Tony Goldwyn is not just an actor, producer, director, and political activist but an innovator and friend too. Tony has starred in a wide range, of films and shows, including but not limited to Ghost, King Richard, and Scandal. Tony’s popularity rapidly increased after his role in Ghost. However, after giving up managerial control over his career and things settling down, Tony found directing and producing. What started as a passion project resulted in his first movie as director: A Walk on the Moon. Tony grew up heavily surrounded by the film and theater industry, and although he made it on his own, he couldn’t have done it without the support and mentorship of his loved ones. Join us to hear Tony’s journey to becoming an actor, producer, director, and political activist, as well as his take on the importance of asking for help and redefining yourself with every project.
Transcript
Speaker 1 [00:00:14] Three, two, one. Lift off. We have a lift-off.
Sam Jayanti [00:00:34] It’s a pleasure for me to introduce my friend Tony Goldwyn. Tony is an actor, producer, director and political activist. He’s been in a lot of films that form our cinematic zeitgeist. Starting his screen debut in the horror film Friday the 13th in 1986, winning a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in the iconic film Ghost in 1990, starring as Nixon in the 95 film of the same name, acting in the Divergent film series and most recently in King Richard in 2021, which earned him a second nomination for a SAG Award. But he truly became a pop cultural icon acting as president. Fitzgerald Grant, the third in the ABC drama Scandal. Tony, welcome to the show.
Tony Goldwyn [00:01:20] Thanks Sam
Sam Jayanti [00:01:21] So Tony, in introducing you. There’s lots I didn’t say, mostly because I want our listeners to hear it straight from you. What would you like to tell our audience?
Tony Goldwyn [00:01:31] Well, thanks for that. Nice introduction. What I like to tell the audience. Well. I guess an interesting thing to talk about is the kind of you mentioned it, but the connection point of, you know, where being a creative artist and trying to sort of build an independent business, which is what being an artist requires. With activism and realizing that I at a certain point have a platform that could be useful. And that was kind of an awakening for me. So anyways, I bought a that’s a more recent, you know, sort of in the second half of my career that I start to figure out that took some work to figure out how to do that. And I’m still figuring it out, but that’s kind of an interesting, maybe less talked about thing. And then people sometimes asked about actors and people in our profession.
Sam Jayanti [00:02:42] Totally. I’m glad you brought that up, because I definitely want to get into that a little bit later in the episode. But in many ways, you know, you were sort of predestined for an entertainment career or with parents, grandparents?
Tony Goldwyn [00:02:58] Right. Yeah, that’s true. That’s probably also worth mentioning. My family has long had a multigenerational family on both sides in the entertainment industry.
Sam Jayanti [00:03:05] Exactly. And so was it an easy decision to think about entering or not entering entertainment when you were getting started?
Tony Goldwyn [00:03:12] No, for me, it was hard. I you know, my father’s family, my father’s father was one of the pioneers of the film industry of Hollywood, really. He was Sam Goldwyn was a you know, a guy who immigrated from Poland by himself at age 16, you know, in the in the end of the 19th century and scrabbled his way to success and you know, really enter the film industry in its infancy and around 1908 I think.
Sam Jayanti [00:03:50] And still the silent film era.
Tony Goldwyn [00:03:52] Oh, gosh. Yes. Yeah. For sound didn’t come until 1929. So he but he was already quite you know, it was an important time at the time that that came around, the movies were already the biggest export that I could American, you know, in world culture. So that was Samuel Goldwyn who went on to make, you know, some classic films and who I was very close to, even though I only know him toward the end of his life. And then on my mother’s side of her family was more from the theater in New York. Her father was a famous playwright and screenwriter named Sidney Howard. And for me personally, really, I fell in love with the theater. Being from a Hollywood family and growing up in Los Angeles. It was a bit overwhelming. It felt like kind of a weight on my shoulders to live up to. So I wanted kind of nothing to do with it. For I feel I have to figure out my own thing. But I did fall in love with theater and then started acting in high school and couldn’t. Like any actor, you can just. It’s something you can’t turn away from. Because if you have any brains, you will screw it. Yeah. So. But it was more like, yeah. Talking myself. Okay, now I can’t not do this or how do I figure it out?
Sam Jayanti [00:05:05] Yeah. Fantastic.
