Craig Ferguson Discusses His Memoir, "Riding the Elephant"

[Music] thank you so much everybody welcome to build I am your host Ricky Camilleri our next guest was the host of The Late Late Show for ten years he was on drew Carey you can hear his voice in How to Train Your Dragon and a host of other animated movies and now Craig Ferguson is here to talk about his third book riding the elephant a memoir of altercations humiliations hallucinations and observations please welcome Craig Ferguson I have read more than three books Oh fair okay how many would you say that you've read upward top five favorite books I love the book congratulations you know I sold you this in the green room and it'd be fully transparent here I had not read your previous two books but you're a real writer you're a wonderful writer you actually care about the written word this is not just a summary of appearances with celebrities or brief moments in your life no no that if that's what you're looking for you I think you'd be disappointed I think that I like to write because it's at the core of everything that I do I mean if I was working on films or or doing stand-up you got to write it down and then I think when I was working as an actor I pretty much had to write the scripts most of the time because no one would give me a job so it became the it became what I do and I do like to write I like to read and I like to write when did you start writing school as a vocation as a hobby as some I think it's I don't know that it's a hobby I think that I I think I started really doing it when I was when I actually weirdly enough when I was on The Drew Carey Show I think because I started writing screenplays what happened was that I had just moved to Hollywood and I was ambitious to make phones and I so I was looking at all the films that were getting made at the time and you know I would see them in screen flicks I was in Hollywood so I see the screenplays for movies that were about to go into production and I was thinking I don't know if I can write any better than this but it would be almost impossible to write anything worse than that and that's what kind of encouraged me to go forward it was I'm wondering if you found in writing those original screenplays was your confidence maintained or was it shattered and you realized that you did there was actually a lot of work that went into even potentially a bad screenplay I think that don't feel like you have to be humble with this answer me but the I don't think that that my confidence was affected by the the screenplay process as much as it was by the process of making films what happened was that I know everybody that goes to make a film goes to make a good film no one's trying to make a bad film and yet there are so many of them but I solved that mystery by making a couple of bad films myself even although the screenplays were good and I think the the difference between a screenplay and a finished film is so it's such a big scary process and so much can go wrong that affected my confidence uh but I won't lie about that I think I directed a film in about 2002 or three and I wrote the film I starred in the film I directed the film and I and I really don't like the film at all and that's that's quite an achievement can I ask what happened well I I compromised as I think happened and I think this is a core of writing actually it was after this film I wrote my first book no compromise and rayna book you write a book that's what it is in a film you'll say I made a lot of mistakes and good directors do not make this mistake they'll say they would say take this person to play this part now say well I don't really want that person to play this part I'll say well if you do then we'll let you continue in the process of making the film okay and and sometimes I think I caved a little in in the in the writing of a book you don't have to talk to you know anyone's permission other than at the end you have to you know explain to lawyers why you see a certain thing and family members there's a few people you got to call up and say hey heads up there's books coming out but there's there's nothing really I don't think there's anything particularly damning in this book about anyone no no you know I'm curious though about that film that you directed when you say compromises is it just something like the actors are you find that people were changing your script as well or does it just come down to the daily compromises of look we can't shoot here because of this and yeah who's running the phone at a law that and you don't really know how to be command name you don't know how to say no to that it's like you were there I was I was I compromised on location so I compromised on music which is a huge thing for a movie yeah and this was a movie about a musician so it was a law of and then I even compromised on the title of the movie because we could get a piece of music that fit a title better and it just got away from me and it was my fault I'm not saying there's anyone else's fault I should have controlled the situation with more force but I didn't I didn't have it at the time I didn't I didn't know how to do it but that's the dilemma for everybody on movies right actors directors how much control do you give up how much requires you to have a temper tantrum which is sometimes totally necessary in the process of making a movie I I don't know how necessarily a temper tantrum is but I think I think sometimes it's understandable or forgivable do you remember that time Christian Bale was shamed for his outburst on the set of a film first of all anyone who's ever been on a film set even you know student films - you know multimillion-dollar productions everyone loses it sometimes cuz you're tired and you're scared you want to get it right high tension right but also I think you you pay this guy 20 million dollars a picture to be unstable dark personality and then you know in the course of the movie he displays a slightly unstable dark personality I think he's to be commanded he's doing his job like why did this boxer get into a fight outside of the ring - yeah this it seems odd to me that he was shamed for doing exactly what he was there to do like he got tense during production this means he cares yeah I think that's okay so you start writing on the Drew Carey Show and you start writing screenplays on the drew Carey I don't know screenplays