February 26, 2025 • 35 mins
In this episode of Arroyo Grande, actor and activist Billy Baldwin joins Raymond Arroyo for a compelling conversation on Hollywood, family dynamics, and making a difference. As part of the legendary Baldwin acting family, Billy shares insights on how he and his brothers—despite very different political views—manage to navigate their relationships in today’s divisive climate.
Billy also opens up about his decades-long marriage to Chynna Phillips (of Wilson Phillips), revealing unique relationship advice that has helped them stay together for 33 years. Plus, he discusses his latest film, No Address, which sheds light on the real stories behind the homelessness crisis—from veterans with PTSD to families struggling with medical debt.
We also dive into:
✅ How Alec Baldwin inspired Billy’s acting career
✅ The real causes of homelessness & what actually works to fix it
✅ Why Hollywood needs more heart in storytelling
✅ The power of art vs. politics in shaping culture
✅ Billy’s thoughts on controversial casting decisions in Hollywood
✅ His best advice for keeping marriages and families strong
And don’t miss his powerful take on faith, activism, and serving the forgotten in society.
🔗 Support the cause: Visit NoAddressMovie.com to watch the film and help end homelessness.
💬 What are your thoughts? Drop a comment below and let’s keep the conversation going!
🔔 Subscribe for more bold conversations and deep dives into culture, faith, and the stories that matter, and let your life flow into a broad, thriving Arroyo Grande.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
I'm Raymond Arroyo.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to Arroyo Grande, where we dive into the wild
currents of the culture and pull out perspectives and practical
life lessons from incredible culture makers. This week, I'm joined
by actor Billy Baldwin. Billy is part of the Baldwin
acting clan, and we talked about how he and his brothers,
who have very divergent political views, managed to get along
(00:33):
and what he would advise similarly afflicted families to do.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And he's been married to China.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Phillips of Wilson Phillips for thirty three years. His relationship
advice is original. Billy Baldwin's latest film explores the humanity
behind the homeless crisis. It's called No Address and I
have a free flow on a new offering at the
Hollywood Bowld.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Stay tuned for that. Here's Billy bald old One.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Tell me first of all, was there something in the
water in Long Island that all the Baldwin boys end
up being actors? What happened?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
What?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
What? What was it?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Well, just in Massapeka alone, there is Jerry Seinfeld, right.
The Baldinger brothers all played in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
The Stray Cats.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Oh, the Stray Cats, I've forgotten about them.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Brian Setzler and Jim Jim Phantom, the Baldwin Boys, Joey Buttafuco.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
We get down there.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah, the Gilgo Beach serial killer. My classmate Schuerman from
seventh grade through twelfth grade. So there's there is something
in the water, both both famous and infamous, and of
course there's always Stephen Baldwin.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Well, we were going to get to it both ways.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
We're going to get to a brother.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Tell me about Alec. Was that really the was he
the prime mover here? Everybody saw Alec and said, well,
look if he.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Can do it, and he schmuck could. No, No, I'm not
kidding you. I'm not kidding you.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
He was in Washington, he was studying political science, and
he was gonna like me, I was at university studying
political years at five years after him, and he was
going to go to law school. And he had a
conversation with somebody, a couple of friends and a girl
who was dating, and said I want to be an actor,
and they were like, you got to get out of DC.
He transferred to NYU, got a scholarship, studied with Strasburg
(02:27):
at Strasburg. A year and a half later he had
Michael Bloom was his agent. He went up on a
soap opera called The Doctors. I was a sophomore in college.
We used to go into the dorm lobby with all
the We watched the Luke and Laura wedding, and we
watched my brother on the Doctors. And I started to
have this, you know, bitten by the bug. Had never
done the community theater, summer stock, had never did nothing, nothing,
(02:53):
nothing in My brother was on television and I would
they would turn on the TV and to get sort.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Of inspired by and excited by it.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
But then I worked on the hill and they were
shooting Saint almost fire, and I was sitting on my
stoop and an entourage came and got Rob Low and
he came out of his trailer and he walked by
me with security and his assistants and pas and stuff.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
And he walked by me and he looked up the
staircase at me, and I was sitting there and I
smile at him. I was like, listen.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
He was like, and this is the height of the
brat pack. And they were shooting st almost fire, and
I was like, I.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Was like, I could never do that.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Look at that Rob Low, you know I could. I
could never be in the movies.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
And then I would come home for like Rashashana and
ya I'm Kipper, and Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I would
go to the city to visit my brother. And this
was a real attractive I mean, the work itself, the
acting itself was really jazz me. But I would go
to meet him and he would take me from the
set and we would go to to have dinner, and
then we would go meet his friends for like a
(03:51):
coffee late night. And invariably there were mostly people from
show business, and they were from both sides of the camera, writers, directors, producers, actors,
some famous, some not art direction, set design, and they
aren't the smartest people in the world like NASA, but
there's many very, very very smart people in show business.
They are now the most creative people in the world.
(04:13):
I mean, there's some of the most creative people in
the world that are in Hollywood. They are very interesting
and dynamic, and they are very wounded and broken. And
when you take super smart and super creative and super
interesting and super dynamic and very wounded and you throw
it all together in the Bullia Bays, in the bunder
(04:35):
you get people that you can't find at Deloitte in
the accounting office.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
So it was the people that drew you, yes, and
the kind of a license.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
I just I just want to be around these people
like you.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Who did you intern with on the hill?
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Tom Downey, congressman from Long Island?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And what did you learn from that?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
I had a great experience with them. And you know
it always I was always an active that became an actor.
I wasn't an actor that became an activist. My father
taught government and taught history, and he was always an activist.
And still that's been in my DNA since some you know,
twelve fifteen.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And what did you get there? I mean, obviously you
decided this is not the path for me. The political
path is not mine.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
What about that service is mine?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I mean it's really more important to me than my
show business career. I mean, it's my show business career,
my acting is is and providing for my children is
super important. But the thing that feeds my soul is
making a movie does, and traveling does, and going to
Italy Rome to make a movie doesn't go to Paris
or going to Bangkok. To make a film definitely does,
(05:45):
but there's nothing that feeds me the same as to
you know, start and finish a project that's impacting the
lives of people that are poor, or marginalized or forgotten.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
And this one, No Address is one of those projects.
Good on, Please look me in you want to? I
have nowhere else to go. No, no, no, please, This
is a group of people. Look, I've covered veteran homelessness.
(06:21):
I've covered it in New Orleans. The fascinating lives that
those people have led. In many cases, they didn't want
to be on the streets. In most cases they found
themselves there. How big a role does addiction play? And
how many people do you think are characters like yours
that kind of stumble out of their careers and find themselves.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Well, many of them start out like me. Most of
them start out like me.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
The film clearly and beautifully portrays the different paths to homelessness.
One as a PTSD VET, one is a mental health crisis.
