"Enlightened" Star Dermot Mulroney's Many 'jOBS'

Hey, I'm Dermot Mulroney. Stay tuned and get enlightened on this new thing called eBay.

Do they send it right to your house? Do you have your wedge sneakers on?

I, I, I don't. I have on my Frye boots.

Now, what's the price point of those?

These were $125.

Nice.

On eBay.

Oh, really? Are you an eBay shopper?

No, I just needed a pair of Frye boots. Yeah. There was some sort of "Order now!" and home delivery thing, but I did not opt for that. I went for the long, um, what do they call it, like an auction, and I won, and then I had to drive to Connecticut to actually pick them up.

You are a very busy man. Well, first of all, I love you on New Girl.

Oh, thanks! That was um, that was really a joy to work on that show.

Now, we're gonna bring you back 'cause I want you to come back and wreak havoc on that relationship that is now blossoming between the two main characters.

Yeah, but here's the deal. Uh, I've been kind of personally on an email to Jake Kasdan and um, Liz Meriwether, who?

Yeah, created the show.

created the show. And uh,

And now, I want to bring you back because

Yeah. Even had my agents calling and all that, and they, they were waving me off. They're saying, "No, no, there's no room for that character anymore. We're done, thank you." And then, guess what happens? Last week I called and I'm gonna be on the show again.

No way.

Right before I got in. Yeah.

Incredible. This is a hot, hot. This is a hot piece of information. Brand new announcement.

Yeah, nobody knows. This is the first that you've announced it. In fact, the, um, you know, so-called deal isn't even really, uh, in place yet, but the thing is.

Should we maybe talk about it then? We don't want to jinx it.

Well, here's how there's two ways we could do this. Okay. You want us to pretend, like my agent is right now, that I'm not doing it unless they meet my deal points. But the fact is, you can call Liz right now and tell her I'm doing it. Regardless of how well it's negotiated by my extraordinary agent.

And then I heard enlightened you went to the showrunner and you basically, like, got in its face and were like,

Yeah, this is,

Putting it out there that you wanted to be on the show.

This is, yeah, that's, that's exactly right. It's been exaggerated a little bit for some reason. I mean, it sounds like something where I'm chasing the guy down the street. It wasn't really that.

Oh, come on.

But I did, you know, I did force myself upon him.

Did you buy him Frye boots?

No, I bought him some sort of vegetarian, uh, concoction at one of those, um, vegan restaurants. This is Mike White, you know. Yeah. Yeah, he, he wouldn't eat anything, you know, other than that sort of.

Wait, he probably wouldn't wear leather either.

Oh, I don't know. There are a lot of other little steps in them. But if I'm telling it efficiently, it'd be like I met the guy and then he gave me the job.

And speaking of jobs, you've got jobs coming out too. That, you know, a segue actually implies that there's something that happens in between. There was no segue. It was just seamless. So, it's like a happening, wasn't it?

Yeah, it's incredible. Is it Mike Markkula? Is that how you say it? I think they say Markkula.

Mike Markkula.

Markkula. Yeah. Which, Markkula, perhaps. Which is why I've obviously not made a lot of money in stock in Apple, because I don't know these things. But he was one of the original investors in Apple. And I don't think that he's not as well known as the as the big name guys, Steve Wozniak and Jobs and all that. But he was there right at the beginning too. We actually shot at Steve Jobs' garage.

In the garage where the computer was.

was invented.

What is he saying? Has it been sort of redone? Or is it sort of like it's original? I guess they made it

No, they could have shot this right here in Reseda. But they took the whole. I mean, literally it looks like any garage in the valley. I think the house is, uh, still in the family somehow. I didn't know a whole lot about, um, Steve Jobs. I didn't really have time. You know how actors come on, they probably come on your show and say, "Oh, I went to all these links researching this, that, that, that's something to do with the scene I'm shooting in six months." Right.

Ashton did all that. You really did for that role 'cause he was playing him.

He did. And because he's a really meticulous actor, um, and he, he took on a very challenging role and did all of that work. I just show up the night before and and basically Ashton said, you know, "Stand here."

And look, it's working for you. You're working like crazy. Right. So, the game is called "Enlighten Me." Okay. For your show on HBO. Nice. Because you've been in the business for a while, one thing you should always bring to set and one thing you should never bring to set. Oh.

You know, this doesn't answer your question at all. This is, I'm not treating this as a pop quiz. I'm treating as a conversation starter. Go for it.

Okay. Let's do it.

Sarah Jessica Parker. Yeah. Always came to the set when we were shooting the movie Family Stone. She always had a um, a plastic bag with a New York Times in it.

Wow.

And maybe some other of her personal items. Like a plastic. Every day.

I love that. That's keeping it real. That's what I thought too. Okay, is begging for an acting job ever okay?

Oh, it's yeah, it's actually what I do best.

It's what you do best.

Yeah, you'd have to sort of obscure the fact that you're actually on your knees with your hands clasped. You just buy them vegan food. Right.

Describe a good craft services and what is your craft your nightmare? Are you all about

The fact that the job gives you free food at all. Is fantastic. I try to remind myself that most jobs, you have to at lunchtime, you have to go procure your own, you have to hunt and gather, you have to wait in line at the deli or whatever it is. Yeah. You're working on the movies, they just give you food.

And should you ever knock on another actor's trailer door? Should you ever?

Yes. Oh, sometimes you need to. Yeah. You gotta get the get the girl out of the trailer and get her on the set.

Whole new craft.

Yeah, no, I'm I've uh, self-appointed like, you know, fourth AD.

Yeah. And you go out there?

Yeah, really. Yeah, I've done that a number of times.

To whom?

Lindsay Lohan.

How did you know?

Debra Messing. Wow. To name a few.

Were we not supposed to say names? I never thought you were going to say a word, but I'm glad you did.

Yeah, it would be those two.