Michael Rapaport on Atypical, Lebron James, & Being a Belieber

What's up, young Hollywood? Today in the studio, we have the New York Talking, Instagram popping. Mhm. Bad boy walking, Mr. Michael Rappaport.

Thanks for having me. How you doing? I I want my I need my coffee before we do this. I'm just here. We just had a whole dilemma about the coffee. Oh my god. I know. He was going to wait for coffee. I said I was fine. I'm just teasing.

Now he's being a diva.

Yes, I'm a diva, coffee diva. How you doing? I'm glad to be here.

I'm excited you are here. Thank you. You're a man of many talents.

Yep.

Uh, but one of your talents is an actor.

Yes.

You got a show atypical on Netflix.

Yep.

I'm hooked.

Well, I appreciate it. You know, it's the second season. I love the show. I love the heart of the show. I love the humor of the show. And the response is is really been overwhelming. You know, we're proud to be on Netflix and and hopefully people will continue. Netflix is uh, you know,

It's a good spot. It's a good spot. It's a big deal. You never would have thought though. Like when Netflix first came out, when the DVDs were coming out, I was like, what is this? And now it's like the place to be. I'm proud. I have a Netflix subscription. I pay for Netflix to watch. You don't get the hook up.

I don't have that button yet. I don't have that button yet. Okay. Season three, it's coming. Yeah. Oh, here's the coffee. Thank you. Let's bring in the coffee. Thank you. Thank you. You got the coffee. Now I could be myself. I'm just teasing.

One thing I really love about this show, as a character people see on Instagram, right? Right. In the show, you're totally different. You're down to Earth and it's a softer side of you. Right. Do you like playing this role?

I I do like playing the role. You know, it's it's it's it is a challenge for me to to to play a character who's it's hard for him to express his emotions. Right. You know, for me that's not, you know, I might not express them the right way, but but it's not hard for me to express something. So, so it's cool. And and you know, as far as the Instagram of it all like

Oh, we'll get that. Don't worry.

Yeah. We'll get that. We'll get that. Well, people think that that's like me all the time. Like people come up to me screaming like, yo, yo. I'm like

Trust me. Everyone's been asking because I was telling people I was going to interview you, right? I was like, you guys don't understand. That's like Instagram persona.

Yeah. You know, this is not like that every day. Not like now I'm like that. But just not all the time. But people will like scream at me on the street like I'm like, you know. So, but I'm used to it and I appreciate it.

Okay. Uh, so you are a man of many talents.

Yeah, thanks.

You're an award-winning director.

Thank you.

Actor. You've written a book.

Yep.

You have your own podcast.

That's right. Well, who doesn't have a podcast at this point? It's still a big deal. Everyone's got a podcast. I think people are saying it's the future. So.

Yes, it is. It is.

And you're also big on the gram.

Yes.

Out of all these things that you do, which one is your favorite?

It's it's hard to say one thing as my favorite. I I'm always going to be an actor. I'm always going to love acting. That's always going to be like my first love. The podcast, I love because it's it's it's totally mine in terms of creative freedom.

Creative freedom.

You don't want to go off the rails, but there's no sort of creative rules or regulations. I just like staying active. I I like trying to do things. I like trying to like, you know, make my mind think to do things differently. And, you know, I've always resisted using the term artist.

You define it with everything that you do.

But when I grew up like artist you think of like, you know, Van Gogh painting, you know, like it's like that's an artist painting because that's how it was

You're a new age artist.

Yes. So, so I I I dig it all and the the the even the Instagram of it all, which I don't know how it sort of got snowballed into. Yeah. Um, but now, like, I mean, it's such a crazy thing because, you know, Instagram is like a literally a place YouTube also where you

Justin Bieber,

you forget that he was discovered on, yeah. I mean, that's crazy. I mean, these things are creating careers. Mega careers. I mean, Justin Bieber was YouTube. Yes. So, you know, it's like I'm praying every day to become Justin Bieber.

Yeah, me too.

I don't think it's too late, you know what I mean? So, but I don't like the new look. Like the hair and the mustache. I don't know what he's trying to do with this.

Yeah, there's a little little grunge going on with it. I don't know, yeah, because it's just way out there because I like Bieber. He's a good dude. I love I love his music too.

Bieber, I'm a fan. I'm a believer.

Yeah, I'm a believer too. I played basketball against him.

I like Bieber. He's a good kid. He's good people. He's good people.

Speaking of basketball, you're a big sports fan. NBA season's coming up. LeBron coming to LA. Do you love it? Do you hate it? Is the city going to burn down?

No, no, no, no. It ain't going to burn down. I I guarantee you this though, when he really makes his regular season debut at the Staple Center in the Golden Purple, people are going to have religious experiences. Like they're going to be like for like, oh my god, like there he is. Like it's going to be like one of the biggest most iconic moments in basketball history before he even like uh shoots the ball. I think it's good for the sport. I think it's great for Los Angeles.

What? Were you praying he would come to New York?

I knew he wouldn't come to New York. I I don't even it never even crossed my mind that he would come to New York.

Okay, so you had zero hope on that.

Zero hope that he'd come to New York. I think with all the offseason drama, the LeBron going to the Lakers, um, that this year, this NBA season will be the biggest NBA season ever collectively. And the West is just filled with talent. Every game's going to be important. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just stars and drama. Complaining and it's going to be it's going to be good.

Well, I'll toss out this interview like I said, you're big on the gram. Yep. Uh, I would love nothing more for you just to roast me, the studio, whatever you see.

I can never do that. You I couldn't do it. You're too nice.

Okay, what can you give us a nice viral Instagram? Can I curse?

Yeah, uh, keep it PG as best as you can. You can talk about these pillows. pillows. I think about what I asked about the pillows like is what do I got to do to be on the like I can name a lot of these people but like I I don't know who this is. I don't know who the fuck these two people are.

Okay, this is our CEO.

Okay. Yeah. You don't want us to roast our CEO. That's great that he's a CEO, but what's he doing on the pillow? He's paying the bills. Who's that? You don't know a Megan. She's Paulina something. No, Megan Fox. Oh, that's Megan Fox. Okay, I didn't recognize her. I mean, it's good people. I don't know who this guy is. It's the quality of the pillow. I don't understand. Who's this guy? Who the fuck is this guy? Why is he on a pillow and I'm not on the pillow? Yeah, I yeah, I got to get on one of these fucking pillows or I'm not coming back.

Done deal.