Sam Jayanti [00:05:07] So I want to start with King Richard. Mm hmm. Here’s a scene I particularly loved from a movie. Let’s take a quick look.
Unidentified [00:05:17] All right, guys.
Tony Goldwyn [00:05:20] Girls come here and talk to me for a second.
Unidentified [00:05:22] Hustle, hustle, hustle.
Tony Goldwyn [00:05:28] Let me ask you both something. What do you want out of this? I know what your dad wants, but what about you?
Unidentified [00:05:33] Well, I want to win. You want to win as many times as anyone’s ever won it.
Tony Goldwyn [00:05:37] You think you can do that?
Unidentified [00:05:39] I know I can.
Tony Goldwyn [00:05:41] What about you who on the tour do you want to play like?
Unidentified [00:05:48] Well, I’d like other people to want to play like me.
Tony Goldwyn [00:05:52] I bet they will.
Sam Jayanti [00:05:56] King Richard was both a powerful and a timely film in a way that some movies are able to anticipate a sociopolitical moment, particularly in light of Serena Williams, his retirement announcement at the U.S. Open last year. What made you want to work on that? So.
Tony Goldwyn [00:06:14] Well, a few things. It was a great script and an incredible story that I didn’t know the details of. I knew that Richard Williams was very involved in his daughter’s career, you know, and that he was an outrageous character. But I didn’t really know his story. So when I read the script, I couldn’t believe it was true. And, you know, Will, as a great artist, an actor, an icon. And so it was the idea of working with him was exciting. And, you know, Reinaldo Marcus Green who directed I’d seen his first film that I thought was absolutely wonderful. And yeah, so it was an easy yes. I was thrilled that they asked me to do it.
Sam Jayanti [00:06:59] Yeah. So I feel like as an actor, every project changes you in some way or leaves you with something. What was it that that film left you with?
Tony Goldwyn [00:07:12] King Richard really was an affirmation of the power of family to me. And, you know, the different shapes of family can take. And the way that with all of the obstacles in their way, both in terms, and Richard was a difficult dude. Yeah. And but his he and his his his his wife, Brenda, you know, the way that the intensity of their involvement, intensity of their love and commitment to their kids and the way that family kind of rallied together. All five girls, you know, focusing on this collective project of making Venus and Serena the one and two greatest players in history, which he predicted. For those who haven’t seen the movie Richard Williams before they were born, wrote a manifesto about 75 or 80 pages long with a plan on how this was all going to happen. And he went to talk to his wife as a was what we’re doing. And they had two more kids who were Venus and Serena, and they turned and, you know, they really he did it, but they together really turned them into the champions that they are. So it was and it was the family that did it. So that was the most powerful thing for me and being a part of that film.
Sam Jayanti [00:08:39] Yeah. Scandal turned into a foundation of pop culture in many ways. This was just one of the moments from a show that was one of my favorites.
Tony Goldwyn [00:08:48] I wanted you to see it at least once.
Unidentified [00:08:50] What is this place? Why am I here? Why the hell are we out here in the middle of nowhere?
Tony Goldwyn [00:08:58] This house is yours. Ours. I had it built for us. There was a chance for us. I bought the land and I had it built. I couldn’t really be mayor, but can make jam. There are bedrooms for lots of kids. This was going to be you and me raising a family and growing old together in this house.
Sam Jayanti [00:09:41] Did you feel that Scandal was career defining for you, given the number of shows, the number of years that the show went on for?
Tony Goldwyn [00:09:49] I would definitely say career redefining.
Sam Jayanti [00:09:50] Yeah.
Tony Goldwyn [00:09:51] I mean, I’ve had several based on my career that supposedly defined define me and then I, you quickly realize, oh, you have to redefine yourself with every single project. So, but, yeah, it was, it was an incredible opportunity. I never would have thought at that stage of my life or career, you know, 50 years old, that I was going to suddenly get this amazing part and that there would be this of cultural pop. And it was a comic show that was both incredibly entertaining and soapy, but also, you know, got to some pretty important and timely sociopolitical issues and was groundbreaking in a lot of ways. So it was it was amazing. I just feel very lucky to be a part of it.
Sam Jayanti [00:10:41] What if you look back on that experience, what’s the thing that sticks in your mind most as being as making it the kind of unique experience.