Another one ages out of foster care. Everybody can be
fired and can't pay the mortgage and can't pay the
utilities and can't pay the rent, and then they get
(07:08):
hit with a major health crisis with one of their kids,
and they don't have their insurance, or they have insurance
but it only covers part of it. And they're left
with fifty thousand dollars in medical builds and all of
a sudden, you're filing for bankruptcy. You're evicted, and you're
living in your car, and with COVID now and with
fetanol now. It's the problem is compounded by a factor
of ten. It's gotten much worse in the last decade.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
What drew you to this? I mean, did the script
come to you?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
I know this there was a regular offer. It was
a regular offer, but.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
You'd already been sensitive to this issue.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, but it was when I read that it was
on homelessness. I love the script. I love the part
I wanted to work with Julia. I was very excited
to meet Robert Craig and everybody Robert Craig films and
the subject matter, the social messaging, and that's what's near
and dear to Robert Craig's heart and the hearts of
everyone that works at this production company.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I was stunned that they actually went and toured the
production team before they started the film. They went to
homeless encampments. They spent time.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
I think that's what spun off the documentary.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
They went to twenty cities in eighteen different states, federal, state, local, nonprofit,
faith based the interview. They had hundreds of interviews to
try and get it right on screen, authentic, real, and
they had such so much an abundance of such incredible material.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
They're like, wait a second, we have a documentary here too.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
With your voice. Yes, yes, yes, and fifty percent of
the proceeds of this film.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Yeah, people are wondering how they can help it all too.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
You can advocate in so many different ways in your
community with nonprofits. Of course, you could write a check,
you can advocate on your computer, raising awareness, raising compassion.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
But you could also go to no addressmovie.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Dot com, buy a ticket for you and your pal,
spread the word on social media, tell all your friends
to go, and know that fifty percent of the proceeds
go to nonprofits that are working in the homeless space
right now. So you'll have an impact by simply buying
tickets and showing up at theater.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Billy, what of this experience and kind of immersing yourself
in this world? What surprised you most that you didn't
know when you came into this.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
You said it before and I didn't get a chance
to answer it. There's three or four things.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
One is that it's more of a mental health crisis
than a homeless crisis.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Number one.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Number two, it's been compounded by COVID and by fetnol.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Number three. There's amazing programs.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
The gathering in in northern California and it's out of
Sacramento in Penelas, Florida, at Johns Hopkins in Fort Smith
in San Antonio. They're doing work that's having startling results. Okay,
so we have some of the answers that are working
there highly effective. We need to replicate it across the country.
(09:51):
One of the big misconceptions that people don't understand. When
I'll ask you you answered simply yes. Or Now you're
a child and you're homeless, is it your fault? No,
your PTSD vent and you find yourself homeless, is it
your faut?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
If you're having if you have schizophrenia, is it your fault?
If you age out of foster care and you're you're
eighteen years old and you have been provided the tools
in foster care, is it your fault if you file
for bankruptcy and you you know, this is where it's
there is some personal responsibility. And a lot of people say, oh,
those people there, What about the ones that are taking drugs?
This is another thing. A lot of it is drugs.
(10:26):
But they don't have access to healthcare. They can't see
a doctor, they can't get medication for anxiety, depression, bipolarity,
schizophrenic schizophrenia a PTSD. So they're self medicating on the
streets with alcohol and fentol because they're suffering, they're struggling,
they're in pain, and this makes their pain go away.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
They're not doing it just because of the pain.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
They're doing it because they're suffering from depression and bipolarity
and schizophrenia.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
They're mentally ill, so they're taking medication.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
So that a big portion of the of the drug
component of homelessness is the mental health crisis.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
And that's what you think these other groups shown Hopkins
and others are addressing.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Now they're addressing three sixty five wrap around here at
the gathering inn in San Antonio, at Johns Hopkins. It's
it's it's housing, it's job training, it's job placement, it's
mental health and drug addiction treatment, and it's some of
these programs are having experiencing a seventy percent success rights
(11:22):
out of the program.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
We're not look. One of the things that surprised me
most you had a tweet recently where you said, I've
been to every Republican and Democratic convention since what eighty eight?
Nineteen eighty eight. When I listen to you, when I
watch you now, when I hear you speak out, you're
so outspoken on politics. Why not go into politics?
Speaker 4 (11:46):
If you could turn the clock back and make me
thirty five years old again.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
But now you have the gravitas for it, Billy, at
thirty five, you might not.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Oh, I had it then too. I was quite something.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Now, you know, I've you know, if I could do
it all over again, you know, there's you know, there's
a chance I might have hit a crossroads in my
career and maybe maybe done something like that.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
I believe me.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
I've been approached by the leadership of the Democratic Party
for thirty years about that.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
And you're very involved in the Creative Coalition.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Not anymore.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I haven't been because I raised my children and I
moved to the West Coast. I'm not that active I
keep tabs on them and stay in touch with them.
But you know, the real I've said this before when
I was on the Creative when I was involved with
the Creative Coalition, when I.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Was on the board. Yeah, and when I was.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
The president of the Creative Coalition, Christopher Ree was the president.
Ron Silver was the first president, and then Chris, and
then Chris had his accident, and then I became the
president after he brought after Chris had his accident, and
I was the president for I don't know, I'm making
it a five or six years. And I would be
asked to go on Chris Matthews, Bill O'Reilly, Bill Maher,
politically incorrect, Fox News, CNN News. You know, if it's
(13:03):
in my in my wheelhouse, arts advocacy, government funding of
the arts, First Amendment rights, even outside of my box
with with I knew a lot about campaign finance reform,
the Buckley Vallejo decision in the Supreme Court. I knew
a lot about stuff. I could talk. But then they
would start asking me on we like the war in Iraq,
And they would have generals and admirals and senators and
(13:26):
congressmen and they would ask me, and I'm like, what's wrong,
What's wrong? But what I realize is that my value
as as an activist, what will help.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Me more is if I'm on to if I'm in
a hit movie, or I'm on a hit show, if
I'm on a hit TV show.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Right now, they're gonna I'm gonna be on Bill Maher
five times in the next year, you know, And then
I could get I could advance the the I could
raise awareness and educate people about them.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
When I talk about some of the stuff that I'm talking.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
About here with Bill Maher, about the programs and how
they're working and why they're working, he would be very,
very interested in it. He'd be very interested in some
of this stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
But tell me about the power of art though, I mean,
art has an enormous power that politics just doesn't.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
Well, we shape you know, art imitates life and life
imitates art. It's both. I mean we imitate life and
life imitates us.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
But you're hitting the heart. Yeah, I mean politics can
hit this usually, but on this, once you move the heart,
everything else moves.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Yeah, and only it is a business.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
So they want to make movies where they're going to
recoup and they're going to be and of course they're
going to profit, so feathering striking that balance between having
social messaging and allowing for them to that's up to you. Now,
that's what we're looking at. You no addressmovie dot Com.
Tell your friends go and know that you're helping to
raise awareness and to educate people about homelessness homelessness in America.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Now for a little free flow.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
It was announced that the Hollywood Bowl is mounting a
new production of Jesus Christ Superstar, the old musical.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
That's fine, but here's the case.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Jesus will be played by Wickeds Cynthia Erivo. Now we've
seen non traditional casting of this role before. In twenty eighteen,
John Legend won an Emmy for his TV portrayal of
Jesus in the same show. When it comes to portrayals
of the Lord, I've always adopted the philosophy of that
old Andy Williams Christmas song.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Some children see him lily white, some children see him
bronzed and brown.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
But when you start to talk about switching the sex
of Jesus, well, I would argue the creatives know not
what they do. To be honest, I'm not a huge
fan of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I've always thought it.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
The entire piece itself is kind of sacrilegious. But for
Christians around the world, the person of Jesus Christ, the
god Man, was an historic man. So it's offensive to
millions of Christians when you depict Jesus in a way
that's not in keeping with the Gospel or history.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
It's personal.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
You can't just have a female star like Arevo portray
the Messiah without upsetting a huge swath of the audience.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I know, I know, I know what you're saying.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
This is art.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
We're casting the show in this way to shine a
new light on the character of Jesus, and I'd find
that easier to believe if just once someone tried it
with Mohammed alu Wakbar. Superstar could be a great part
for Rivo, But somehow I don't think we'll ever see it.
Unlike Christians who simply accept the public defaming of their Messiah,
(16:38):
Muslims might not be so forgiving. But we'll never know
because the Hollywood Bowl nor any other venue would ever
dare to attempt it, because Muslims would justifiably be outraged.
Call me when they start hanging the Mohammed musical billboards.
