Dive into a conversation between your favorite (on-screen) father-son duo, the illustrious Kyle MacLachlan and Overcompensating's creator/writer/star Benito Skinner.
Topics covered include: True artists, Kyle meeting David Lynch for the first time on the Universal lot, getting Invisalign for the bit, Benito's world getting rocked by Blue Velvet in high school, saliva overproduction, going blonde, Overcompensating's origin story on the New York standup circuit, finding the laughter and heart in coming out, new perspectives in watching your old work, Kardashian skits with stakes, college as an epicenter of comedy and heartbreak, pledging Beta, Kyle's first job working at a lumber mill in Yakima, dad's loving Pride merch, Tom Hanks’ sage auditioning advice, college golfer siblings, being fluent in the "Apple" dance, Kyle's first introduction to Sex and the City's Trey MacDougal, and being all up for the craziness.
Kyle MacLachlan: Hi there, I'm Kyle MacLachlan.
Benito Skinner: And I'm Benito Skinner.
Kyle MacLachlan: And this is the A24 podcast. Welcome to our podcast. You've done a lot of podcasts.
Benito Skinner: I've done a lot of podcasts.
Kyle MacLachlan: You and Mary, right? I mean-
Benito Skinner: Yes. Your kids are really, we're in the cut with this.
Kyle MacLachlan: You guys are in. You'll have to help the old man.
Benito Skinner: You're going to be just fine. I really was telling them before, I am losing words all the time. I am not good at speaking anymore.
Kyle MacLachlan: What happened? Well, you've exhausted that muscle.
Benito Skinner: Talking can get really hard. That's why I brought you here today, talk about that. Hey daddy, it’s so good to see you.
Kyle MacLachlan: It's so nice to see you, too. I love this.
Benito Skinner: This is heaven.
Kyle MacLachlan: First of all, I'm so excited for you.
Benito Skinner: Thank you.
Kyle MacLachlan: And the work and the effort that you've put into this and your bravery, of course.
Benito Skinner: Thank you.
Kyle MacLachlan: But you do it with such heart. The show is hilarious, but there's not a mean bone in it, you know what I mean?
Benito Skinner: Yeah.
Kyle MacLachlan: There's some poking and edging, a little edge of course, but it comes from a really, really gentle, warm, loving place. And also, I think you allow these characters who could very easily become one-dimensional, have many more layers. And that's not easy to do.
Benito Skinner: Thank you so much. I mean, you are literally one of my heroes, so it is always-
Kyle MacLachlan: I left my cape outside.
Benito Skinner: Well, of course. I've never been more nervous than the day when you were coming to set, because I knew we were going to do our scene in the room where you're trying on all my clothes.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: And I-
Kyle MacLachlan: I could have lost a few more pounds for that, I just wanted to say.
Benito Skinner: Hey, I thought you looked fantastic. I go, "Shit, I got it from my dad."
Kyle MacLachlan: I looked at you and was like, "Ah, fuck."
Benito Skinner: Goddamnit. No, that's all I did, that's all I did for eight months. You were busy.
Kyle MacLachlan: I dieted.
Benito Skinner: You were booking other things.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh my God.
Benito Skinner: No, immediately I think being in that trailer with you and you getting fitted for Invisalign, I was like, "This is a true artist." The way you made a meal of that.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh my God.
Benito Skinner: I think you didn't judge the character, too.
Kyle MacLachlan: No.
Benito Skinner: I think some people come in and I think what is on screen and what I see in you is a dad that also just really wants to be loved so dearly by his kids.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: And doesn't know where to put that love and where to put this past applause that he got and he's not getting it anymore. And what does that feel like for a man? I don't know.
Kyle MacLachlan: Well, it's funny you say that because my son Callum is almost 17 and I'm definitely entering that phase. I'm an older dad, so it's not that I'm trying to keep up by any means, but I want to at least be present and around and understand a little bit. And I had the best wake-up call, which was this past weekend. We were invited up, Desiree, one of her clients rented out Surf Ranch, which is Kelly Slater's facility up in North Fresno. So we were guests, it was fantastic. Callum is a surfer, he's been surfing for four or five years now.
Benito Skinner: Okay, let's go.
Kyle MacLachlan: Ever since we moved out from New York, he's become California. Volleyball, surfing-
Benito Skinner: Hey, I love that. No, I've been re-watching The OC, so this is huge for me.
Kyle MacLachlan: Okay, okay.
Benito Skinner: Well, we'll talk about it later, yeah.
Kyle MacLachlan: Okay, good. But anyway, we get there and it's quite an amazing place and lovely hospitality, just really beautiful. It's the first day, so I am not a surfer. I mean, I have tried and it is just awful, embarrassing.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, that's not fun.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, yeah.
Benito Skinner: I'm good on that one.
Kyle MacLachlan: So I see my son, I'm on the Wave Runner, watching him. I'm just going, "Oh my God," he’s just up and he's down the wave and he's so elegant. He's 6'5", so it's tough as a surfer, but he looks so great on the board.
Benito Skinner: That's illegal, kind of.
Kyle MacLachlan: It's illegal.
Benito Skinner: On a board? Oh my God.
Kyle MacLachlan: He's on the board. And so then it's my turn and I literally, I have the guy there next to me. I am nearly falling. He's grabbing me to keep me on the board. I'm looking at myself, going, "That is just an old man who shouldn't be on a surfboard."
Benito Skinner: I love it.
Kyle MacLachlan: And that was my sort of wake-up call and that happened this past weekend. I was like, "Shit."
Benito Skinner: No, that's John. I love it. That's him going, we're still doing it.
Kyle MacLachlan: It's the dad. And we’re wearing clothes.
Benito Skinner: We’re wearing Jordans.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: Yeah.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, it definitely was. I was like, "Oh, we're echoing my life now."
Benito Skinner: Does he talk to you about acting at all, or has he consumed the work? This is my thing where I think maybe, because my boyfriend recently said, "Oh, it's going to be so fun for our kids one day to see this." And I'm like, "I bet they won't fucking care." That's what I hear from everyone, that they just-
Kyle MacLachlan: He doesn't, doesn't really care. He's like, "Oh dad, that was..." He hasn't seen a single thing I've done. I mean, there are many things that he can't see yet, but he's getting you the age now where he can.
Benito Skinner: He hasn't seen Dune? We don't have Dune?
Kyle MacLachlan: No, I don't think anything.
Benito Skinner: He's not a Sex in the City head?
Kyle MacLachlan: No.
Benito Skinner: Goddammit.