Tony Goldwyn [00:10:52] I’d say two things, the people involved. Oh, we really bonded that cast. And Shonda and our writers, you know, we were we became extremely close and I had never done a television series before. I had sort of wanted to keep myself available because you commit and you commit for at least six years when you do it. And I like to do other things and direct films and whatnot. So but that was just was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. So I hadn’t been a part of that kind of a group for such a long period of time. So that was really profound. And then the other thing, which I sort of mentioned before, was being a part of. A show that was hugely commercial and popular. Like I said, from a just popcorn perspective and, you know, fan girls and boys and whatnot. But the Shonda Rhimes and all of her brilliance used that her nose for what the public wants, sort of what middle America wants to watch, to talk about things that she felt were really important to talk about. And being a part of that conversation felt like a real privilege.
Sam Jayanti [00:12:01] Absolutely. I mean, I think that show was so instrumental in increasing political engagement within, you know, a younger generation that was sort of coming of age during that time where I think they had felt pretty disconnected and sort of left out of politics in a sense, and didn’t really understand how it impacted their lives.
Tony Goldwyn [00:12:20] Yeah. And the less political sort of White House show that had been successful was the great show, The West Wing.
Sam Jayanti [00:12:26] Yeah.
Tony Goldwyn [00:12:26] You know, which was very, you know, coming out of the Clinton years, it kind of idealized the White House was this kind of shining moral example. And Martin Sheen was this, you know, again, you know, heroic. Yeah. President Bartlet, we were at a whole other deal. So, you know, Shonda took the White House and poked fun at it and made it a place of scandal. And, you know, and yet the people were somehow they were all really smart and impressive and yet all deeply flawed and awful in other ways. You know, which was a very interesting thing in the Obama years where, you know, the Obamas as a family were kind of unassailable. You know, it’s funny, you know, you think of the all of the, you know, successful presidencies, the Clinton presidency was the scandals, you know, in the Clinton White House of President Clinton, Monica Lewinsky and all that. I sort of felt like Aaron Sorkin was writing an alternate universe of that.
Sam Jayanti [00:13:40] Totally.
Tony Goldwyn [00:13:41] And scandal and scandal with the Obamas being sort of unassailable and iconic and, you know, you know, history making as the first black president and the first black first family. We were, you know, the opposite of that. You know, where it was a funny mirror going. Yeah. Okay. And then, you know, at the end of it, Trump came in and our whole thing got turned on its head, and Shonda was like, I can’t. We have to end the show. You know, it’s over. And I can’t keep. Its time has now passed. We need to conclude this so she a year before we finished, she said, which was some year 20. We finished in 2018. So 2017, after the first year of the Trump administration, she said, you know, we’re going to end this next year. And she made Mellie president and you know we will we wrapped up yeah so it was it was a very interesting moment in time that we were a part of.
Sam Jayanti [00:14:47] Yeah.
Sam Jayanti [00:14:48] In the first film that you directed: Man on the Moon.
Tony Goldwyn [00:14:54] A Walk on the Moon.
Sam Jayanti [00:14:55] Sorry. Was it a challenge to go from all the acting work that you done to now being in the director seat? How did you make that shift?
Tony Goldwyn [00:15:06] Yeah, it was challenging for sure. I did it really to redefine my to try and gain control of my career. I had this experience of being in the movie Ghost, which put me sort of on the map. I’d been working as an actor in the six years leading up to that, but had been able to kind of find traction. It takes a while and suddenly I been thrust into this hit and a big part in this movie, in the movie was this sensational hit. And I sort of didn’t know what to do with that. You know, I thought, okay, now I guess it all happens. And then, you know, the movie I the next movie I did didn’t make so much money and suddenly I wasn’t as hot as I was two years later. And I’m like, Oh my God, this business is insane. How do I. Oh, and I just got completely out of control of things. So I thought.
Sam Jayanti [00:15:58] Well, so how do you find your center through that volatility?