But there's another reason this female Jesus. It's just a
(16:58):
stupid idea. Broad Wait just tried this gender replacement casting
a few years ago. It was of a musical called
seventeen seventy six and it featured an all female and
transcast as the Founding Fathers. The show surrendered faster than
the Red Coats at Yorktown.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
It was a complete flop.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
So look, Hollywood, bowl, whether to preserve your audience or
just to be decent, recast the lead of Jesus Christ superstar.
No one wants to see the Green Witch from Oz
as the Savior. It would be like Jim Cavizl playing Glinda.
It won't work, I promise you. And there's something more
important at play here. Whether you believe that Jesus is
(17:41):
God or not, more than two point five billion people
do believe that. Why offend such a large group of humanity?
You only get respect when you give it. And then
there's that old line that Jesus once spoke to Judas
the casting director, woe do you who miss casts the
(18:02):
Son of Man? Something like that. Now, back to my
conversation with Billy Baldwin. I want to talk about something
that I know you experience in your family. You mentioned
it a moment ago. You've got Stephen Bald, when you've
got Alec Bould, when you've got you, how do you
keep peace in that family? Given the different politics?
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Used to be a lot easier. Yeah, And I.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Asked this question because a lot of families are dealing
with this stuff, A lot are a lot of How
do you navigate it? Do you put the politics aside?
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (18:39):
I mean I I we try, we try.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
We live in a new age.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
You know, this isn't like let's fight over you know,
Reagan and Iran Contra, you know what I mean, Like,
we live in a different world now. Where when I
worked in the Hill, Bob Dole was the Senate Majority
Leader and Tip O'Neil was the House you know, speaker,
and everyone talked about gridlock and how nothing got done
back then when I was working on the Hill.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Well, those are the good old days.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Those were at least when people would go into a room,
lock the door, torch up a cigar, and say, nobody
leaves until we get something, until we get a.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Deal, until we get something done.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Now people are forget brothers and sisters, I mean members
of the members of opposite part members of the same party.
Donty aren't even talking to each other. It's it's we
need a healing, we need a healing. But what's great
about this film and Robert Craig Productions is that they
brought on Trump's former homelessness czar to be one of
the producers and consultants on the film, doctor Robert Marvin,
(19:38):
and we've all been working very closely with him, and
we've been going around the country with the film and
with the documentary, doing panel discussions, talking to think tanks,
and they marvel at the fact that he's a Trump's
you know, cabinet member, and am a Hollywood lefty, and
we're finding common sense, we're finding consensus, and we're totally
respectful and and you know, we're treating each other with dignity,
(20:03):
and we you know, not shockingly, I've always known this.
We agree way more than we disagree. So in this
culture right now, with the media pitting size aginst each other,
it's like when I talk about many many issues, when
I talk about homelessness, when I talk about climate change,
when I took about gun control, I talk to people
that are big, big two A people, and I asked
(20:24):
them five or six questions there. I agree with that.
I agree with that. I have no problem that. What's
wrong with that? Why would I have a problem with that?
Speaker 4 (20:29):
But you have to realize we agree like eighty percent
of this issue.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
But what you're really saying is you need to engage.
You have to be willing to engage.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
The polarization, I think is mostly characterization of people. And
they get their air camplies, but it's harder to do
that with family.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Now.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
I've heard it and read and no families who simply
don't get together during the holidays because they're politically divergent.
Would you ever do that?
Speaker 4 (20:52):
That's happened, that's happened, That's happened in my family.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Yeah, And I've gone to you know, gatherings on the
thing upside of the family where people got together and
they were sort of mixed opinions there too. Not as
polarizing as other settings that I've been in. But yeah,
I mean you read it all the time, like you
know not and it's interesting the intersection don't talk religion
or politics now, they completely intersect, And I just want
(21:18):
that's what's so important to this film is that we're
I want people to live it. Yeah, I don't care
if you're Buddhist, Hindu, Catholic, Christian, Jewish, Agnostic, atheist.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
I want people to live it.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I want them to be of service and give back
to the forgotten and the lost and the marginalized and
the people that have slipped through the cracks. That's why
we're here. That's my faith, that's my service. That's how
I give back by trying to be of service to
the less privileged.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
And you walked right into it. Because I watching you
all these years, I've always thought you were motivated by
your faith to speak out on these issues, particularly things
like homeless in climate change, care for the poor. That
that was outpouring of your Catholic faith.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
I know my conscience and it's my DNA because that's
all I ever knew, because that's the way I was
raised by both of my parents. My father and mother
did everything. My father was a teacher, a football coach.
He ran the youth club, he ran he ran the
Key Club, the youth Council, Summer Wreck, Winter Wreck, the
Little League, the Cub Scouts.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
He was my Cub Scouts time for you all.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Wow, No, he was doing that for us. He was
our little league coaches, he was our cup scout masters.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
He was doing that. So all I ever knew growing
up is to.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Give back and to be My father was and my
mother were titans, pillars, and if they didn't directly impact you,
they indirectly because my father was your brother's little league
coach or something from nineteen fifty two to nineteen when
he died in nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
He died young, fifty five years old.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Your wife, China Phillips and you did some YouTube exchanges
I've been watching where she's been very outspoken about her faith.
You're a little more cagey.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Why that's her choice and that's my choice.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
I told you, I just said my faith is my service.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
I just literally said it in front of your entire audience.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I'm listening.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
No, she's.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
She's, you know, an evangelical Christian who's who's answering the
call to bring people to faith. I do it in
other ways under the radar, and I don't believe some
of the things.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
I don't I don't walk the same way that she walks.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
But we're sort of an interesting Ricky and Lucy couple.
She says, I'm in the Jesus waiting room.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
She says, I'm like so funny.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
We get together and we do these little segments together
where we tell stories about our Margine I told She
told me that her parents got divorced when she was two,
and then her mother lived with Warren Baty for four years.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Then she lived with Jack Nicholson for four years.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Then she was married to Dennis Hopper, and then she
was dating Mick Jagger throughout. And my wife used to
go to the Ice Capades to go see Dorothy Hammel
with Michael Jackson, Like Michael Jackson and his mother and
LaToya and Tito and Jermaine and Janet would pick her up,
like Michael would call it me a phone ordering Hello.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Hi, Michelle, it's Michael. I just want to come back
and get my hes mycha doll. He would call her
Machina Doll.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
And he would take her to the Wringling Brothers and
the zoo and to see Dorothy Hamel. And I told
my wife that my father was a high school teacher
and he was a coach, and he ran the Cub
Scouts in the Little League. And she just in the
middle of the sentence she ran away like that cartoon
with like the witch and the bobby pins go flying
up in the air, and she.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Just took off. I'm like, what's happening?
Speaker 3 (24:53):
And she came running back to me, ran up to me,
fell to her knees, snot coming out of her nose,
choking on her tongue, sobbing, crying, and rolling a piece
of Reynolds wrap into a ring. And she went from
Jack Nicholson to Warren Batty to Dennis Hopper, and I
went from teacher to cubs gust to little league. And
(25:14):
she put this ring on my finger and she couldn't
get the words out. And she was proposing to me
because I said, my father ran the cupscouts.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Hmm.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
That's the difference in childhood's with But oddly enough with
the Baldwins have kind of jumped the Phillip shark when
it comes to family dysfunction and insanity.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
They were all back together.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
They are in the same room for Thanksgiving talking my
brothers and I are like, can't do it yet, battling
or battling.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Well, I hope you, I hope you don't do that
for much longer. One of your your niece married Justin Bieber.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Right, he's Haley. He's married to Justin. The been together
a long time.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Have you given him any advice or she any advice?