Kyle MacLachlan: He doesn't, no.
Benito Skinner: No Desperate Housewives?
Kyle MacLachlan: He doesn't really care. And I'm like, "That's totally great, that's totally fine." I want his journey to be his own. And kids at school may mention something, or, "Your dad was in this," or something like that. And he's like, "Yeah." Which I really actually like.
Benito Skinner: Yeah.
Kyle MacLachlan: I like it.
Benito Skinner: It's probably nice.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, don't have to worry or care. I mean, he's a superstar in his own right.
Benito Skinner: I love it, I'm getting jealous. I thought I was your son. That's really fucked up. I'm so excited you're here and I'm just kind of leading this because I have so many things I want to ask you that I was almost scared to on set and I was just talking about this with Wally, who plays Carmen in the show.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, she's delightful.
Benito Skinner: Oh, you guys just did an interview together, I loved it so much. She's so brilliant.
Kyle MacLachlan: She came into it just like, "Tell me about you, I don't really know you." Because we didn't really have anything together, apart from the one scene at the dinner table.
Benito Skinner: Which she's silent for the whole thing.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: It's not even like-
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, just the observer.
Benito Skinner: She's just looking at us.
Kyle MacLachlan: Which, that scene is really funny. But yeah, she's wonderful and I loved the conversation. She's intelligent and she's beautiful. I wanted to know her process and she's very thoughtful and the fact that she's been writing for so long. I don't know, it was great to learn about her.
Benito Skinner: But we were talking about it and we were like, we had this moment on set where we thought maybe because the show was overcompensating in that we got you and Connie really big trailers, because we thought if we didn't, maybe you'd be pissed.
Kyle MacLachlan: I walked in, I was like, "What the hell?"
Benito Skinner: You were like, "No hot tub?" And that's when I was like, “That's my daddy. I'm obsessed with him." We didn't know if you guys were going to be in holding with us under the tent, and so then when you were, it was just Wally and I between you and Connie, and I was like, "I can't believe this is really fucking happening." I can't believe you guys said yes. So there's so many things I wanted to ask you, but was like, "I don't want to bother him. He's an actor, an actor prepares." Couldn't even do that.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh, so sweet. No, that was so sweet. I love that you wrote such a nice thing and it really appealed to me. And I also, gosh, I simply read the script and I was like, "This is really funny." And I knew some of the people involved. I was like, "Let's go."
Benito Skinner: You at that TV. I think about that TV.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh my Lord. Remember that?
Benito Skinner: Well, someone just asked me, "When did you break the most?" And I was thinking, one of them was when you turn and you go, "Look at this thing. Imagine March Madness on this thing." And you go, "Ugh," you do the big mouth open. It's probably that in the Invisalign in the cup, in the glass.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh, God. I remember doing that. And I remember them saying, "I think we're going to need to have a saliva wrangler for you because we're going to need to put some saliva in there to make it stringy."
Benito Skinner: You go, "No."
Kyle MacLachlan: And I'm like, "I think we're going to be okay," so that's all natural.
Benito Skinner: We're working, well-
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, that's me working through the character.
Benito Skinner: That's an actor.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah. And I create the saliva and then it just-
Benito Skinner: How incredible I get to be there for that.
Kyle MacLachlan: Take after take. Yeah, I love-
Benito Skinner: And this dyed hair that you have, we have to talk about this.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yes.
Benito Skinner: Is this for Fallout?
Kyle MacLachlan: Fallout, yeah.
Benito Skinner: Because I want it for season two if we get one. I mean, this is perfect.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh, cool.
Benito Skinner: We're ready to go.
Kyle MacLachlan: Cool, cool. I had to do this, color of hair for another thing that I did that was called The Sensitive Kind, now it's called The Lowdown. And I shot the pilot and my hair was white. I told the director, I said, "I can go back, but what do you think?" And I said, "There is a world in which the character would dye his hair because he's somewhat vain. He's a politician, he's trying to appeal to a younger voter."
Benito Skinner: Yeah.
Kyle MacLachlan: And he said, "Let me think about it," and then he wrote it in.
Benito Skinner: I love it.
Kyle MacLachlan: So it's me and Jeanne Tripplehorn and she's dyeing my hair.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, I love it.
Kyle MacLachlan: And it's so wrong and right at the same time. But yeah, I've been back with the color now.
Benito Skinner: Because I'm thinking I go blonde season two?
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh, cool.
Benito Skinner: It's like I'm gay, so that's the first thing I have to do.
Kyle MacLachlan: Okay, full on or more of a-
Benito Skinner: I think I would maybe do it and then it'd be terrible, it'd be that kind of orangey yellow in between. And then I feel like I want Mary Beth to go brunette again and you find that dye in her bathroom and you let it rip.
Kyle MacLachlan: And again, I think the character, his journey would support it.
Benito Skinner: Yeah.
Kyle MacLachlan: He wants to be young, you know what I mean? He's doing the Invisalign, why not?
Benito Skinner: He's not done. He's like, this is his new-
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah. You said season two, so have they said anything yet or have they-
Benito Skinner: They haven't said anything yet.
Kyle MacLachlan: Or anything that you can say. Maybe you can't say.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, probably. I mean honestly, I haven't heard anything.
Kyle MacLachlan: So they have five seasons that they've purchased.
Benito Skinner: Yes, so we're shooting them all at the same time. I feel lucky.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yes, good. Hopefully we're block shooting those, that would be really great.
Benito Skinner: Of course. Yeah, I don't know anything, but I think I feel so great about where it landed. I'm so proud of it and I really can't believe the people that are in it. I still watch it and it's so insane to me that you're in this.
Kyle MacLachlan: That is so cool, thank you.
Benito Skinner: I was trying to think before I saw you today, of my experience with your work and what I saw first. And I think the first thing I saw, in high school, I took this class that was called, it was something for seniors in high school that they got to do a film class. And so we watched Blue Velvet.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh, yeah.
Benito Skinner: And I think that was my first experience with it. And I've never been so... And this was also, I had just found Lana Del Rey, so I was kind of living in this very Lynchian world at the time.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, perfect.
Benito Skinner: And it completely rocked my world and in a way that I... And I think I speak for so many people listening to this and just everyone, when I say I'm so sorry about your friend.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh, David, yeah.
Benito Skinner: And you had the most beautiful post about it, that I think about.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh my God, thank you.
Benito Skinner: If you're comfortable talking about it, I would love to hear.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh, yeah.
Benito Skinner: Because Dune was first?
