And I was asked to teach them about acting. But it was when I was doing Con Man, I was doing this sense memory thing of teaching them their imagination. The imagination is the most important thing… at that time. I was doing this smooth rock, like, hold, feel this rock in your hand. And I would give it different qualities, like, so now imagine that this rock is, you know, this was from on the top of a mountain that’s considered a holy mountain. And feel how that changes how you feel. And we would just go through these feelings. But it was triggering my imagination, and I was too wrecked to do it. I’d be like, so you feel the Rock. Do you feel how smooth it is? I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Whether it’s smooth or if it’s rough, whether it’s maybe it’s wet or cold, that’s like a wreck. And my mother in law was there and I remember just thinking, this is off. I look like such a crazy person. Yeah, that’s why I was crying, because I was just a complete wreck. I was so full of… too much. Because when we raised all that money, it wasn’t just for the TV show. It was for comic books… and for a video game, like an app game, which I was also making at the same time. So I was writing comic books and approving art and doing all of that while I was directing, while I was acting, while Charissa’s Axis Dance Company was getting off the ground. It was an intense time. So we got married during that intense time. It was pretty great. I found that women really respond to the line, why don’t we just screw it and get married? That seems to be the way they want to be supposed to. I think it’s good. I actually propose better than that. I had a lot of songs about ex girlfriends, but nothing about my current girlfriend who is not my wife. And I said, I’m gonna write you a song. I’m gonna write you a song. So we went to Venice, Italy, and we were on a boat. I said, I brought a guitar. So I wrote you a song while I was doing the movie. And in the song, I proposed within the song. On a gondola in the. It was pretty great. And it was magical because we did go to school together, her and I. We were just friends, though, when we were in college together, I convinced her to come with me to the park to steal a boat. Oh, yeah. To steal a boat in Central Park. And we stole a rowboat. And we were. We only had a two by four, which is wild. There was no paddles. They had locked up the paddles somewhere. But a two by four, like a gondola. And… she was on the bow and I was at the back. I had a little crushing back then. She didn’t know that existed. But we saw this guy standing on a bridge, this silhouette, this dark silhouette. And we were like. It was like 2:30 in the morning. Like, these are the cops. Because we had heard of some cops, like, get out of here. And we rode to the edge and got away. And then right before we got… like, I have a picture of it. There’s all these bridges in Venice. And as we were going under this bridge took a picture, just not even thinking about it. There was a guy standing in the middle of that thing, and it looked exactly the same image of the guy on the bridge. It seems like. Yeah, it was weird. It’s funny because I used to think about nostalgia as merely yearning for the past, but now you describing that, it’s almost like you’re yearning for that past, but simultaneously connecting it to the present in a way. Like, in that moment, I think it’s really beautiful. And this as well. Check this out. When all your friends would get together and have a few beers, there are some people who just want to chill out and not go anywhere. Some people want to go to the bar. Some people want to go dancing. I would always be like, hey, I know. Where I can steal a boat… And the only other person who wanted to do that with me was Charissa. And so one night, I was like, hey, you want to go break into the circus? The Big Apple Circus was right next to Juilliard, and that’s where they. In Lincoln Center. And… it was literally, we snuck through the bushes and under the big top and ended up under some bleachers. And you just heard, shh, shh, shh, shh. It was like, there’s a guy over there. All right, we go this way. And we ended up, like, finding the horses and petting the horses. And we got into all the. All the dressing rooms, and we found the ringmaster’s little dresser. We were putting on his clothes and read this letter where they’re like, oh, maestro, blah, blah. We’re like, what a nerd. And they had bought him this bottle of wine, and we stole the ringmaster’s wine and drank it. For my first anniversary, Charissa bought me the program… from that circus the year that we broke in. On the cover of it is a clown holding up a dancer… on his arm. Isn’t that insane? And it was called Venice something. It was like. It had a Venice thing to it. So talk about this tryptophan’s working overtime. You ready for dessert? Yeah. Yes. Hey. Oh shit. He’s still here. Alan. For the final course, we have the carrot cake. We have the bread pudding. We have the oat milk latte. Mmm. Where do I start? Anywhere here? I’m gonna start with my oat milk latte. Cheers. To a good harvest. Alright. This has coldness to it. Mm. I kinda like an ice cold cake. I want to ask you about some