Given that you've been a good.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Star, I've done exactly what I said.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
I said to Haley, if you ever need advice, you
know we've been together for decades. You know, she's known
Anti Chagey since she was a baby, since she's five
years old. And you know, I said, if you ever
even need advice, you know you have two people that
have a show business career. And my wife's a recording
(26:18):
artists and there's been lots of dysfunction in destabilization during
her childhood. And I've been there for her. She's been
there for me. And she had a very high flying career,
not Justin's career, but she had a very very big
career in the early nineties and mid nineties. And I said,
if you ever want to talk to me or pick
my brain on what's where we've where it's worked, where
(26:41):
it's failed, where we've succeeded, where we've come up short,
We've we've learned from our mistakes and grown from them.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So what would you tell her and other couples.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
How do you say earlier today?
Speaker 3 (26:51):
I mean that we were in couples therapy one time
and the therapist said to China, what's the one thing.
I don't want a laundry list. I don't want a
grocery list. I don't want five or six things. I
want one thing. What do you need right now that
you're not getting? How are you not being fed in
the relationship? What do you need from Billy? I want
one thing? And then he said the same thing to me.
He goes, Okay, I'll see you in two weeks, come
back in two weeks. And I described what it was
(27:12):
that I needed, and I just thought I might have
even said, I don't even need you to be good
at it. You could like suck at it, you could fail,
you could like you could burn the house down doing it.
I said, but it's something that I want, I need,
And if you if you give me, if you address this,
(27:32):
if you attempt to give me what I need consistently
over the next week or two until we come back,
and I do the same, let's see what happens.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
And it was.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Really really shockingly elusive, not as easy as you might
think to consistently focus on the one thing. But I
would say that to any couple just ask each other,
when is it time to discuss what's the one thing?
I need to know what you need from me right now,
today and this week?
Speaker 4 (28:01):
What can I do? What do you?
Speaker 3 (28:03):
What do you need from me? And that you're not
kidding And it could be little things and it could
be big things. It could be like the first thing
my wife said to me is I need you to
communicate with me in a different way because we're Ricky
and Lucy. And she says to me, why are you
getting like literally the way I'm talking to you right now?
The hands start going. I get excited, I.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Get this critique.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
I know you're a little excited. I get a little elevated.
It gets a little urgent, it gets a little.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Why are you raising your voice?
Speaker 4 (28:31):
And my wife's like, why are you yelling at me?
And I'm like, oh my gosh. If you talk to
any of the.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Italian and Irish girls from New York that I grew
up with, this is like a mating call.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Thank you, you just saved me years of there.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
Is like this is are you give it to them?
They give it right back to like get it and
I'm not even, but sometimes it does escalate it. It
does get intense, but not in a bad way you're
talking about, but it's your passion and intensity.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
You're you're with your wife and somebody comes over and says, oh,
Yankee suck.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
I'm a rid sucks fan.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
So you start getting into a conversation about why the
Red Sox suck. And I started getting animated, and I
start to escalate, and my wife starts having a panic attack,
not a panic attack, she.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Starts having like an anxiety thing.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Right, And where's he going? What's he doing?
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Like, no, no, just literally the sound and the like.
We don't have loud music playing early in the morning.
We never have the television on with the light and
the news and Good Morning America, where you're hearing him
at the latest plane crash at seven o'clock in the morning.
My wife can't which a lot of people now my
wife was ahead of My wife was doing that thirty
years ago. Now people are on I think Steve Bannon
(29:37):
referred to it as.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Muzzle velocity.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
He's been talking about muzzle velocity, where they flood the
zone with a lot of chaos, and if you turn
on the TV and you're listening to the news, You're
getting flooded with a lot of this chaos, and it
gets overwhelming, and the media latches onto one thing, and
the people get overwhelmed and they just start to tune
in out. And I have people that are very strong psychologically, emotionally,
(30:03):
intellectually that are dialed in with the things that are
going on. They're like, I can't listen sometimes I just
got to tell I get it. I can't look at
my social media. I can't watch them for a couple
of days.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, Well, for for their mental health, Yeah, because they
hit the same emotion anger upsegment, anger division, because it's
the easiest one to hit. Let's face it. Okay, some
very quick questions for you. We'll run through these fasts.
Who's the person you most admire?
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Oh my goodness, that's there's five answers. But the first
one would be, uh would be my would be christ
or my wife?
Speaker 2 (30:37):
I thought you would say your dad, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
He would be on the very short list. It would
be Christ, my wife, my mother and father, my three children.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
What's your best feature? Uh?
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Certainly not giving short answers.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
I noticed that I tell stories and I suggress and
I love this.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Hold on, it's coming back around.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Okay, we're coming back out there and there it is.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
No I think my best features feature.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Is I'm going to answer in a way that's probably
not true, but it's my It's sort of all the
same thing, but my desire to grow to learn, not
being afraid to be wrong, not being afraid to ask
a question to show that I'm that I don't know
(31:30):
the answer that that's something that I that I like
about myself. But I also want to get better about.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
What does Billy Baldwin know that others don't know?
Speaker 4 (31:44):
I have a really really bad answer for come on,
I give it to me. I was going to say,
I could show you, but somebody might lose an eye
clip cut. That did not happen. What was the question?
Speaker 2 (31:58):
The question was what do you know that other people
don't know?
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Not?
Speaker 2 (32:03):
What do you have that other people don't have? Clarify?
Speaker 3 (32:06):
What do I know that other people don't know? Yeah,
I don't know, m that's what I don't know. I
don't know what I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
What's your biggest regret.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
I don't have any major regrets. But having said that,
if I could go back and do it, again. There
are things that I would change, some things in my marriage,
some things with child rearings, a couple of things with
my career. One of the things that I will tell
parents that is beautiful is my wife has had one
on one time with each of our children.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
She doesn't say.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Daddy and Billy, Billy and mommy, jump in the car
with Jamison. She has one on one time with Jess Jamison,
with jest Vance, with Jess Brooks, not all five of us,
not three of them. And it could be let's go
for a beach walk, let's take out the track, let's
walk the dog. And you could go walk the dog
for ten minutes or fifteen minutes without uttering a word.
(33:05):
You don't have to get to solve life's problem. Do
you have a crush? Have you ever tried drug? It
doesn't You could walk in silence. Just one on one
time with your child individually will create a bond.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
She's hijacked my three children from me, not even my
kids anymore, she owns all three of them.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
That number one, number two to not give your kids
a smartphone until we should have given our kids a
clamshell that dialed five or ten numbers. So you can
call her, text Grandma, mommy, daddy, three of your friends.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
No pictures, no social media, no access.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
To the internet, no social media, no bullying.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
And I would say, because the great thing about it
is when my daughter would go to straight State Street
with her friends when she was twelve, I would text
her and say yo or sup, and she were right back, Yo, SUP.
And that just meant I hear you, I'm here everything.
If there was a complaint or she was worried or
she was scared, she would have already. But I'm just
checking in. And if you don't answer and I say
sup again and another half hour goes by, you're in trouble.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Final question.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
So they should have those because they're like a tether
gives me like having a nanny, but no access to
the internet and no access to social media.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
I just had a child psychologist and tell me the
same thing. Boy, she sees it.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
It's contributing to the mental health.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Final question, what happens when this is over?
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Well, like me, I'd like all of you to go
to no addressmovie dot com see the film. Hopefully it
will inspire you and motivate you and hit that switch
of compassion and empathy that will want you to. That'll
you know, make you take action in any way, shape
or form in your community.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
To be engaged. No matter where you are.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
Engaged, you certain.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Okay, here's the whole.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Billy Baldwin is a feisty character whom I thoroughly enjoyed.
