"Ally McBeal" star Greg Germann | The Latest With Maya

A conversation with Greg Germann.❤️ 


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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hi Greg, welcome to The Latest with Maya. Greg German has been in Allie McBeal, Gray's Anatomy, Ned and Stacy, Once Upon a Time, Well Trent Trent, Not Suitable for Work, and so much more. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm so excited to be talking with you.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Of course, me too.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

I actually had just started watching Ned and Stacy, and uh it's my new obsession. So um, so uh who do you most admire and how has that impacted the way you live your life?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Wow, let you I thought you were gonna start with some easy questions first, like math. Um who do I most admire? You know, I uh you know, I I maybe it's predictable. I admire people like Barack Obama or you know, leaders who even when things look dark, uh I think are wise enough to know that we're only as good as our intentions in the present moment. So uh that that's where I go when I think about who I admire. I mean, I don't know if you're asking about you know, broadly like that or more specifically in you know what I do, but that's you know, I think about that in a if you're rehearsing a play or doing a film or something, some you know, someone who's a leader on the set or in the rehearsal room, they're like that too. They don't let the obstacles that are the incremental obstacles, you know, get in the way of the of the bigger vision. And so I have lots of admiration for people that have that kind of foresight, that kind of focus.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Oh wow, I love that. Um, so I am uh pop culture obsessed and I go in stages of shows that I cannot stop watching. Uh is there a show that you are currently obsessed with?

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Um let's see. Uh you know, I just where did we just were we were just watching uh well we we just started this documentary last night. I don't know if your audience or you will know about this, but uh there was in the 70s and the 80s, there was a uh a woman who had a cable access show here in New York in Manhattan called the Robin Bird Show. And there's a documentary that Sarah Jessica Parker produced. I think it's on HBO Max that uh we started watching last night. That's great. And then and that's a very specific. Some of your audience might know that is, and most people might not. Um, but also the I think I can't remember the name of it, the documentary that I think Tom Hanks and his company produced about uh you know the founding of our country. I think it's called the American Experiment. I've been binging through that. It's just especially in this moment, you know, with all this going on in the country, it's uh it's inspiring because you realize that you know, as as dire as things can seem day-to-day now, uh we've overcome so much more.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Yeah. Oh wow. Yeah. Um so if you had a warning label, what would yours say?

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Uh don't take it before bedtime. No, I don't know. Uh uh moderation. Uh what would my warning label say? Uh uh gosh, that's a gr I don't I feel like that might be a question that somebody who knows me really well would probably have an answer for. Like uh, you know, stay away, danger, radioactive.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

I like that. Yeah. Um so what uh genre of movie would your life story be told as?

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Um I guess I would I'd hope it would be told as uh like a Frank Capra movie, you know, uh like It's a Wonderful Life or or um you know something like that, or uh uh a Hollywood musical from you know Singing in the Rain. And I fear it might be told as a you know uh a dire black and white you know Swedish film from the from the 50s or 60s. I would hope it would be that sort of uh optimistic, you know, uh like Capra, you know, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Yeah, yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah, I've always wanted my life story to be a musical rom-com.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you have one in mind. Is it is there one that you particularly love?

SPEAKER_01 5:21

And oh well, the first musical that comes to mind is um The Prom on Netflix.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Um, I love that movie. I I've seen it so many times. And then the first rom-com that comes to mind is Home Again, which is uh Reese Witherspoon movie.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Oh yeah, and yeah, both those movies I I've seen more times than I can count.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

So yeah, they're like one of those movies that when you're surfing around, you see it, you can't stop. You know, if it's playing, you kind of just get trapped and you can't stop watching it.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I think by this point I know all the words to all the songs from the prom.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

So I think you're yeah, I get that's the way I am with some of those Hollywood musicals or you know, like the Capra films or something where I've seen them so many times, but they never get old.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, they're like they're comfort movies, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Yeah. Um so what is um the greatest lesson you've learned from a character you've played?