Kyle MacLachlan: Dune was first, yeah. David for Dune and then was cast, and we worked together on that for seven months in Mexico City. And so the friendship started there, the working relationship started there. And then Dune came out and it was not received well.
Benito Skinner: Sorry, it's iconic now. Have you seen the new ones?
Kyle MacLachlan: I've seen the new ones. Yeah, I like the new ones. I love that book so much and that story, it's like-
Benito Skinner: I'm acting like I've read it, not even for me.
Kyle MacLachlan: It's hard to get through.
Benito Skinner: But I did like you, I've seen all the movies.
Kyle MacLachlan: Okay, well, you got it. That's fine, between the two. But yeah, and he, bless his heart, came back to me for Blue Velvet. We did this thing together, it came out to be a disaster. He didn't have to return to me. I was at the time, in Hollywood, I was kind of like it was a desolate sort of situation after that.
Benito Skinner: Oh, I've been there.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: How many gay assistant roles have I read for over the years?
Kyle MacLachlan: "I don't know, what am I going to do now?" But he came back and then we went off to shoot Blue Velvet, which was really fun.
Benito Skinner: Where'd you shoot?
Kyle MacLachlan: We shot in Wilmington, North Carolina. And it was Laura Dern, Isabella Rossellini, myself, David Lynch, Dennis Hopper. And we were like a little band of... It's like Dune was a whole different experience, that was a giant circus of a million parts. And Blue Velvet was kind of more what filmmaking is really about. We're small, we're independent, no one's paying much attention to us and we're just kind of making this thing. Kind of like we were just out doing a thing.
Benito Skinner: We were just at that house in Toronto.
Kyle MacLachlan: The house in Toronto, doing our stuff. And that journey was magical for a number of reasons, and kind of helped rejuvenate where I was at the time. And then that kind of led to other things. And then Twin Peaks, of course, that sort of shot it out.
Benito Skinner: I mean, that is-
Kyle MacLachlan: That was amazing.
Benito Skinner: Have you re-watched any of them recently? I think I saw you at Vidiots, right?
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: You did a screening there or you just showed up, you didn't watch. Can you watch your own work or no?
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, yeah, I can. I mean, it's so long ago now. I look at it, I'm like, "I don't even know who that person is," in a way, but it's really fun to see. And I'm going to go to London on June 15th and the BFI, the British Film Institute is going to screen the pilot episode on a big screen, which hasn't been done for forever.
Benito Skinner: Probably since the premiere.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: Oh, that's incredible.
Kyle MacLachlan: That'll be fun, so I'm looking forward to that. That'll be really good. But no, I haven't really. I mean, there are whole episodes I'm like, "I don't remember."
Benito Skinner: Oh, I'm sure. Even now, I just shot this and I'm kind of like, people will bring up a scene and I go like, "Okay, I got it." Yeah, I've seen it 200 times at this point in the edit, but I'm like, "I don't even know what the..."
Kyle MacLachlan: I can't remember.
Benito Skinner: Or people will quote a joke back to me and I just look at them and they think I'm an absolute bimbo. They're like, "Oh, you didn't even write it."
Kyle MacLachlan: I didn't write that one.
Benito Skinner: I can't even register.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh my God.
Benito Skinner: What was the process like for that first time when he met you for Dune? Was it just you came in and auditioned and then that was it, or was-
Kyle MacLachlan: No, David, the beautiful thing about David is he doesn't audition people. So Dune was a little bit different from the other films. A casting agent saw me, auditioned me, taped me in Seattle in a hotel room, and there was a chair outside with some sides. She was inside with a little camera like these ones here. And she was so kind and so nice, and she filmed me and I said, "How does this work? What happens now?" And she said, "Well, I take the..." She was French. "I take the tape to..." I'm doing French now, it is a thing. "I take it down to show David Lynch and Raphael, I have to go to San Francisco and audition people there." And I said, "Do I have a chance with this?" And she said, "Well, unless I find someone in San Francisco, maybe. It's possible, yeah." She was positive. And I was like, "Okay, great."
Benito Skinner: Oh, thank you so much, that means the world.
Kyle MacLachlan: Meanwhile, I go back to my little, I was doing a play at the Empty Space Theater. Tartuffe, we were doing a different adaptation of Tartuffe. And so I went back to work. I was like, "Okay, we'll see what happens." And a few days later they said they saw the tape, "We'd like to bring you down." So they put me on a plane, they flew me from Seattle to LA, so I go from like January in Seattle to January in LA, two completely different climates.
Benito Skinner: Yes, of course.
Kyle MacLachlan: And I was like, "This is nice down here." And then I met David at the lot at Universal in one of the little bungalows and we just had a conversation. We spoke for about 20 minutes and at the end of it he said, "Here, here's the script. Learn five or six scenes, these scenes, and then come back and we'll screen test." I was like, "Sure," like I do this every day. That was the first film script I'd ever read.
Benito Skinner: Of course, yeah. You're like, "Screen test, I love a screen test."
Kyle MacLachlan: Sure, sure.
Benito Skinner: Can read.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, I can do anything. So went back to Seattle, learned the scenes, came back down a few days later and I screen tested and we did a little directing and that's kind of where it started. That was like we realized, "Oh, we really get along," and it really made sense. And it just took off from there, pretty amazing.
Benito Skinner: That's amazing.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: I mean to be his muse of sorts, that's so major.
Kyle MacLachlan: I was very, very, very lucky.
Benito Skinner: And rightly so.
Kyle MacLachlan: Thank you.
Benito Skinner: Oh my God, is there a favorite thing that you did with him? Not to, you don't have to, but I am curious.
Kyle MacLachlan: They were all great. I think in the early years, Dune, I love Dune, but you're like, I think when I first started, I didn't really understand or appreciate who I was working with. It was like, "Oh, it's David. It was what we're doing.” And then I'll work with this director and this director. And then as my career moved around, I was like, "You know what? That was an incredibly special relationship." And we came back and then we did Twin Peaks together and then got to do The Return together.
And I think that probably, just because I knew. I had a level of appreciation for every day that I worked. I was just so grateful and I got to be with David and we got to create this kind of crazy world. And I said, "Just hold onto this because this is not going to happen again." I think I knew. And so it was that kind of magic. Yeah, it was pretty-
Benito Skinner: That's so beautiful.
Kyle MacLachlan: It was pretty, pretty nice. But I want to ask about you. I want to find out a little bit more about-
Benito Skinner: I had to get that, we'll talk about Sex in the City next.