for other movies while I was waiting to do my two lanes a week on The Drew Carey Show yeah pretty much yeah I would set my trailer and they would come and get me and go time for you Great God what kind of go get a you're fired then I go back to my trailer and carry on with with right do you have to be there five days a week even if you only have two uncles you're rehearsing and you have yeah three there so you know you might as well do something and I thought I could get you know this was before I'm so glad this was before smartphones because if I'd had a smartphone other just have been going looking at he it mean my trailer he is me thinks it's me and I wouldn't have done anything so I'm because now all I do is just play in my phone is that true no yeah I don't have any of that stuff I don't have any social media I don't even have a browser on my did you ever attempt it and then we've just thought oh yeah Twitter account it's got nearly three million followers but if Phil disclosure I'm not on it you know if if you're talking to someone you're not talking to me you're talking to me but if you're tweeting me it's going where they go I know what what what made you decide that you didn't want to participate in that yourself I think it was I mean because I used to do it I used to be on it and I used to be part of it I think what happened is I realized that I I was trying to take in too much I don't think the forum a year a lot of people say in the it's bad I don't think it's particularly bad and I don't even think people are particularly mean but it's too much information like I would get annoyed about some guy in Denmark who didn't like a joke I had done when I had a late night show eight years ago or something I'm like I really can't spend the time worrying about what span thought of that joke I did it I don't know if that was his name it was his name and they worried about a joke I did it's too much it's too much to try and deal with so much of it is useless and unnecessary and time's wasting really for me I wouldn't I I don't want to spend my time doing it but at the same time I don't want to condemn it as a thing it it is what it is just not for me did you ever find and this may be a huge huge leap and maybe too personal excuse me if it is in front of this large audience did you ever find that I mean you suffered from alcoholism for a certain period of time in your life say that I still occasionally suffer from how go ilysm yeah yeah I don't drink alcohol anymore but did you find that social media in any way had the same sort of addicts effect like effect that alcoholism I don't know if social media has but I think that I think the technology does I think the phones I think the little it's not as dramatic I mean I never looked at my phone and then blacked out for three days and woke up and Tijuana or anything like that but it could be quite a leap yeah but it has similar qualities like when I went off social media I experienced all the the the feelings that I go when I came off I mean in a much to a much lesser degree but you know irritability discontent kind of like something's missing I should be doing something like a restlessness which which took a while to go away occasionally it still comes back actually I think what like sometimes if I do a really good stand-up show after the show I'll think oh I'll go on Twitter and get more praise I think no that's not what's there and and also I don't you know it's just I I think me personally I think I tend to go over the top sometimes I have a I have an alcoholic kind of mindset what about one year when the Late Late Show finished and you didn't have a camera in front of you for a little while yeah that was great was it really oh yeah yeah yeah I always wonder about that because there is an addiction to the camera I think for some for some people I think that there is that it's weird it's not I mean as I said you're talking to you on camera I don't feel an addiction to that I don't I don't feel a connection maybe because I was kind of satiated by that I I you know I had 250 shows a year for ten years that's it's too much and it makes you crazy yeah it may even if you know I've had this argument with Seth Meyers because when Seth started I said it'll make you crazy and he said no no I won't go crazy and I check in with him to Taemin time and he's not crazy yeah but he might get there he's not crazy yeah I'll give him that how did you go crazy I think I went crazy because it it elevates levels of selfishness and self-importance in yourself that are unhealthy and anyone who finds themselves a little too concerned of what's going on in their Instagram account or the comments that get on Twitter or Instagram or whatever it is it's a very similar thing if you walk into a building if you do a no I'm not saying this happens for everyone but this is for me if I walk into a work environment every day there's about a hundred 120 people working on the show all focused on me being in a good mood that's not good because I can't be in a good mood all the time and and also it's an unnatural kind of you feel like everyone's kind of been slightly dishonest with you all the time it's kind of what I imagine what it's like to be a cop everyone's kind of lying you know it made me kind of paranoid you know I I was like now I've done enough how did you manage it while you were there how did you manage that that I did manager I wasn't really even aware of that while I was there I just wanted to stop doing it it was only through the lens of hindsight I go I think that's what it was I think that's what it was I became I think I became too important in my own mind and I think that makes me uncomfortable it makes me is I think it's unhealthy for me so when you got off the show and you started doing celebrity name game which you talked about you know that's right that's a straight up you know you go to do I mean look I don't think anyone would say well you know maybe somebody would and I'm no I'm not yeah I think doing a host in the game she was a bit like being a realtor you know your first choice but it's okay you know it's a decent job you know you only got to show up for the appointment and they put you on you know benches at bus stations and stuff like that but I I kind of I did it because it paid well and I'm good at it I want a couple of Emmys for it Daytime Emmys I'll agree but they were still