SPEAKER_00 6:38

You have you the these I did not prep for this. You have the best questions. Like I should have thought through this. Um you know, actors who talk about you know their process or things like that. I I always feel a little bit of you know like cringe about because it's so I maybe because it's actually you know it's fairly personal, I suppose. But er every character, if you're open to it, teaches you a great deal because the whole idea is that I think being an actor or you know, a writer, uh an artist, you're I think you accept that there's a little bit of everybody in you, no matter how uh much you might not, you know, admire them in real life or or identify with you know who they are or were or even are or were fictionally, uh you know, being an actor, uh a writer, um I think it means that you are interested in identifying those parts of yourself and uncovering it. So every character uh teaches you something, but which got a a year or so ago I played Malvolio in Twelfth Night and uh that taught me a lot. You know, he he that character is often played, I think, so uh a bit stodgy, or and I don't know if you're if you remember or familiar with the story, but you know, he's in love with uh the woman that he served, you know, and um uh Olivia and um he you know he he's he he just pines for her and because he's so desperately in love with her he he's not the most pleasant person to be around. You know, he's it's unrequited love, so he's uh he struggles with that. And it's you know, I I I that came to mind. I learned a lot. I learned a lot from digging into that part of myself.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Oh wow. Yeah. Um is there um someone who without fail always makes you laugh?

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Yeah, Will Farrell, I think, without fail, always makes me laugh. Definitely. And I can I I can look at him and just it's he just he's just he's just funny, you know. What about you? Is there somebody like that for you?

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Oh, there's so many people. I I mean um uh like John Mullaney, he always makes me laugh.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

And yeah, and I mean Deborah Messing, because I will um Will and Grace is one of my all-time favorite shows, and Stacy. I'm obsessed with.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Oh, that's right. Yeah, Deb, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Like Sean Hayes or or Megan Millet, uh on that show, they were all Eric, what they were all so good.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Yeah, all of them, yeah, never fail to make me laugh.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Right, me too.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

So yeah, yeah. Um you uh so do you have um a show or a movie that you just constantly quote?

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Oh it's uh God, my memory is so bad about things like that. Um there are lines in movies though that stick out. There's a and but I gotta know on the spot, I I probably will misquote it. There's a movie that Sylvester Stallone did, and it might not be a great film, but uh uh Paradise Alley, and I think he wrote it. Um I think it was before Rocky, or it was like right in the early stages, right after Rocky. And what was the line? The the you know, it's it's some scene with him and a girl, and the girl says, you know, what do you want me to say to you? And he says something like, uh, say three things that'll change my life. Or say something that'll change my life. It's a great line, you know, somebody's kind of down and out, and you know, what do you say to them? And the response would be, say something that would change my life. I'm sure I'm misquoting it a bit, but that's you get the idea.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Oh yeah, I love that. Yeah, my brain is just filled with quotes, so I just really give me a few.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

You you probably know them off the top of your head.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Yeah, I mean, sometimes they they like um, yeah, I uh quote like Will and Grace and Friends all the time and um psych, those are probably the most that you quote all the time.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Right. So yeah, there's what do you what what do you what do you because you're you are you you you know you you probably definitely know more about pop culture than I do, you know. Well what what do you what is it about pop culture that you know that's such a broad definition that uh excites you or why do you love it so much?

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Um well it started when I was first diagnosed right before I was three. And because I was in the hospital so much, my mom was uh not like she wasn't gonna let like me or my sister watch uh TV till we were a little older. But since I was in the hospital all the time, my mom was like, you know what, just like let's watch movies. Um and so I remember or and so from then on, like that was just always my escape from everything. So it it started when I was uh three, just my love of pop culture. So um, because yeah, I love that it just gives me an escape from everything, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Like transporting, yeah. Right, I get that, I get that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, the so I definitely I have like go-to shows and movies when I need to like laugh or escape and all the shows that you that you're familiar with, and I'm sure there's hundreds.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Yeah, if you had to pick one like half-hour comedy, one of those shows, what would be at the top of the list? Oh I know it's like it's like choosing your children. I know it's I know you don't want to do this.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Yeah, it it's so that's so hard. Um, because there's so many. Uh I think the first one that well, okay, it's hard because there's so many. Uh yeah, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

I've been thinking I know it's uh these are hard questions.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Yeah, yeah, it's so hard to pick because I have three that come to mind immediately.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

And so Okay, let's hear them.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Okay, uh Will and Grace, Friends, and the New Adventures of Old Christine.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Uh yeah. Uh you know, I uh friends when I, you know, years ago, I hadn't really seen it. I think I was kind of some show I was doing at the same time. And uh and then uh with my son when he was younger, we he was really into it. So I we you know he we binged it, like just watched all and that that show is just brilliant. They were all so good. Uh I mean, really like really, really tight and really funny.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I remember I was in high school, like I had seen episodes of Friends, but not like the whole series. So my mom and my sister and I, we just binged watched the whole thing, and my mom had seen every episode hundreds of times, and so we just binged watched it, and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Yeah, and it's funny because I my mom and I were actually talking about all like the like all these shows that I'm super obsessed with and just re-watch all the time. She introduced me to all of them, so I always joke that I'm like, this is your doing when I rewatch them just all the time.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

It's her fault. It's her fault.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Um so what uh small things bring you joy on a daily basis?