I especially liked his call serve others, stay engaged, see
where you can help others, no matter where your life
leads you, and look. Billy referenced his mother, Carol. She
was diagnosed with breast cancer in nineteen ninety one. She
beat it and then started her own Carol M. Baldwin
(35:12):
Breast Research Fund at Stonybrook and later Sooni. She would
spend the next twenty five years of her life advocating
and raising money for breast cancer research. We can always
do more, no matter where you are. I hope you'll
come back to Arroyo Grande soon. Why live a dry, narrow,
constricted life when if you fill it with good things,
(35:34):
it can flow into a broad, thriving Arroyo Grande.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
I'm ramming at Arroyo.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Make sure you subscribe and like this episode. Thank you
for diving in, and we'll see you next time. Arroyo
Grande is produced in partnership with iHeart Podcasts and is
available on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Raymond Arroyo.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to Arroyo Grande, where we dive into the wild
currents of the culture and pull out perspectives and practical
life lessons from incredible culture makers. This week, I'm joined
by actor Billy Baldwin. Billy is part of the Baldwin
acting clan, and we talked about how he and his brothers,
who have very divergent political views, managed to get along
(00:33):
and what he would advise similarly afflicted families to do.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And he's been married to China.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Phillips of Wilson Phillips for thirty three years. His relationship
advice is original. Billy Baldwin's latest film explores the humanity
behind the homeless crisis. It's called No Address and I
have a free flow on a new offering at the
Hollywood Bowld.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Stay tuned for that. Here's Billy bald old One.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Tell me first of all, was there something in the
water in Long Island that all the Baldwin boys end
up being actors? What happened?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
What?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
What? What was it?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Well, just in Massapeka alone, there is Jerry Seinfeld, right.
The Baldinger brothers all played in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
The Stray Cats.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Oh, the Stray Cats, I've forgotten about them.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Brian Setzler and Jim Jim Phantom, the Baldwin Boys, Joey Buttafuco.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
We get down there.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah, the Gilgo Beach serial killer. My classmate Schuerman from
seventh grade through twelfth grade. So there's there is something
in the water, both both famous and infamous, and of
course there's always Stephen Baldwin.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Well, we were going to get to it both ways.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
We're going to get to a brother.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Tell me about Alec. Was that really the was he
the prime mover here? Everybody saw Alec and said, well,
look if he.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Can do it, and he schmuck could. No, No, I'm not
kidding you. I'm not kidding you.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
He was in Washington, he was studying political science, and
he was gonna like me, I was at university studying
political years at five years after him, and he was
going to go to law school. And he had a
conversation with somebody, a couple of friends and a girl
who was dating, and said I want to be an actor,
and they were like, you got to get out of DC.
He transferred to NYU, got a scholarship, studied with Strasburg
(02:27):
at Strasburg. A year and a half later he had
Michael Bloom was his agent. He went up on a
soap opera called The Doctors. I was a sophomore in college.
We used to go into the dorm lobby with all
the We watched the Luke and Laura wedding, and we
watched my brother on the Doctors. And I started to
have this, you know, bitten by the bug. Had never
done the community theater, summer stock, had never did nothing, nothing,
(02:53):
nothing in My brother was on television and I would
they would turn on the TV and to get sort.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Of inspired by and excited by it.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
But then I worked on the hill and they were
shooting Saint almost fire, and I was sitting on my
stoop and an entourage came and got Rob Low and
he came out of his trailer and he walked by
me with security and his assistants and pas and stuff.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
And he walked by me and he looked up the
staircase at me, and I was sitting there and I
smile at him. I was like, listen.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
He was like, and this is the height of the
brat pack. And they were shooting st almost fire, and
I was like, I.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Was like, I could never do that.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Look at that Rob Low, you know I could. I
could never be in the movies.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
And then I would come home for like Rashashana and
ya I'm Kipper, and Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I would
go to the city to visit my brother. And this
was a real attractive I mean, the work itself, the
acting itself was really jazz me. But I would go
to meet him and he would take me from the
set and we would go to to have dinner, and
then we would go meet his friends for like a
(03:51):
coffee late night. And invariably there were mostly people from
show business, and they were from both sides of the camera, writers, directors, producers, actors,
some famous, some not art direction, set design, and they
aren't the smartest people in the world like NASA, but
there's many very, very very smart people in show business.
They are now the most creative people in the world.
(04:13):
I mean, there's some of the most creative people in
the world that are in Hollywood. They are very interesting
and dynamic, and they are very wounded and broken. And
when you take super smart and super creative and super
interesting and super dynamic and very wounded and you throw
it all together in the Bullia Bays, in the bunder
(04:35):
you get people that you can't find at Deloitte in
the accounting office.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
So it was the people that drew you, yes, and
the kind of a license.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
I just I just want to be around these people
like you.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Who did you intern with on the hill?
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Tom Downey, congressman from Long Island?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And what did you learn from that?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
I had a great experience with them. And you know
it always I was always an active that became an actor.
I wasn't an actor that became an activist. My father
taught government and taught history, and he was always an activist.
And still that's been in my DNA since some you know,
twelve fifteen.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And what did you get there? I mean, obviously you
decided this is not the path for me. The political
path is not mine.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
What about that service is mine?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I mean it's really more important to me than my
show business career. I mean, it's my show business career,
my acting is is and providing for my children is
super important. But the thing that feeds my soul is
making a movie does, and traveling does, and going to
Italy Rome to make a movie doesn't go to Paris
or going to Bangkok. To make a film definitely does,
(05:45):
but there's nothing that feeds me the same as to
you know, start and finish a project that's impacting the
lives of people that are poor, or marginalized or forgotten.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
And this one, No Address is one of those projects.
Good on, Please look me in you want to? I
have nowhere else to go. No, no, no, please, This
is a group of people. Look, I've covered veteran homelessness.
(06:21):
I've covered it in New Orleans. The fascinating lives that
those people have led. In many cases, they didn't want
to be on the streets. In most cases they found
themselves there. How big a role does addiction play? And
how many people do you think are characters like yours
that kind of stumble out of their careers and find themselves.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Well, many of them start out like me. Most of
them start out like me.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
The film clearly and beautifully portrays the different paths to homelessness.
One as a PTSD VET, one is a mental health crisis.
Another one ages out of foster care. Everybody can be
fired and can't pay the mortgage and can't pay the
utilities and can't pay the rent, and then they get
(07:08):
hit with a major health crisis with one of their kids,
and they don't have their insurance, or they have insurance
but it only covers part of it. And they're left
with fifty thousand dollars in medical builds and all of
a sudden, you're filing for bankruptcy. You're evicted, and you're
living in your car, and with COVID now and with
fetanol now. It's the problem is compounded by a factor
of ten. It's gotten much worse in the last decade.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
What drew you to this? I mean, did the script
come to you?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
I know this there was a regular offer. It was
a regular offer, but.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
You'd already been sensitive to this issue.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, but it was when I read that it was
on homelessness. I love the script. I love the part
I wanted to work with Julia. I was very excited
to meet Robert Craig and everybody Robert Craig films and
the subject matter, the social messaging, and that's what's near
and dear to Robert Craig's heart and the hearts of
everyone that works at this production company.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I was stunned that they actually went and toured the
production team before they started the film. They went to
homeless encampments. They spent time.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
I think that's what spun off the documentary.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
They went to twenty cities in eighteen different states, federal, state, local, nonprofit,
faith based the interview. They had hundreds of interviews to
try and get it right on screen, authentic, real, and
they had such so much an abundance of such incredible material.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
They're like, wait a second, we have a documentary here too.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
With your voice. Yes, yes, yes, and fifty percent of
the proceeds of this film.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Yeah, people are wondering how they can help it all too.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
You can advocate in so many different ways in your
community with nonprofits. Of course, you could write a check,
you can advocate on your computer, raising awareness, raising compassion.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
But you could also go to no addressmovie.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Dot com, buy a ticket for you and your pal,
spread the word on social media, tell all your friends
to go, and know that fifty percent of the proceeds
go to nonprofits that are working in the homeless space
right now. So you'll have an impact by simply buying
tickets and showing up at theater.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Billy, what of this experience and kind of immersing yourself
in this world? What surprised you most that you didn't
know when you came into this.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
You said it before and I didn't get a chance
to answer it. There's three or four things.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
One is that it's more of a mental health crisis
than a homeless crisis.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Number one.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Number two, it's been compounded by COVID and by fetnol.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Number three. There's amazing programs.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
The gathering in in northern California and it's out of
Sacramento in Penelas, Florida, at Johns Hopkins in Fort Smith
in San Antonio. They're doing work that's having startling results. Okay,
so we have some of the answers that are working
there highly effective. We need to replicate it across the country.