Kyle MacLachlan: Okay.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, but I just need... I'm like, there's so... I said this before. I go, "Oh, now I get him, now he's trapped. He's locked in."
Kyle MacLachlan: He cannot get away.
Benito Skinner: Sorry, this is it.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh, sweet, sweet. But it's so interesting to me that you had this idea, you ran with this idea, you worked on this idea, you believed in this idea. You have partners in this to help, but also you're spearheading it. If you can, talk to me a little bit about the why, where that came, what the desire was. Did you see this story has to be told or did you feel, "You know what, this..." Tell me what you think.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, it's so interesting. I was trying to think of why I thought that this was on the menu because I grew up in Idaho, there are not a lot of-
Kyle MacLachlan: We can talk about that too, I'm from Yakima.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, it's like where you're not meeting a lot of actors.
Kyle MacLachlan: They're almost the same town.
Benito Skinner: Exactly. I'm kind of like, "Wait." It wasn't something that was around me, but I remember around the time of me writing this, which is about six years ago, I had come up on Broad City and I think Fleabag had just come out, Chewing Gum.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh, that's a great show.
Benito Skinner: I knew that people were taking these experiences in their life or not even, and kind of just creating their entire world that they wanted. And to say this statement, whether it be about their life or something else. But I was touring a standup show at the time, called Overcompensating, and I was telling these stories of being in the closet. And I was seeing crowds really laugh with me, but then by the end I think it felt kind of an emotional show. And I was like, "Okay, I think there's something there."
Kyle MacLachlan: That's a good indicator, yeah.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, I was like, "Okay." There's just a few shows where some people were crying or coming to me after and being like, "I felt that way too, and I'm not even gay," or things like that. The straight guy who comes to you after a comedy show and is like, "That actually was almost kind of funny, you got some jokes there." I'm like, "That means the world."
Kyle MacLachlan: Dude.
Benito Skinner: "Hey, thank you so much."
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, yeah.
Benito Skinner: But yeah, I just saw it hit with people. And at the time, I was making sketches on the internet pretty much weekly. And I had made this one of a Kardashian Christmas, which I'm sure you've seen.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yes, please, my favorite.
Benito Skinner: You can skip that one. But it did have structure and stakes and story.
Kyle MacLachlan: Did you not dress up?
Benito Skinner: Oh, yeah.
Kyle MacLachlan: At Heidi's Halloween party.
Benito Skinner: Absolutely.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, I know Halloween's a big deal. Anyway, continue with the story, sorry to interrupt.
Benito Skinner: I'm making you do some this year. Yeah, I'm going to get you into it. I know you have it in you, I've seen the TikToks.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh, I can do it.
Benito Skinner: But I just remember feeling like, "Oh, okay, if I can make these stories..." There was structure happening in these sketches and I was naturally wanting to tell stories. And my agent called me and he was like, "I just watched that sketch. You should write a script." But I think coming from Idaho or even when I went to Georgetown, I didn't study script writing. I'm like, "I'm not a writer." And he's like, "Well, you've written all these sketches, so that counts." I'm like, "All right, well, I'll just try it."
And I kept coming back to this idea of overcompensating and meeting a woman in college who was this first person, because she wasn't my family, where I was like, "Oh, I can't do this kind of boy next door football-y thing around this woman. I'm starting to..." And she was the first person I came out to. And I just thought, "Okay, I love that." And I started kind of pitching myself jokes about college. I could write it forever, it was the easiest world to build for me.
Kyle MacLachlan: That's amazing.
Benito Skinner: Because I was like, "Oh, God." The pre-games, what happens with sex.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh, it is right.
Benito Skinner: How it feels, I'm just like, "This is delicious." And at the time, Sex Lives of College Girls wasn't out or anything, so I just didn't see college anywhere. And I'm like, "What a perfect place to mine comedy and also, so much emotion and heartbreak and then thinking about, I think also the parents in it too, of the parents that leave you at college, who you reintroduce to a new version of you over Thanksgiving and Christmas. And that to me, also was like, "Don't we all feel that every time we see our parents or our family?"
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: Even if a year has passed, it's like, "Maybe I'm different now. Maybe I'm not the person that I think you want me to be." And so that's, I think the whole show.
Kyle MacLachlan: But it's remarkable because I wonder, do they... I guess we'll see as we go. Do they see you differently somehow? Like when I see my son, he's my son. All the going through puberty, going in the teen years now and it will continue. It's like that, he's my son. You know what I mean? That is a constant somehow.
Benito Skinner: I think it's so beautiful that you say that, because that really I think, is the core of these relationships, that I think some people obviously come out and are treated horribly and completely lose their family in that and have to find new families. But I think there is something in the show where I think we're trying to play it somewhere in the middle, which I think you haven't seen on screen in a way where it's, I've only seen some of these things lately where the parents are like, "That's amazing."
And the dad's joking about downloading Grindr. And I'm like, "Well, I just don't think that's the case because I think there's also an emotional thing that the parents are going through of, "I thought I knew who my child was. Also, you were going through all this and you didn't tell me? What have I done?" And I think that that is something in the story.
Kyle MacLachlan: You're asking the right questions because I think as we continue, let's hope-
Benito Skinner: Yeah, please.
Kyle MacLachlan: Because your instinct is to write deeper, you know what I mean? It's to write layers. Everyone's good-bad, everyone's a mix.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, of course.
Kyle MacLachlan: Everyone has difficulty, issues, what they're saying and what they're doing, usually there's something behind that. And I agree with you, I think it would take an adjustment. And there's an acceptance of course, but there's also like, how did I not help or how did I not know?"
Benito Skinner: I don't even know my kid.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, so there's this journey that I agree, I don't think we've really seen it the way you're describing it. It's going to be funny, it has to be funny, but it's also going to be heartfelt.
Benito Skinner: Because it's funny watching a parent try then almost too much, there's such a beautiful overcompensating of-
Kyle MacLachlan: Exactly right.
Benito Skinner: Now sometimes it is so funny, my dad will wear pride merch where it's like... And that to me, feels so much like the character of now there's kind of an athleticism to it.
Kyle MacLachlan: You had mentioned that before. It's like we're going to go to the game.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, it's like I have my North face pride collab, let's fucking go. So that I think, and also it being this thing with the parents where each parent has a different relationship to the coming out. I think that.
Kyle MacLachlan: I love that because you made that choice when we were filming. There were some scenes when we were in together, Connie was in and we were both in together. And then a couple of scenes you sort of say, "You know what? We're just going to separate this out." And that is so true. I mean, my wife and I, each of us have a different relationship. We have a relationship together with our son, and then each of us has our own individual relationship and it's so important. I saw that and I was like, "Oh, that was a really good choice."