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Um this sounds so corny. I mean, I swim every day. I swim, you know, that's kind of what I do. I swim, you know, in a pool, swim laps. And that I I I if I didn't do that, you know, that really changes my whole, no matter how I'm feeling before I swim, after I'm done, I I always, every single time, feel better. It just I love it. I mean, I love water. Um and also I I love get I love I've always loved uh getting up really early. You know, I love that the time in the morning. I mean it could be 5 30, you know, six, but when because nothing else is happening, nobody's gonna call, you know, there's nothing really going on. And you know, I don't know. I just I love that time of day. And and actually kind of getting up when I'm in California or you know, when the sun is coming up. I I just it really makes me happy.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

What about you? What is there something I I want to turn some of these questions around on you because these are hard questions. What about you? What's a small thing that like you know, yeah, what's a small thing that makes you really happy?

SPEAKER_01 16:53

I mean, there's so many things. I um I'm trying, I mean, when I'm like binge watching a show, I love um well just uh like watching that makes me happier, like watching one of my comfort shows. I it's gonna sound um uh maybe strange to some people, but always during the summer I'm thinking about like, oh, I can't wait for fall to start because I don't like the heat. And so like fall and winter are my favorite seasons. So just even thinking about them makes me happy and excited. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

I I get it. Right now I'm in I'm in uh New York City and Manhattan, and it's I think it's I think it's probably about 101 degrees outside right now. I mean, it's so you know, and in the city when it's that temperature because of all the pavement and cement, it's so hot. It's just and I'm that I'm not a fan of that either.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Oh yeah, too hot. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think it's like yeah, 90 degrees in uh Colorado today. So I'm staying inside.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Where where are you in Colorado?

SPEAKER_01 18:08

I'm in um centennial. Um so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

You know, I don't know if you were aware, but I I grew up in Golden.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Oh I yeah, I did I did read that.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Yeah, on Lookout Mountain up there over there.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Oh cool. Yeah. Yeah. Um yeah, I actually I um I love LA. Um that that's my favorite place to be. So if I I think Hollywood and all of that, or what's the um it's because um uh I mean most of uh a lot of my friends are in LA and um also because it's at sea level and not in not elevation uh or altitude like Colorado, I always feel better there.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

So when I go when I go back to Colorado and you know if I go swim there, you know you know, after about three laps, I'm just it takes a while to get acclimated to that altitude. It's very yeah, yeah. That's that's tough.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I I can never go to the mountains really, because I just feel even worse there. So yeah. Yeah. Um, but I I love New York too. Those are two of my favorite places.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

So do you go to the theater in New York? What when you come to New York, do you yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Um, yeah, I was actually in 2023. My family and I went we went for our birthdays and we went to see um Gutenberg, which was all of our um, it was all of our first time seeing like a show on Broadway.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

And yeah, it was so cool. And then I just went back in December to visit um the set of a TV show, which was really fun.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Uh-huh. So was that you I imagine you've been doing this for a bit. That wasn't the first time you've been on a set, or was it?

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Uh no, I I've been on a couple before. And thank you. It's it's always so cool to see.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Um to me, it seems so, you know, because it's what I'm doing, it's it seems so boring. It's like because there's all you're you're sitting around waiting a lot, right? But you know, but is it is it when you go, is it um it's lots of fun?