rumors. You had a man named James Gunn. In your show Con Man, you were working with him currently on Creature Commandos on Max. Oh, good. And there was rumors that you have a mystery role coming up in his Superman movie. What can you tell us about it? Well, it’s mystery. It’s a mystery. We have to. It’s a mystery. But we gave you all this nice food. We were hoping that you’d elucidate on the mystery, you know. Holy shit. I haven’t had… It’s like a quid quo pro thing, you know, we give this to quid. This is the pro quo. This is the pro quo. No, I’m not the Superman. Not playing that role. Damn it. Yeah, no, no, it’s David Cornsweat. Are you doing motion capture for his cape? Oh, that would be good. Good. Oh, you with all the little tennis balls on you. You know, I want to talk about my personal favorite thing that you have ever done was kill that deer when you were 16. Second favorite thing is A Knight’s Tale. I was a big fan. And when you were filming A Knight’s Tale. You had a friend pass away, and Heath Ledger sort of took care of you for several days. What did his kindness mean to you in that moment? Everything. I mean, I was feeling very alone in Prague. We shot that in the Czech Republic… for five months, two weeks, two days. Not that I was counting. I had never been out of the country for that long, and there weren’t a lot of Americans to hang out with, so I was pretty homesick… And then my buddy died. Don’t do heroin, kids. It kills for real and stuff. My buddy was an amazing guy. He was like one of those larger than life people. Actually knew Heath. Heath knew him. Heath had stayed at his house for some reason. Was he also an actor? He was just a random. He was somebody who was in my class at Juilliard or something. Yeah. Oh, my God. And he. Yeah. So I got an email and made a call and found out, and I was. I was pretty… I was way down. And Heath called me and said, what are you. What are you doing? I was like, I’m drinking. He said, yeah, write down my address. Because he had. He had just moved to this other part of town. It was a little quieter in Prague, and I just went and stayed with him for a few days. And he was dating Heather Graham at the time. So Heather Graham and Heath Ledger were sort of my nurses. I think I’ve had that dream before. It was a bizarre time, man. He just kept me together for me until I got on a plank. We had that relationship. He sort of took. He was a little like, older than me that way… But he wasn’t older than me. He was like 10 years younger than me. But he was more of a caregiver personality. Was he like that with everybody? Or do you think that he saw that, like, extreme need in the moment from you? back then? I mean, this is. You know, he was 20, 21. So, you know, it was a lot about pranks and stuff on set. And we had this one criminal producer who was stealing money from the production Hollywood . He would steal his jacket and put… He loved his jacket, and he was very odd about it. And he’d take a jousting thing and put them. Put it up on high flags and things. Way up. Has anyone seen my jacket? Has anyone seen my jacket? It’s called a launce. Hello. Hello. But go ahead. Yeah, so anyway, he was fantastic. I feel. I don’t. I don’t know that he was a. He was like that with anybody else. I feel like it was kind of just with me. Baby Bird. Yeah. I was really sort of broken at that point. It was. Yeah, it was just a time. Had you dealt with grief like that before? Yeah, never. I didn’t understand. like, that thing where you go. You’re like. You’re walking down the street… and there’s the person who died, and it’s like the person, they’re turning their head, they’re turning their head, and it’s like, them, it’s them, it’s them, it’s them. And then just right at the last second, it’s not them. And it’s weird how your brain wants that. Also. The guy, the particular person, he seemed indestructible, and he believed it himself to the point where, you know, it killed him. Do you have your own sort of defense mechanisms that you’ve created throughout your career to try and find that healthy balance between letting too many feelings in and still letting enough in? I like to work out. That helps. But I. Thanks, man. It’s working. You know that I need that. Meditation is great. You’re an incredible actor. That was the least convincing thing I’ve ever heard you say. Meditation is great, but it’s so boring, man. I can’t do it. I’m simply not built for it. I’ve been doing more… comedy lately. I did this. I did a movie called 42, where I played the most racist person in the world. It was about Jackie Robinson, and Chadwick Boseman played Jackie Robinson. And there was a real life character who was the manager or the coach of the Philadelphia Phillies named Ben Chapman, who would. While he was at bat because he was integrating into the white baseball, he would yell racist things at him. And so that was my job, to be the worst. They’re violent words, the N word. And then versions of that. And so just to say those words, I would cry, like, just to say them. And I’d have to be like, hey, hey, you know, guess what? I’m about to lay this on you. And I’d be like. And I would find online fist fights, especially, like, backyard fights or street