Benito Skinner: Oh, thank you. And I think that in doing that, I think I also want to see what your relationship is like with Grace, my sister in the show. That too, where it's like you see inklings of it. But yeah, something about, I think it being disruptive to a family and that at the time, I think creates so much anger in the person who's been closeted. Because it's like, "Why isn't everyone celebrating?" And I thought that when I came out, because my parents were pretty surprised, as crazy as that sounds, given who I am now.
But I really did kind of hunker down and I was like, "I'm doing this. I'm pretending to have girlfriends, I'm playing football." And I watched their confusion with anger, I think. And now having some space from it, I think I am excited to tell a story of, yeah, at times the parents get it wrong. But I do think that there are conversations and things that I think both sides are scared to have. But in the end, I think you do get to a place where it's also about parents meeting an adult in their kid for the first time, and that's not who they had in high school. This is a truly someone who's-
Kyle MacLachlan: Separate individual, moving in their own direction, creating their own life.
Benito Skinner: Which is not just a queer story. That to me, is universal. It's like that would also be the parents' experience with Grace, too.
Kyle MacLachlan: It's the transition. We're sitting here with a junior in high school and going, "Coming." Here we go.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, what's he interested in? What's the-
Kyle MacLachlan: He's at a very difficult school, but he loves the challenge. He's very social, very verbal. And I don't want to embarrass him too much but he grew up in New York, so his first six grades were in New York. And then we came out to Los Angeles and he immediately became a California kid. Volleyball, he started playing volleyball, beach and indoor.
Benito Skinner: I would've loved... Could you imagine me?
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh, you could do it. Come on.
Benito Skinner: Did you play volleyball?
Kyle MacLachlan: Again, I played when I was a kid. I played at the YMCA when I was in high school.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, great.
Kyle MacLachlan: When there was no such thing as a team or anything where I'm from, Yakima. Really small, but it's smaller than Boise, right?
Benito Skinner: I love that you're from Yakima. Yeah, it is smaller.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, it's tiny. But sort of in the same sort of neck of the woods. But never tried surfing. But he's a great volleyball player and he's a really talented surfer. And so it's so fun to watch that and to watch the progression. He started when he was about 12 or 13, I think. Just a little kid kind of falling off the board. And now he is really capable.
Benito Skinner: Was there any piece of you that was sad that he wasn't going into the arts or anything like that? Or are you just like, "You know what, maybe that's great?"
Kyle MacLachlan: Not really. I'm kind of actually-
Benito Skinner: That's kind of why I'm like, "I want my kids to be in finance or something. Don't do this." The thought of someone commenting something awful to my child.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, it would make you-
Benito Skinner: I mean, I guess they would just be in an office and then someone would say it to their face. But I'm just like, "Yeah, I think I'm good on that."
Kyle MacLachlan: I don't know. It's a weird thing because I think about my journey and when I was in high school, yeah, I did plays, we did the musical. It was kind of a thing everybody did. You didn't take the drama class in high school, that was the thing. That was for a course, that was not going to happen.
Benito Skinner: Yeah.
Kyle MacLachlan: But you did the plays, you did the musicals. And then I went to college and I pledged. I was a Beta for about, yeah, six months.
Benito Skinner: Let's go.
Kyle MacLachlan: And I was like, "This is crazy." And I was like, "I don't think this is my milieu." You know what I mean? For any number of reasons, but great guys. But I was like, "I need a little more... I'm not a..." It felt just like we're in a giant mosh pit and I was like, "Nah, not really me." And I left school and I went back home, and I worked in this lumber mill, cutting wood in Yakima and was making money, because that summer I decided I was going to go to Summer Stock and see what it was all about. It was in North Carolina and I got some money. I flew to North Carolina and I had my first real stage experience. There was a play there, Look Homeward, Angel and I played Eugene.
It was Equity theater. I was the lead of this thing. And I was like, "Oh, damn." I liked it. I mean, I knew I liked it in high school, but I said, "I think I might be decent at this." And it was the only thing. I tried so many things, it was the only thing-
Benito Skinner: Oh, me too.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, right?
Benito Skinner: Yeah.
Kyle MacLachlan: And I came back to school with a new direction, a new focus, and I got into a training program and I loved it, I loved it. What was your experience?
Benito Skinner: Oh my God.
Kyle MacLachlan: I'm curious because for Boise, grew up high school there, jock, doing everything.
Benito Skinner: Did it all, wide receiver.
Kyle MacLachlan: Wide receiver. And then, yeah, that's a good position.
Benito Skinner: I loved that position. I will say I am sure there are gay people out there who can catch balls, and I am happy to have that audio clipped, thank you. But yeah-
Kyle MacLachlan: That was the one scene where I go, "Look at him, look at him, look at him."
Benito Skinner: Yeah. When we have that scene, I was more nervous for that scene than any other, because I go, "If I can't fucking catch this-"
Kyle MacLachlan: The show folds in on itself very quickly.
Benito Skinner: This is how I grew up in high school.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: God, I love that. "Hey, freshman." That too, and not laughing at you doing that. But yeah, I did that because I just thought if I am in a play, everyone's going to know I'm gay, because they're going to see how much I fucking love it. There's something about that where I'm like... And I think there's a freedom in acting, too. And when you're in it, that I think I would lose control. And that's, for me, that whole time in my life was control. And so-
Kyle MacLachlan: Whew, that's hardcore, man.
Benito Skinner: Oh yeah, I really-
Kyle MacLachlan: I think everybody in high school is under some kind of control.
Benito Skinner: Of course, yeah.
Kyle MacLachlan: And he's like, "This is not cool, this is not cool." Nobody that's just like... And if they are, they're like, "They're kind of weird."
Benito Skinner: Absolute freaks.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: It's testing waters all the time. Even, I think that's what the first two episodes of the show are and kind of the whole thing. But I think it is the, "Okay, I'm going to do this. Is this a little too far? Okay, we'll ease it back." And then I would have this confusion where, by the time I got to college I was like, "Wait, okay, so you're saying that's gay, but then this thing isn't gay. But then you slap that guy on the ass every day and that's not gay?" I'm like, "You guys are confusing me, we got to figure this out." I'm like, "I can't do this."
Kyle MacLachlan: Your definitions were all jumbled.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, I'm like, "I don't know, so we can kiss on the lips and that's okay?" I need someone to help me out here.