SPEAKER_01 20:49

Yeah, it is because it's I mean, everybody's like so nice there, and um it's like when they're not filming, usually I get to talk to like um people there, the different people there, and so it's really fun.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Yeah, and then it's cool to watch all the different takes they do and see what they change. And uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

I I think that's fascinating too, actually. You know, different than when you do a play and you you you have to wait till the next night to try something new, you know. When you're doing a film or TV, you get to, you know, let's try it again and let's do it again. I I would keep doing it over and over again if they'd let me, you know, but uh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Yeah. Um yeah, I actually um you know, uh just uh I've when we were talking about shows we're watching, I'm actually re watching World Trent because that's another favorite show of mine. Um and so yeah, I've been rewatching.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

watching um like your episodes and dark very dark yeah yeah yeah i let me think let me think about what i learned from that character uh yeah that was dark and that was really fun though because uh remon that whole group is just really really fun yeah super fun yeah we were in puerto rico shooting uh an episode and that was really that was a good time yeah oh i love that yeah i actually um i i interviewed ramon um a few months ago uh which and uh i i interviewed iantha too and they were both so fun to talk with yeah they're great and yeah ramon is is he's terrific just really good yeah um so um what is uh something you have accomplished as an adult that your younger self would be proud of um uh well my younger self I suppose would be you know uh I guess proud of that uh you know that I've I've I'm I've made a living as an actor you know that's probably you know very basic but probably true and I visited troops in Afghanistan a couple of times when we were when the war was going on and then recently like a year or so ago went to uh you know Kosovo in Poland to visited troops on the border of Ukraine NATO troops and and that that was uh I can look back at that and sort of or as you just said maybe think of myself as a bit younger and see that I was gonna do that that that would be um I'd be glad about that and then just you know you get I you may have this experience too you sometimes when people know who you are you know you get you're asked to you know be part of a or support a charity or something and there's an organization in Los Angeles I've been on the board for for years 20 years or more a social service agency called the People Concern that primarily deals with uh people who are unhoused but also with at-risk youth and people with drug and alcohol addiction and uh uh you know uh battered women and and a multitude of issues uh and it's uh a terrific organization so I've been involved with that for quite a while and so it's things like that outside of really you know maybe what what somebody might know me for uh that uh I guess proud of I I'm I feel like I'm grateful that I've been given those opportunities. It's really it's uh it's that's been really rewarding you know um to to be to be asked to be involved in those things. Oh wow yeah um so what are people surprised to learn about you that I'm seven and a half feet tall no one knows that about me i'm I no I'm not I'm kidding uh I'm not uh that I have three legs and and that's not true either um that I'm I actually don't exist from here down this is it right here what you see um what are people surprised about uh that's a good question I again that might be a question to ask somebody who you know just met me or knows me a little bit they might say you know well we're surprised to find out that you are such a jerk it's unbelievable how awful you are um I don't know what people are surprised about uh I don't know I don't know I I I I'm not sure you know you you've talked to me now for you know 20 minutes or so i um I don't know yeah yeah um so um you what is the um biggest obstacle either personally or professionally that you've overcome um I don't know if I've overcome it but it this I mean that this is an obstacle you know I you know I it's this has gotten in the way a lot um a personal obstacle I've I've overcome you know I think all of us I mean gosh I was speaking to you actually I uh you know you're presented with all of us in different in a different way different you know in different versions of this run into obstacles you know run into barbed wire in our lives and um I guess I don't know if I've overcome necessarily any particular thing other than accepting that it's like my life's work to to keep showing up right and and despite what those obstacles might be okay that's but just show up the next day it's maybe it it it circles back to that first question you asked about you know who do I admire and I admire people who despite the obstacles I mean I this frankly this is when I found out about you and uh I had a lot of admiration for for the way that you for what you've been doing you know and how you've processed uh you know like you said you were in the hospital at three years old but you've turned that into something so positive and sweet and I I looked at some of the people that you've spoken to some of them that I know and certainly know of and uh that's that that's a version of that isn't it you know taking something things happen to all of us and it's not what happens to us it's how we respond to it that really defines who we are and um so uh yeah obstacles I've I'm still overcoming all of those obstacles I suppose as all of us are in some way and I'm just hoping I can keep you know putting one foot in front of the other and you know it's like it's like meditating they talk about meditating breathing in and breathing out and you're doing that and then you your mind starts to wander and then you you begin again you breathe in and breathe out and then your mind wanders and you begin again so just the um intention to to go okay that's okay something happened to me and I'm gonna begin again and uh I think what you're doing is really an example example of that I mean the little bit that I know about it.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Thank you so much. So is there a song that whenever you hear it makes you emotional so many.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

