What’s new for the show in season two? Well, I can say that ShirleyMacLaine is in it, [also] AmySchumer—and JaneLynch is back. Can we assume that Oliver, Charles and Mabel get out of jail to prove their innocence? Absolutely right, that’s fair to say. Is your character, Oliver, like you? I can be a little bit of a smart-ass; I can be sarcastic. Oliver’s like that. Oliver was a theater director who had this massive disaster, Splash!, where people were injured. It cost him money. I’ve never been in that situation, but I can certainly relate to it. What was it like working with Steve and Selena? The set was always loose and funny, filled with jokes, and Steve and I insulting each other and Selena getting in on it, and the crew having a riot, because they’re our audience. Oliver is down on his luck and he’s desperate for this podcast in season one. Is that something you can relate to from earlier in your career? It’s very interesting. You start off, you’re given a script. It’s very well written and you follow the guideline of that script of who this character is as you develop the character. Then, though, by show four you know enough about the character that you can then say to the writers, “He wouldn’t say that.” Or what I often will say is, “Guys, you realize if he says that, that’s who he is. If he takes that attitude, then he is that person with that attitude. Do you want him to be ‘blank’? If not, then we’ve got to change the line.” You start to gain ownership over the character and understand the character. The series is fun to watch. How much fun was it to make? I always have fun making things. That’s my philosophy of show business, because you can’t control or even know if it’s going to be great, good or not so good. You make a movie, you go to the dailies, and you say, “Oh, my God! This is the greatest thing in the world.” And then when it’s all put together, or let’s say the director makes mediocre choices because you’re not in that editing room, then you see it and you go, “Oh…” The only thing that an actor can really, really protect and control is the experience of doing it. I think that Steve Martin and Selena share that philosophy. Then if it turns out well, as Only Murders did, well that’s the cherry on the cake. But what you can control is the actual doing it. So, in answer to your question, longwindedly, it was fabulous to do. This was an idea that Steve had and told you about. Were you looking for a project to work on together? No, not really, because we do endless live shows together. We do 35 a year or something. So, we weren’t looking for that at all. Steve had been at a party about 12 years ago at [manager] Sandy Gallin’s house. He saw three elderly actors sitting on the couch together talking and Sandy said, “You should do a show about them.” And Steve has always loved true crime, so he thought, Gee, that could be interesting. Three guys that live in the same building and there’s a crime. That was 12 years ago. Then about two years ago or whatever it was, he had a lunch with DanFogelman, who did This Is Us. Dan lives in Santa Barbara, and Steve’s thinking, I know what this is. This will just be a lunch. At the end of it, Dan said, “Do you have any ideas?” Steve said, “Well, I have this one idea that I’ve never really fleshed out.” Steve’s idea was because they were old, they would solve murders, but only if they happened in the building; they didn’t want to travel. Dan loved it, ABC, Hulu loved it, and before you knew, it was greenlit. Steve said to me, “Do you want to do it?” I said, “Sure, it sounds like fun. Let’s see a script, anyway.” The scripts were very, very strong, very well written. JohnHoffman is the head writer. We proceeded. How did Selena get involved as one of the three amigos? We were looking for that third person and we wanted her to be younger and a different generation. Selena was the great choice, and happily she said yes. Have you learned anything from her? That happens on the show, but what about in real life? She’s certainly read us Cardi B lyrics that we’d never heard. Do you think there are buildings in New York that are actually like your fictional version of the apartment complex Arconia, where neighbors all interact? I think there are buildings like that in New York, yeah. I don’t know their names because I don’t live in New York. But even the building that we shot as an exterior is a massive building with a lot of people. I think there’s a board president. I’m living temporarily in a smaller building, 15 floors, on the Upper East Side. Everyone knows each other. Do you listen to true crime podcasts, or any podcasts? I’m not into true crime at all. I find it depressing, quite frankly. If my friends have a podcast, I invariably go on it and then I become a fan of it. Like SmartLess with SeanHayes and WillArnett, and ConanO’Brien has a great podcast. Everybody thinks podcasts are so new, but isn’t a podcast just radio? Absolutely. And, by the way, I’ve always loved radio shows. My kids grew up in the car on the old shows, The Shadow and all that stuff. Yeah, so these are just going back. For a while, radio just became about music. I listen to Morning Joe. I’m a very big newsy guy. You can get 60 Minutes on podcast, Bill Maher on podcast. You can get everything on podcast. You were also recently on The Morning Show. Your character was a director who gets canceled because of sexual misconduct allegations. A role like that seems a little bit out of what you’ve normally done; do you like stretching outside your comfort zone? I’m not on social media, remotely, so, I don’t care what anyone thinks of me. I don’t do this for the admiration of strangers. I do this because I love to do it. So, any role is challenging. But, my God, if you only chose roles because [the characters are] morally fit then you couldn’t do Macbeth, you couldn’t do most of the Shakespeare plays, you couldn’t do a lot of things. So, no, they asked me to do that and it’s like anything, you say, “Can I see the script?” Those Morning Show scripts are really well written. Everything was well done on them, big budgets, and beautifully shot and great cinematographer and directors. So, you jump at it. I love SteveCarell and JenniferAniston and ReeseWitherspoon. But most of my scenes were with Steve. Is there something other than performing that you’re passionate about? I’m passionate about my kids. I have three grandkids. I am passionate about my friends. I have a cottage in Canada, I’m passionate about that. But, no, I’m not suddenly going to collect art, for example. So, no thoughts of retirement? Or do you figure that the way retirement will happen is when you stop getting scripts? Absolutely. A friend of mine is a painter, and he was an actor. He says, “This is what I’ve been doing while the business went in a different direction.” I’m not a fan of retirement for anybody if you love what you’re doing. Doctors, for example…my father-in-law was a doctor. He practiced until he was 88 or something. When I did Maya & Marty, this television show a couple of years ago with LorneMichaels, the lighting guy, PhilHymes, was 92. Lorne doesn’t believe in retirement. I think that because there’s a number by your name it’s really, “Are you still good at what you’re doing?” You and Steve also did Father of the Bride together and they’ve remade that with a Latinx spin. We were a remake of SpencerTracy and Elizabeth Taylor’s movie. The reality is that some great stories should be retold because they’re not really discovered by a younger generation. The Spencer Tracy/Elizabeth Taylor movie is phenomenal. But people have forgotten about it, that was 1950. What was it, 40 years later, they do another one? Is there something you want to do that you haven’t done? No, I’m 72 years of age and, at this point, if I haven’t done it, it’s because I didn’t want to or maybe shouldn’t have. I’ve been asked to direct movies and stage, but I like being in front and I like being onstage. I think StevenSpielberg was a 9-year-old with a camera, so it makes sense [for him]. But I wasn’t; I was a 12-year-old in my attic bedroom pretending to have my own TV show. Next, Martin Short’s Funniest Moments With Steve Martin Will Make You LOL