Kyle MacLachlan: Right.
Benito Skinner: But it was my senior year where I just was like, "You know what? I just kind of have to come out, I can't do this anymore." And it was almost through just making little sketches. And I was in the film school at Georgetown and people asked me to be in their short films. And I would do that and I would act in these student short films, which, I'm waiting for one of those to resurface.
Kyle MacLachlan: We got to find the compilation.
Benito Skinner: I think we actually don't.
Kyle MacLachlan: Can we please? Can we put someone on that, maybe? Can they help us out?
Benito Skinner: They're student films, so they're so dramatic. You know what I mean? It's like they deal with rape, trauma, death, suicide in a five minute short, which was very... And I thought those days, I was like, "This is the happiest I've ever been. Finally, I get to be in front of a camera." And I think once I wasn't putting a hat on a hat and being in the closet and then trying to do this like I'm a straight guy acting. Instead I think... And then I started posting it all on the internet, and that's kind of writing sketches and playing with character. And I think that was at the same time I was coming out, so you almost see a person who's kind of, I think-
Kyle MacLachlan: Kind of writing yourself out of one attitude and saying, "This is who I am."
Benito Skinner: Exactly, testing it through character almost.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: And being like, "Maybe I'm not ready to show you me yet, but I could show you a southern woman?" I'm like, "Maybe an impression of Timothée Chalamet will get me there?" I'm like, "I can't do me yet." But things like that, that I... And then I found standup. And that too, I think was something that felt... I've never done theater and I really want to at some point, because I think almost the combination of everything I've done is that in doing standup and now acting, yeah. And then fortunately, I started auditioning and a lot of gay assistant roles, a lot of bad auditions, holy shit. No one ever trained you how to audition, that's the issue.
Kyle MacLachlan: No.
Benito Skinner: And that's what I found through all of this. I'm like, "I..." Yeah.
Kyle MacLachlan: It's the worst place to be.
Benito Skinner: It's horrific.
Kyle MacLachlan: I remember I read something, I'm going to ascribe to Tom Hanks, I don't know if he said it or not. But he said he used to treat auditions like mini performances. So he would get the script, he'd learn it and he'd go in his head, he's like, "Okay, for one afternoon only, from 2:00 to 3:00, I'm going to be on and just doing this performance. Come see me, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do it one show and that's it, we're done." So he'd think of it as a little performance and then he'd finish and say, "Thank you very much," and he'd leave. And then he said, "Oh, you know what? We got a second night. I get to go back and audition again because they called me back." And he'd go like, "Okay, I'm going to go for one night." And in that way, he kind of held-
Benito Skinner: Power?
Kyle MacLachlan: The power, which is kind of what you need to have in that room, you know what I mean?
Benito Skinner: You do.
Kyle MacLachlan: And confidence.
Benito Skinner: Which, those rooms, it's the hardest thing to have in those rooms.
Kyle MacLachlan: It's so hard. Yeah, it's so hard. But let me go back because you mentioned stand-up. And stand-up to me is the most naked way of, you're standing in front of an audience with a microphone and there ain't nothing but you, mic and the audience. So this is the place to, "Hey, here I am." Hard to hide I think, in that reality.
Benito Skinner: Yeah. It's so funny, I got into it because I was making these sketches and Caroline's in New York, this old comedy club.
Kyle MacLachlan: I've been to Caroline's, yeah.
Benito Skinner: Which I love. I'm so sad, I think it's closed now.
Kyle MacLachlan: It's closed now? Oh, no!
Benito Skinner: Which is so sad. But they emailed me and they said, "We're doing the New York Comedy Fest. Do you have a show? We'd be interested if you have a one-man show." And I was like, "Well, of course." But I just needed to pay rent. I was like, "I don't have any fucking money," so I was like, "Yeah, of course I got a show."
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: And I just went on a stand-up boot camp and I led with storytelling. And then I knew because of my videos, I was like, "I do love joke writing and I think I can do some characters on stage."
Kyle MacLachlan: How did that go? I mean, obviously led-
Benito Skinner: It sounds so fake, but in a way, I think it was the perfect time to be doing it in New York. There were so many queer comedians and women, they would all put me on shows and let me try. It's how I met Mary Beth and I got this one thing out of my system. I think that was also, now I'm being myself in front of people. And I had just started being with my boyfriend at that time, so it was like I just had locked into something and I loved to perform. There was something about making people laugh. And then coming up on the internet, I can't hear real laughter. So hearing real laughter for the first time, I mean, you're just like a glutton.
Kyle MacLachlan: It's the best.
Benito Skinner: I was like, "I'm doing this every night." And then you do a bad show and then you're like, "All right, well, that was hell on earth." And then you do one good one and it sustains you for six months. I swear to God, you're just like... But now-
Kyle MacLachlan: It's like golf.
Benito Skinner: Exactly. And that's what I was going to say.
Kyle MacLachlan: I knew it.
Benito Skinner: It's just like golf.
Kyle MacLachlan: I knew that's where you were going to go.
Benito Skinner: Do you golf?
Kyle MacLachlan: I do, yeah. You can play 17 terrible holes and the 18th hole, suddenly you hit the ball-
Benito Skinner: Look at that.
Kyle MacLachlan: "God, this is a great game. I'm coming back tomorrow. I love this game."
Benito Skinner: It is so strange, I say golf. I was thinking about it for season two because all my siblings are college golfers.
Kyle MacLachlan: No kidding?
Benito Skinner: I was a radio DJ, but my siblings were college golfers.
Kyle MacLachlan: Out of Boise. That makes sense.
Benito Skinner: It kind of does, right?
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: There's not tons to do, but it is so... My knowledge of golf is so bizarre to me, given who I am. But it's really helpful in just meeting dads and boyfriends.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: I can shoot the shit, we can talk about Phil Mickelson, we can talk about Tiger if you want.
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh, yeah.
Benito Skinner: Callaway, Titleist. See, I've got all the hits.
Kyle MacLachlan: You've got the hits, yeah. Oh my God, that's great.
Benito Skinner: How often do you golf?
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh God, it hasn't been much recently, sadly. But my son's kind of getting into it and he's 6'5", so it's a little bit different. He needs little bit longer clubs and stuff.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, the clubs are custom.
Kyle MacLachlan: He's got a great swing arc and he can hit the ball a long ways. But I played high school golf in Yakima.
Benito Skinner: Whoa.
Kyle MacLachlan: I did.
Benito Skinner: That feels very Pacific Northwest to me.
Kyle MacLachlan: It is.