So I'm a crybaby I mean really there are so many right now I love Olivia Dean and I can hear some of her songs and just and then I when I was a kid this will date me there was a song I think it was After President Kennedy and they it was the you know they had the president's physical fitness thing in all of the public schools across the country and Robert Preston who was in the music man uh the movie the film The Music Man this is back in the God I don't know when that movie was made but he had a there was a song that I think was produced by the you know by the not by the government or something but called Go You Chicken Fat Go. And they used to play it in I mean it's the most ridiculous song but it's basically like a song he's singing and they would play it in the gym class of elementary school kids. So when I was a kid they'd play this song and to the song you would do like you know jumping jacks and touch your toes and the song is hysterical. It's very dated. But for some reason about three or four weeks ago a friend of mine played it and I said I can't believe you're playing that song it's like it's impossible to find and it just I it all these memories flooded back about you know being a first grader a second grader and how crazy that was you know but yeah I'm I'm a I'm a crybaby though I can listen to you know Tony Bennett or you know American songbook songs and just get very emotional. You know it's yeah yeah I'm a soft touch.

SPEAKER_01 30:35

Yeah I love that yeah I there are so many songs that either if um there are songs that will make me um cry or just songs that I've like really strong memories attached to that they always like take me right back to the moment that moment. Is there one that comes like I'm curious for you what's a what's an example about those songs that okay well ones that one that always makes me emotional is Because of you by Kelly Clarkson um that one and then there's like um a song called One Thought Away by Asher Angel that I I listened to his music um every day when I went through radiation. And then uh yeah so any of his songs like take that there. So yeah that's what they do they trigger they trigger emotional memories right yeah definitely and then there's like so many of Ben Platt's songs that I listened to during quarantine in or lockdown in 2020 and so I'm like right back there when I hear certain songs of his right so yeah yeah I'm like remembering everything I felt so yeah um so do you have any irrational fears yes I'm terrified of doing Zoom interviews um there was a couple that was just the I don't know if you saw this news story they climbed to the top of the Empire State Building yesterday and they they they've done this all over the world apparently climb to the top of buildings it's illegal obviously but they climbed to the top all the way up the tower and he proposed to her when they got to the top now this is a couple that have done this before but they got arrested um but I was watching a news clip of it and it's a the helicopter was kind of going around the top of the Empire State Building you know focused on them and so you could see them up there on this little spire above the Empire State Building and you're looking down at the city.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

So I'm just watching that on TV but just to see that height really it's irrational why would I why would that make me I'm not on the edge of a building but yes that's a little a little bit irrational um maybe all fear is irrational and stage fright you know I there's been many times I've you know been on stage and thought right before you go on you think gosh I could I could really mess everything up right now as soon as I step out I and you realize how much power you have over your destiny in that moment. So that's maybe that's not irrational maybe that's a total rational fear. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

Yeah I um yeah I actually I didn't know about that I saw a picture um but I had no idea what it was so um but I I always show my brains like one big irrational fear so I can understand other people's so yeah like I I was watching a show the other day and I can't remember now I can't remember what it was but somebody like did something and I was like I would feel so guilty if like that was me and like I wouldn't I don't know I wouldn't be able to do anything else like that would just consume me.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Right right yeah so I don't know watching that like kind of got my heart beating right and so yeah um so I uh just have um one final question for you um so today what are you most grateful for uh you know that's a long list um my son is really healthy and happy and I mean I'm healthy healthy I mean saying that to you I you know I you know when you you stub your toe and you think oh it's just it just it hurts so bad and you think God about 30 seconds before I didn't appreciate how good it felt not to have a stubbed toe you know and so when you have a cold you think oh I remember yesterday when I didn't have a cold it was so great and so you know I try to remember when I wake up in the morning I I feel pretty good. That's pretty that's that's what else is there? You know yeah I I I heard Jerry Seinfeld interviewed and I I'll get this wrong but they what does he value most or some question like that and he said energy and I thought yeah when you have energy to create or to do things to care about people or you know just to energy so I'm grateful for feeling good and that the ones I you know love and care about are feeling good.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

Yeah oh I love that yeah um well thank you um so much for joining me I've been so excited to talk with you and I've just had the best time so thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

My pleasure I really appreciate you asking me to do it.

SPEAKER_01 36:32

Um and I hope you um have a great rest of your day thank you you too thank you and that's a wrap on today's edition of the latest with Maya