enemies and but it's it's a job and I don't think there's anything wrong with doing a job I think sometimes I'm guilty of this is trying to make everything I do try to appear artistic it's not always artistic sometimes it's just you know I used to be a bartender that's pretty good at it you know it's not an artistic job particularly but I liked it and I was good at it and I feel that but game shows I would do it again yeah yeah please fantastic amazing money did you feel that way about drew Carey as well and is that why you started writing in the trailer I needed a job when I was doing I liked it too I was an actor at the time and it was a gag you know and it's a big Network show and this was at a time when it's hard to imagine this now but network set comms were huge you know I don't know I don't think they have quite the same impact as the Dead Eye I mean they're there sitcoms on networks that I don't I've never even heard of oh yeah I mean there was a you know Game of Thrones was like the most watch HBO show every story any of it because I haven't seen the last two episodes well not okay I mean I can tell you the radiance right sure okay I think it was something like 17 million in there like that's is humongous and I'm pretty sure in network's heyday and like the mid 90s or the early 90s you would get 17 million randomly like in the 80s it probably get you canceled you know I mean III think that I think we used to get about between 8 and 13 million on The Drew Carey Show that's like basically a huge series finale yeah at this point yeah sometime it's a different time and it was okay yeah you know it was just different I think the quality of television is probably a little higher now actually I think the games been been pushed up a little bit but I don't watch network television much so I don't know what they're putting up what do you watch you know I I'm trying to honestly Game of Thrones Barry on HBO is a sensational show did you see the no I didn't know it see I've been really great that's really really great I have this deal with with my wife that I have to wait until we go home cuz we watch our shows together so I I haven't been home in a couple of weeks cause we're not doing this so when I get home I can catch up and everything that's going on I think sneekly though she's been watching Game of Thrones I don't know why I think she just doesn't seem as concerned as I am about not getting the spoilers one of the aspects of your book that I really like is that in between these chapters that are about something that happened to you in the past or stories about your childhood you have these brief italicized bits that are kind of like your contemporary reflection on on yes in a way and in one of them I mean I I just sort of like that style in the book but in one of them you briefly touch on American politics and this idea that we are no longer searching for the right answer we're just searching for our guy no matter who have no matter what they've done in the past it does sort of look a bit like that does yeah I mean it feels like a team sport which maybe it's always maybe it's always been that way but I I don't know it seems that way to me now I it doesn't really you know like okay he's you know he or she is an awful person but they could win I mean like that that whole kind of debate that's going on who can we get this electable listen well should we get someone who's cool I don't know what cool is necessarily looking for a politician but you know what I mean like someone that that you agree with how they think yeah at least I had this argument with someone about a week ago who was like you know I I hate Trump I am no Trump supporter at all I do not like Trump and they said I hate Trump I hate Trump and I said why and they said well he's ruining the country and I said how and they could not answer that question yeah well and I just thought so you it's really just a team sport for you at this point I think it does get a bit like that yeah I think it gets a little on both sides too yeah and I think what's odd about it is if you even if if you try not to talk about it which I I mean I've just done a standard a 60 date stand up to her or I did an hour and a half every night not doing any politics it was a challenge I said for myself in the show to not talk about why's that because I thought it would be an interesting discipline and a stand-up right now to try and not do it I also thought I bet it felt amazing oh you know if I I noticed was the audience's seem to like everything that everybody's angry about me included it's still there an hour and a half later but you can take a break as a loved and I for an hour and a half I think it's okay to not talk about it not that I mean everybody shouldn't talk about it this was a personal thing it was a but I'm not saying can we even shoot awkward pause and community talk about it anything they want to talk about but I I didn't want to talk about it because I find that I'm no angry with people I agree with like people who say things that I like I agree with their politics and I'm like shut up hey and I just need a breather I personally need a breather I think so often now it's like for example I don't eat I am vegan right how long have you been vegan ever four years four or five years I'm no I I'm not saying you have to be a vegan but I think what happens is if you identify yourself like I I don't drink alcohol I don't care if you drink alcohol I only care if I drink alcohol you know I mean it's like it's it that's the only thing but I think everybody when you say a thing about yourself I think off times its construed as being part of a movement to inflict your will or point of view on someone else I don't necessarily feel that way about him you don't necessarily feel like you're inflicting your will on somebody else or trying to do no I'm not trying to influence you and what you eat although I can't see why you would eat meat or dairy of any kind but I'm not trying to influence you do I just want don't want to do it so you did 60 dates she said were you for hour and a half you did not talk about politics at all and what at what point did you decide that that was gonna be that that was gonna be your mission or at least one of your missions with these dates I think there's something that happened there was no no there was no real cause to it in the sense of you know I though