Benito Skinner: You know what I mean?
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: That feels-
Kyle MacLachlan: And this was way before golf was school. I don't if golf is cool but-
Benito Skinner: I mean, I think the new thing is, yeah, every woman I meet, their husband is golfing every weekend and not hanging out with them in a really, I think meaningful way. There's something there.
Kyle MacLachlan: The wives say, "Go play golf at-"
Benito Skinner: Yeah, I'm like, "Isn't the weekend the one time you two could spend time together? Okay, that's cool."
Kyle MacLachlan: Not going to happen.
Benito Skinner: That's interesting.
Kyle MacLachlan: So anyway.
Benito Skinner: I know that so many people would come to my house and kill me if I didn't talk to you about Sex and the City today, because this was the one thing that Mary Beth and I did get, on the way to Charli's concert in Toronto, we did get you to ourselves for a second. We were like, "We have to talk about Trey MacDougal.” Sorry, I'm just curious, your experience on that, how it came to you. And I know a little bit, but now I need to hear it again and everyone needs to hear it.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, I was in New York, recently met my wife-to-be at that time, and we were hanging out. And I think Michael Patrick King, who was the showrunner, Darren Star created the show, Michael Patrick King ran the show and then took over. They had reached out actually, and said kind of, "Can we meet Kyle? We have this idea for character and would he be interested in this kind of thing?" And I looked at my wife and I said, "I don't know, there's this show, Sex and the City. I don't know, is this a good show, a poppy show?"
Benito Skinner: And she was like "You're pulling up."
Kyle MacLachlan: And I was kind of like, "I don't know if-"
Benito Skinner: Yeah.
Kyle MacLachlan: She's like, "You're doing the show."
Benito Skinner: Yeah, she's like, "You'll be on set on Monday."
Kyle MacLachlan: My smart wife. And I'm like, "Okay, okay."
Benito Skinner: Well, thank her for me.
Kyle MacLachlan: So I went and I agreed to meet. So I met with Michael and Jenny Bicks, one of the writers. And we met in New York, Manhattan. We just had sat down, had a coffee or something. And I kind of got more excited by the idea, because he's an Upper East Side, he's a heart surgeon, he's athletic, he's this and this. He'll be kind of like the Prince Charming to one of the girls. And I was like, "This sounds, it could be good." Because, not that I'd been battling the sort of Twin Peaks kind of odd guy, but I had a little bit. Kind of like the casting was sort of, I mean, they were interesting things, but all I wanted to do was be the lead guy. You know what I mean?
Benito Skinner: Yeah.
Kyle MacLachlan: That's the guy.
Benito Skinner: It's funny thinking about who he becomes, given that that's your first take on him.
Kyle MacLachlan: That's true.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, I have questions about this.
Kyle MacLachlan: No, no, no, it's true. Yeah, so I was like, "This is great, tell me a little bit." And they were talking and talking and they were like, "He's also really close to his mother." And I was like, "Okay, I was close to my mom."
Benito Skinner: Bunny, let's go.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, funny. And they said, "And he's basically impotent." And I stood there and just like, "Motherfuckers, they pulled me back in." And I was like-
Benito Skinner: That's great.
Kyle MacLachlan: "Okay, you know what? We're going to make this a serious thing, we're going to deal with it." And of course it was all comedy. But it was fun.
Benito Skinner: I think there's something about that character to me, he is so complicated. They give you so much. He then only likes like titty mags or something.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: Sorry, if that's not the correct-
Kyle MacLachlan: No, you're right.
Benito Skinner: And then he's obsessed with those. But then there's something, psychologically there's a lot going on. And then in the end, he's kind of a hero, he gives her the apartment. I don't know, I am a Trey MacDougal head. Yeah, I think he's a king.
Kyle MacLachlan: Thank you, that's awesome.
Benito Skinner: When you approached it, is it that seriousness where you're like, "None of this is funny, it will only be funny in me treating it as serious?"
Kyle MacLachlan: No, totally, you could tell it was funny. But it was nice because they would write, they would turn. The scene, there'd be some funny stuff going on, and then it might end like, "Oh, that's a heart-hurter." You know what I mean?
Benito Skinner: It's so sad.
Kyle MacLachlan: They couldn't quite get together. And they allowed us, Kristin and I, to hit those beats, you know what I mean? Which I think was really nice amongst the jugs magazine moments and things like that.
Benito Skinner: It's just so crazy, why that show is so incredible. It's like you have her looking at you, saying, "I'm your wife and I'm sexual and I love you." And then it's you with the titty mag, that's just perfect. I mean it's really-
Kyle MacLachlan: They're very clever.
Benito Skinner: And the relationship between you and Bunny with the arm touching too, what was that working with her?
Kyle MacLachlan: That was fun. Frances would come... Oh, she's amazing.
Benito Skinner: You hate her guts in that show. I mean, it's really an amazing performance.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, she's a great actress, she was a great actress. She would come in, I think she was Upstate or maybe up north of the city a little bit. She would come in Birkenstocks and capri pants kind of a thing. She was all like, "I just came out of the..." "Oh, you just came out of the garden, you were just working in the garden," the hat thing. I was like, "Yeah." And she would transform into an Upper East Side matron, power with the smoking and the whole thing that she had. And they were the perfect little visual nuggets between the two of us, me in the bathtub. She's sitting on the toilet, smoking. Charlotte comes in, it's like-
Benito Skinner: That's heaven.
Kyle MacLachlan: And we all knew this is it, this is perfection, because it's everything in just a visual. You know what I mean?
Benito Skinner: It's real, I believe all of it. And I think that too, the kilts as well, kind of that there's tradition in the family.
Kyle MacLachlan: They borrowed from MacLachlan. They said, "Oh, let's make him Scottish," and there was this whole Scottish thing.
Benito Skinner: I love it.
Kyle MacLachlan: And I was like, "That's great." That one, and then on the bed, I remember we were testing mattresses and she was there and she was laying in between me and Charlotte as we were testing the mattress.
Benito Skinner: Perfect.
Kyle MacLachlan: It's like we all get, "Oh, this is a very funny image." But oh, Frances was wonderful. Really great actress and funny, so funny. And Kristin is so funny.
Benito Skinner: I'm obsessed with her.
Kyle MacLachlan: She's amazing.
Benito Skinner: I think she's brilliant.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: The way she plays that part too, of this, the conservativeness but there's so there's something so sad about all the stories. I think I was so influenced by that in everything that I love. And I think that's why in the show, I like things that get really sad. Because I think it also aids the comedy because there's something about, I think there's that episode. I'm acting like I haven't seen it 12 times. I'm like, "Let me tell you." I'm like, "Episode five, season six." But there's the-
Kyle MacLachlan: We're at 20:22.03.