Tony Goldwyn [00:16:01] I didn’t know. You know, I didn’t quite I didn’t quite have a I mean, in retrospect, I think now I would know better how I, you know, have friends and many examples of people who are, frankly younger than me. And I watched them, you know, how they manage their success and did it in ways much better than I did. Oh, wow. So I was a little bit lost and I thought, okay, how do I gain control? And I thought, well, I need to kind of get a hold of material that I can control. And so the next time I’m in a hit, I never the leverage to say, okay, this is what I want to do next. So I was looking for acting parts for myself and trynna find scripts that I could develop and be a producer on. And I fell in love with this piece of material, but I did not feel was right for me as an actor, but I wanted to see it get made. So I talked to the writer and she liked my ideas and she said, What would you produce this with me? So we worked on the script for three years and I did not intend to direct it. I had no desire to direct, but I became very protective over the material and as I talked to other directors, I thought, Oh my God, we’ve worked so hard on this. They’re just going to screw it up. And one day I sort of had an epiphany like, Oh, I need to do this myself. Yeah. And then kind of miraculously, the financing came together and Dustin Hoffman came on board as a producer, and his company had just started raising money to produce independent films. And it just fell in my lap after three years of hard work. And and they were good with me directing it. And I did it not knowing if I would like it or not. I just literally did it to protect the material. And I knew it would be a an interesting personal challenge. And then I fell in love with the job and the doing it. And so I thought, well, keep going with.
Sam Jayanti [00:17:52] Done it a lot since. It’s getting, getting, you know, whether it’s a TV show or a film project off the ground, there’s so much of a sort of the stars need to align element to spend three years developing a script to some script, see the light of day, others just don’t fade away. It’s a really different dimension in the entertainment industry to kind of most things, right to most other industries where there’s a little more predictability around sort of completion of projects. Has that gotten better over time? Does it? Does it get less uncertain with each successive product you work on after more wisdom and experience?
Tony Goldwyn [00:18:40] Not for me. I mean, I suppose a little bit. Yeah, just with experience. Yeah. You can kind of you can’t predict success. But I some people can. Maybe I cannot. I guess Ryan Murphy and Shonda Rhimes can. I cannot. You know, I get maybe I’m a little wise about I don’t know. I mean I was about to say I’m a little wiser about what I think will gain some traction in the marketplace in terms of being able to sell a product. But then again, I’ve had projects that I thought were absolutely brilliant with incredible actors attached to them, and they just care. No one wants to buy them. On the other hand, you know, when I’ve been a part of things that have come together, as you say, there’s a kind of alchemy that happens and all of a sudden there’s momentum. Yeah, and I don’t know why that is. I mean, the project I’m working on now is a film that I just have directed and produced and it, my dear friend who wrote it, has been working on this project for 12 years and I’ve been working on it with him two. Yeah. And it all of a sudden came together in a matter of three, two or three months. All the financing, everything, the cast boom, just like fell in place and had this feeling of momentum, which I guess I’m sure as an entrepreneur in any endeavor. That’s the. Metaphysical ingredient.
Sam Jayanti [00:20:05] Yes.
Tony Goldwyn [00:20:06] I know it is in sports. It is in any you know, there’s a feeling of this project has traction. I don’t know why, but we need to go. We need to go now. So that’s the thing I’m always trying to generate, I guess.
Sam Jayanti [00:20:23] Find and sort of figure out. It’s it’s I think that’s such a challenge in every industry. Right. And particularly as an entrepreneur, I think, as you said, it is really hard to predict success because. There’s so much luck, timing, alignment of people, money, all of it that needs to come together at the exact same moment for there to be this sort of lift off.
Tony Goldwyn [00:20:52] You know, these ideas need to find their time, too. I found. Because almost everything I’ve worked on, particularly certainly as a producer director, have taken time. You know, soon as I’ve been hired as a director with something that’s already already put together and they need a director and they’ll hire me to do it. Yeah. But in terms of the projects that I’ve nurtured and developed on it, you know, that they’ve all been in a number of years gestating and you just have to have faith. Yeah. And many things I’ve had. I still have faith in that have not found a home or having soul. It doesn’t mean I believe in them any less. And I’ll revive things like, Oh, you know, that thing is just sticking with me and I’m not going to let it go. So I think all entrepreneurs share that quality, you know, of. That’s the kind that’s the tenacity, I think, that that one needs. And I think that’s the biggest thing that I have learned, because there are other very successful people who may have a nose for what’s hot right now and how to how to yeah, how to sell something. But often, you know, I work with love. You have sort of an idea about it that they’re there, they will collect. Attach themselves to things that seem hot. If they don’t catch fire right away, they’re on to the next thing. Right. That’s never worked for me. Yeah. I I’m more of a slow burner, you know, I need to be deeply invested in something, and then I won’t let it go. Uh, because the kind of. The sense for what’s going to be quick. Hot thing. Just I just I’ve always fallen face when I’ve tried to do that. I think it’s a different skill set.