this is showing me the way more like I knew that I was be playing in right across the United States I would be playing in places that were deep red states that would be playing and you know bright blue states I'll be played and I didn't want to get into it and I also don't think anyone's gonna change their mind by looking at me you know I don't I don't think that's gonna happen also I don't have enough in each camp you know I mean I don't have I don't have anyone that I want to go well this is clearly the right person I don't have that person yeah you also have a section where you in some ways say that you understand when people say why are these actors or these people from Hollywood trying to tell me what to think their personal lives are probably just as [ __ ] up as mine are yeah I think that I didn't know we could say [ __ ] and I'm deeply upset I haven't slept enough I had no idea we could swear here I I can't tell you how uncomfortable I have been you [ __ ] I had no idea you get 30 seconds get it all out no I I understand people's frustration when somebody assumes because they're on TV that but at the same time because they're on TV they're still allowed to have an opinion that's okay too so I don't know I'm wishy-washy on this we have a couple questions in the audience who has a question right here hi oh hello we have a question from our website build series calm okay before you built your career in entertainment you were a bouncer for a nightclub in New York City any funny stories you remember from that job well funny stories I'm sure there are funny stories from that time the fact that I remember them well it was the 1980s and I I had a very it was a different time and I think I was I had a I was doing a lot of drugs and alcohol at the time it's what I'm saying and I when I was working as a bouncer I wasn't like a proper I had this conversation with Vin Diesel Eisley or Vin Diesel was a proper bouncer he was like get your there I was the guy that went you're not on the list sorry you're not on the list then he's not on the left can you get can you get rid of it we didn't work at the same place but that's what I would have done if then was there so I'm afraid there probably are funny stories but I don't know you lived in New York at that time for I think you said 18 months yeah and you have an incredible fondness for New York City look city who doesn't have you found that it's changed I mean obviously it's change but is your love still the same for it oh yeah yeah I look it's not all bad in fact on the contrary I I don't want to be one of these people I was better when everyone was getting mugged and we were all covered in disease because that's how New York was in their eighties I think that um no I think it's it's probably better this but stuff has been lost in the you know there's a little bit of the danger I kind of I don't miss it that much though cuz I'm getting old I don't like danger you know anymore I like but this is a peaceful walk with my line you know you know what as this is how old I am when I see a cop now I think good good there's a cop there's a cop here good that's a relief I'll be fine one more question what do we got so I wanted to ask since this is a memoir about yourself did you hold back on some of the experiences that you wrote in the book or did you tell everything your second memoir to write yeah it's a memoir sounds kind of odd to me because it's the I guess as a man why it says it there it's stories about what happened when when I was there is it telling the story of my life no really it's I have have been asked that before like did you order I didn't hold anything back in the stories that I told but in the stories that I didn't tell obviously yes I'm I don't you know somebody said to me once how do you feel about everybody knowing everything about you and I'm like well they don't you know they only know what I tell them and then if I didn't tell you it you made it up that's kind of it yeah that's I think that's one of the ways that you can see that you care about writing is that the stories that you tell within the book are the stories that you clearly have something to say about or you have an interest in writing about them it is not just a birth to now globe no it's not not a linear either it's that and and also there is a story which at the end of the book is completely fictional which is I say I'm gonna write a completely fictional story about someone who really existed and at the end of the book I write a completely fictional story is 100% made up but it could be true because sometimes that happens how often do you write do you write everyday no no I wish I did I'm I'm writing another book right now it is a very different type of his literary fiction which will make no money at all and and it so and that that's a real illiterate you mean it's not you ready in a novel yes it's a novel yeah and it's a it's taking it's taking longer than I would like it to but it's kind of that's kind of like riding an elephant it's like it's going where it's gonna go and I'm just doing for the right so I don't write every day some days I wish I did because I think that's a better way to write I tend to write when I'm in Scotland that's when I write why is that because I don't have to be here doing this do you need are you the type of person who can be like I've got two hours to write today I'm just gonna write for choice or do you need like an open day to sit and ponder and think and write and walk around usually what happens is that I I do I think a lot of people who write do is I you know I find ways to avoid the act of writing and then I finally know once the drapes are finally wrinkle free it's time for me to write you know I mean it's like once the refrigerator is pristine clean I'll do see and everything there is to eat inside the refrigerator it's time to yeah yeah well quickly I love the book congratulations and thank you so much for being here it's a pleasure to see you again the book is on shelves to now it's called riding the elephant a memoir of altercations humiliations hallucinations and observations and it's Craig Ferguson let's hear it everybody that go away [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: BUILD Series

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Id: HNPzVaBWzVE

Length: 26min 1sec (1561 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 20 2020