fights, where one person was way overmatched, and I’d watch people just beat up helpless people. Isn’t that awesome? You’re watching the OG Kimbo Slice videos? I did see some watches… Yeah. They made me feel awful. You did? And after watching about five awful fights, I could say whatever I wanted to, and it didn’t make me cry. Isn’t that awful? So that was the headspace I was in for that. That’s incredible. And now it reframes every time… Alone on the family desktop, watching Backyard Brawls. Completely reframed it. What do you want to be known for most when you finally die? My spectacular death. How do you want to go? I don’t want to kill it, but I almost kill a great white shark or bear. Something fun… Something you’d want it to be memorable. Maybe it’s caught on a ring camera or something. Me wrestling the bear and then it just rips off my face. Rips open my head. Well, you want some amount of spectacle and heroism and also bear or shark, which is like… Gore. Gore. Gore for sure. Out here fonging a bear. Alan, what do you think happens when you die? I think you just go to a blissful state. And I’m afraid to say it, I think that even bad people do it. I don’t think there’s a hell, I think we all go to. There’s sort of the. You kind of want. You’ll get yours. I don’t think they get it. I don’t think they ever get it. Ron’s never gonna get it. Ron’s gonna end up in the same place when you’re. Ron, a character you introduced in the first act. Who’s Ron again? Oh, Ron! He may or may not have existed. He was a mean manager, you see, at Harry’s Burritos. That was on 71st and Columbus in the Upper west side. He was more inept than mean, but yes, yes. You’re gonna end up together. And, you ready to get to the lightning round? Ron. Okay, yeah. Lightning round. Do me. Who’s the one person dead or alive, you’d want to share your actual last meal with. Ron Dead. What’s your most prized keepsake that you stole from the Firefly set? The only thing I have is. Oh, I had a button, but I gave it to Joss. We’ll give you some of Meggie’s memorabilia. What song do you want to be played at your funeral? Yeah, I guess. Let’s just go with Yakety Sax. Who’s the one horror villain you would want to see in a crossover with Tucker and Dale? Oh. Oh, long legs. Oh, man. I’m a camp out overnight to wait for those tickets. Who’s your dream eulogizer? Nathan Fillion. Oh, man, he’d be good at it. Who would win in a fight? K2SO. Or Sunny from iRobot. K2SO. Easy money. What’s your biggest fear? Biggest fear? Yeah. It’s lightning round. Lightning. That’s best. That’s lightning. That’s my biggest fear. Lightning. Your biggest fear is lightning. Oh, not this lightning round. No. Because if you get struck, if you don’t die, you’ve got these awful scars. Yeah. Which of your characters would you least want as a dinner guest? Ben Chapman from 42. Oh, yeah, I forgot. Jesus Christ. Ooh. What was the hardest goodbye you’ve ever had to say? And when I was in Japan saying goodbye to some people I met there… Cause that’s a tough language. Finally. Alan, are you happy? Yes, I am. I am. See, I am very happy to have shared this beautiful meal with you. Now, if you have certainly had enough time to think about it, you wanna deliver your last words to that camera right there? Get help. Those are my last words. Yeah, well, there’s a bear and or a shark mauling you. Get help. No, no, no, no. Can I change it? Can I change it? Erase, erase, erase. I got this. Yeah, change it. Alan. Thank you so much, everyone you can check out Alan Tudyk on Creature Commandos on Max and also on Moana 2. It comes out. Oh, yeah. I forgot. Moana is coming out in December. You want me to say it? Yeah, do it. Do it. Make sure to check out Alan in Moana 2. This is not me doing you. This is my bad announcer. Can you do me? No, you’ve already do me. Just do me. What are you asking? Make sure to check out Alan. Alan Tudyk in Moana 2, out in theaters on November 27, and Creature Commandos on HBO, premiering December 5. You can also see Alan in season four of Resident Alien at some point. He hasn’t shot it yet. And in the animated series, Grimmsburg on Fox. That was a terrible me, but that was pretty good. That was a great plug. Yeah. I feel like there’s something else I’m missing, but whatever. That’s what’s on the cards. Alan, really, man. This is an absolute blast. Dream come true for me. Thank you so much. Oh, Andor, check out Andor in 2025. Andor what? Andor. And. And. No. Andor is the name of Cassian. Andor. Ah, Andor Cassian. On. Yeah, there was another thing. Oh, Superman 2020. Ah, A Knight’s Tale 2? Pirate’s Tale? No. Oh, wouldn’t that be… Pirates? Come on, man… I got in trouble in third grade for threatening to fong a fellow classmate, and I was doing it as a joke, assuming they had also seen the movie. I was like, I will fong you. Cause they messed up on the handball court, and they just went, what does that mean? I don’t know. They go, well, I’m telling on you anyways. I’m like, on what grounds? You don’t know what fonging is. And I didn’t exactly know what it meant either. I don’t know what it means. We all gotta eat, and we’re all gonna die. But in the meantime, you can wear our last meals hoodie. Available now mythical.com.