Sam Jayanti [00:22:38] Yea a different skillset?
Tony Goldwyn [00:22:38] I don’t know.
Sam Jayanti [00:22:38] Yeah, perhaps it’s a different skill set. And I guess the conviction level is very different for people who are able to do that. Many of us don’t have the ability to turn on diamond attach to something without having sort of a requisite level of conviction.
Tony Goldwyn [00:22:56] And I’m sort of not interested either.
Sam Jayanti [00:22:58] Yeah.
Tony Goldwyn [00:23:00] On a superficial engagement with something, it just doesn’t interest me. Yeah. And maybe that’s why, you know, I’m not good at it, and it’s not about, you know, it wouldn’t have the same satisfaction level to me. I don’t think even if I were able if I were much richer than I am, you know, I mean, if I if I had the ability to make a high volume of sales and do many, many more, I don’t know. You know, like the money’s just not worth it to me. So what’s really satisfying to me is sticking with something you really believe in. And making it, you know, creating something.
Sam Jayanti [00:23:43] And taking it all the way.
Tony Goldwyn [00:23:43] And then when you make money off of it, that’s awesome. You know, then you do it well. But that’s always, for me, a secondary benefit.
Sam Jayanti [00:23:52] Yeah, I think it is for most successful entrepreneurs because the money comes as a side effect or as a consequence of not. When people focus on that as the primary goal, it never really works. I don’t know, maybe it works for the fast and furious but…
Tony Goldwyn [00:24:08] Yeah. I don’t know.
Sam Jayanti [00:24:08] For most other things.
Tony Goldwyn [00:24:09] Yeah. I mean I guess that’s that is a number of business. It’s a different skill set because that’s a numbers game. I guess if you try something, if you’re a good salesperson and you know you have a nose for something that could be hot in the marketplace right now and you and then if it doesn’t sell or doesn’t catch fire and gain traction, you move off it and you go to the next thing on your list. That’s a it’s just a different yeah.
Sam Jayanti [00:24:31] A different ability.
Tony Goldwyn [00:24:33] Maybe that’s not an entrepreneurial thing. Maybe as an entrepreneur, you really do need to dig in. Um, I mean, I’ve, you sort of, what I do is entrepreneurial, certainly as a maybe not as much as an actor, but certainly a, you know, as a director and producer.
Sam Jayanti [00:24:47] Yeah. Yeah.
Sam Jayanti [00:24:49] Are there favorite directors or actors that you’ve worked with that particularly stick out in your mind?
Tony Goldwyn [00:24:57] Yeah, I’ve been so lucky. I’ve worked with some just broad people. That’s the great gift for me of doing what I do. Um, in terms of directors that I’ve worked with, um, Oliver Stone for, I was very inspired by working with him on this movie about Richard Nixon that he did. I didn’t have a big part, but it was just fantastic. He’s a difficult guy, but a brilliant, creative mind. Another great film director who was no longer with us as Alan Bakula. We get to work with through the Pelican Brief with and Alan, was you know, director Sophie’s Choice. And you know, he did so many great concluded and so many great films of the past. Well, in the theater I’ve worked with some incredible directors, Ivo Van Hove, who I did network with a few years ago and the year after that for the pandemic, you know, the inheritance, which you go so well, Stephen Daldry, who’s one of the great directors. So yeah, I’ve got a chance to work with amazing people, actors I just worked with Robert De Niro, directed him in the film that I’m just working on now, who I was, you know, pinch yourself moment every day.
Sam Jayanti [00:26:23] Was that the first time you’d worked with him?
Tony Goldwyn [00:26:25] I’d never worked and I had never met him before this project and some of my other favorites, Sam Rockwell, who and Hilary Swank, both who starred in my last film Conviction, were just incredible to work with. Bryan Cranston, who I did network with and who I’d worked with 20 years ago, three or four years ago. Gosh, a lot of amazing people. Yeah. So.
Sam Jayanti [00:26:53] Mm hmm. I want to shift gears a little bit, Tony. As you look back or even today, what role do you feel coaching and mentorship has played in your career?