Benito Skinner: Right, you make a face and I'm curious. But she's in, is it Town & Country or something?
Kyle MacLachlan: Yes.
Benito Skinner: And there's that moment and it's like Trey moved out of the house a week later, something like that, I think that's what that show does so beautifully.
Kyle MacLachlan: There were real moments. I mean, everything was real. The comedy was a little bit arched to tell the story.
Benito Skinner: Of course.
Kyle MacLachlan: But the love was there, it just happened to be this thing that's kind of out of their control a little bit. And that's sad because you see these people really could be together, they should be together.
Benito Skinner: Yeah. Because there's that brief couple episodes where then, Trey wants to hook up with her everywhere.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: I'm kind of like, "What is going on with Trey?" Do you remember? I mean, this was a bit ago, but do you remember, what was your take on that?
Kyle MacLachlan: Well, the crazy thing is-
Benito Skinner: Mom problems or-
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, but I also think you kind of have to go with week by week because a script would come in and oftentimes I would find myself reading it kind of like, "Okay, what am I doing in this? Am I taking my clothes off? What are they asking me to do?" And I was like, "Ah," because I'm pretty shy. And I was like, "Okay." But each week there'd be kind of a new development to the character. So as you're following along, you're kind of like, "Okay, I seem to be heading in this direction, so this is what I'm doing." And then, "Oh, okay, it's going to go down here." But you just realize that all of this is the character, you know what I mean? You're just finding different, I don't know, veins to explore.
Benito Skinner: That's a life. I mean, you shot an order, right? It's like you-
Kyle MacLachlan: We did, yeah. We did.
Benito Skinner: You're almost seeing it, yeah, of this is what it's like to be as a human of going to each of these things. It's like that makes sense. Not being like, "All right, he wouldn't do that because he did this." I think sometimes-
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah, I never say no. I mean, there's occasionally where you're like, "This is a little-"
Benito Skinner: I saw you with the top and bottom Invisaligns, so I know this about you.
Kyle MacLachlan: You know, I'm all the way, all in.
Benito Skinner: An actor prepares, of course.
Kyle MacLachlan: Of course.
Benito Skinner: If you could do any kind of project next, what is exciting to you right now? What are you like, "I'm dying to play and no one's done it for me?"
Kyle MacLachlan: Well, one thing that I'm really excited about actually is this world. I have a podcast that I'm about to start.
Benito Skinner: Oh, I can't wait.
Kyle MacLachlan: It's called What Are We Even Doing? And I'm interviewing, I'm going to be talking to Wally and I'm going to be talking to a number of people, just to understand the different, the Gen Z, the Millennial, even Gen A. Trying to just talk to them about, "What are you doing and what's happening? What's important to you? Where's your creative source coming from?" Just a little bit more about people that I want to learn. You know what I mean? It's curiosity that's driving that machine, so that's on the way right now. And project-wise, I've always wanted to do some kind of an action, character-driven action piece.
Benito Skinner: You and I, let's go do an action. Can we do that?
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: So Mission Impossible type vibe, I guess. You know what I mean?
Kyle MacLachlan: Yes.
Benito Skinner: Dad and son go on a rampage.
Kyle MacLachlan: Maybe a little smaller of a budget than Mission Impossible.
Benito Skinner: Well, of course, but just a little bit.
Kyle MacLachlan: Just a little.
Benito Skinner: I love action for you, I think that'd be amazing.
Kyle MacLachlan: It'd be fun. And I'm not getting any younger, so it's time.
Benito Skinner: And I'm not either. We got to do season two, don't I know it.
Kyle MacLachlan: You're like, "I got to get writing."
Benito Skinner: Yeah, I'm like... Oh, I have it ready.
Kyle MacLachlan: You have it ready.
Benito Skinner: We don't have that much time if we get to do it. I'm like, "Let's go." Before they're kicking us out of here, which is really fucked up, to talk to me and my dad like that, I have to bring up the TikToks. Because I mean, it's a revolution.
Kyle MacLachlan: Thank you, thank you.
Benito Skinner: And I think it's why I knew that also, you'd be perfect for this. Because I'm like, "He loves to..." You seem endlessly curious.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: And seeing you in a hot dog costume, that feels right. And my favorite is the Lorde of you with the headphones on, doing that.
Kyle MacLachlan: That was early, very early on. One of the first.
Benito Skinner: Oh yeah. I’ve been a stan of her my entire life.
Kyle MacLachlan: I have just got a great group that I work with Maya, who's here with us-
Benito Skinner: We love you.
Kyle MacLachlan: And they are just so creative. And I'm like, "Let's work together." And so they bring me these ideas, we kind of tweak them a little, flesh them out. But they are definitely, once they said, "Hey, we've got an idea," and I said, "That's brilliant." They are tapped in hardcore into social. And I'm a little bit, I sort of do what I can, but it's like it takes a lot of effort. And they bring me some amazing things and I am up for all the craziness.
Benito Skinner: Yeah, and you're good. Because we did the Apple dance on set and in it, my boyfriend, Terry, he was like, "You can tell that Kyle knows the moves." Because we kind of had this bit that you and Connie didn't know what to do, because she only had a second to learn it.
Kyle MacLachlan: Right.
Benito Skinner: And I see your hands twitching. I'm like, "He knows what he should be doing here."
Kyle MacLachlan: Well, Charli’s amazing.
Benito Skinner: She is so unbelievable.
Kyle MacLachlan: We haven't mentioned her.
Benito Skinner: Have you gotten to see her in the show yet?
Kyle MacLachlan: Oh yes, yeah. No, she's incredible.
Benito Skinner: She really is. And she's such a fan of yours, obviously, but I think there's something about her and her work that, it's been so fun to watch everyone catch up with her, but they're going to get behind again soon.
Kyle MacLachlan: Yeah.
Benito Skinner: We end on Charli, that feels right.
Kyle MacLachlan: It's perfect, right?
Benito Skinner: Yeah, this was so fun.
Kyle MacLachlan: Thank you, I really enjoyed it.
Benito Skinner: You're just the best, I adore you.
Kyle MacLachlan: So nice, it's mutual.
Benito Skinner: I cannot wait, we have so much more to do.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. The A24 Podcast is produced by us, A24. Special thanks to our editor, Tom Wyatt and Robot Repair, who composed our theme.