(09:51):
One of the big misconceptions that people don't understand. When
I'll ask you you answered simply yes. Or Now you're
a child and you're homeless, is it your fault? No,
your PTSD vent and you find yourself homeless, is it
your faut?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
If you're having if you have schizophrenia, is it your fault?
If you age out of foster care and you're you're
eighteen years old and you have been provided the tools
in foster care, is it your fault if you file
for bankruptcy and you you know, this is where it's
there is some personal responsibility. And a lot of people say, oh,
those people there, What about the ones that are taking drugs?
This is another thing. A lot of it is drugs.
(10:26):
But they don't have access to healthcare. They can't see
a doctor, they can't get medication for anxiety, depression, bipolarity,
schizophrenic schizophrenia a PTSD. So they're self medicating on the
streets with alcohol and fentol because they're suffering, they're struggling,
they're in pain, and this makes their pain go away.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
They're not doing it just because of the pain.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
They're doing it because they're suffering from depression and bipolarity
and schizophrenia.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
They're mentally ill, so they're taking medication.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
So that a big portion of the of the drug
component of homelessness is the mental health crisis.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
And that's what you think these other groups shown Hopkins
and others are addressing.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Now they're addressing three sixty five wrap around here at
the gathering inn in San Antonio, at Johns Hopkins. It's
it's it's housing, it's job training, it's job placement, it's
mental health and drug addiction treatment, and it's some of
these programs are having experiencing a seventy percent success rights
(11:22):
out of the program.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
We're not look. One of the things that surprised me
most you had a tweet recently where you said, I've
been to every Republican and Democratic convention since what eighty eight?
Nineteen eighty eight. When I listen to you, when I
watch you now, when I hear you speak out, you're
so outspoken on politics. Why not go into politics?
Speaker 4 (11:46):
If you could turn the clock back and make me
thirty five years old again.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
But now you have the gravitas for it, Billy, at
thirty five, you might not.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Oh, I had it then too. I was quite something.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Now, you know, I've you know, if I could do
it all over again, you know, there's you know, there's
a chance I might have hit a crossroads in my
career and maybe maybe done something like that.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
I believe me.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
I've been approached by the leadership of the Democratic Party
for thirty years about that.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
And you're very involved in the Creative Coalition.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Not anymore.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I haven't been because I raised my children and I
moved to the West Coast. I'm not that active I
keep tabs on them and stay in touch with them.
But you know, the real I've said this before when
I was on the Creative when I was involved with
the Creative Coalition, when I.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Was on the board. Yeah, and when I was.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
The president of the Creative Coalition, Christopher Ree was the president.
Ron Silver was the first president, and then Chris, and
then Chris had his accident, and then I became the
president after he brought after Chris had his accident, and
I was the president for I don't know, I'm making
it a five or six years. And I would be
asked to go on Chris Matthews, Bill O'Reilly, Bill Maher,
politically incorrect, Fox News, CNN News. You know, if it's
(13:03):
in my in my wheelhouse, arts advocacy, government funding of
the arts, First Amendment rights, even outside of my box
with with I knew a lot about campaign finance reform,
the Buckley Vallejo decision in the Supreme Court. I knew
a lot about stuff. I could talk. But then they
would start asking me on we like the war in Iraq,
And they would have generals and admirals and senators and
(13:26):
congressmen and they would ask me, and I'm like, what's wrong,
What's wrong? But what I realize is that my value
as as an activist, what will help.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Me more is if I'm on to if I'm in
a hit movie, or I'm on a hit show, if
I'm on a hit TV show.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Right now, they're gonna I'm gonna be on Bill Maher
five times in the next year, you know, And then
I could get I could advance the the I could
raise awareness and educate people about them.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
When I talk about some of the stuff that I'm talking.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
About here with Bill Maher, about the programs and how
they're working and why they're working, he would be very,
very interested in it. He'd be very interested in some
of this stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
But tell me about the power of art though, I mean,
art has an enormous power that politics just doesn't.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
Well, we shape you know, art imitates life and life
imitates art. It's both. I mean we imitate life and
life imitates us.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
But you're hitting the heart. Yeah, I mean politics can
hit this usually, but on this, once you move the heart,
everything else moves.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Yeah, and only it is a business.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
So they want to make movies where they're going to
recoup and they're going to be and of course they're
going to profit, so feathering striking that balance between having
social messaging and allowing for them to that's up to you. Now,
that's what we're looking at. You no addressmovie dot Com.
Tell your friends go and know that you're helping to
raise awareness and to educate people about homelessness homelessness in America.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Now for a little free flow.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
It was announced that the Hollywood Bowl is mounting a
new production of Jesus Christ Superstar, the old musical.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
That's fine, but here's the case.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Jesus will be played by Wickeds Cynthia Erivo. Now we've
seen non traditional casting of this role before. In twenty eighteen,
John Legend won an Emmy for his TV portrayal of
Jesus in the same show. When it comes to portrayals
of the Lord, I've always adopted the philosophy of that
old Andy Williams Christmas song.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Some children see him lily white, some children see him
bronzed and brown.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
But when you start to talk about switching the sex
of Jesus, well, I would argue the creatives know not
what they do. To be honest, I'm not a huge
fan of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I've always thought it.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
The entire piece itself is kind of sacrilegious. But for
Christians around the world, the person of Jesus Christ, the
god Man, was an historic man. So it's offensive to
millions of Christians when you depict Jesus in a way
that's not in keeping with the Gospel or history.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
It's personal.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
You can't just have a female star like Arevo portray
the Messiah without upsetting a huge swath of the audience.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I know, I know, I know what you're saying.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
This is art.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
We're casting the show in this way to shine a
new light on the character of Jesus, and I'd find
that easier to believe if just once someone tried it
with Mohammed alu Wakbar. Superstar could be a great part
for Rivo, But somehow I don't think we'll ever see it.
Unlike Christians who simply accept the public defaming of their Messiah,
(16:38):
Muslims might not be so forgiving. But we'll never know
because the Hollywood Bowl nor any other venue would ever
dare to attempt it, because Muslims would justifiably be outraged.
Call me when they start hanging the Mohammed musical billboards.
But there's another reason this female Jesus. It's just a
(16:58):
stupid idea. Broad Wait just tried this gender replacement casting
a few years ago. It was of a musical called
seventeen seventy six and it featured an all female and
transcast as the Founding Fathers. The show surrendered faster than
the Red Coats at Yorktown.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
It was a complete flop.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
So look, Hollywood, bowl, whether to preserve your audience or
just to be decent, recast the lead of Jesus Christ superstar.
No one wants to see the Green Witch from Oz
as the Savior. It would be like Jim Cavizl playing Glinda.
It won't work, I promise you. And there's something more
important at play here. Whether you believe that Jesus is
(17:41):
God or not, more than two point five billion people
do believe that. Why offend such a large group of humanity?