Tony Goldwyn [00:27:05] Um. Well. It’s played an important part of I wish I’d had more mentors when I was younger or had sought out more mentors. I had a very important mentor, a wonderful man who just died last year named Norman Lloyd, who died at 106 years old.
Sam Jayanti [00:27:27] Wow.
Tony Goldwyn [00:27:28] And Norman was he wasn’t my godfather, but he might as well have been. He was in the hospital when I was born. He was my parents, you know, dearest one of my parents, dearest friends, and was kind of the grown up. Everyone adored in our household growing up. And he was an actor and a director and a producer and, you know, a great sort of you know, he was, you know, a member of the group theater, if you know of that, in the 1930s, he was you know, he worked with Orson Welles. He worked with Hitchcock. You know, he was people might remember him in the eighties from a very popular television series called Save Elsewhere. And he was the elderly doctor in that. And but he worked until he was 100 years old. I think he was in train wreck the Judd Apatow and you know I think that was his last movie is a Norman was just an incredible character and he was the person who I went to when I wanted to be an actor. I thought I wanted to be an actor and were my you know, my father was terrified at the idea. Norman said, all right, if this is what you want to do. You know, he was very, very keen to help me and my very first job in the theater at the Williamstown Theater Festival, which is a great summer theater, which is kind of where you want to start out, especially in those days. And he you know, he Blythe Danner was the lead actress up there. And he called Blythe and said, Can you put in a word for this kid, Tony Goldwyn? And and I auditioned, I think probably just because of Blythe. I got hired and that was the beginning of my career. So Norman was, was great. I would I. And many of the actors that I met at Williamstown, I who were some of the greatest actors, you know, working in the theater in our country. I would just watch them work. So that was very worthy,.
Sam Jayanti [00:29:19] Who were they?
Tony Goldwyn [00:29:20] Blythe. And for a wonderful actor named Edward Herman Pontecorvo, who were some people that you may not know, you know, I’m wonderful, actually. Roberta maxwell. There were many movie stars up there. But the people that I kind of would sit backstage and watch, you know, were maybe actors who were more known in the theater or so. But I didn’t. I wish that I had sought further to return to find people that helped me navigate the business. And, you know, my my family, as I told you, was in the industry. So I had a I swear, I had great mentors in my father and my older brother, John, who was a couple of years older than labor, was very successful, a studio executive, and ended up being best chairman of Paramount. And that was a very successful film and television producer. You know, John was ahead of me and was super helpful in connecting me with people and meeting people, but there wasn’t too much he could do when I was starting out as an actor. And similarly, my dad kind of wanted to take a completely hands off approach. When I started, he said, Look, you’re doing this, you’re on your own. I can’t help you. And I was like great and I don’t want any help. I want to see if I can make this on my own. But when I started directing and found my feet, then my father was incredibly wise and helpful for I would literally just make sure to sort of direct and show him my work. And everyone always gave me really interesting notes or I’d send him a script. So, you know, in my once I’d kind of gotten my, you know, foundation built and developed some success. My family and my dad and my me and my older brother were really have been awesome kind of advisors. My dad’s no longer with us, but but early on I felt pretty much at sea trying to support us to go through. And so I do take mentoring myself quite seriously. Yeah, because a lot of the people that, you know, were there for me made a huge impact. And, and there were many times where I wish I had somebody just to give me some perspective or advice in the years when I was completely didn’t know how to, you know, what the moves were.
Sam Jayanti [00:31:44] Yeah. I mean in those early days or when one needs it the most because you just know very or feel like you’re a very controlled or leverage and are, are not even sure what muscles need to be developed and, and where they’re going to take you. And so it feels overwhelming almost as a blank slate in terms of where we are, how do you start even drawing the lines?
Tony Goldwyn [00:32:06] Yeah, I had tremendous advantages with some sense of what the industry was, even though I was not very wet behind the ears and didn’t know how to approach things as an actor. But, you know, I had a family that was supportive. I can you know, I was not you know, I didn’t have to work three jobs, which most actors have to do in order to and try to figure out how to find time to audition, you know. So I had it as hard as it felt. I know I have it much easier than than most of my colleagues did and then most people coming up. So, you know, I try and be there however I can for for younger people now.
