Fresh Air Interview with Tony Hale
I started watching VEEP on Netflix this year. I’m only on Season 2, though, because the characters on the show are so awful I can’t handle watching more than a couple episodes at a time. In this way it reminds me of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — hilarious and awkward and OHMYGAWDTURNITOFFALREADY.
Bryan sent me a link to this interview because I love the Vice President’s body man, David, played by Tony Hale (who also played Buster on Arrested Development).
(As a side note, Terry Gross had never heard the term “body man.” But DUH. Charlie was body man to The West Wing’s President Bartlett, and Marissa was body woman to The Good Wife’s Alicia Florrick.)
In this interview with Gross, Hale talks about the anxiety of being between jobs and having nothing to say when someones asks, “What’s next?”
Bryan and I used to joke about this, how it’s less awkward in social settings to say you’re currently “freelancing” rather than admit you’re unemployed. In both scenarios you’re looking for work, but freelancers are better story tellers.
Hale also talks about contentment in a way I relate to. Here’s a quote from the interview:
When I was on “Arrested Development” – I really learned a massive lesson from “Arrested Development” because here’s a show that was so well-written and so funny and the cast was so great and I really did love being there. But I remember getting it and it’s all I ever wanted. And I remember it not satisfying the way I thought it was going to satisfy.
And it really freaked me out because it was my dream.
And then when I got it, and I’d given that thing so much weight and it didn’t satisfy, it really woke me up that if you’re not practicing contentment where you are, you’re not going to be content when you get what you want. And it really scared me.
Raise your hand if you relate!
*raises hand*
This American Life: Tell Me I’m Fat
Lately I’ve been struggling with the tension between acceptance of my 40-something never-going-back-again body and wishing my “real body” would return. Do I care about my weight? Or do I just want to be healthy? In this episode of This American Life, both questions are addressed, and you also get another dose of the contentment vibe.