You only get respect when you give it. And then
there's that old line that Jesus once spoke to Judas
the casting director, woe do you who miss casts the
(18:02):
Son of Man? Something like that. Now, back to my
conversation with Billy Baldwin. I want to talk about something
that I know you experience in your family. You mentioned
it a moment ago. You've got Stephen Bald, when you've
got Alec Bould, when you've got you, how do you
keep peace in that family? Given the different politics?
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Used to be a lot easier. Yeah, And I.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Asked this question because a lot of families are dealing
with this stuff, A lot are a lot of How
do you navigate it? Do you put the politics aside?
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (18:39):
I mean I I we try, we try.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
We live in a new age.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
You know, this isn't like let's fight over you know,
Reagan and Iran Contra, you know what I mean, Like,
we live in a different world now. Where when I
worked in the Hill, Bob Dole was the Senate Majority
Leader and Tip O'Neil was the House you know, speaker,
and everyone talked about gridlock and how nothing got done
back then when I was working on the Hill.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Well, those are the good old days.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Those were at least when people would go into a room,
lock the door, torch up a cigar, and say, nobody
leaves until we get something, until we get a.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Deal, until we get something done.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Now people are forget brothers and sisters, I mean members
of the members of opposite part members of the same party.
Donty aren't even talking to each other. It's it's we
need a healing, we need a healing. But what's great
about this film and Robert Craig Productions is that they
brought on Trump's former homelessness czar to be one of
the producers and consultants on the film, doctor Robert Marvin,
(19:38):
and we've all been working very closely with him, and
we've been going around the country with the film and
with the documentary, doing panel discussions, talking to think tanks,
and they marvel at the fact that he's a Trump's
you know, cabinet member, and am a Hollywood lefty, and
we're finding common sense, we're finding consensus, and we're totally
respectful and and you know, we're treating each other with dignity,
(20:03):
and we you know, not shockingly, I've always known this.
We agree way more than we disagree. So in this
culture right now, with the media pitting size aginst each other,
it's like when I talk about many many issues, when
I talk about homelessness, when I talk about climate change,
when I took about gun control, I talk to people
that are big, big two A people, and I asked
(20:24):
them five or six questions there. I agree with that.
I agree with that. I have no problem that. What's
wrong with that? Why would I have a problem with that?
Speaker 4 (20:29):
But you have to realize we agree like eighty percent
of this issue.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
But what you're really saying is you need to engage.
You have to be willing to engage.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
The polarization, I think is mostly characterization of people. And
they get their air camplies, but it's harder to do
that with family.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Now.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
I've heard it and read and no families who simply
don't get together during the holidays because they're politically divergent.
Would you ever do that?
Speaker 4 (20:52):
That's happened, that's happened, That's happened in my family.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Yeah, And I've gone to you know, gatherings on the
thing upside of the family where people got together and
they were sort of mixed opinions there too. Not as
polarizing as other settings that I've been in. But yeah,
I mean you read it all the time, like you
know not and it's interesting the intersection don't talk religion
or politics now, they completely intersect, And I just want
(21:18):
that's what's so important to this film is that we're
I want people to live it. Yeah, I don't care
if you're Buddhist, Hindu, Catholic, Christian, Jewish, Agnostic, atheist.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
I want people to live it.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I want them to be of service and give back
to the forgotten and the lost and the marginalized and
the people that have slipped through the cracks. That's why
we're here. That's my faith, that's my service. That's how
I give back by trying to be of service to
the less privileged.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
And you walked right into it. Because I watching you
all these years, I've always thought you were motivated by
your faith to speak out on these issues, particularly things
like homeless in climate change, care for the poor. That
that was outpouring of your Catholic faith.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
I know my conscience and it's my DNA because that's
all I ever knew, because that's the way I was
raised by both of my parents. My father and mother
did everything. My father was a teacher, a football coach.
He ran the youth club, he ran he ran the
Key Club, the youth Council, Summer Wreck, Winter Wreck, the
Little League, the Cub Scouts.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
He was my Cub Scouts time for you all.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Wow, No, he was doing that for us. He was
our little league coaches, he was our cup scout masters.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
He was doing that. So all I ever knew growing
up is to.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Give back and to be My father was and my
mother were titans, pillars, and if they didn't directly impact you,
they indirectly because my father was your brother's little league
coach or something from nineteen fifty two to nineteen when
he died in nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
He died young, fifty five years old.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Your wife, China Phillips and you did some YouTube exchanges
I've been watching where she's been very outspoken about her faith.
You're a little more cagey.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Why that's her choice and that's my choice.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
I told you, I just said my faith is my service.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
I just literally said it in front of your entire audience.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I'm listening.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
No, she's.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
She's, you know, an evangelical Christian who's who's answering the
call to bring people to faith. I do it in
other ways under the radar, and I don't believe some
of the things.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
I don't I don't walk the same way that she walks.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
But we're sort of an interesting Ricky and Lucy couple.
She says, I'm in the Jesus waiting room.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
She says, I'm like so funny.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
We get together and we do these little segments together
where we tell stories about our Margine I told She
told me that her parents got divorced when she was two,
and then her mother lived with Warren Baty for four years.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Then she lived with Jack Nicholson for four years.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Then she was married to Dennis Hopper, and then she
was dating Mick Jagger throughout. And my wife used to
go to the Ice Capades to go see Dorothy Hammel
with Michael Jackson, Like Michael Jackson and his mother and
LaToya and Tito and Jermaine and Janet would pick her up,
like Michael would call it me a phone ordering Hello.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Hi, Michelle, it's Michael. I just want to come back
and get my hes mycha doll. He would call her
Machina Doll.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
And he would take her to the Wringling Brothers and
the zoo and to see Dorothy Hamel. And I told
my wife that my father was a high school teacher
and he was a coach, and he ran the Cub
Scouts in the Little League. And she just in the
middle of the sentence she ran away like that cartoon
with like the witch and the bobby pins go flying
up in the air, and she.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Just took off. I'm like, what's happening?
Speaker 3 (24:53):
And she came running back to me, ran up to me,
fell to her knees, snot coming out of her nose,
choking on her tongue, sobbing, crying, and rolling a piece
of Reynolds wrap into a ring. And she went from
Jack Nicholson to Warren Batty to Dennis Hopper, and I
went from teacher to cubs gust to little league. And
(25:14):
she put this ring on my finger and she couldn't
get the words out. And she was proposing to me
because I said, my father ran the cupscouts.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Hmm.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
That's the difference in childhood's with But oddly enough with
the Baldwins have kind of jumped the Phillip shark when
it comes to family dysfunction and insanity.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
They were all back together.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
They are in the same room for Thanksgiving talking my
brothers and I are like, can't do it yet, battling
or battling.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Well, I hope you, I hope you don't do that
for much longer. One of your your niece married Justin Bieber.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Right, he's Haley. He's married to Justin. The been together
a long time.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Have you given him any advice or she any advice?
Given that you've been a good.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Star, I've done exactly what I said.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
I said to Haley, if you ever need advice, you
know we've been together for decades. You know, she's known
Anti Chagey since she was a baby, since she's five
years old. And you know, I said, if you ever
even need advice, you know you have two people that
have a show business career. And my wife's a recording
(26:18):
artists and there's been lots of dysfunction in destabilization during
her childhood. And I've been there for her. She's been
there for me. And she had a very high flying career,
not Justin's career, but she had a very very big
career in the early nineties and mid nineties. And I said,
if you ever want to talk to me or pick
my brain on what's where we've where it's worked, where
(26:41):
it's failed, where we've succeeded, where we've come up short,
We've we've learned from our mistakes and grown from them.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So what would you tell her and other couples.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
How do you say earlier today?