Sam Jayanti [00:32:52] Yeah. Which is such an important time. Your wife, Jane, has also had a super successful career. Right. Was it hard at times, especially during the time when your children were young, to balance both careers? Because entertainment involves being in places that are not your home and being there for long periods of time.
Tony Goldwyn [00:33:14] Yeah, it was really challenging. It was great in one sense because Jane and Jane’s are production designer and you know, it was designed, it was a great films like, you know, at the beginning of her career, Blood Simple and Raising Arizona were the two the kind of really launched her career, which were the first two Coen brothers movies that she did When Harry Met Sally. And she designed Ghost, which really launched my career. And she got so many over the years. More recent years, Hitch and Hustlers a couple of years ago and you know she sort so she’s she’s a really great designer. But I have to say, it was much harder for Jane than for me. You know, when I when we had kids, Jane was luckily at a point in her career where she said, I’m not traveling anymore. I’m just going to the movies in New York, which is where we live. And she was successful enough that she could pick and choose her work. I was not in that position, so I had to go on location, which was just emotionally hard, but was very hard for Jane because when I went away, she was being a working mom and you know, she was still working and dealing with two little kids. And it was hard and but we understood each other’s careers and rhythms, so we kind of hung in there. And that was incredibly valuable because I don’t know how somebody who didn’t understand our business would have tolerated it, you know, in either role him, father or mother. And, you know, however, what we may feel, the mother seems to carry the so much more of the burden.
Sam Jayanti [00:34:57] True.You can’t get away from that. Yeah. You’ve been involved with a number of nonprofit causes over the years, AmeriCares, which we share in common, the Innocence Project, as well as the Clinton presidential campaign as a public figure and activist. How do you feel or when do you feel you’ve been most effective in using your voice to raise awareness or influence an issue?
Tony Goldwyn [00:35:24] I’m most effective when I care passionately about the thing I’m talking about and have some depth of knowledge about it. And in every case, whether it’s a political thing or whether it’s a, you know, a non profit organization. Um, I guess much like the projects are going to have to be sort of deeply committed to and it has to be a come from an organic, you know, place. When I got involved with the Clinton campaign, it was the first I really got to build that a political thing. And I really felt strongly that Hillary would make a great president. And I wanted to help. Yeah. And, uh, you know, I still believe that, you know, that she would have and other candidates that I’ve been involved with, I felt similarly about I tend to resist now just getting involved politically in a, in a Gen, you know, I mean, I’ll get involved in get out the vote initiatives, but I get asked a lot to participate in campaigns and sometimes I get money, but I’ve sort of I’m I want to be I find myself a little cautious that the next time I really get involved. But it’s something that I’m really passionate about doing. I can have an impact, just to be honest. The 2016 presidential campaign, you know, her campaign election cycle happened during the height of scandal. So I was in a position where I was very in the media because of that. I think I can really have an impact here. You know, right now I’m not on a TV show doing things that are honest that probably wouldn’t have as much of an impact. Now, although I do get asked a lot, but I so it’s a you know, it’s a bit of putting myself in the public sphere like what’s my how can I really help as opposed to just put myself out there for to get attention, which I’m always a little skeptical in terms of not for profits. America is obviously, you know, was a the extraordinary organization that we both sit on the board of that. As you know, I just got involved because I was neighbors with one of the board members. And so the work that they’re doing and Jane and I started to support AmeriCares. And the more I saw the work that they were doing and the efficiency with which they were doing, the work, that humanitarian work, I just got drawn in over a number of years. The Innocence Project was a similar thing. I, I came to the Innocence Project through a movie that I directed and produced called Conviction, which took ten years to get off the ground. But there was that was about an Innocence Project case of a wrongfully convicted person. And I would about turn me on to their work. And I got in, you know, sort of addicted to criminal justice reform. And again, so I could maybe be helpful.
Sam Jayanti [00:38:28] If there was one thing that you could undo or redo over the course of your career, what would that be?
Tony Goldwyn [00:38:38] On. I mean, I’m inclined to say that it would be the thing that happened to me after I was in Ghost, when I’d had this first experience of real success. And at the same time I was doing a play in New York. And when an Obie Award for it is getting all this positive attention and I sort of handed I abdicated a kind of control, I guess I would call it, or to my agents and my representatives and other people saying, okay, you guys run with the ball. I don’t know how to do this. And I feel like if I’d known. Who would have been smarter? Yeah, I wouldn’t have. I would have taken responsibility for myself earlier. Um, but then I probably wouldn’t have become a director and other things wouldn’t have happened because only through struggle and falling in your face and things not working out the way you think they’re supposed to do, you learn and grow and stretch yourself in other ways that are uncomfortable at first, but lead to opening a whole new avenue. So, you know, I say that, but then that was my learning curve to to expand into other things.
Sam Jayanti [00:40:03] There’s such a delicate balance between trusting ourselves to people who have experience and know more in the industry, and at the same time sort of having this like consistently critical lens to think about what they’re suggesting or doing and is it the right thing or does it need to be done differently? And it’s very hard to do that when you’re new to a career or still building your experience because, you know, it’s sort of who knows what the right thing is to do. Exactly right.
Tony Goldwyn [00:40:37] Yeah. And the people that I was sort of assuming were going to do stuff for me were very successful, seemingly knowledgeable people. I was just a bit naive about what their agenda was, and I don’t have anything negative to their agenda. Sure, they were in the business of making money and, you know, seeing what, you know, what what was hot and if something was less art than they needed to move under, what was, you know, the sort of idea of a long term, you know, their priorities were not exactly aligned with mine. And I’ve learned in business that’s normal. You know, it’s like I live in a business relationship now. And I was like, okay, well, what’s Sam’s what are Sam’s needs? Like, what is her what are her priorities? They’re not the same as mine. So if we’re going to have a partnership, I need to be open-eyed about what you need and hopefully talk about it. Or sometimes talking about it doesn’t work either. You have to just kind of intuit it and fill it out, but know that, you know, just because I think something, you know, something serves my long term needs doesn’t necessarily mean, you know, we have to find out where we align.
Sam Jayanti [00:41:47] Exactly. Without that, alignment it, just doesn’t work.
Tony Goldwyn [00:41:50] Yeah. So that that you only can learn that over time. Over time. I mean, I do, you know, I have colleagues who honestly have many of whom become superstars who I started out with, who had this vision about themselves. I remember being just amazed by certain people in their twenties were like, This is what I’m going to be and this is what I’m going to do and I’m going to. And I was like, Really? Yeah, that’s amazing. I mean, it seemed almost arrogant.
Sam Jayanti [00:42:14] Right.
Tony Goldwyn [00:42:14] To me at that time. And yet not all of them. Some didn’t have they couldn’t back it up with the skill or if things didn’t work out for them. I actually many of those people who had tremendous charisma and forceful vision of themselves, but there were some who, you know, became big movie stars. And I was like, Oh, right. They had that clarity of vision, which I just was so in awe of, you know? But I didn’t quite have that. Uh, yeah so.
Sam Jayanti [00:42:52] Yeah, that clarity comes at very different times.
Tony Goldwyn [00:42:54] Mm hmm.
Sam Jayanti [00:42:56] Any final thoughts, Tony, as we wrap up?
Tony Goldwyn [00:43:03] Well, just knowing what the ideamix is about, you know, I think, um, this idea of coaching and mentorship is so important, and, um, people shouldn’t be so ashamed or afraid to ask for help or feel that they, they’re supposed to know stuff that they don’t know. You know, at any stage of life. Because I have, um. I mean, my career’s in constant redefinition and I’ve come to a place of peace with it no matter what success I’ve had I got to roll up my sleeves the next day and start from scratch. That’s just the way it is. But you can also go through a shame spiral that, you know, the people go through one chapter and then that chapter ends and they’re like, Oh, my God, I’m supposed to. I’m supposed to be.
Sam Jayanti [00:43:58] Be this person.
Tony Goldwyn [00:43:59] Be this person with this, you know. And it doesn’t necessarily work like that. You know, and so a lot of times we need help.
Sam Jayanti [00:44:09] Yeah, absolutely. Such good advice. Thank you so much for joining us.
Tony Goldwyn [00:44:13] Thanks for having me.
Sam Jayanti [00:44:15] Thanks for listening today. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And while you’re there, please do review the show. We love hearing from you. So email us at info at theideamix.com or Instagram DM us. Our episode this week was produced by the incomparable Martin Milewski with music by the awesome Nashville-based singer-songwriter Doug Allen. You can learn more about Doug at Dougallenmusic.com.