Speaker 3 (26:51):
I mean that we were in couples therapy one time
and the therapist said to China, what's the one thing.
I don't want a laundry list. I don't want a
grocery list. I don't want five or six things. I
want one thing. What do you need right now that
you're not getting? How are you not being fed in
the relationship? What do you need from Billy? I want
one thing? And then he said the same thing to me.
He goes, Okay, I'll see you in two weeks, come
back in two weeks. And I described what it was
(27:12):
that I needed, and I just thought I might have
even said, I don't even need you to be good
at it. You could like suck at it, you could fail,
you could like you could burn the house down doing it.
I said, but it's something that I want, I need,
And if you if you give me, if you address this,
(27:32):
if you attempt to give me what I need consistently
over the next week or two until we come back,
and I do the same, let's see what happens.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
And it was.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Really really shockingly elusive, not as easy as you might
think to consistently focus on the one thing. But I
would say that to any couple just ask each other,
when is it time to discuss what's the one thing?
I need to know what you need from me right now,
today and this week?
Speaker 4 (28:01):
What can I do? What do you?
Speaker 3 (28:03):
What do you need from me? And that you're not
kidding And it could be little things and it could
be big things. It could be like the first thing
my wife said to me is I need you to
communicate with me in a different way because we're Ricky
and Lucy. And she says to me, why are you
getting like literally the way I'm talking to you right now?
The hands start going. I get excited, I.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Get this critique.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
I know you're a little excited. I get a little elevated.
It gets a little urgent, it gets a little.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Why are you raising your voice?
Speaker 4 (28:31):
And my wife's like, why are you yelling at me?
And I'm like, oh my gosh. If you talk to
any of the.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Italian and Irish girls from New York that I grew
up with, this is like a mating call.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Thank you, you just saved me years of there.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
Is like this is are you give it to them?
They give it right back to like get it and
I'm not even, but sometimes it does escalate it. It
does get intense, but not in a bad way you're
talking about, but it's your passion and intensity.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
You're you're with your wife and somebody comes over and says, oh,
Yankee suck.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
I'm a rid sucks fan.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
So you start getting into a conversation about why the
Red Sox suck. And I started getting animated, and I
start to escalate, and my wife starts having a panic attack,
not a panic attack, she.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Starts having like an anxiety thing.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Right, And where's he going? What's he doing?
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Like, no, no, just literally the sound and the like.
We don't have loud music playing early in the morning.
We never have the television on with the light and
the news and Good Morning America, where you're hearing him
at the latest plane crash at seven o'clock in the morning.
My wife can't which a lot of people now my
wife was ahead of My wife was doing that thirty
years ago. Now people are on I think Steve Bannon
(29:37):
referred to it as.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Muzzle velocity.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
He's been talking about muzzle velocity, where they flood the
zone with a lot of chaos, and if you turn
on the TV and you're listening to the news, You're
getting flooded with a lot of this chaos, and it
gets overwhelming, and the media latches onto one thing, and
the people get overwhelmed and they just start to tune
in out. And I have people that are very strong psychologically, emotionally,
(30:03):
intellectually that are dialed in with the things that are
going on. They're like, I can't listen sometimes I just
got to tell I get it. I can't look at
my social media. I can't watch them for a couple
of days.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, Well, for for their mental health, Yeah, because they
hit the same emotion anger upsegment, anger division, because it's
the easiest one to hit. Let's face it. Okay, some
very quick questions for you. We'll run through these fasts.
Who's the person you most admire?
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Oh my goodness, that's there's five answers. But the first
one would be, uh would be my would be christ
or my wife?
Speaker 2 (30:37):
I thought you would say your dad, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
He would be on the very short list. It would
be Christ, my wife, my mother and father, my three children.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
What's your best feature? Uh?
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Certainly not giving short answers.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
I noticed that I tell stories and I suggress and
I love this.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Hold on, it's coming back around.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Okay, we're coming back out there and there it is.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
No I think my best features feature.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Is I'm going to answer in a way that's probably
not true, but it's my It's sort of all the
same thing, but my desire to grow to learn, not
being afraid to be wrong, not being afraid to ask
a question to show that I'm that I don't know
(31:30):
the answer that that's something that I that I like
about myself. But I also want to get better about.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
What does Billy Baldwin know that others don't know?
Speaker 4 (31:44):
I have a really really bad answer for come on,
I give it to me. I was going to say,
I could show you, but somebody might lose an eye
clip cut. That did not happen. What was the question?
Speaker 2 (31:58):
The question was what do you know that other people
don't know?
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Not?
Speaker 2 (32:03):
What do you have that other people don't have? Clarify?
Speaker 3 (32:06):
What do I know that other people don't know? Yeah,
I don't know, m that's what I don't know. I
don't know what I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
What's your biggest regret.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
I don't have any major regrets. But having said that,
if I could go back and do it, again. There
are things that I would change, some things in my marriage,
some things with child rearings, a couple of things with
my career. One of the things that I will tell
parents that is beautiful is my wife has had one
on one time with each of our children.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
She doesn't say.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Daddy and Billy, Billy and mommy, jump in the car
with Jamison. She has one on one time with Jess Jamison,
with jest Vance, with Jess Brooks, not all five of us,
not three of them. And it could be let's go
for a beach walk, let's take out the track, let's
walk the dog. And you could go walk the dog
for ten minutes or fifteen minutes without uttering a word.
(33:05):
You don't have to get to solve life's problem. Do
you have a crush? Have you ever tried drug? It
doesn't You could walk in silence. Just one on one
time with your child individually will create a bond.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
She's hijacked my three children from me, not even my
kids anymore, she owns all three of them.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
That number one, number two to not give your kids
a smartphone until we should have given our kids a
clamshell that dialed five or ten numbers. So you can
call her, text Grandma, mommy, daddy, three of your friends.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
No pictures, no social media, no access.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
To the internet, no social media, no bullying.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
And I would say, because the great thing about it
is when my daughter would go to straight State Street
with her friends when she was twelve, I would text
her and say yo or sup, and she were right back, Yo, SUP.
And that just meant I hear you, I'm here everything.
If there was a complaint or she was worried or
she was scared, she would have already. But I'm just
checking in. And if you don't answer and I say
sup again and another half hour goes by, you're in trouble.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Final question.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
So they should have those because they're like a tether
gives me like having a nanny, but no access to
the internet and no access to social media.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
I just had a child psychologist and tell me the
same thing. Boy, she sees it.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
It's contributing to the mental health.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Final question, what happens when this is over?
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Well, like me, I'd like all of you to go
to no addressmovie dot com see the film. Hopefully it
will inspire you and motivate you and hit that switch
of compassion and empathy that will want you to. That'll
you know, make you take action in any way, shape
or form in your community.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
To be engaged. No matter where you are.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
Engaged, you certain.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Okay, here's the whole.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Billy Baldwin is a feisty character whom I thoroughly enjoyed.
I especially liked his call serve others, stay engaged, see
where you can help others, no matter where your life
leads you, and look. Billy referenced his mother, Carol. She
was diagnosed with breast cancer in nineteen ninety one. She
beat it and then started her own Carol M. Baldwin
(35:12):
Breast Research Fund at Stonybrook and later Sooni. She would
spend the next twenty five years of her life advocating
and raising money for breast cancer research. We can always
do more, no matter where you are. I hope you'll
come back to Arroyo Grande soon. Why live a dry, narrow,
constricted life when if you fill it with good things,
(35:34):
it can flow into a broad, thriving Arroyo Grande.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
I'm ramming at Arroyo.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Make sure you subscribe and like this episode. Thank you
for diving in, and we'll see you next time. Arroyo
Grande is produced in partnership with iHeart Podcasts and is
available on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Raymond Arroyo
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